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102 Difficult to Interpret Bible Verses
Sometimes I find it hard to grasp everything God’s trying to tell me through the Bible. Our minds are limited, you know? But His word is so powerful, so essential. It’s the bedrock of everything.
If you’re wrestling with a passage, just take it to God. I promise you, through the Holy Spirit, He’ll give you the clarity you need. He'll light your way with wisdom and understanding, revealing the mysteries hidden within His word.
Spending quality time in the Bible is key. It’s like a mental reset button. It helps you understand what God has in store for you, and for those around you, with so much more clarity.
Now it happened that the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s arms; and the rich man also died and was buried.
For the living know that they will die; but the dead do not know anything, nor do they have a reward any longer, for their memory is forgotten.
And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus, so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’
But a natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Now it came about, when mankind began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them,
And Noah fathered three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence.
And God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for humanity had corrupted its way upon the earth.
Then God said to Noah, “The end of humanity has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of people; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.
Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with compartments, and cover it inside and out with pitch.
This is how you shall make it: the length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.
You shall make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top; and put the door of the ark on the side; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.
Now behold, I Myself am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which there is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish.
But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.
And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.
that the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.
Of the birds according to their kind, and of the animals according to their kind, of every crawling thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive.
As for you, take for yourself some of every food that is edible, and gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and them.”
So Noah did these things; according to everything that God had commanded him, so he did.
Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not remain with man forever, because he is also flesh; nevertheless his days shall be 120 years.”
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of mankind, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
You shall not worship them nor serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, inflicting the punishment of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,
the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;
Nevertheless, you are not to eat of these, among those which chew the cud, or among those which have a divided hoof: the camel, for though it chews cud, it does not have a divided hoof; it is unclean to you.
He, too, who eats some of its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening, and the one who picks up its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening.
‘Now every swarming thing that swarms on the earth is detestable, not to be eaten.
Whatever crawls on its belly, and whatever walks on all fours, whatever has many feet, in regard to every swarming thing that swarms on the earth, you shall not eat them, because they are detestable.
Do not make yourselves detestable through any of the swarming things that swarm; and you shall not make yourselves unclean with them so that you become unclean.
For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, because I am holy. And you shall not make yourselves unclean with any of the swarming things that swarm on the earth.
For I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt, to be your God; so you shall be holy, because I am holy.’ ”
This is the law regarding the animal and the bird, and every living thing that moves in the waters and everything that swarms on the earth,
to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean, and between the edible creature and the creature which is not to be eaten.
Likewise, the rock hyrax, for though it chews cud, it does not have a divided hoof; it is unclean to you.
The rabbit also, for though it chews cud, it does not have a divided hoof; it is unclean to you.
And the pig, for though it has a divided hoof, and so it shows a split hoof, it does not chew cud; it is unclean to you.
You shall not eat any of their flesh nor touch their carcasses; they are unclean to you.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and put it on a flag pole; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, and looks at it, will live.”
So Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on the flag pole; and it came about, that if a serpent bit someone, and he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
“But it shall come about, if you do not obey the Lord your God, to be careful to follow all His commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
“Cursed will you be in the city, and cursed will you be in the country.
“Cursed will be your basket and your kneading bowl.
“Cursed will be the children of your womb, the produce of your ground, the newborn of your herd, and the offspring of your flock.
“Cursed will you be when you come in, and cursed will you be when you go out.
And all these blessings will come to you and reach you if you obey the Lord your God:
“The Lord will send against you curses, panic, and rebuke, in everything you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have abandoned Me.
The Lord will make the plague cling to you until He has eliminated you from the land where you are entering to take possession of it.
The Lord will strike you with consumption, inflammation, fever, feverish heat, and with the sword, with blight, and with mildew, and they will pursue you until you perish.
The heaven which is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you, iron.
The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.
“The Lord will cause you to be defeated by your enemies; you will go out one way against them, but you will flee seven ways from their presence, and you will be an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
Your dead bodies will serve as food for all birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away.
“The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, the festering rash, and with scabies, from which you cannot be healed.
The Lord will strike you with insanity, blindness, and with confusion of mind;
and you will be groping about at noon, just as a person who is blind gropes in the darkness, and you will not be successful in your ways; but you will only be oppressed and robbed all the time, with no one to save you.
“Blessed will you be in the city, and blessed will you be in the country.
You will betroth a woman, but another man will violate her; you will build a house, but you will not live in it; you will plant a vineyard, but you will not make use of its fruit.
Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat of it; your donkey will be snatched away from you, and will not be restored to you; your sheep will be given to your enemies, and you will have no one to save you.
Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people, while your eyes look on and long for them constantly; but there will be nothing you can do.
A people whom you do not know will eat the produce of your ground and every product of your labor, and you will never be anything but oppressed and mistreated continually.
You will also be driven insane by the sight of what you see.
The Lord will strike you on the knees and thighs with severe boils from which you cannot be healed, and strike you from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
The Lord will bring you and your king, whom you appoint over you, to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods, made of wood and stone.
And you will become an object of horror, a song of mockery, and an object of taunting among all the peoples where the Lord drives you.
“You will bring out a great amount of seed to the field, but you will gather in little, because the locust will devour it.
You will plant and cultivate vineyards, but you will neither drink of the wine nor bring in the harvest, because the worm will eat it.
“Blessed will be the children of your womb, the produce of your ground, and the offspring of your animals: the newborn of your herd and the young of your flock.
You will have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, because your olives will drop off prematurely.
You will father sons and daughters but they will not remain yours, because they will go into captivity.
The cricket will take possession of all your trees and the produce of your ground.
The stranger who is among you will rise above you higher and higher, and you will go down lower and lower.
He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him; he will be the head, and you will be the tail.
“So all these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you.
And they will become a sign and a wonder against you and your descendants forever.
“Since you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a cheerful heart, in gratitude for the abundance of all things,
you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and devoid of all things; and He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.
“The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down; a nation whose language you will not understand,
“Blessed will be your basket and your kneading bowl.
a nation with a defiant attitude, who will have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young.
Furthermore, it will eat the offspring of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed; a nation that will leave you no grain, new wine, or oil, nor the newborn of your cattle or the young of your flock, until they have eliminated you.
And it will besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it will besiege you in all your towns throughout your land which the Lord your God has given you.
Then you will eat the offspring of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, during the siege and the hardship by which your enemy will oppress you.
The man who is refined and very delicate among you will be hostile toward his brother, toward the wife he cherishes, and toward the rest of his children who are left,
so that he will not give even one of them any of the flesh of his children which he will eat, since he has nothing else left, during the siege and the hardship by which your enemy will oppress you in all your towns.
The refined and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and tenderness, will be hostile toward the husband she cherishes and toward her son and daughter,
and toward her afterbirth that comes from between her legs, and toward her children to whom she gives birth, because she will eat them secretly for lack of anything else, during the siege and the hardship with which your enemy will oppress you in your towns.
“If you are not careful to follow all the words of this Law that are written in this book, to fear this honored and awesome name, the Lord your God,
then the Lord will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, severe and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses.
“Blessed will you be when you come in, and blessed will you be when you go out.
And He will bring back on you every disease of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you.
Also every sickness and every plague, which are not written in the book of this Law, the Lord will bring on you until you are destroyed.
Then you will be left few in number, whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not obey the Lord your God.
And it will come about that, just as the Lord rejoiced over you to be good to you, and make you numerous, so will the Lord rejoice over you to wipe you out and destroy you; and you will be torn away from the land which you are entering to possess.
Furthermore, the Lord will scatter you among all the peoples, from one end of the earth to the other; and there you will serve other gods, made of wood and stone, which you and your fathers have not known.
Among those nations you will find no peace, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul.
So your lives will be hanging in doubt before you; and you will be terrified night and day, and have no assurance of your life.
In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ And at evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’ because of the terror of your heart which you fear, and the sight of your eyes which you will see.
And the Lord will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I said to you, ‘You will never see it again!’ And there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”
But Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, since you do not understand the Scriptures nor the power of God.
Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures nor the power of God?
And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, “If You will indeed hand over to me the sons of Ammon,
then whatever comes out the doors of my house to meet me when I return safely from the sons of Ammon, it shall be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.”
This is what the Lord of armies says: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, in that he obstructed him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt.
Then Saul said to Samuel, “I did obey the voice of the Lord, for I went on the mission on which the Lord sent me; and I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have completely destroyed the Amalekites.
But the people took some of the spoils, sheep and oxen, the choicest of the things designated for destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God at Gilgal.”
Samuel said, “Does the Lord have as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than a sacrifice, And to pay attention is better than the fat of rams.
“For rebellion is as reprehensible as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as reprehensible as false religion and idolatry. Since you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.”
Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have violated the command of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and listened to their voice.
Now then, please pardon my sin and return with me, so that I may worship the Lord.”
But Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you; for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.”
Then Samuel turned to go, but Saul grasped the edge of his robe, and it tore off.
So Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to your neighbor, who is better than you.
Also the Glory of Israel will not lie nor change His mind; for He is not a man, that He would change His mind.”
Now go and strike Amalek and completely destroy everything that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ ”
But when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out toward the ark of God and took hold of it, because the oxen nearly overturned it.
And the anger of the Lord burned against Uzzah, and God struck him down there for his irreverence; and he died there by the ark of God.
Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing, you do not realize right now, but you will understand later.”
And as they were walking along and talking, behold, a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and they separated the two of them. Then Elijah went up by a whirlwind to heaven.
for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.
And he thought that his brothers understood that God was granting them deliverance through him; but they did not understand.
Do not answer a fool according to his foolishness, Or you will also be like him.
Answer a fool as his foolishness deserves, So that he will not be wise in his own eyes.
For the fate of the sons of mankind and the fate of animals is the same. As one dies, so dies the other; indeed, they all have the same breath, and there is no advantage for mankind over animals, for all is futility.
A time to give birth and a time to die; A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
All go to the same place. All came from the dust and all return to the dust.
In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.
“Make the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes blind, So that they will not see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.”
But He was pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings; The punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, And by His wounds we are healed.
For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for prosperity and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones.
So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath entered them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the entire house of Israel; behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off.’
Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Behold, I am going to open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel.
Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people.
And I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it,” declares the Lord.’ ”
“Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the wrongdoing, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place.
So you are to know and understand that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with streets and moat, even in times of distress.
Then after the sixty-two weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.
And he will confirm a covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come the one who makes desolate, until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, gushes forth on the one who makes desolate.”
When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife inclined to infidelity, and children of infidelity; for the land commits flagrant infidelity, abandoning the Lord.”
So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
If a trumpet is blown in a city, will the people not tremble? If a disaster occurs in a city, has the Lord not brought it about?
He has told you, mortal one, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?
¶“Awake, sword, against My Shepherd, And against the Man, My Associate,” Declares the Lord of armies. “Strike the Shepherd and the sheep will be scattered; And I will turn My hand against the little ones.
“And it will come about in all the land,” Declares the Lord, “That two parts in it will be cut off and perish; But the third will be left in it.
“And I will bring the third part through the fire, Refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are My people,’ And they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’ ”
Now if your right eye is causing you to sin, tear it out and throw it away from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
“ Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
And if your right hand is causing you to sin, cut it off and throw it away from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
For I came to turn a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and a person’s enemies will be the members of his household.
“And if your hand or your foot is causing you to sin, cut it off and throw it away from you; it is better for you to enter life maimed or without a foot, than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into the eternal fire.
And if your eye is causing you to sin, tear it out and throw it away from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fiery hell.
And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabaktanei?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but for those who are outside, everything comes in parables,
so that while seeing they may see, and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear, and not understand, otherwise they might return and it would be forgiven them.”
“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to sift you men like wheat;
but I have prayed for you, that your faith will not fail; and you, when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.
The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.
The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, the one who eats Me, he also will live because of Me.
This is the bread that came down out of heaven, not as the fathers ate and died; the one who eats this bread will live forever.”
But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property,
And immediately she collapsed at his feet and died; and the young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
And great fear came over the whole church, and over all who heard about these things.
but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,
and the insignificant things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,
so that no human may boast before God.
For the one who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not properly recognize the body.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer on His behalf,
Take care that no one keeps defrauding you of your prize by delighting in humility and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind,
and not holding firmly to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.
But women will be preserved through childbirth—if they continue in faith, love, and sanctity, with moderation.
All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness;
For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,
and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.
in which He also went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison,
as they observe your pure and respectful behavior.
who once were disobedient when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.
If anyone sees his brother or sister committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will, for him, give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death; I am not saying that he should ask about that.
‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot.
So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
All who live on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written since the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slaughtered.
who keeps faithfulness for thousands, who forgives wrongdoing, violation of His Law, and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, inflicting the punishment of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”
‘The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in mercy, forgiving wrongdoing and violation of His Law; but He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, inflicting the punishment of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations.’
“If any person has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father or his mother, and when they discipline him, he does not listen to them,
then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gateway of his hometown.
then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the one who was killed.
And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he does not obey us, he is thoughtless and given to drinking.’
Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so you shall eliminate the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear about it and fear.
But the men would not listen to him. So the man seized his concubine and brought her outside to them; and they raped her and abused her all night until morning, then let her go at the approach of dawn.
As the day began to dawn, the woman came and fell down at the doorway of the man’s house where her master was, until full daylight.
When her master got up in the morning and opened the doors of the house and went out to go on his way, then behold, his concubine was lying at the doorway of the house with her hands on the threshold.
And he said to her, “Get up and let’s go,” but there was no answer. Then he put her on the donkey; and the man set out and went to his home.
When he entered his house, he took a knife and seized his concubine, and cut her in twelve pieces, limb by limb. Then he sent her throughout the territory of Israel.
Then her husband set out and went after her to speak gently to her in order to bring her back, taking with him his servant and a pair of donkeys. And she brought him into her father’s house, and when the girl’s father saw him, he was glad to meet him.
All who saw it said, “Nothing like this has ever happened or been seen from the day when the sons of Israel came up from the land of Egypt to this day. Consider it, make a plan, and speak up!”
Now at evening time David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king’s house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance.
then it shall be that if the king’s wrath rises and he says to you, ‘Why did you move against the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall?
Who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did a woman not throw an upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died at Thebez? Why did you move against the wall?’—then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite also died.’ ”
So the messenger departed and came and reported to David everything that Joab had sent him to tell.
The messenger said to David, “The men prevailed against us and came out against us in the field, but we pressed them as far as the entrance of the gate.
Also, the archers shot at your servants from the wall; so some of the king’s servants died, and your servant Uriah the Hittite also died.”
Then David said to the messenger, “This is what you shall say to Joab: ‘Do not let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another; fight with determination against the city and overthrow it’; and thereby encourage him.”
Now when Uriah’s wife heard that her husband Uriah was dead, she mourned for her husband.
When the time of mourning was over, David sent servants and had her brought to his house and she became his wife; then she bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord.
So David sent servants and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”
Then David sent messengers and had her brought, and when she came to him, he slept with her; and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house.
But the woman conceived; so she sent word and informed David, and said, “I am pregnant.”
Then two women who were prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.
The one woman said, “Pardon me, my lord: this woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house.
And it happened on the third day after I gave birth, that this woman also gave birth to a child, and we were together. There was no stranger with us in the house, only the two of us in the house.
Then this woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on him.
The people were still sacrificing on the high places, because there was no house built for the name of the Lord until those days.
So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your servant was asleep, and she laid him at her breast, and laid her dead son at my breast.
When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, behold, he was dead! But when I examined him closely in the morning, behold, he was not my son, whom I had borne!”
Then the other woman said, “No! For the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son.” But the first woman said, “No! For the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son.” So they spoke before the king.
Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son who is living, and your son is the dead one’; and the other says, ‘No! For your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’ ”
And the king said, “Get me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king.
And the king said, “Cut the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.”
But the woman whose child was the living one spoke to the king, for she was deeply stirred over her son, and she said, “Pardon me, my lord! Give her the living child, and by no means kill him!” But the other woman was saying, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; cut him!”
Then the king replied, “Give the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him. She is his mother.”
When all Israel heard about the judgment which the king had handed down, they feared the king, because they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.
Now he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up by the road, some young boys came out from the city and ridiculed him and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead!”
When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two of the boys.
“Man, who is born of woman, Is short-lived and full of turmoil.
“But a man dies and lies prostrate. A person passes away, and where is he?
“As water evaporates from the sea, And a river becomes parched and dried up,
So a man lies down and does not rise. Until the heavens no longer exist, He will not awake nor be woken from his sleep.
¶“Oh that You would hide me in Sheol, That You would conceal me until Your wrath returns to You, That You would set a limit for me and remember me!
“If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my struggle I will wait Until my relief comes.
“You will call, and I will answer You; You will long for the work of Your hands.
“For now You number my steps, You do not observe my sin.
“My wrongdoing is sealed up in a bag, And You cover over my guilt.
¶“But the falling mountain crumbles away, And the rock moves from its place;
Water wears away stones, Its torrents wash away the dust of the earth; So You destroy a man’s hope.
“Like a flower he comes out and withers. He also flees like a shadow and does not remain.
¶When my heart was embittered And I was pierced within,
Then I was stupid and ignorant; I was like an animal before You.
¶For You created my innermost parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.
I will give thanks to You, because I am awesomely and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.
“The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom; And with all your possessions, acquire understanding.
“Futility of futilities,” says the Preacher, “Futility of futilities! All is futility.”
¶What advantage does a person have in all his work Which he does under the sun?
For if He causes grief, Then He will have compassion In proportion to His abundant mercy.
For He does not afflict willingly Or grieve the sons of mankind.
“Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the wrongdoing, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place.
¶Woe to you who are longing for the day of the Lord, For what purpose will the day of the Lord be to you? It will be darkness and not light;
As when a man flees from a lion And a bear confronts him, Or he goes home, leans with his hand against the wall, And a snake bites him.
She has fallen, she will not rise again— The virgin Israel. She lies unnoticed on her land; There is no one to raise her up.
Will the day of the Lord not be darkness instead of light, Even gloom with no brightness in it?
“Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, enjoying himself in splendor every day.
And he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’
And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores,
and longing to be fed from the scraps which fell from the rich man’s table; not only that, the dogs also were coming and licking his sores.
Now it happened that the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s arms; and the rich man also died and was buried.
And in Hades he raised his eyes, being in torment, and *saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his arms.
And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus, so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’
But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.
And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set, so that those who want to go over from here to you will not be able, nor will any people cross over from there to us.’
And he said, ‘Then I request of you, father, that you send him to my father’s house—
for I have five brothers—in order that he may warn them, so that they will not come to this place of torment as well.’
But Abraham *said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’
And the manager said to himself, ‘What am I to do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg.
But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’
But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.
For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him.
The one who believes in Him is not judged; the one who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,
for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls,
it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.”
Just as it is written: “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”
Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!
For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?
Or who has first given to Him, that it would be paid back to him?
For from Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
but just as it is written: “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the human heart, All that God has prepared for those who love Him.”
For otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them?
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love
More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them mere rubbish, so that I may gain Christ,
and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,
For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him,
To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ who are at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction will come upon them like labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
Beyond question, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh, Was vindicated in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Proclaimed among the nations, Believed on in the world, Taken up in glory.
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a worker who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.
For there are many rebellious people, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,
who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of dishonest gain.
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
The one who overcomes will be clothed the same way, in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled, and no place was found for them.
And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.
And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them; and they were judged, each one of them according to their deeds.
Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”
I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book;
and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.