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VERSES DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND
I've found that there's a lot of truth in saying that the Bible is generally easy to understand. Most of it is pretty straightforward, you know? But, yeah, every now and then you stumble across a passage that really makes you scratch your head. Figuring out what those tricky parts mean can be a real challenge.
Thankfully, I'd say 99% of Scripture is clear as a bell. And that's the stuff we really need to focus on living out. The Bible itself talks about how God's word is meant to be understandable, accessible to everyone.
But let's be real, sometimes we run into those verses that feel a bit murky. Even with all the great commentaries and resources we have available today, including stuff online, even theologians will tell you some passages are just tough nuts to crack.
But I believe that with God's help, and by digging a little deeper with the tools available to us, we can gain a better understanding of even those difficult verses. He'll give us the wisdom we need if we seek it.
And no one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven—the Son of Man.
Now it happened that the poor man died, and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s side. And the rich man also died and was buried.
For the living know that they will die, but the dead do not know anything. They no longer have a reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten.
And he called out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he could dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am suffering pain in this flame!’
But the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he is not able to understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
And it happened that, when humankind began to multiply on the face of the ground, daughters were born to them.And Noah fathered three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.And the earth was corrupted before God, and the earth was filled with violence.And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth.And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth was filled with violence because of them. Now, look, I am going to destroy them along with the earth.Make for yourself an ark of cypress wood; you must make the ark with rooms, then you must cover it with pitch, inside and outside.And this is how you must make it: the length of the ark, three hundred cubits; its width fifty cubits; its height, thirty cubits.You must make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above. And as for the door of the ark, you must put it in its side. You must make it with a lower, second, and a third deck.And I, behold, I am about to bring the flood waters over the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under the heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish.And I will establish my covenant with you, and you must go into the ark—you, and your sons, and your wife, and the wives of your sons with you.And of every living thing, from all flesh, you must bring two from every kind into the ark to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.Then the sons of God saw the daughters of humankind, that they were beautiful. And they took for themselves wives from all that they chose.From the birds according to their kind, and from the animals according to their kind, from every creeping thing on the ground according to its kind—two from every kind shall come to you to keep them alive.And as for you, take for yourself from every kind of food that is eaten. And you must gather it to yourself. And it shall be for you and for them for food.”And Noah did according to all that God commanded him; thus he did.And Yahweh said, “My Spirit shall not abide with humankind forever in that he is also flesh. And his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”The Nephilim were upon the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God went into the daughters of humankind, and they bore children to them.
You will not bow down to them, and you will not serve them, because I am Yahweh your God, a jealous God, punishing the guilt of the parents on the children on the third and on the fourth generations of those hating me,
which none of the rulers of this age knew. For if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
However, these you may not eat from those that chew the cud and from those that have a divided hoof: the camel, because it is a chewer of cud but it does not have a hoof that is divided—it is unclean for you;And the one who eats some of its dead body must wash his garments, and he shall be unclean until the evening; and the one who carries its dead body must wash his garments, and he shall be unclean until the evening.“ ‘And any swarmer that swarms on the land is detestable; it must not be eaten.You must not eat anything that moves upon its belly or that walks on all fours, even any with numerous feet belonging to any swarmer that swarms on the land, because they are detestable.You must not defile yourselves with any swarmer that swarms, and you must not make yourselves unclean by them and so be made unclean by them,because I am Yahweh your God, and you must keep yourselves sanctified, so that you shall be holy, because I am holy. And you must not make yourselves unclean with any swarmer that moves along on the land,because I am Yahweh, who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be for you as God. Thus you shall be holy, because I am holy.“ ‘This is the regulation of the animals and the birds and all living creatures that move along in the water and concerning all the creatures that swarm on the land,to distinguish between the unclean and the clean and between the animal that is to be eaten and the animal that must not be eaten.’ ”and the coney, because it is a chewer of cud but it does not have a hoof that is divided—it is unclean for you;and the hare, because it is a chewer of cud but it does not have a hoof that is divided—it is unclean for you;and the pig, because it has a divided hoof and has a split cleft in the hoof but it does not chew cud—it is unclean for you.You must not eat from their meat, and you must not touch their dead body—they are unclean for you.
And Yahweh said to Moses, “Make for yourself a snake and place it on a pole. When anyone is bitten and looks at it, that person will live.”So Moses made a snake of bronze, and he placed it on the pole; whenever a snake bit someone, and that person looked at the snake of bronze, he lived.
“And then if you do not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God by diligently observing all of his commandments and his statutes that I am commanding you today, then all of these curses shall come upon you, and they shall overtake you:“You shall be cursed in the city, and you shall be cursed in the field.“Your basket shall be cursed and your kneading trough.“The fruit of your womb shall be cursed and the fruit of you ground, the calves of your cattle and the lambs of your flock.“You shall be cursed when you come in, and you shall be cursed when you go out.And all of these blessings shall come upon you, and they shall have an effect on you if you listen to the voice of Yahweh your God:“Yahweh will send upon you the curse, the panic, and the threat in everything that you undertake, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly because of the evil of your deeds in that you have forsaken me.Yahweh will cause the plague to cling to you until it consumes you from the land that you are going to, to take possession of it.Yahweh will afflict you with the wasting diseases and with the fever and with the inflammation and with the scorching heat and with the sword and with the blight and with the mildew, and they shall pursue you until you perish.And your heavens that are over your heads shall be like bronze, and the earth that is under you shall be like iron.Yahweh will change the rain of your land to fine dust and to sand; from the heaven it shall come down upon you until you are destroyed.“Yahweh shall cause you to be defeated before your enemies; on one road you shall go against them, but you will flee on seven roads before them, and you shall become a thing of horror to all of the kingdoms of the earth.And your dead bodies shall be as food for all of the birds of the heaven and to the animals of the earth, and there shall not be anyone to frighten them away.“Yahweh shall afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors and with the scurvy and with the skin rash that cannot be healed.Yahweh shall afflict you with madness and with blindness and with confusion of heart.And you shall be groping at noon just as the blind person gropes in the dark, and you shall not succeed in finding your way, and you shall only be abused and robbed all the time, and there will not be anyone who will rescue you.“You will be blessed in the city, and you will be blessed in the field.You shall become engaged to a woman, but another man shall sleep with her; you shall build a house, but you shall not live in it; a vineyard you shall plant, but you shall not enjoy it.Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, and you shall not eat it; your donkey shall be stolen right before you, and it shall not be returned to you; your sheep and your goats shall be given to your enemies, and there shall not be anyone who rescues you.Your sons and your daughters shall be given to other people, and you will be looking on longingly for them all day, but you will be powerless to do anything.A people that you do not know shall consume the harvest of your land and all your labor, and you will be only oppressed and crushed for the rest of your lives.You shall become mad because of what your eyes shall see.Yahweh shall strike you with grievous boils on the knees and on the upper thighs from which you will not be able to be healed, from the sole of your foot and up to your crown.Yahweh will bring you and your king whom you set up over you to a nation that you or your ancestors have not known, and there you will serve other gods of wood and stone.And you will become a horror and a proverb and ridicule among all the peoples where Yahweh drives you there.“You shall carry out much seed to the field, but you shall gather little produce, for the locust shall devour it.You shall plant vineyards and you shall dress them, but you shall not drink wine and you shall not gather grapes, for the worm shall eat it.“Blessed will be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your livestock, the calf of your cattle and the lambs of your flock.There shall be olive trees for you in all of your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself, for your olives shall drop off.You shall bear sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for they shall go into captivity.The cricket shall take possession of all your trees and the fruit of your ground.The alien that is in your midst shall ascend over you, higher and higher, but you shall go down lower and lower.He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, but you shall be the tail.“And all of these curses shall come over you, and they shall pursue you, and they shall overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, by observing his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you.And they shall be among you as a sign and as a wonder and among your offspring forever.“Because of the fact that you did not serve Yahweh your God with joy and with gladness of heart for the abundance of everything,then you shall serve your enemies, whom Yahweh will send against you under conditions of famine, in thirst, in nakedness, and in a lack of everything; and he shall place a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.Yahweh will raise up against you a nation from far off, from the end of the earth, attacking as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you will not understand,“Blessed will be your basket and your kneading trough.a grim-faced nation who does not show respect to the old and the young and does not show pity.And it shall consume the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground until you are destroyed, and who will not leave for you any grain, wine, and olive oil, calves of your herds, and lambs of your flock until it has destroyed you.And it shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls fall, which you are trusting in throughout your land; and it shall besiege you in all of your towns in all of your land that Yahweh your God has given to you.And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and your daughters, whom Yahweh your God gave to you, during the siege and during the distress your enemy inflicts upon you.The most refined and the very sensitive man among you shall be mean with his brother and against his beloved wife and against the rest of his children that he has left over,by refraining from giving to even one of them any of the meat of his children that he eats, because there is not anything that is left over for him during the siege and distress that your enemy inflicts upon you.The most refined and the most delicate woman among you, who shall not venture to put the sole of her foot on the ground from being so delicate and from such gentleness, shall be mean to her beloved husband and against her son and against her daughter,and even concerning her afterbirth that goes out from between her feet and also concerning her children that she bears, because she eats them for lack of anything in secret during the siege and during the distress that your enemy inflicts upon her in your towns.“If you do not diligently observe all the words of this law written in this scroll by revering this glorious and awesome name, Yahweh your God,then Yahweh shall overwhelm you with your plagues and the plagues of your offspring, severe plagues and lasting illnesses, grievous and enduring.“Blessed will you be when you come in and blessed will you be when you go out.And he shall bring back upon you all the diseases of Egypt concerning which you were in dread because of them.Also any illness and any plague that is not written in the scroll of this law, he shall bring them, Yahweh, upon you until you are destroyed.And you shall remain only a few people in place of the fact you were formerly as the stars of heaven as far as number is concerned, because you did not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God.And then as Yahweh delighted over you to make you prosperous to make you numerous, so Yahweh shall delight over you to exterminate you and to destroy you, and so you shall be plucked from the land that you are going there to take possession of it.And Yahweh shall scatter you among all the nations from one end of the earth up to the other end of the earth, and there you shall serve other gods that you have not known nor your ancestors, gods of wood and stone.And among these nations you shall not find rest, and there shall not be a resting place for the sole of your foot, and Yahweh shall give you there an anxious heart and a weakening of eyes and a languishing of your inner self.And your life shall hang in doubt before you, and you shall be startled night and day, and you shall not be confident of your life.In the morning you shall say, ‘If only it was evening!’ and in the evening you shall say ‘If only it was morning!’ because of the dread of your heart that you shall feel, and because of the sight of your eyes that you shall see.And Yahweh shall bring you back to Egypt in ships by the route that I promised to you that ‘You shall not see it again!’ And you shall sell yourself there to your enemies as slaves and as female slaves, but there will not be a buyer.”
But Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God!
Jesus said to them, “Are you not deceived because of this, because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God?
And Jephthah made a vow to Yahweh, and he said, “If indeed you will give the Ammonites into my hand,whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return safely from the Ammonites will be Yahweh’s, and I will offer it as a burnt offering.”
Thus says Yahweh of hosts: ‘I have observed what Amalek did to Israel, how he opposed him when he went up from Egypt.Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have listened to the voice of Yahweh, and I have gone on the way that Yahweh sent me! I brought Agag the king of Amalek, and the Amalekites I have utterly destroyed.The troops took from the plunder, sheep and cattle, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to Yahweh your God at Gilgal.”Then Samuel said, “Is there as much delight for Yahweh in burnt offerings and sacrifices as there is in obeying Yahweh? Look! To obey is better than sacrifice; to give heed than the fat of rams.For rebellion is like the sin of divination; arrogance is like iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of Yahweh, he has rejected you from being king!”Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned because I have transgressed the commandment of Yahweh and your words, for I feared the troops and I listened to their voice.So then, please pardon my sin and return with me so that I can worship Yahweh.”But Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of Yahweh, and he has rejected you from being king over Israel!”As Samuel turned around to go, he caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore.Then Samuel said to him, “Yahweh has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to your neighbor who is better than you.Moreover, the Glory of Israel will not break faith and will not regret, for he is not a human that he should regret.”So then, go and attack Amalek and utterly destroy all that is his! You must not spare him, but kill both man and woman, both child and nursing infant, both ox and sheep, both camel and donkey.’ ”
When they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzza reached out to the ark of God and took hold of it, because the oxen had stumbled.Then the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Uzza, and God struck him down there because of the indiscretion, and he died there beside the ark of God.
Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will understand after these things.”
Then they were walking, talking as they went. Suddenly a fiery chariot with horses of fire appeared and separated between the two of them. Elijah went up in the storm to the heavens
And he thought his brothers would understand that God was granting deliverance to them by his hand, but they did not understand.
Do not answer a fool according to his folly lest you become like him—even you.Answer a fool according to his folly, or else he will be wise in his own eyes.
For the fate of humans and the fate of the beast is the same. The death of the one is like the death of the other, for both are mortal. Man has no advantage over the beast, for both are fleeting.a time to bear and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to root up what is planted;Both go to one place—both came from dust and both return to dust.
In the year of the death of Uzziah the king, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and raised throne, and the hem of his robe was filling the temple.Make the heart of this people insensitive, and make its ears unresponsive, and shut its eyes so that it may not look with its eyes and listen with its ears and comprehend with its mind and turn back, and it may be healed for him.”
But he was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his wounds we were healed.
For I know the plans that I am planning concerning you,’ declares Yahweh, ‘plans for prosperity and not for harm, to give to you a future and a hope.
The hand of Yahweh was upon me, and he brought me by the Spirit of Yahweh, and he let me rest in the midst of the valley, and it was full of bones.And I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they became alive, and they stood on their feet, a very, very large group.And he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are all of the house of Israel; look! they are saying, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is destroyed; we are cut off as far as we are concerned.’Therefore prophesy, and you must say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Look! I am opening your graves, and I will bring you up from your graves, my people, and I will bring you to the land of Israel!And you will know that I am Yahweh when I open your graves when I bring you up from your graves, my people!And I will put my breath into you so that you may live, and I will cause you to rest on your soil, and you will know that I, Yahweh, I have spoken, and I will act!” ’ declares Yahweh.”
“Seventy weeks is decreed for your people and for your holy city, to put an end to the transgression and to seal up sin and to make atonement for guilt and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal vision and prophet and to anoint the most holy place.And you must know and you must understand that from the time of the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem until an anointed one—a leader—will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be restored and will be built with streets and a moat, but in a time of oppression.“And after the sixty and two weeks an anointed one shall be cut off, and he shall have nothing, and the people of the coming leader will destroy the city and the sanctuary, and its end will be with the flood and on to the end there shall be war; these desolations are determined.And he will make a strong covenant with the many for one week, but in half of the week he will let cease sacrifice and offering and in its place a desolating abomination comes even until the determined complete destruction is poured out on the desolator.”
At the beginning when Yahweh spoke through Hosea, Yahweh said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife and children of whoredom, because the land commits great whoredom forsaking Yahweh.”So he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
Or is a horn blown in a city and people are not afraid? Or does a disaster occur in the city and Yahweh has not done it?
He has told you, O mortal, what is good, and what does Yahweh ask from you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
“O sword, awake against my shepherd, against the man who is my associate,” declares Yahweh of hosts. “Strike the shepherd, so that the sheep may be scattered, and I will turn my hand against the small ones.And then in all the land,” declares Yahweh, “two thirds will be cut off and perish, and one third will be left alive in it.And I will bring the remaining third into the fire, and I will refine them like one refines silver, and I will test them like one tests gold. They will call my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people,’ and they will say, ‘Yahweh is my God.’ ”
And if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it from you! For it is better for you that one of your members be destroyed than your whole body be thrown into hell.“Blessed are the poor in spirit, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven.And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it from you! For it is better for you that one of your limbs be destroyed than your whole body go into hell.
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace on the earth! I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.For I have come to turn a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.And the enemies of a man will be the members of his household.
And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it from you! It is better for you to enter into life crippled or lame than, having two hands or two feet, to be thrown into the eternal fire!And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it from you! It is better for you to enter into life one-eyed than, having two eyes, to be thrown into fiery hell!
And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich person into the kingdom of God.”
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”)
And he said to them, “To you has been granted the secret of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside everything is in parables,so that ‘they may look closely and not perceive, and they may listen carefully and not understand, lest they turn and it be forgiven them.’ ”
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and furthermore, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat,but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail. And you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
Then 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 do not have 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 resides in me and I in him.Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so also the one who eats me—that one will live because of me.This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. The one who eats this bread will live forever.”
Now a certain man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property,And immediately she fell down at his feet and died. So when the young men came in, they found her dead, and carried her out and buried her with her husband.And great fear came on the whole church and on all who heard about these things.
But the foolish things of the world God chose in order that he might put to shame the wise, and the weak things of the world God chose in order that he might put to shame the strong,and the insignificant of the world, and the despised, God chose, the things that are not, in order that he might abolish the things that are,so that all flesh may not boast before God.
For the one who eats and drinks, if he does not recognize the body, eats and drinks judgment against himself.
because our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
because to you has been graciously granted on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer on behalf of him,
Let no one condemn you, taking pleasure in humility and the worship of angels, going into detail about the things which he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind,and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by the ligaments and sinews, grows with the growth of God.
But she will be saved through the bearing of children, if she continues in faith and love and holiness with self-control.
All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness,
For it is impossible concerning those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and become sharers of the Holy Spirit,and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the coming age,and having fallen away, to renew them again to repentance, because they have crucified again for themselves the Son of God and held him up to contempt.
in which also he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,when they see your respectful, pure conduct.who were formerly disobedient, when the patience of God waited in the days of Noah, while an ark was being constructed, in which a few—that is, eight souls—were rescued through water.
If anyone should see his brother sinning a sin not leading to death, he should ask, and he will grant life to him, to those who sin not leading to death. (There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should ask about that.
‘I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot!Thus, because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I am about to vomit you out of my mouth!
And all those who live on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name is not written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slaughtered.
keeping loyal love to the thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and he does not leave utterly unpunished, punishing the guilt of fathers on sons and on sons of sons on third and fourth generations.”
‘Yahweh is slow to anger and great of loyal love, forgiving sin and rebellion; but surely he leaves nothing unpunished, visiting the sin of the fathers on the sons to the third and fourth generations.’
“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not listen to the voice of his father and to the voice of his mother, and they discipline him, and he does not obey them,then his father and his mother shall take hold of him, and they shall bring him out to the elders of his city and to the gate of his town,then your elders and your judges shall go out and shall measure the distance to the cities that are around the slain one.and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he does not obey us, and he is a glutton and a drunkard.’Then all the men of his city shall stone him with stones and let him die; and so you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all of Israel will hear, and they will fear.
But the men were not willing to listen to him, and the man seized his concubine and brought her out to them; and they had intercourse with her, and they abused her all night until the morning; they let her go at the approach of dawn.And the woman came as the morning appeared, and she fell at the entrance of the man’s house where her master was, until daylight.In the morning her master got up, and he opened the doors of the house and went out to go on his journey, and behold, his concubine was falling at the entrance of the house, with her hand on the threshold.And he said to her, “Get up, let us go,” but there was no answer. So he put her on the donkey, and the man got up and went to his place.When he entered his house he took a knife, and he grasped his concubine and cut her into twelve pieces; and he sent her throughout the whole territory of Israel.So her husband set out, and he went after her to speak tenderly to her, to bring her back. He took with him his servant and a pair of donkeys. And she brought him to her father’s house, and the father of the young woman saw him and was glad to meet him.All who saw it said, “Nothing like this has ever been since the Israelites went up from the land of Egypt until this day. Take note of it, consider it, and speak up.”
It happened late one afternoon that David got up from his bed and walked about on the roof of the king’s house, and he saw a woman bathing on her roof. Now the woman was very beautiful.if the anger of the king rises and he says to you, ‘Why did you go near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from atop the wall?Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerub-bosheth, if not a woman who threw an upper millstone on him from atop the wall and he died at Thebez? Why did you go near the wall?’ Then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite also died.’ ”Then the messenger left, and he came and told David all that Joab had sent him to say.The messenger said to David, “Because the men overpowered us, the men came out to us in the field, but we forced them back to the entrance of the gate.The archers shot at your servant from atop the wall, and some of the servants of the king died; your servant Uriah the Hittite also died.”Then David said to the messenger, “Thus you shall say to Joab, ‘Do not feel badly about this matter; now one and then another the sword will devour. Intensify your attack on the city and overthrow it.’ ” And he encouraged him.When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned over her husband.When the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his household, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing which David had done was evil in the eyes of Yahweh.David sent 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 took her, and she came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) And she returned to her house.The woman became pregnant, and she sent and told David, and she said, “I am pregnant.”
Then two prostitutes came to the king, and they stood before him.The one woman said, “Please my lord, I and this woman are living in one house, and I gave birth, with her in the house.It happened on the third day after my giving birth, this woman also gave birth, and we were together. There was not anyone with us in the house, only the two of us were in the house.Then the son of this woman died in the night because she laid on him.But the people were sacrificing on the high places, for the house for the name of Yahweh had not yet been built in those days.So she got up in the middle of the night, and she took my son from beside me while your servant was asleep, and she put him in her lap, and she put her dead son in my lap.When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, behold, he was dead! When I looked closely at him in the morning, behold, it was not my son whom I had borne.”Then the other woman said, “No, for my son is the living one, and your son is the dead one.” The other kept on saying, “No, for your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one,” and so they argued in front of the king.Then the king said, “This one is saying, ‘This is my son, the living one, but your son is the dead one,’ and the other one keeps saying, ‘But no! Your son is the dead one, and my son is living!’ ”So the king said, “Bring me a sword,” and they brought the sword before the king.Then the king said, “Divide the living child into two, and give half to the one and half to the other.”Then the woman whose son was the living one spoke to the king because her compassion was aroused for her son, and she said, “Please, my lord, give her the living child, but certainly do not kill him!” The other one was saying, “As for me, so for you! Divide him!”Then the king answered and said, “Give the living child to her, and do not kill him; she is his mother.”When all of Israel heard the judgment that the king had rendered, they stood in awe of the king, because they realized that the wisdom of God was in him to execute justice.
Then he went up from there to Bethel; as he was going up along the way, young boys came out from the city and mocked at him and said to him, “Go up, baldhead; go up, baldhead!”When he turned around and saw them, he cursed them in the name of Yahweh. Then two bears came out of the forest and mauled forty-two boys among them.
“A human being born of a woman is short of days and full of troubles.“But a man dies, and he dwindles away; thus a human being passes away, and where is he?As water disappears from a lake, and a river withers away and dries up,so a man lies down, and he does not arise. Until the heavens are no more, they will not awaken, and they will not be roused out of their sleep.“O that you would conceal me in Sheol, that you would hide me until your wrath is past, that you would appoint a set time for me and remember me.If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my compulsory service I will wait, until the coming of my relief.You would call, and I myself would answer you; you would long for the work of your hand.For then you would count my steps, but you would not keep watch over my sin.My transgression would be sealed in a bag, and you would cover over my guilt.“But a mountain falls; it crumbles away, and a rock moves away from its place.Water wears away stones; its torrents wash away the soil of the earth; so you destroy the hope of human beings.Like a flower he comes up, and he withers away; and he flees like a shadow, but he does not last.
When my heart was embittered and I felt stabbed in my kidneys,then I was brutish and ignorant. With you I was like the beasts.
Indeed you created my inward parts; you wove me in my mother’s womb.I praise you, because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it well.
“Vanity of vanities!” says the Teacher, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity!”What does a person gain in all his toil with which he toils under the sun?
For even though he causes grief he has compassion according to the greatness of his royal love.He does not afflict willingly, or grieve anyone.
“Seventy weeks is decreed for your people and for your holy city, to put an end to the transgression and to seal up sin and to make atonement for guilt and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal vision and prophet and to anoint the most holy place.
Alas, those who desire the day of Yahweh, why is this for you the day of Yahweh? It will be darkness and not light!It will be as if a man fled from a lion and a bear met him; or he went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall and a snake bit him.Virgin Israel has fallen and will not rise again. She is deserted on her land; there is no one to raise her up.Is not the day of Yahweh darkness and not light, and pitch dark with no brightness in it?
“Now a certain man was rich, and dressed in purple cloth and fine linen, feasting sumptuously every day.And he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give the account of your management, because you can no longer manage.’And a certain poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, lay at his gate,and was longing to be filled with what fell from the table of the rich man. But even the dogs came and licked his sores.Now it happened that the poor man died, and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s side. And the rich man also died and was buried.And in Hades he lifted up his eyes as he was in torment and saw Abraham from a distance, and Lazarus at his side.And he called out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he could dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am suffering pain in this flame!’But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you received your good things during your life, and Lazarus likewise bad things. But now he is comforted here, but you are suffering pain.And in addition to all these things, a great chasm has been established between us and you, so that those who want to cross over from here to you are not able to do so, nor can they cross over from there to us.’So he said, ‘Then I ask you, father, that you send him to my father’s house,for I have five brothers, so that he could warn them, in order that they also should not come to this place of torment!’But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they must listen to them.’And the manager said to himself, ‘What should I do, because my master is taking away the management from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg.And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent!’But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone rises from the dead.’ ”
For in this way God loved the world, so that he gave his one and only Son, in order that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but will have eternal life.For God did not send his Son into the world in order that he should judge the world, but in order that the world should be saved through him.The one who believes in him is not judged, but the one who does not believe has already been judged, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
And he made from one man every nation of humanity to live on all the face of the earth, determining their fixed times and the fixed boundaries of their habitation,
for although they had not yet been born, or done anything good or evil, in order that the purpose of God according to election might remain,not by works but by the one who calls—it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger,”just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how incomprehensible are his ways!“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?Or who has given in advance to him, and it will be paid back to him?”For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory for eternity! Amen.
But just as it is written, “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and have not entered into the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him.”
Otherwise, why do they do it, those who are being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why indeed are they being baptized on behalf of them?
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love,
More than that, I even consider all things to be loss because of the surpassing greatness of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for the sake of whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and consider them dung, in order that I may gain Christand may be found in him, not having my righteousness which is from the law, but which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith,
because he was well pleased for all the fullness to dwell in him,to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ in Colossae. Grace to you and peace from God our Father.and through him to reconcile all things to himself, by making peace through the blood of his cross, through him, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
Whenever they say “Peace and security,” then sudden destruction will overtake them like the birth pains of a pregnant woman, and they will not possibly escape.
And most certainly, great is the mystery of godliness: Who was revealed in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was proclaimed among the Gentiles, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.
Make every effort to present yourself approved to God, a worker having no need to be ashamed, guiding the word of truth along a straight path.
For there are many rebellious people, idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,whom it is necessary to silence, whoever are ruining whole families by teaching things which must not be taught for the sake of dishonest gain.
For whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles in one point only has become guilty of all of it.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s possession, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light,
The one who conquers in this way will be dressed in white clothing, and I will never erase his name from the book of life, and I will declare his name before my Father and before his angels.
And I saw a great white throne and the one who was seated on it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled, and a place was not 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 by what was 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 each one was judged according to their deeds.And Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death—the lake of fire.And if anyone 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 death will not exist any longer, and mourning or wailing or pain will not exist any longer. The former 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 written in this book.And if anyone takes away from the words of this book of prophecy, God will take away his share of the tree of life and from the holy city that are written in this book.