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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.
“Now the poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried.
For the living know that they will die, but the dead do not know anything; they have no further reward – and even the memory of them disappears.
So he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in anguish in this fire.’
The unbeliever does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
When humankind began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them,Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.The earth was ruined in the sight of God; the earth was filled with violence.God saw the earth, and indeed it was ruined, for all living creatures on the earth were sinful.So God said to Noah, “I have decided that all living creatures must die, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. Now I am about to destroy them and the earth.Make for yourself an ark of cypress wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it with pitch inside and out.This is how you should make it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.Make a roof for the ark and finish it, leaving 18 inches from the top. Put a door in the side of the ark, and make lower, middle, and upper decks.I am about to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy from under the sky all the living creatures that have the breath of life in them. Everything that is on the earth will die,but I will confirm my covenant with you. You will enter the ark – you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.You must bring into the ark two of every kind of living creature from all flesh, male and female, to keep them alive with you.the sons of God saw that the daughters of humankind were beautiful. Thus they took wives for themselves from any they chose.Of the birds after their kinds, and of the cattle after their kinds, and of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you so you can keep them alive.And you must take for yourself every kind of food that is eaten, and gather it together. It will be food for you and for them.And Noah did all that God commanded him – he did indeed.So the Lord said, “My spirit will not remain in humankind indefinitely, since they are mortal. They will remain for 120 more years.”The Nephilim were on the earth in those days (and also after this) when the sons of God were having sexual relations with the daughters of humankind, who gave birth to their children. They were the mighty heroes of old, the famous men.
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children to the third and fourth generations of those who reject me,
None of the rulers of this age understood it. If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
However, you must not eat these from among those that chew the cud and have divided hooves: The camel is unclean to you because it chews the cud even though its hoof is not divided.One who eats from its carcass must wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening, and whoever carries its carcass must wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening.Every swarming thing that swarms on the land is detestable; it must not be eaten.You must not eat anything that crawls on its belly or anything that walks on all fours or on any number of legs of all the swarming things that swarm on the land, because they are detestable.Do not make yourselves detestable by any of the swarming things. You must not defile yourselves by them and become unclean by them,for I am the Lord your God and you are to sanctify yourselves and be holy because I am holy. You must not defile yourselves by any of the swarming things that creep on the ground,for I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God, and you are to be holy because I am holy.This is the law of the land animals, the birds, all the living creatures that move in the water, and all the creatures that swarm on the land,to distinguish between the unclean and the clean, between the living creatures that may be eaten and the living creatures that must not be eaten.’”The rock badger is unclean to you because it chews the cud even though its hoof is not divided.The hare is unclean to you because it chews the cud even though its hoof is not divided.The pig is unclean to you because its hoof is divided (the hoof is completely split in two), even though it does not chew the cud.You must not eat from their meat and you must not touch their carcasses; they are unclean to you.
The Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous snake and set it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live.”So Moses made a bronze snake and put it on a pole, so that if a snake had bitten someone, when he looked at the bronze snake he lived.
“But if you ignore the Lord your God and are not careful to keep all his commandments and statutes I am giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you in full force:You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the field.Your basket and your mixing bowl will be cursed.Your children will be cursed, as well as the produce of your soil, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks.You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.All these blessings will come to you in abundance if you obey the Lord your God:“The Lord will send on you a curse, confusing you and opposing you in everything you undertake until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the evil of your deeds, in that you have forsaken me.The Lord will plague you with deadly diseases until he has completely removed you from the land you are about to possess.He will afflict you with weakness, fever, inflammation, infection, sword, blight, and mildew; these will attack you until you perish.The sky above your heads will be bronze and the earth beneath you iron.The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; it will come down on you from the sky until you are destroyed.“The Lord will allow you to be struck down before your enemies; you will attack them from one direction but flee from them in seven directions and will become an object of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth.Your carcasses will be food for every bird of the sky and wild animal of the earth, and there will be no one to chase them off.The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, eczema, and scabies, all of which cannot be healed.The Lord will also subject you to madness, blindness, and confusion of mind.You will feel your way along at noon like the blind person does in darkness and you will not succeed in anything you do; you will be constantly oppressed and continually robbed, with no one to save you.You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the field.You will be engaged to a woman and another man will rape her. You will build a house but not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but not even begin to use it.Your ox will be slaughtered before your very eyes but you will not eat of it. Your donkey will be stolen from you as you watch and will not be returned to you. Your flock of sheep will be given to your enemies and there will be no one to save you.Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while you look on in vain all day, and you will be powerless to do anything about it.As for the produce of your land and all your labor, a people you do not know will consume it, and you will be nothing but oppressed and crushed for the rest of your lives.You will go insane from seeing all this.The Lord will afflict you in your knees and on your legs with painful, incurable boils – from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.The Lord will force you and your king whom you will appoint over you to go away to a people whom you and your ancestors have not known, and you will serve other gods of wood and stone there.You will become an occasion of horror, a proverb, and an object of ridicule to all the peoples to whom the Lord will drive you.“You will take much seed to the field but gather little harvest, because locusts will consume it.You will plant vineyards and cultivate them, but you will not drink wine or gather in grapes, because worms will eat them.Your children will be blessed, as well as the produce of your soil, the offspring of your livestock, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks.You will have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with olive oil, because the olives will drop off the trees while still unripe.You will bear sons and daughters but not keep them, because they will be taken into captivity.Whirring locusts will take over every tree and all the produce of your soil.The foreigners who reside among you will become higher and higher over you and you will become lower and lower.They will lend to you but you will not lend to them; they will become the head and you will become the tail!All these curses will fall on you, pursuing and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping his commandments and statutes that he has given you.These curses will be a perpetual sign and wonder with reference to you and your descendants.“Because you have not served the Lord your God joyfully and wholeheartedly with the abundance of everything you have,instead in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and poverty you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. They will place an iron yoke on your neck until they have destroyed you.The Lord will raise up a distant nation against you, one from the other side of the earth as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand,Your basket and your mixing bowl will be blessed.a nation of stern appearance that will have no regard for the elderly or pity for the young.They will devour the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your soil until you are destroyed. They will not leave you with any grain, new wine, olive oil, calves of your herds, or lambs of your flocks until they have destroyed you.They will besiege all of your villages until all of your high and fortified walls collapse – those in which you put your confidence throughout the land. They will besiege all your villages throughout the land the Lord your God has given you.You will then eat your own offspring, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege by which your enemies will constrict you.The man among you who is by nature tender and sensitive will turn against his brother, his beloved wife, and his remaining children.He will withhold from all of them his children’s flesh that he is eating (since there is nothing else left), because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.Likewise, the most tender and delicate of your women, who would never think of putting even the sole of her foot on the ground because of her daintiness, will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters,and will secretly eat her afterbirth and her newborn children (since she has nothing else), because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.“If you refuse to obey all the words of this law, the things written in this scroll, and refuse to fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God,then the Lord will increase your punishments and those of your descendants – great and long-lasting afflictions and severe, enduring illnesses.You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.He will infect you with all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will persistently afflict you.Moreover, the Lord will bring upon you every kind of sickness and plague not mentioned in this scroll of commandments, until you have perished.There will be very few of you left, though at one time you were as numerous as the stars in the sky, because you will have disobeyed the Lord your God.This is what will happen: Just as the Lord delighted to do good for you and make you numerous, he will take delight in destroying and decimating you. You will be uprooted from the land you are about to possess.The Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods of wood and stone.Among those nations you will have no rest nor will there be a place of peaceful rest for the soles of your feet, for there the Lord will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a spirit of despair.Your life will hang in doubt before you; you will be terrified by night and day and will have no certainty of surviving from one day to the next.In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ And in the evening you will say, ‘I wish it were morning!’ because of the things you will fear and the things you will see.Then the Lord will make you return to Egypt by ship, over a route I said to you that you would never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”
Jesus answered them, “You are deceived, because you don’t know the scriptures or the power of God.
Jesus said to them, “Aren’t you deceived for this reason, because you don’t know the scriptures or the power of God?
Jephthah made a vow to the Lord, saying, “If you really do hand the Ammonites over to me,then whoever is the first to come through the doors of my house to meet me when I return safely from fighting the Ammonites – he will belong to the Lord and I will offer him up as a burnt sacrifice.”
Here is what the Lord of hosts says: ‘I carefully observed how the Amalekites opposed Israel along the way when Israel came up from Egypt.Then Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed the Lord! I went on the campaign the Lord sent me on. I brought back King Agag of the Amalekites after exterminating the Amalekites.But the army took from the plunder some of the sheep and cattle – the best of what was to be slaughtered – to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”Then Samuel said, “Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as he does in obedience? Certainly, obedience is better than sacrifice; paying attention is better than the fat of rams.For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and presumption is like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have disobeyed what the Lord commanded and what you said as well. For I was afraid of the army, and I followed their wishes.Now please forgive my sin! Go back with me so I can worship the Lord.”Samuel said to Saul, “I will not go back with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel!”When Samuel turned to leave, Saul grabbed the edge of his robe and it tore.Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to one of your colleagues who is better than you!The Preeminent One of Israel does not go back on his word or change his mind, for he is not a human being who changes his mind.”So go now and strike down the Amalekites. Destroy everything that they have. Don’t spare them. Put them to death – man, woman, child, infant, ox, sheep, camel, and donkey alike.’”
When they arrived at the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and grabbed hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled.The Lord was so furious with Uzzah, he killed him on the spot for his negligence. He died right there beside the ark of God.
Jesus replied, “You do not understand what I am doing now, but you will understand after these things.”
As they were walking along and talking, suddenly a fiery chariot pulled by fiery horses appeared. They went between Elijah and Elisha, and Elijah went up to heaven in a windstorm.
He thought his own people would understand that God was delivering them through him, but they did not understand.
Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you yourself also be like him.Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own estimation.
For the fate of humans and the fate of animals are the same: As one dies, so dies the other; both have the same breath. There is no advantage for humans over animals, for both are fleeting.A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot what was planted;Both go to the same place, both come from the dust, and to dust both return.
In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the sovereign master seated on a high, elevated throne. The hem of his robe filled the temple.Make the hearts of these people calloused; make their ears deaf and their eyes blind! Otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, their hearts might understand and they might repent and be healed.”
He was wounded because of our rebellious deeds, crushed because of our sins; he endured punishment that made us well; because of his wounds we have been healed.
For I know what I have planned for you,’ says the Lord. ‘I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you a future filled with hope.
The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and placed me in the midst of the valley, and it was full of bones.So I prophesied as I was commanded, and the breath came into them; they lived and stood on their feet, an extremely great army.Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are all the house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope has perished; we are cut off.’Therefore prophesy, and tell them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to open your graves and will raise you from your graves, my people. I will bring you to the land of Israel.Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people.I will place my breath in you and you will live; I will give you rest in your own land. Then you will know that I am the Lord – I have spoken and I will act, declares the Lord.’”
“Seventy weeks have been determined concerning your people and your holy city to put an end to rebellion, to bring sin to completion, to atone for iniquity, to bring in perpetual righteousness, to seal up the prophetic vision, and to anoint a most holy place.So know and understand: From the issuing of the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until an anointed one, a prince arrives, there will be a period of seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will again be built, with plaza and moat, but in distressful times.Now after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one will be cut off and have nothing. As for the city and the sanctuary, the people of the coming prince will destroy them. But his end will come speedily like a flood. Until the end of the war that has been decreed there will be destruction.He will confirm a covenant with many for one week. But in the middle of that week he will bring sacrifices and offerings to a halt. On the wing of abominations will come one who destroys, until the decreed end is poured out on the one who destroys.”
When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, he said to him, “Go marry a prostitute who will bear illegitimate children conceived through prostitution, because the nation continually commits spiritual prostitution by turning away from the Lord.”So Hosea married Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim. Then she conceived and gave birth to a son for him.
If an alarm sounds in a city, do people not fear? If disaster overtakes a city, is the Lord not responsible?
He has told you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord really wants from you: He wants you to promote justice, to be faithful, and to live obediently before your God.
“Awake, sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is my associate,” says the Lord who rules over all. Strike the shepherd that the flock may be scattered; I will turn my hand against the insignificant ones.It will happen in all the land, says the Lord, that two-thirds of the people in it will be cut off and die, but one-third will be left in it.Then I will bring the remaining third into the fire; I will refine them like silver is refined and will test them like gold is tested. They will call on my name and I will answer; I will say, ‘These are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”
If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away! It is better to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into hell.“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away! It is better to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into hell.
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace but a sword.For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law,and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.
If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into fiery hell.
Again I say, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter into the kingdom of God.”
At about three o’clock Jesus shouted with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
He said to them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those outside, everything is in parables,so that although they look they may look but not see, and although they hear they may hear but not understand, so they may not repent and be forgiven.”
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
“Simon, Simon, pay attention! Satan has demanded to have you all, to sift you like wheat,but I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. When you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
Jesus said to them, “I tell you the solemn truth, 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 resides in me, and I in him.Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so the one who consumes me will live because of me.This is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the bread your ancestors ate, but then later died. The one who eats this bread will live forever.”
Now a man named Ananias, together with Sapphira his wife, sold a piece of property.At once she collapsed at his feet and died. So when the young men came in, they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.Great fear gripped the whole church and all who heard about these things.
But God chose what the world thinks foolish to shame the wise, and God chose what the world thinks weak to shame the strong.God chose what is low and despised in the world, what is regarded as nothing, to set aside what is regarded as something,so that no one can boast in his presence.
For the one who eats and drinks without careful regard for the body eats and drinks judgment against himself.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.
For it has been granted to you not only to believe in Christ but also to suffer for him,
Let no one who delights in humility and the worship of angels pass judgment on you. That person goes on at great lengths about what he has supposedly seen, but he is puffed up with empty notions by his fleshly mind.He has not held fast to the head from whom the whole body, supported and knit together through its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.
But she will be delivered through childbearing, if she continues in faith and love and holiness with self-control.
Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, become partakers of the Holy Spirit,tasted the good word of God and the miracles of the coming age,and then have committed apostasy, to renew them again to repentance, since they are crucifying the Son of God for themselves all over again and holding him up to contempt.
In it he went and preached to the spirits in prison,when they see your pure and reverent conduct.after they were disobedient long ago when God patiently waited in the days of Noah as an ark was being constructed. In the ark a few, that is eight souls, were delivered through water.
If anyone sees his fellow Christian committing a sin not resulting in death, he should ask, and God will grant life to the person who commits a sin not resulting in death. There is a sin resulting in death. I do not say that he should ask about that.
‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot!So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth!
and all those who live on the earth will worship the beast, everyone whose name has not been written since the foundation of the world in the book of life belonging to the Lamb who was killed.
keeping loyal love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But he by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.”
‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in loyal love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children until the third and fourth generations.’
If a person has a stubborn, rebellious son who pays no attention to his father or mother, and they discipline him to no avail,his father and mother must seize him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his city.your elders and judges must go out and measure how far it is to the cities in the vicinity of the corpse.They must declare to the elders of his city, “Our son is stubborn and rebellious and pays no attention to what we say – he is a glutton and drunkard.”Then all the men of his city must stone him to death. In this way you will purge out wickedness from among you, and all Israel will hear about it and be afraid.
The men refused to listen to him, so the Levite grabbed his concubine and made her go outside. They raped her and abused her all night long until morning. They let her go at dawn.The woman arrived back at daybreak and was sprawled out on the doorstep of the house where her master was staying until it became light.When her master got up in the morning, opened the doors of the house, and went outside to start on his journey, there was the woman, his concubine, sprawled out on the doorstep of the house with her hands on the threshold.He said to her, “Get up, let’s leave!” But there was no response. He put her on the donkey and went home.When he got home, he took a knife, grabbed his concubine, and carved her up into twelve pieces. Then he sent the pieces throughout Israel.her husband came after her, hoping he could convince her to return. He brought with him his servant and a pair of donkeys. When she brought him into her father’s house and the girl’s father saw him, he greeted him warmly.Everyone who saw the sight said, “Nothing like this has happened or been witnessed during the entire time since the Israelites left the land of Egypt! Take careful note of it! Discuss it and speak!”
One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of his palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. Now this woman was very attractive.if the king becomes angry and asks you, ‘Why did you go so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you realize they would shoot from the wall?Who struck down Abimelech the son of Jerub-Besheth? Didn’t a woman throw an upper millstone down on him from the wall so that he died in Thebez? Why did you go so close to the wall?’ just say to him, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.’”So the messenger departed. When he arrived, he informed David of all the news that Joab had sent with him.The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and attacked us in the field. But we forced them to retreat all the way to the door of the city gate.Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall and some of the king’s soldiers died. Your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.”David said to the messenger, “Tell Joab, ‘Don’t let this thing upset you. There is no way to anticipate whom the sword will cut down. Press the battle against the city and conquer it.’ Encourage him with these words.”When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband Uriah was dead, she mourned for him.When the time of mourning passed, David had her brought to his palace. She became his wife and she bore him a son. But what David had done upset the Lord.So David sent someone to inquire about the woman. The messenger said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”David sent some messengers to get her. She came to him and he had sexual relations with her. (Now at that time she was in the process of purifying herself from her menstrual uncleanness.) Then she returned to her home.The woman conceived and then sent word to David saying, “I’m pregnant.”
Then two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.One of the women said, “My master, this woman and I live in the same house. I had a baby while she was with me in the house.Then three days after I had my baby, this woman also had a baby. We were alone; there was no one else in the house except the two of us.This woman’s child suffocated during the night when she rolled on top of him.Now the people were offering sacrifices at the high places, because in those days a temple had not yet been built to honor the Lord.She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side, while your servant was sleeping. She put him in her arms, and put her dead son in my arms.I got up in the morning to nurse my son, and there he was, dead! But when I examined him carefully in the morning, I realized it was not my baby.”The other woman said, “No! My son is alive; your son is dead!” But the first woman replied, “No, your son is dead; my son is alive.” Each presented her case before the king.The king said, “One says, ‘My son is alive; your son is dead,’ while the other says, ‘No, your son is dead; my son is alive.’”The king ordered, “Get me a sword!” So they placed a sword before the king.The king then said, “Cut the living child in two, and give half to one and half to the other!”The real mother spoke up to the king, for her motherly instincts were aroused. She said, “My master, give her the living child! Whatever you do, don’t kill him!” But the other woman said, “Neither one of us will have him! Let them cut him in two!”The king responded, “Give the first woman the living child; don’t kill him. She is the mother.”When all Israel heard about the judicial decision which the king had rendered, they respected the king, for they realized that he possessed supernatural wisdom to make judicial decisions.
He went up from there to Bethel. As he was traveling up the road, some young boys came out of the city and made fun of him, saying, “Go on up, baldy! Go on up, baldy!”When he turned around and saw them, he called God’s judgment down on them. Two female bears came out of the woods and ripped forty-two of the boys to pieces.
“Man, born of woman, lives but a few days, and they are full of trouble.But man dies and is powerless; he expires – and where is he?As water disappears from the sea, or a river drains away and dries up,so man lies down and does not rise; until the heavens are no more, they will not awake nor arise from their sleep.“O that you would hide me in Sheol, and conceal me till your anger has passed! O that you would set me a time and then remember me!If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait until my release comes.You will call and I – I will answer you; you will long for the creature you have made.“Surely now you count my steps; then you would not mark my sin.My offenses would be sealed up in a bag; you would cover over my sin.But as a mountain falls away and crumbles, and as a rock will be removed from its place,as water wears away stones, and torrents wash away the soil, so you destroy man’s hope.He grows up like a flower and then withers away; he flees like a shadow, and does not remain.
Yes, my spirit was bitter, and my insides felt sharp pain.I was ignorant and lacked insight; I was as senseless as an animal before you.
Certainly you made my mind and heart; you wove me together in my mother’s womb.I will give you thanks because your deeds are awesome and amazing. You knew me thoroughly;
“Futile! Futile!” laments the Teacher, “Absolutely futile! Everything is futile!”What benefit do people get from all the effort which they expend on earth?
Who would have believed what we just heard? When was the Lord’s power revealed through him?
Though he causes us grief, he then has compassion on us according to the abundance of his loyal kindness.For he is not predisposed to afflict or to grieve people. ל (Lamed)
“Seventy weeks have been determined concerning your people and your holy city to put an end to rebellion, to bring sin to completion, to atone for iniquity, to bring in perpetual righteousness, to seal up the prophetic vision, and to anoint a most holy place.
Woe to those who wish for the day of the Lord! Why do you want the Lord’s day of judgment to come? It will bring darkness, not light.Disaster will be inescapable, as if a man ran from a lion only to meet a bear, then escaped into a house, leaned his hand against the wall, and was bitten by a poisonous snake.“The virgin Israel has fallen down and will not get up again. She is abandoned on her own land with no one to help her get up.”Don’t you realize the Lord’s day of judgment will bring darkness, not light – gloomy blackness, not bright light?
“There was a rich man who dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.So he called the manager in and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Turn in the account of your administration, because you can no longer be my manager.’But at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus whose body was covered with sores,who longed to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. In addition, the dogs came and licked his sores.“Now the poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried.And in hell, as he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far off with Lazarus at his side.So he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in anguish in this fire.’But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus likewise bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in anguish.Besides all this, a great chasm has been fixed between us, so that those who want to cross over from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’So the rich man said, ‘Then I beg you, father – send Lazarus to my father’s house(for I have five brothers) to warn them so that they don’t come into this place of torment.’But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they must respond to them.’Then the manager said to himself, ‘What should I do, since my master is taking my position away from me? I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m too ashamed to beg.Then the rich man said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’He replied to him, ‘If they do not respond to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him.The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
From one man he made every nation of the human race to inhabit the entire earth, determining their set times and the fixed limits of the places where they would live,
even before they were born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose in election would stand, not by works but by his calling) –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 wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how fathomless his ways!For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?Or who has first given to God, that God needs to repay him?For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever! Amen.
But just as it is written, “Things that no eye has seen, or ear heard, or mind imagined, are the things God has prepared for those who love him.”
Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, then why are they baptized for them?
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female – for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.
For he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we may be holy and unblemished in his sight in love.
More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things – indeed, I regard them as dung! – that I may gain Christ,and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness – a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness.
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in the Sonto the saints, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you 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.
Now when they are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction comes on them, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will surely not escape.
And we all agree, our religion contains amazing revelation: He was revealed in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among Gentiles, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.
Make every effort to present yourself before God as a proven worker who does not need to be ashamed, teaching the message of truth accurately.
For there are many rebellious people, idle talkers, and deceivers, especially those with Jewish connections,who must be silenced because they mislead whole families by teaching for dishonest gain what ought not to be taught.
For the one who obeys the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
If we say we do not bear the guilt of sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
The one who conquers will be dressed like them in white clothing, and I will never erase his name from the book of life, but will declare his name before my Father and before his angels.
Then I saw a large white throne and the one who was seated on it; the earth and the heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them.And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Then books were opened, and another book was opened – the book of life. So the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds.The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each one was judged according to his deeds.Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death – the lake of fire.If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, that person was thrown into the lake of fire.
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more – or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist.”
I testify to the one who hears the words of the prophecy contained in this book: If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book.And if anyone takes away from the words of this book of prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city that are described in this book.