¹⁷ Then the servant ran to meet her and said, “Please give me a little water to drink from your jar.” ¹⁸ She said, “Drink, my lord.” And she quickly let down her jar upon her hand and gave him a drink. ¹⁹ When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will draw water for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.” ²⁰ So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough and ran again to the well to draw water, and she drew for all his camels. ²¹ The man gazed at her in silence to learn whether the Lord had prospered his journey or not.

²² When the camels had finished drinking, the man took a gold ring weighing a half shekel,^[a] and two bracelets for her arms weighing ten gold shekels, ²³ and said, “Please tell me whose daughter you are. Is there room in your father's house for us to spend the night?” ²⁴ She said to him, ^(A)“I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor.” ²⁵ She added, “We have plenty of both straw and fodder, and room to spend the night.” ^26 (B)The man bowed his head and worshiped the Lord ²⁷ and said, “Blessed be the Lord, ^(C)the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken ^(D)his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master. As for me, the Lord ^(E)has led me in the way to the house of my master's kinsmen.” ²⁸ Then the young woman ran and told her mother's household about these things.

²⁹ Rebekah had a brother whose name was ^(F)Laban. Laban ran out toward the man, to the spring. ³⁰ As soon as he saw the ring and the bracelets on his sister's arms, and heard the words of Rebekah his sister, “Thus the man spoke to me,” he went to the man. And behold, he was standing by the camels at the spring. ³¹ He said, “Come in, ^(G)O blessed of the Lord. Why do you stand outside? For I have prepared the house and a place for the camels.” ³² So the man came to the house and unharnessed the camels, and gave ^(H)straw and fodder to the camels, and there was ^(I)water to wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him. ³³ Then food was set before him to eat. But he said, “I will not eat until I have said what I have to say.” He said, “Speak on.”

³⁴ So he said, “I am Abraham's servant. ³⁵ The Lord ^(J)has greatly blessed my master, and he has become great. He has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male servants and female servants, camels and donkeys. ³⁶ And Sarah my master's wife ^(K)bore a son to my master when she was old, and ^(L)to him he has given all that he has. ^37 (M)My master made me swear, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I dwell,

Ehud

^12 (A)And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord strengthened Eglon ^(B)the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done what was evil in the sight of the Lord. ¹³ He gathered to himself the Ammonites and the ^(C)Amalekites, and went and defeated Israel. And they took possession of ^(D)the city of palms. ¹⁴ And the people of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.

¹⁵ Then the people of Israel ^(E)cried out to the Lord, and the Lord raised up for them ^(F)a deliverer, Ehud, the son of Gera, the Benjaminite, ^(G)a left-handed man. The people of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab. ¹⁶ And Ehud made for himself a sword with two edges, a cubit^[a] in length, and he bound it on his right thigh under his clothes. ¹⁷ And he presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man. ¹⁸ And when Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who carried the tribute. ¹⁹ But he himself turned back ^(H)at the idols near Gilgal and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” And he commanded, “Silence.” And all his attendants went out from his presence. ²⁰ And Ehud came to him as he was sitting alone in his ^(I)cool roof chamber. ^(J)And Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you.” And he arose from his seat. ²¹ And Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. ²² And the hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not pull the sword out of his belly; and the dung came out. ²³ Then Ehud went out into the porch^[b] and closed the doors of the roof chamber behind him ^(K)and locked them.

²⁴ When he had gone, the servants came, and when they saw that the doors of the roof chamber were locked, they thought, ^(L)“Surely he is relieving himself in the closet of the cool chamber.” ²⁵ And they waited till they were embarrassed. But when he still did not open the doors of the roof chamber, they took the key and opened them, and there lay their lord dead on the floor.

²⁶ Ehud escaped while they delayed, and he passed beyond ^(M)the idols and escaped to Seirah. ²⁷ When he arrived, ^(N)he sounded the trumpet in ^(O)the hill country of Ephraim. Then the people of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he was their leader. ²⁸ And he said to them, “Follow after me, ^(P)for the Lord has given your enemies the Moabites into your hand.” So they went down after him and seized ^(Q)the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites and did not allow anyone to pass over. ²⁹ And they killed at that time about 10,000 of the Moabites, all strong, able-bodied men; not a man escaped. ³⁰ So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. ^(R)And the land had rest for eighty years.

Shamgar

³¹ After him was ^(S)Shamgar the son of Anath, who killed 600 of the Philistines ^(T)with an oxgoad, and he also ^(U)saved Israel.

A Rebellious People

The Lord Will Be Gracious

¹⁹ For a people shall dwell ^(P)in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. ²⁰ And though the Lord give you the ^(Q)bread of adversity and the ^(R)water of affliction, ^(S)yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. ^21 (T)And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is ^(U)the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. ²² Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. ^(V)You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!”

^23 (W)And he will give ^(X)rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. ^(Y)In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures, ²⁴ and ^(Z)the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. ²⁵ And ^(AA)on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, ^(AB)when the towers fall. ^26 (AC)Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when ^(AD)the Lord binds up ^(AE)the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.

Jesus' Mother and Brothers

⁴⁶ While he was still speaking to the people, behold, ^(A)his mother and his ^(B)brothers^[a] stood outside, asking to speak to him.^{[b] 48} But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” ⁴⁹ And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ⁵⁰ For ^(C)whoever ^(D)does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

The Parable of the Sower

13 That same day Jesus went out of the house ^(E)and sat beside the sea. ² And great crowds gathered about him, ^(F)so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. ³ And ^(G)he told them many things in parables, saying: ^(H)“A sower went out to sow. ⁴ And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. ⁵ Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, ⁶ but ^(I)when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, ^(J)they withered away. ⁷ Other seeds fell among ^(K)thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. ⁸ Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some ^(L)a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. ^9 (M)He who has ears,^[c] let him hear.”

¹² When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of ^(A)John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and ^(B)were praying. ¹³ And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, ^(C)a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. ¹⁴ Recognizing Peter's voice, ^(D)in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. ¹⁵ They said to her, “You are out of your mind.” But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is ^(E)his angel!” ¹⁶ But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. ¹⁷ But ^(F)motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Tell these things to ^(G)James and to ^(H)the brothers.”^[a] Then he departed and went to another place.

¹⁸ Now when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. ¹⁹ And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ^(I)ordered that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there.

The Death of Herod

²⁰ Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and ^(J)having persuaded Blastus, the king's chamberlain,^[b] they asked for peace, because ^(K)their country depended on the king's country for food. ²¹ On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. ²² And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” ²³ Immediately ^(L)an angel of the Lord struck him down, because ^(M)he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.

²⁴ But ^(N)the word of God increased and multiplied.

^25 (O)And Barnabas and Saul returned from^[c] Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them ^(P)John, whose other name was Mark.