Teaching about Vows

³³ “You have also heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not break your vows; you must carry out the vows you make to the Lord.’^{[a] 34} But I say, do not make any vows! Do not say, ‘By heaven!’ because heaven is God’s throne. ³⁵ And do not say, ‘By the earth!’ because the earth is his footstool. And do not say, ‘By Jerusalem!’ for Jerusalem is the city of the great King. ³⁶ Do not even say, ‘By my head!’ for you can’t turn one hair white or black. ³⁷ Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Anything beyond this is from the evil one.

Teaching about Revenge

³⁸ “You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’^{[b] 39} But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. ⁴⁰ If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too. ⁴¹ If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile,^[c] carry it two miles. ⁴² Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow.

Teaching about Love for Enemies

⁴³ “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’^[d] and hate your enemy. ⁴⁴ But I say, love your enemies!^[e] Pray for those who persecute you! ⁴⁵ In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. ⁴⁶ If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. ⁴⁷ If you are kind only to your friends,^[f] how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. ⁴⁸ But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

8 Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen.

Persecution Scatters the Believers

A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria. ² (Some devout men came and buried Stephen with great mourning.) ³ But Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church. He went from house to house, dragging out both men and women to throw them into prison.

Philip Preaches in Samaria

⁴ But the believers who were scattered preached the Good News about Jesus wherever they went. ⁵ Philip, for example, went to the city of Samaria and told the people there about the Messiah. ⁶ Crowds listened intently to Philip because they were eager to hear his message and see the miraculous signs he did. ⁷ Many evil^[a] spirits were cast out, screaming as they left their victims. And many who had been paralyzed or lame were healed. ⁸ So there was great joy in that city.

⁹ A man named Simon had been a sorcerer there for many years, amazing the people of Samaria and claiming to be someone great. ¹⁰ Everyone, from the least to the greatest, often spoke of him as “the Great One—the Power of God.” ¹¹ They listened closely to him because for a long time he had astounded them with his magic.

¹² But now the people believed Philip’s message of Good News concerning the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. As a result, many men and women were baptized. ¹³ Then Simon himself believed and was baptized. He began following Philip wherever he went, and he was amazed by the signs and great miracles Philip performed.

¹⁴ When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that the people of Samaria had accepted God’s message, they sent Peter and John there. ¹⁵ As soon as they arrived, they prayed for these new believers to receive the Holy Spirit. ¹⁶ The Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them, for they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ¹⁷ Then Peter and John laid their hands upon these believers, and they received the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸ When Simon saw that the Spirit was given when the apostles laid their hands on people, he offered them money to buy this power. ¹⁹ “Let me have this power, too,” he exclaimed, “so that when I lay my hands on people, they will receive the Holy Spirit!”

²⁰ But Peter replied, “May your money be destroyed with you for thinking God’s gift can be bought! ²¹ You can have no part in this, for your heart is not right with God. ²² Repent of your wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive your evil thoughts, ²³ for I can see that you are full of bitter jealousy and are held captive by sin.”

²⁴ “Pray to the Lord for me,” Simon exclaimed, “that these terrible things you’ve said won’t happen to me!”

²⁵ After testifying and preaching the word of the Lord in Samaria, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem. And they stopped in many Samaritan villages along the way to preach the Good News.

Psalm 13

For the choir director: A psalm of David.

Jacob Flees from Laban

31 But Jacob soon learned that Laban’s sons were grumbling about him. “Jacob has robbed our father of everything!” they said. “He has gained all his wealth at our father’s expense.” ² And Jacob began to notice a change in Laban’s attitude toward him.

³ Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your father and grandfather and to your relatives there, and I will be with you.”

⁴ So Jacob called Rachel and Leah out to the field where he was watching his flock. ⁵ He said to them, “I have noticed that your father’s attitude toward me has changed. But the God of my father has been with me. ⁶ You know how hard I have worked for your father, ⁷ but he has cheated me, changing my wages ten times. But God has not allowed him to do me any harm. ⁸ For if he said, ‘The speckled animals will be your wages,’ the whole flock began to produce speckled young. And when he changed his mind and said, ‘The striped animals will be your wages,’ then the whole flock produced striped young. ⁹ In this way, God has taken your father’s animals and given them to me.

¹⁰ “One time during the mating season, I had a dream and saw that the male goats mating with the females were streaked, speckled, and spotted. ¹¹ Then in my dream, the angel of God said to me, ‘Jacob!’ And I replied, ‘Yes, here I am.’

¹² “The angel said, ‘Look up, and you will see that only the streaked, speckled, and spotted males are mating with the females of your flock. For I have seen how Laban has treated you. ¹³ I am the God who appeared to you at Bethel,^[a] the place where you anointed the pillar of stone and made your vow to me. Now get ready and leave this country and return to the land of your birth.’”

¹⁴ Rachel and Leah responded, “That’s fine with us! We won’t inherit any of our father’s wealth anyway. ¹⁵ He has reduced our rights to those of foreign women. And after he sold us, he wasted the money you paid him for us. ¹⁶ All the wealth God has given you from our father legally belongs to us and our children. So go ahead and do whatever God has told you.”

¹⁷ So Jacob put his wives and children on camels, ¹⁸ and he drove all his livestock in front of him. He packed all the belongings he had acquired in Paddan-aram and set out for the land of Canaan, where his father, Isaac, lived. ¹⁹ At the time they left, Laban was some distance away, shearing his sheep. Rachel stole her father’s household idols and took them with her. ²⁰ Jacob outwitted Laban the Aramean, for they set out secretly and never told Laban they were leaving. ²¹ So Jacob took all his possessions with him and crossed the Euphrates River,^[b] heading for the hill country of Gilead.

Laban Pursues Jacob

²² Three days later, Laban was told that Jacob had fled. ²³ So he gathered a group of his relatives and set out in hot pursuit. He caught up with Jacob seven days later in the hill country of Gilead. ²⁴ But the previous night God had appeared to Laban the Aramean in a dream and told him, “I’m warning you—leave Jacob alone!”

²⁵ Laban caught up with Jacob as he was camped in the hill country of Gilead, and he set up his camp not far from Jacob’s. ²⁶ “What do you mean by deceiving me like this?” Laban demanded. “How dare you drag my daughters away like prisoners of war? ²⁷ Why did you slip away secretly? Why did you deceive me? And why didn’t you say you wanted to leave? I would have given you a farewell feast, with singing and music, accompanied by tambourines and harps. ²⁸ Why didn’t you let me kiss my daughters and grandchildren and tell them good-bye? You have acted very foolishly! ²⁹ I could destroy you, but the God of your father appeared to me last night and warned me, ‘Leave Jacob alone!’ ³⁰ I can understand your feeling that you must go, and your intense longing for your father’s home. But why have you stolen my gods?”

³¹ “I rushed away because I was afraid,” Jacob answered. “I thought you would take your daughters from me by force. ³² But as for your gods, see if you can find them, and let the person who has taken them die! And if you find anything else that belongs to you, identify it before all these relatives of ours, and I will give it back!” But Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the household idols.

³³ Laban went first into Jacob’s tent to search there, then into Leah’s, and then the tents of the two servant wives—but he found nothing. Finally, he went into Rachel’s tent. ³⁴ But Rachel had taken the household idols and hidden them in her camel saddle, and now she was sitting on them. When Laban had thoroughly searched her tent without finding them, ³⁵ she said to her father, “Please, sir, forgive me if I don’t get up for you. I’m having my monthly period.” So Laban continued his search, but he could not find the household idols.

³⁶ Then Jacob became very angry, and he challenged Laban. “What’s my crime?” he demanded. “What have I done wrong to make you chase after me as though I were a criminal? ³⁷ You have rummaged through everything I own. Now show me what you found that belongs to you! Set it out here in front of us, before our relatives, for all to see. Let them judge between us!

³⁸ “For twenty years I have been with you, caring for your flocks. In all that time your sheep and goats never miscarried. In all those years I never used a single ram of yours for food. ³⁹ If any were attacked and killed by wild animals, I never showed you the carcass and asked you to reduce the count of your flock. No, I took the loss myself! You made me pay for every stolen animal, whether it was taken in broad daylight or in the dark of night.

⁴⁰ “I worked for you through the scorching heat of the day and through cold and sleepless nights. ⁴¹ Yes, for twenty years I slaved in your house! I worked for fourteen years earning your two daughters, and then six more years for your flock. And you changed my wages ten times! ⁴² In fact, if the God of my father had not been on my side—the God of Abraham and the fearsome God of Isaac^[c]—you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen your abuse and my hard work. That is why he appeared to you last night and rebuked you!”

Jacob’s Treaty with Laban

⁴³ Then Laban replied to Jacob, “These women are my daughters, these children are my grandchildren, and these flocks are my flocks—in fact, everything you see is mine. But what can I do now about my daughters and their children? ⁴⁴ So come, let’s make a covenant, you and I, and it will be a witness to our commitment.”

⁴⁵ So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a monument. ⁴⁶ Then he told his family members, “Gather some stones.” So they gathered stones and piled them in a heap. Then Jacob and Laban sat down beside the pile of stones to eat a covenant meal. ⁴⁷ To commemorate the event, Laban called the place Jegar-sahadutha (which means “witness pile” in Aramaic), and Jacob called it Galeed (which means “witness pile” in Hebrew).

⁴⁸ Then Laban declared, “This pile of stones will stand as a witness to remind us of the covenant we have made today.” This explains why it was called Galeed—“Witness Pile.” ⁴⁹ But it was also called Mizpah (which means “watchtower”), for Laban said, “May the Lord keep watch between us to make sure that we keep this covenant when we are out of each other’s sight. ⁵⁰ If you mistreat my daughters or if you marry other wives, God will see it even if no one else does. He is a witness to this covenant between us.

⁵¹ “See this pile of stones,” Laban continued, “and see this monument I have set between us. ⁵² They stand between us as witnesses of our vows. I will never pass this pile of stones to harm you, and you must never pass these stones or this monument to harm me. ⁵³ I call on the God of our ancestors—the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of my grandfather Nahor—to serve as a judge between us.”

So Jacob took an oath before the fearsome God of his father, Isaac,^[d] to respect the boundary line. ⁵⁴ Then Jacob offered a sacrifice to God there on the mountain and invited everyone to a covenant feast. After they had eaten, they spent the night on the mountain.

^55 [e]Laban got up early the next morning, and he kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then he left and returned home.