Jacob's Prosperity

²⁵ As soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country. ²⁶ Give me my wives and my children ^(A)for whom I have served you, that I may go, for you know the service that I have given you.” ²⁷ But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that^[a] the Lord has blessed me because of you. ^28 (B)Name your wages, and I will give it.” ²⁹ Jacob said to him, ^(C)“You yourself know how I have served you, and how your livestock has fared with me. ³⁰ For you had little before I came, ^(D)and it has increased abundantly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I ^(E)provide for my own household also?” ³¹ He said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it: ³² let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and ^(F)they shall be my wages. ³³ So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen.” ³⁴ Laban said, “Good! Let it be as you have said.” ³⁵ But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in the charge of his sons. ³⁶ And he set a distance of three days' journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban's flock.

³⁷ Then ^(G)Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks. ³⁸ He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the ^(H)watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, ³⁹ the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. ⁴⁰ And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. He put his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban's flock. ⁴¹ Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the sticks, ⁴² but for the feebler of the flock he would not lay them there. So the feebler would be Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's. ⁴³ Thus the man ^(I)increased greatly and ^(J)had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

Jephthah's Conflict with Ephraim

12 ^(A)The men of Ephraim were called to arms, and they crossed to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, “Why did you cross over to fight against the Ammonites and did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house over you with fire.” ² And Jephthah said to them, “I and my people had a great dispute with the Ammonites, and when I called you, you did not save me from their hand. ³ And when I saw that you would not save me, ^(B)I took my life in my hand and crossed over against the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me?” ⁴ Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim. And the men of Gilead struck Ephraim, because they said, ^(C)“You are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim and Manasseh.” ⁵ And the Gileadites captured ^(D)the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. And when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said, “Let me go over,” the men of Gilead said to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” When he said, “No,” ⁶ they said to him, “Then say Shibboleth,” and he said, “Sibboleth,” for he could not pronounce it right. Then they seized him and slaughtered him at ^(E)the fords of the Jordan. At that time 42,000 of the Ephraimites fell.

⁷ Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in his city in Gilead.^[a]

Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon

⁸ After him Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel. ⁹ He had thirty sons, and thirty daughters he gave in marriage outside his clan, and thirty daughters he brought in from outside for his sons. And he judged Israel seven years. ¹⁰ Then Ibzan died and was buried at Bethlehem.

¹¹ After him Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel, and he judged Israel ten years. ¹² Then Elon the Zebulunite died and was buried at Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.

¹³ After him Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel. ¹⁴ He had forty ^(F)sons and thirty grandsons, who ^(G)rode on seventy donkeys, and he judged Israel eight years. ¹⁵ Then Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died and was buried at Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.

Fear Not, for I Am with You

Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection

^21 (A)From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that ^(B)he must go to Jerusalem and ^(C)suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on ^(D)the third day be raised. ²² And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord!^[a] This shall never happen to you.” ²³ But he turned and said to Peter, ^(E)“Get behind me, Satan! You are ^(F)a hindrance^[b] to me. For you ^(G)are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus

²⁴ Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him ^(H)deny himself and ^(I)take up his cross and follow me. ²⁵ For ^(J)whoever would save his life^[c] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. ²⁶ For ^(K)what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or ^(L)what shall a man give in return for his soul? ^27 (M)For the Son of Man is going to come with ^(N)his angels in the glory of his Father, and ^(O)then he will repay each person according to what he has done. ²⁸ Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not ^(P)taste death ^(Q)until they see the Son of Man ^(R)coming in his kingdom.”

Paul and Silas in Thessalonica

17 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to ^(A)Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. ² And Paul went in, ^(B)as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them ^(C)from the Scriptures, ^3 (D)explaining and proving that it was necessary for ^(E)the Christ to suffer and ^(F)to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” ⁴ And ^(G)some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did ^(H)a great many of the devout ^(I)Greeks and not a few of the leading women. ^5 (J)But the Jews^{[a] (K)}were jealous, and taking ^(L)some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. ⁶ And when they could not find them, ^(M)they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, ⁷ and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against ^(N)the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is ^(O)another king, Jesus.” ⁸ And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. ⁹ And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.