Luke 11:37-54

New King James Version

Woe to the Pharisees and Lawyers

³⁷And as He spoke, a certain Pharisee asked Him to dine with him. So He went in and sat down to eat. ³⁸^(A)When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that He had not first washed before dinner.

³⁹^(B)Then the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but ^(C)your inward part is full of ^[a]greed and wickedness. ⁴⁰Foolish ones! Did not ^(D)He who made the outside make the inside also? ⁴¹^(E)But rather give alms of ^[b]such things as you have; then indeed all things are clean to you.

⁴²^(F)“But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and ^(G)pass by justice and the ^(H)love of God. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. ⁴³^(I)Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the ^[c]best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. ⁴⁴^(J)Woe to you, ^[d]scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! ^(K)For you are like graves which are not seen, and the men who walk over them are not aware of them.”

⁴⁵Then one of the lawyers answered and said to Him, “Teacher, by saying these things You reproach us also.”

⁴⁶And He said, “Woe to you also, lawyers! ^(L)For you load men with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. ⁴⁷^(M)Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. ⁴⁸In fact, you bear witness that you approve the deeds of your fathers; for they indeed killed them, and you build their tombs. ⁴⁹Therefore the wisdom of God also said, ^(N)‘I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,’ ⁵⁰that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, ⁵¹^(O)from the blood of Abel to ^(P)the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple. Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation.

⁵²^(Q)“Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered.”

⁵³^[e]And as He said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to assail Him vehemently, and to cross-examine Him about many things, ⁵⁴lying in wait for Him, ^[f]and ^(R)seeking to catch Him in something He might say, ^[g]that they might accuse Him.

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Footnotes

Luke 11:39 Lit. eager grasping or robbery
Luke 11:41 Or what is inside
Luke 11:43 Or places of honor
Luke 11:44 NU omits scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites
Luke 11:53 NU And when He left there
Luke 11:54 NU omits and seeking
Luke 11:54 NU omits that they might accuse Him

Judges 5-6

New King James Version

The Song of Deborah

5 Then Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam ^(A)sang on that day, saying:

²“When^[a] leaders ^(B)lead in Israel,
^(C)When the people ^[b]willingly offer themselves,
Bless the Lord!

³“Hear,^(D) O kings! Give ear, O princes!
I, even ^(E)I, will sing to the Lord;
I will sing praise to the Lord God of Israel.

⁴“Lord, ^(F)when You went out from Seir,
When You marched from ^(G)the field of Edom,
The earth trembled and the heavens poured,
The clouds also poured water;
⁵^(H)The mountains ^[c]gushed before the Lord,
^(I)This Sinai, before the Lord God of Israel.

⁶“In the days of ^(J)Shamgar, son of Anath,
In the days of ^(K)Jael,
^(L)The highways were deserted,
And the travelers walked along the byways.
⁷Village life ceased, it ceased in Israel,
Until I, Deborah, arose,
Arose a mother in Israel.
⁸They chose ^(M)new gods;
Then there was war in the gates;
Not a shield or spear was seen among forty thousand in Israel.
⁹My heart is with the rulers of Israel
Who offered themselves willingly with the people.
Bless the Lord!

¹⁰“Speak, you who ride on white ^(N)donkeys,
Who sit in judges’ attire,
And who walk along the road.
¹¹Far from the noise of the archers, among the watering places,
There they shall recount the righteous acts of the Lord,
The righteous acts for His villagers in Israel;
Then the people of the Lord shall go down to the gates.

¹²“Awake,^(O) awake, Deborah!
Awake, awake, sing a song!
Arise, Barak, and lead your captives away,
O son of Abinoam!

¹³“Then the survivors came down, the people against the nobles;
The Lord came down for me against the mighty.
¹⁴From Ephraim were those whose roots were in ^(P)Amalek.
After you, Benjamin, with your peoples,
From Machir rulers came down,
And from Zebulun those who bear the recruiter’s staff.
¹⁵And ^[d]the princes of Issachar were with Deborah;
As Issachar, so was Barak
Sent into the valley ^[e]under his command;
Among the divisions of Reuben
There were great resolves of heart.
¹⁶Why did you sit among the sheepfolds,
To hear the pipings for the flocks?
The divisions of Reuben have great searchings of heart.
¹⁷^(Q)Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan,
And why did Dan remain ^[f]on ships?
^(R)Asher continued at the seashore,
And stayed by his inlets.
¹⁸^(S)Zebulun is a people who jeopardized their lives to the point of death,
Naphtali also, on the heights of the battlefield.

¹⁹“The kings came and fought,
Then the kings of Canaan fought
In ^(T)Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo;
They took no spoils of silver.
²⁰They fought from the heavens;
The stars from their courses fought against Sisera.
²¹^(U)The torrent of Kishon swept them away,
That ancient torrent, the torrent of Kishon.
O my soul, march on in strength!
²²Then the horses’ hooves pounded,
The galloping, galloping of his steeds.
²³‘Curse Meroz,’ said the ^[g]angel of the Lord,
‘Curse its inhabitants bitterly,
Because they did not come to the help of the Lord,
To the help of the Lord against the mighty.’

²⁴“Most blessed among women is Jael,
The wife of Heber the Kenite;
^(V)Blessed is she among women in tents.
²⁵He asked for water, she gave milk;
She brought out cream in a lordly bowl.
²⁶She stretched her hand to the tent peg,
Her right hand to the workmen’s hammer;
She pounded Sisera, she pierced his head,
She split and struck through his temple.
²⁷At her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still;
At her feet he sank, he fell;
Where he sank, there he fell ^(W)dead.

²⁸“The mother of Sisera looked through the window,
And cried out through the lattice,
‘Why is his chariot so long in coming?
Why tarries the clatter of his chariots?’
²⁹Her wisest ^[h]ladies answered her,
Yes, she ^[i]answered herself,
³⁰‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoil:
To every man a girl or two;
For Sisera, plunder of dyed garments,
Plunder of garments embroidered and dyed,
Two pieces of dyed embroidery for the neck of the looter?’

³¹“Thus let all Your enemies ^(X)perish, O Lord!
But let those who love Him be ^(Y)like the ^(Z)sun
When it comes out in full ^(AA)strength.”

So the land had rest for forty years.

Midianites Oppress Israel

6 Then the children of Israel did ^(AB)evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord delivered them into the hand of ^(AC)Midian for seven years, ²and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, ^(AD)the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains. ³So it was, whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the ^(AE)people of the East would come up against them. ⁴Then they would encamp against them and ^(AF)destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor ^(AG)donkey. ⁵For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts; both they and their camels were ^[j]without number; and they would enter the land to destroy it. ⁶So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel ^(AH)cried out to the Lord.

⁷And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord because of the Midianites, ⁸that the Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the ^(AI)house of ^[k]bondage; ⁹and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and ^(AJ)drove them out before you and gave you their land. ¹⁰Also I said to you, “I am the Lord your God; ^(AK)do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.” But you have not obeyed My ^(AL)voice.’ ”

Gideon

¹¹Now the Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash ^(AM)the Abiezrite, while his son ^(AN)Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites. ¹²And the ^(AO)Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is ^(AP)with you, you mighty man of valor!”

¹³Gideon said to Him, “O ^[l]my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And ^(AQ)where are all His miracles ^(AR)which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has ^(AS)forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.”

¹⁴Then the Lord turned to him and said, ^(AT)“Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. ^(AU)Have I not sent you?”

¹⁵So he said to Him, “O ^[m]my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed ^(AV)my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”

¹⁶And the Lord said to him, ^(AW)“Surely I will be with you, and you shall ^[n]defeat the Midianites as one man.”

¹⁷Then he said to Him, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, then ^(AX)show me a sign that it is You who talk with me. ¹⁸^(AY)Do not depart from here, I pray, until I come to You and bring out my offering and set it before You.”

And He said, “I will wait until you come back.”

¹⁹^(AZ)So Gideon went in and prepared a young goat, and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot; and he brought them out to Him under the terebinth tree and presented them. ²⁰The Angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread and ^(BA)lay them on this rock, and ^(BB)pour out the broth.” And he did so.

²¹Then the Angel of the Lord put out the end of the staff that was in His hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and ^(BC)fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. And the Angel of the Lord departed out of his sight.

²²Now Gideon ^(BD)perceived that He was the Angel of the Lord. So Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! ^(BE)For I have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face.”

²³Then the Lord said to him, ^(BF)“Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die.” ²⁴So Gideon built an altar there to the Lord, and called it ^[o]The-Lord-Is-Peace. To this day it is still ^(BG)in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

²⁵Now it came to pass the same night that the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and ^(BH)tear down the altar of ^(BI)Baal that your father has, and ^(BJ)cut down the ^[p]wooden image that is beside it; ²⁶and build an altar to the Lord your God on top of this ^[q]rock in the proper arrangement, and take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down.” ²⁷So Gideon took ten men from among his servants and did as the Lord had said to him. But because he feared his father’s household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it by night.

Gideon Destroys the Altar of Baal

²⁸And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, there was the altar of Baal, torn down; and the wooden image that was beside it was cut down, and the second bull was being offered on the altar which had been built. ²⁹So they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And when they had inquired and asked, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” ³⁰Then the men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, because he has torn down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the wooden image that was beside it.”

³¹But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Would you ^[r]plead for Baal? Would you save him? Let the one who would plead for him be put to death by morning! If he is a god, let him plead for himself, because his altar has been torn down!” ³²Therefore on that day he called him ^(BK)Jerubbaal,^[s] saying, “Let Baal plead against him, because he has torn down his altar.”

³³Then all ^(BL)the Midianites and Amalekites, the people of the East, gathered together; and they crossed over and encamped in ^(BM)the Valley of Jezreel. ³⁴But ^(BN)the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon; then he ^(BO)blew the trumpet, and the Abiezrites gathered behind him. ³⁵And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, who also gathered behind him. He also sent messengers to ^(BP)Asher, ^(BQ)Zebulun, and Naphtali; and they came up to meet them.

The Sign of the Fleece

³⁶So Gideon said to God, “If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said— ³⁷^(BR)look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said.” ³⁸And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water. ³⁹Then Gideon said to God, ^(BS)“Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew.” ⁴⁰And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground.