³⁸ but you shall go to my father's house and to my clan and take a wife for my son.’ ³⁹ I said to my master, ‘Perhaps the woman will not follow me.’ ⁴⁰ But he said to me, ‘The Lord, ^(A)before whom I have walked, will send his angel with you and ^(B)prosper your way. You shall take a wife for my son from my clan and from my father's house. ⁴¹ Then you will be free from my oath, when you come to my clan. And if they will not give her to you, you will be free from my oath.’

⁴² “I came today to the spring and said, ^(C)‘O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, if now you ^(D)are prospering the way that I go, ⁴³ behold, I am standing ^(E)by the spring of water. Let the virgin who comes out to draw water, to whom I shall say, “Please give me a little water from your jar to drink,” ^44 (F)and who will say to me, “Drink, and I will draw for your camels also,” let her be the woman whom the Lord has appointed for my master's son.’

⁴⁵ “Before I had finished ^(G)speaking in my heart, behold, Rebekah came out with her water jar on her shoulder, and she went down to the spring and drew water. I said to her, ‘Please let me drink.’ ⁴⁶ She quickly let down her jar from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I will give your camels drink also.’ So I drank, and she gave the camels drink also. ⁴⁷ Then I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor's son, whom Milcah bore to him.’ ^(H)So I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her arms. ^48 (I)Then I bowed my head and worshiped the Lord and blessed the Lord, ^(J)the God of my master Abraham, who had led me by the right way^[a] to take ^(K)the daughter of my master's kinsman for his son. ⁴⁹ Now then, if you are going to ^(L)show steadfast love and faithfulness to my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand or to the left.”

⁵⁰ Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, “The thing has come from the Lord; we cannot ^(M)speak to you bad or good. ⁵¹ Behold, Rebekah is before you; take her and go, and let her be the wife of your master's son, ^(N)as the Lord has spoken.”

Deborah and Barak

4 ^(A)And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord after Ehud died. ² And the Lord ^(B)sold them into the hand of ^(C)Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in ^(D)Hazor. The commander of his army was ^(E)Sisera, who lived in ^(F)Harosheth-hagoyim. ³ Then the people of Israel ^(G)cried out to the Lord for help, for he had ^(H)900 chariots of iron and he oppressed the people of Israel cruelly for twenty years.

⁴ Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. ⁵ She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in ^(I)the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel came up to her for judgment. ⁶ She sent and summoned ^(J)Barak the son of Abinoam from ^(K)Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, “Has not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded you, ‘Go, gather your men at Mount ^(L)Tabor, taking 10,000 from the people of Naphtali and the people of Zebulun. ⁷ And I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin's army, to meet you by ^(M)the river Kishon with his chariots and his troops, ^(N)and I will give him into your hand’?” ⁸ Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” ⁹ And she said, “I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will ^(O)sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh. ¹⁰ And Barak called out ^(P)Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh. And 10,000 men went up at his heels, and Deborah went up with him.

¹¹ Now Heber ^(Q)the Kenite had separated from the Kenites, the descendants of ^(R)Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far away as the oak in ^(S)Zaanannim, which is near Kedesh.

¹² When Sisera was told that Barak the son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, ¹³ Sisera called out all his chariots, ^(T)900 chariots of iron, and all the men who were with him, from Harosheth-hagoyim to the river Kishon. ¹⁴ And Deborah said to Barak, “Up! For this is the day in which ^(U)the Lord has given Sisera into your hand. ^(V)Does not the Lord go out before you?” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with 10,000 men following him. ^15 (W)And the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army before Barak by the edge of the sword. And Sisera got down from his chariot and fled away on foot. ¹⁶ And Barak pursued the chariots and the army to Harosheth-hagoyim, and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; not a man was left.

¹⁷ But Sisera fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. ¹⁸ And Jael came out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord; turn aside to me; do not be afraid.” So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug. ¹⁹ And he said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened ^(X)a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him. ²⁰ And he said to her, “Stand at the opening of the tent, and if any man comes and asks you, ‘Is anyone here?’ say, ‘No.’” ²¹ But Jael the wife of Heber took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand. Then she went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple until it went down into the ground while he was lying fast asleep from weariness. So he died. ²² And behold, as Barak was pursuing Sisera, Jael went out to meet him and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking.” So he went in to her tent, and there lay Sisera dead, with the tent peg in his temple.

^23 (Y)So on that day God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan before the people of Israel. ²⁴ And the hand of the people of Israel pressed harder and harder against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.

²⁹ You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, ^(D)as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to ^(E)the mountain of the Lord, to ^(F)the Rock of Israel. ³⁰ And the Lord ^(G)will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger ^(H)and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst ^(I)and storm and hailstones. ³¹ The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the Lord, ^(J)when he strikes with his rod. ³² And every stroke of the appointed staff that the Lord lays on them ^(K)will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. ^(L)Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them. ³³ For ^(M)a burning place^[b] has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, ^(N)its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; ^(O)the breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.

Woe to Those Who Go Down to Egypt

^6 (AA)Turn to him from whom people^[e] have ^(AB)deeply revolted, O children of Israel. ⁷ For in that day ^(AC)everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.

Eliphaz Speaks: Job's Wickedness Is Great

22 Then ^(A)Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

The Purpose of the Parables

¹⁰ Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” ¹¹ And he answered them, ^(A)“To you it has been given to know ^(B)the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. ^12 (C)For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, ^(D)even what he has will be taken away. ¹³ This is why I speak to them in parables, because ^(E)seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, ^(F)nor do they understand. ¹⁴ Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:

¹⁶ But ^(L)blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. ^17 (M)For truly, I say to you, ^(N)many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

Barnabas and Saul Sent Off

13 Now there were in the church at Antioch ^(A)prophets and ^(B)teachers, ^(C)Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger,^[a] Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of ^(D)Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. ² While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, ^(E)the Holy Spirit said, ^(F)“Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul ^(G)for the work to which I have called them.” ³ Then after fasting and ^(H)praying they laid their hands on them and ^(I)sent them off.

Barnabas and Saul on Cyprus

⁴ So, being sent out ^(J)by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. ⁵ When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God ^(K)in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had ^(L)John to ^(M)assist them. ⁶ When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain ^(N)magician, ^(O)a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. ⁷ He was with ^(P)the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. ⁸ But Elymas the ^(Q)magician (for that is the meaning of his name) ^(R)opposed them, seeking to turn ^(S)the proconsul away from the faith. ⁹ But Saul, who was also called Paul, ^(T)filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him ¹⁰ and said, “You ^(U)son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and ^(V)villainy, will you not stop ^(W)making crooked ^(X)the straight paths of the Lord? ¹¹ And now, behold, ^(Y)the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking ^(Z)people to lead him by the hand. ¹² Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at ^(AA)the teaching of the Lord.