¹⁷ Then he said, “Open the window eastward,” and he opened it. Elisha said, “Shoot,” and he shot. Then he said, “The Lord’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram! For you shall fight the Arameans in Aphek until you have made an end of them.”^(A)

²⁶ In the spring Ben-hadad mustered the Arameans and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel.^(A)

Christ the Power and Wisdom of God

¹⁸ For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.^(A)

¹⁰ Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.”^{(A) 11} But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, “I thought that for me he would surely come out and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and would wave his hand over the spot and cure the skin disease! ¹² Are not Abana^[a] and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” He turned and went away in a rage. ¹³ But his servants approached and said to him, “Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”^{(B) 14} So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.^(C)

³⁹ Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.”^{(A) 40} Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”^{(B) 41} So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me.^(C)

⁵ His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” ⁶ Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.^{(A) 7} Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. ⁸ He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the person in charge of the banquet.” So they took it.

²⁴ When you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then be on the alert, for then the Lord has gone out before you to strike down the army of the Philistines.”^(A)

4 ¹ And the word of Samuel came to all Israel.

The Ark of God Captured

In those days the Philistines mustered for war against Israel,^[a] and Israel went out to battle against them;^[b] they encamped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines encamped at Aphek.^(A)

⁹ That same night the Lord said to him, “Get up; attack the camp, for I have given it into your hand.^{(A) 10} But if you fear to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah, ¹¹ and you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to attack the camp.” Then he went down with his servant Purah to the outposts of the armed men who were in the camp.^{(B) 12} The Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the east lay along the valley as thick as locusts, and their camels were without number, countless as the sand on the seashore.^{(C) 13} When Gideon arrived, there was a man telling a dream to his comrade, and he said, “I had a dream, and in it a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell; it turned upside down, and the tent collapsed.” ¹⁴ And his comrade answered, “This is no other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, a man of Israel; into his hand God has given Midian and all the army.”^(D)

¹⁵ When Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped, and he returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Get up, for the Lord has given the army of Midian into your hand.”^{(E) 16} After he divided the three hundred men into three companies and put trumpets into the hands of all of them and empty jars, with torches inside the jars, ¹⁷ he said to them, “Look at me, and do the same; when I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do. ¹⁸ When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets around the whole camp and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’ ”^(F)

¹⁹ So Gideon and the hundred who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch, and they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. ²⁰ So the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars, holding in their left hands the torches and in their right hands the trumpets to blow, and they cried, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!”^(G)