⁹ Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and spread themselves in Lehi.

¹⁰ And the men of Judah said, Why have you come up against us? And they answered, We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he has done to us.

¹¹ Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock Etam and said to Samson, Have you not known that the Philistines are rulers over us? What is this that you have done to us? He said to them, As they did to me, so have I done to them.

¹² And they said to him, We have come down to bind you, that we may deliver you into the hands of the Philistines. And Samson said to them, Swear to me that you will not fall upon me yourselves.

¹³ And they said to him, No, we will bind you fast and give you into their hand; but surely we will not kill you. So they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.

¹⁴ And when he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon [Samson], and the ropes on his arms became as flax that had caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands.

¹⁵ And he found a still moist jawbone of a donkey and reached out and took it and slew 1,000 men with it.

¹⁶ And Samson said, With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey I have slain 1,000 men!

¹⁷ And when he stopped speaking, he cast the jawbone from his hand; and that place was called Ramath-lehi [the hill of the jawbone].

¹⁸ Samson was very thirsty, and he prayed to the Lord and said, You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant, and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?

¹⁹ And God split open the hollow place that was at Lehi, and water came out of it. And when he drank, his spirit returned and he revived. Therefore the name of it was called En-hakkore [the spring of him who prayed], which is at Lehi to this day.

²⁰ And [Samson] judged (defended) Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.^(A)

1 Now the word of the Lord came to ^[a]Jonah son of Amittai, saying,

² Arise, go to ^[b]Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.^(A)

³ But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from being in the presence of the Lord [as His prophet] and went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish [the most remote of the Phoenician trading places then known]. So he paid the appointed fare and went down into the ship to go with them to Tarshish from being in the presence of the Lord [as His servant and minister].^(B)

⁴ But the Lord sent out a great wind upon the sea, and there was a violent tempest on the sea so that the ship was about to be broken.^(C)

⁵ Then the mariners were afraid, and each man cried to his god; and they cast the goods that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.

⁶ So the captain came and said to him, What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call upon your God! Perhaps your God will give a thought to us so that we shall not perish.

⁷ And they each said to one another, Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us. So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.

⁸ Then they said to him, Tell us, we pray you, on whose account has this evil come upon us? What is your occupation? Where did you come from? And what is your country and nationality?

⁹ And he said to them, I am a Hebrew, and I [reverently] fear and worship the Lord, the God of heaven, Who made the sea and the dry land.

¹⁰ Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, What is this that you have done? For the men knew that he fled from being in the presence of the Lord [as His prophet and servant], because he had told them.

¹¹ Then they said to him, What shall we do to you, that the sea may subside and be calm for us? For the sea became more and more [violently] tempestuous.

¹² And [Jonah] said to them, Take me up and cast me into the sea; so shall the sea become calm for you, for I know that it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.

¹³ Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring the ship to the land, but they could not, for the sea became more and more violent against them.

¹⁴ Therefore they cried to the Lord, We beseech You, O Lord, we beseech You, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood; for You, O Lord, have done as it pleased You.

¹⁵ So they took up Jonah and cast him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.

¹⁶ Then the men [reverently and worshipfully] feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.

¹⁷ Now the Lord had prepared and appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.^(D)

²² Then a blind and dumb man under the power of a demon was brought to Jesus, and He cured him, so that the blind and dumb man both spoke and saw.

²³ And all the [crowds of] people were stunned with bewildered wonder and said, This cannot be the Son of David, can it?

²⁴ But the Pharisees, hearing it, said, This ^[a]Man drives out demons only by and with the help of Beelzebub, the prince of demons.

²⁵ And knowing their thoughts, He said to them, Any kingdom that is divided against itself is being brought to desolation and laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will last or continue to stand.

²⁶ And if Satan drives out Satan, he has become divided against himself and disunified; how then will his kingdom last or continue to stand?

²⁷ And if I drive out the demons by [help of] Beelzebub, by whose [help] do your sons drive them out? ^[b]For this reason they shall be your judges.

²⁸ But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you [^[c]before you expected it].

²⁹ Or how can a person go into a strong man’s house and carry off his goods (the entire equipment of his house) without first binding the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house.

³⁰ He who is not with Me [definitely ^[d]on My side] is against Me, and he who does not [definitely] gather with Me and for ^[e]My side scatters.

³¹ Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy (every evil, abusive, ^[f]injurious speaking, or indignity against sacred things) can be forgiven men, but blasphemy against the [Holy] Spirit shall not and ^[g]cannot be forgiven.

³² And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Spirit, the Holy One, will not be forgiven, either in this world and age or in the world and age to come.

³³ Either make the tree sound (healthy and good), and its fruit sound (healthy and good), or make the tree rotten (diseased and bad), and its fruit rotten (diseased and bad); for the tree is known and recognized and judged by its fruit.

³⁴ You offspring of vipers! How can you speak good things when you are evil (wicked)? For out of the fullness (the overflow, the ^[h]superabundance) of the heart the mouth speaks.

³⁵ The good man from his inner good treasure ^[i]flings forth good things, and the evil man out of his inner evil storehouse ^[j]flings forth evil things.

³⁶ But I tell you, on the day of judgment men will have to give account for every ^[k]idle (inoperative, nonworking) word they speak.

³⁷ For by your words you will be justified and acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned and sentenced.