Israel Affirms the Covenant

24 Now He said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, ^(A)Nadab and Abihu, ^(B)and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. ² And Moses alone shall come near the Lord, but they shall not come near; nor shall the people go up with him.”

³ So Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the ^[a]judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, ^(C)“All the words which the Lord has said we will do.” ⁴ And Moses ^(D)wrote all the words of the Lord. And he rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve ^(E)pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵ Then he sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered ^(F)burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. ⁶ And Moses ^(G)took half the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar. ⁷ Then he ^(H)took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has said we will do, and be obedient.” ⁸ And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is ^(I)the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words.”

On the Mountain with God

⁹ Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, ¹⁰ and they ^(J)saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of ^(K)sapphire stone, and it was like the ^(L)very^[b] heavens in its clarity. ¹¹ But on the nobles of the children of Israel He ^(M)did not ^[c]lay His hand. So ^(N)they saw God, and they ^(O)ate and drank.

¹² Then the Lord said to Moses, ^(P)“Come up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you ^(Q)tablets of stone, and the law and commandments which I have written, that you may teach them.”

¹³ So Moses arose with ^(R)his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up to the mountain of God. ¹⁴ And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Indeed, Aaron and ^(S)Hur are with you. If any man has a difficulty, let him go to them.” ¹⁵ Then Moses went up into the mountain, and ^(T)a cloud covered the mountain.

¹⁶ Now ^(U)the glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. ¹⁷ The sight of the glory of the Lord was like ^(V)a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel. ¹⁸ So Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain. And ^(W)Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

Gideon’s Valiant Three Hundred

7 Then ^(A)Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the well of Harod, so that the camp of the Midianites was on the north side of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley.

² And the Lord said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel ^(B)claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ ³ Now therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ^(C)‘Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.’ ” And twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained.

⁴ But the Lord said to Gideon, “The people are still too many; bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. Then it will be, that of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ the same shall go with you; and of whomever I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ the same shall not go.” ⁵ So he brought the people down to the water. And the Lord said to Gideon, “Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself; likewise everyone who gets down on his knees to drink.” ⁶ And the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men; but all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water. ⁷ Then the Lord said to Gideon, ^(D)“By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, every man to his ^[a]place.” ⁸ So the people took provisions and their trumpets in their hands. And he sent away all the rest of Israel, every man to his tent, and retained those three hundred men. Now the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.

⁹ It happened on the same ^(E)night that the Lord said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand. ¹⁰ But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant, ¹¹ and you shall ^(F)hear what they say; and afterward ^[b]your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.” Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp. ¹² Now the Midianites and Amalekites, ^(G)all the people of the East, were lying in the valley ^(H)as numerous as locusts; and their camels were ^[c]without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude.

¹³ And when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, “I have had a dream: To my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian; it came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned, and the tent collapsed.”

¹⁴ Then his companion answered and said, “This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel! Into his hand ^(I)God has delivered Midian and the whole camp.”

¹⁵ And so it was, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, that he worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel, and said, “Arise, for the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand.” ¹⁶ Then he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet into every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and torches inside the pitchers. ¹⁷ And he said to them, “Look at me and do likewise; watch, and when I come to the edge of the camp you shall do as I do: ¹⁸ When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets on every side of the whole camp, and say, ‘The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!’ ”

¹⁹ So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outpost of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just as they had posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands. ²⁰ Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers—they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing—and they cried, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!” ²¹ And ^(J)every man stood in his place all around the camp; ^(K)and the whole army ran and cried out and fled. ²² When the three hundred ^(L)blew the trumpets, ^(M)the Lord set ^(N)every man’s sword against his companion throughout the whole camp; and the army fled to ^[d]Beth Acacia, toward Zererah, as far as the border of ^(O)Abel Meholah, by Tabbath.

²³ And the men of Israel gathered together from ^(P)Naphtali, Asher, and all Manasseh, and pursued the Midianites.

¹⁵ and to have ^[a]power ^[b]to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons: ^16 [c]Simon, ^(A)to whom He gave the name Peter; ¹⁷ James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, to whom He gave the name Boanerges, that is, “Sons of Thunder”; ¹⁸ Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Cananite; ¹⁹ and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him. And they went into a house.

A House Divided Cannot Stand^(B)

²⁰ Then the multitude came together again, ^(C)so that they could not so much as eat bread. ²¹ But when His ^(D)own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, ^(E)for they said, “He is out of His mind.”

²² And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, ^(F)“He has Beelzebub,” and, “By the ^(G)ruler of the demons He casts out demons.”

Jesus Transfigured on the Mount^(A)

^28 (B)Now it came to pass, about eight days after these sayings, that He took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray. ²⁹ As He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered, and His robe became white and glistening. ³⁰ And behold, two men talked with Him, who were ^(C)Moses and ^(D)Elijah, ³¹ who appeared in glory and spoke of His ^[a]decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. ³² But Peter and those with him ^(E)were heavy with sleep; and when they were fully awake, they saw His glory and the two men who stood with Him. ³³ Then it happened, as they were parting from Him, that Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three ^[b]tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he said.

³⁴ While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were fearful as they entered the ^(F)cloud. ³⁵ And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, ^(G)“This is ^[c]My beloved Son. ^(H)Hear Him!” ³⁶ When the voice had ceased, Jesus was found alone. ^(I)But they kept quiet, and told no one in those days any of the things they had seen.

A Boy Is Healed^(J)

^37 (K)Now it happened on the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, that a great multitude met Him. ³⁸ Suddenly a man from the multitude cried out, saying, “Teacher, I implore You, look on my son, for he is my only child. ³⁹ And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out; it convulses him so that he foams at the mouth; and it departs from him with great difficulty, bruising him. ⁴⁰ So I implored Your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.”

⁴¹ Then Jesus answered and said, “O ^[d]faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and ^[e]bear with you? Bring your son here.” ⁴² And as he was still coming, the demon threw him down and convulsed him. Then Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the child, and gave him back to his father.

Jesus Again Predicts His Death^(L)

⁴³ And they were all amazed at the majesty of God.

But while everyone marveled at all the things which Jesus did, He said to His disciples, ^44 (M)“Let these words sink down into your ears, for the Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men.” ^45 (N)But they did not understand this saying, and it was hidden from them so that they did not perceive it; and they were afraid to ask Him about this saying.