⁴¹ Now Esau ^(A)hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, ^(B)“The days of mourning for my father are approaching; ^(C)then I will kill my brother Jacob.” ⁴² But the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. ⁴³ Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban my brother in Haran ⁴⁴ and stay with him a while, until your brother's fury turns away— ⁴⁵ until your brother's anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereft of you both in one day?”

⁴⁶ Then Rebekah said to Isaac, ^(D)“I loathe my life because of the Hittite women.^{[a] (E)}If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women like these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?”

Jacob Sent to Laban

28 Then Isaac called Jacob ^(F)and blessed him and directed him, ^(G)“You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women. ^2 (H)Arise, go to Paddan-aram to the house of ^(I)Bethuel your mother's father, and take as your wife from there one of the daughters of Laban your mother's brother. ^3 (J)God Almighty^[b] bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples. ⁴ May he give ^(K)the blessing of Abraham to you and to your offspring with you, that you may take possession of ^(L)the land of your sojournings that God gave to Abraham!” ⁵ Thus Isaac sent Jacob away. And he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban, the son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.

Esau Marries an Ishmaelite

⁶ Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women,” ⁷ and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Paddan-aram. ⁸ So when Esau saw ^(M)that the Canaanite women did not please Isaac his father, ⁹ Esau went to Ishmael and took as his wife, besides the wives he had, ^(N)Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of ^(O)Nebaioth.

The Downfall of Abimelech

²² Abimelech ruled over Israel three years. ^23 (A)And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem, and the leaders of Shechem ^(B)dealt treacherously with Abimelech, ^24 (C)that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood be laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers. ²⁵ And the leaders of Shechem put men in ambush against him on the mountaintops, and they robbed all who passed by them along that way. And it was told to Abimelech.

²⁶ And Gaal the son of Ebed moved into Shechem with his relatives, and the leaders of Shechem put confidence in him. ²⁷ And they went out into the field and gathered the grapes from their vineyards and trod them and held a festival; and they went into ^(D)the house of their god and ate and drank and reviled Abimelech. ²⁸ And Gaal the son of Ebed said, ^(E)“Who is Abimelech, and who are we of Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerubbaal, and is not Zebul his officer? Serve the men of ^(F)Hamor the father of Shechem; but why should we serve him? ²⁹ Would that this people were under my hand! Then I would remove Abimelech. I would say^[a] to Abimelech, ‘Increase your army, and come out.’”

³⁰ When Zebul the ruler of the city heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, his anger was kindled. ³¹ And he sent messengers to Abimelech secretly,^[b] saying, “Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his relatives have come to Shechem, and they are stirring up^[c] the city against you. ³² Now therefore, go by night, you and the people who are with you, and set an ambush in the field. ³³ Then in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, rise early and rush upon the city. And when he and the people who are with him come out against you, you may do to them ^(G)as your hand finds to do.”

³⁴ So Abimelech and all the men who were with him rose up by night and set an ambush against Shechem in four companies. ³⁵ And Gaal the son of Ebed went out and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city, and Abimelech and the people who were with him rose from the ambush. ³⁶ And when Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, “Look, people are coming down from ^(H)the mountaintops!” And Zebul said to him, “You mistake^[d] the shadow of the mountains for men.”

Hezekiah's Prayer for Deliverance

¹⁴ Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. ¹⁵ And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: ¹⁶ “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, ^(A)enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; ^(B)you have made heaven and earth. ^17 (C)Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear ^(D)all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. ¹⁸ Truly, O Lord, ^(E)the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, ¹⁹ and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. ²⁰ So now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.”

Sennacherib's Fall

²¹ Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, ²² this is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him:

³⁰ “And this shall be the sign for you: this year you shall eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from that. Then in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. ³¹ And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah ^(O)shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. ^32 (P)For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. ^(Q)The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

³³ “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or ^(R)cast up a siege mound against it. ³⁴ By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord. ^35 (S)For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for ^(T)the sake of my servant David.”

Job Continues: Where Is Wisdom?

What Defiles a Person

¹⁰ And he called the people to him and said to them, ^(A)“Hear and understand: ^11 (B)it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” ¹² Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were ^(C)offended when they heard this saying?” ¹³ He answered, ^(D)“Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted ^(E)will be rooted up. ¹⁴ Let them alone; ^(F)they are blind guides.^[a] And ^(G)if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” ¹⁵ But Peter said to him, ^(H)“Explain the parable to us.” ¹⁶ And he said, ^(I)“Are you also still without understanding? ¹⁷ Do you not see that ^(J)whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled?^{[b] 18} But ^(K)what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. ¹⁹ For out of the heart come ^(L)evil thoughts, ^(M)murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, ^(N)slander. ^20 (O)These are what defile a person. But ^(P)to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

The Council's Letter to Gentile Believers

²² Then it seemed good to ^(A)the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called ^(B)Barsabbas, and ^(C)Silas, leading men among ^(D)the brothers, ²³ with the following letter: ^(E)“The brothers, both ^(F)the apostles and the elders, to the brothers^[a] who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, ^(G)greetings. ²⁴ Since we have heard that ^(H)some persons have gone out from us and ^(I)troubled you^[b] with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, ²⁵ it has seemed good to us, having come ^(J)to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our ^(K)beloved Barnabas and Paul, ^26 (L)men who have ^(M)risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁷ We have therefore sent ^(N)Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. ²⁸ For it has seemed good ^(O)to the Holy Spirit and ^(P)to us ^(Q)to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: ^29 (R)that you abstain from ^(S)what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

³⁰ So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch, and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. ³¹ And when they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. ³² And Judas and Silas, who were themselves ^(T)prophets, encouraged and ^(U)strengthened ^(V)the brothers with many words. ³³ And after they had spent some time, they were sent off ^(W)in peace by ^(X)the brothers to those who had sent them.^{[c] 35} But ^(Y)Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also.