מ Mem

נ Nun

ס Samekh

כ Kaph

¹⁹ So Gideon and a hundred men with him went to the edge of the camp at the start of the middle night watch, just as they were setting the watch. Then they blew the horns and smashed the jars in their hands. ²⁰ The three combat units blew the horns and broke the jars. They held the torches in their left hands and the horns for blowing in their right hands. They called out, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” ²¹ Every man stood in his place all around the camp, but the men in the camp ran, shouted, and fled.

²² When they blew the three hundred horns, the Lord turned every man’s sword against his fellow man throughout the camp. The Midianite camp fled to Beth Shittah in the direction of Zererah, up to the border of Abel Meholah, near Tabbath. ²³ The men of Israel from Naphtali, Asher, and all of Manasseh were summoned, and they chased after the Midianites. ²⁴ Now Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down to engage Midian in battle. Take control of the water ways as far as Beth Barah and the Jordan.”

All the men of Ephraim were summoned, and they took control of the water ways as far as Beth Barah and the Jordan. ²⁵ They captured Oreb and Zeeb, the two Midianite commanders. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb and killed Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. They chased after the Midianites and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side of the Jordan.

Zebah and Zalmunna

8 Then the men of Ephraim said to him, “What have you done to us by not calling us to go and wage war against Midian?” They argued heatedly with him.

² He said to them, “What have I done now compared to you? Are not the gleanings of the grapes of Ephraim better than the harvest of Abiezer? ³ It was into your hands that God gave the Midianite commanders, Oreb and Zeeb. What was I able to do compared to you?” When Gideon said this, their anger against him cooled down.

⁴ Then Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over, he and the three hundred men who were with him, exhausted but still pursuing. ⁵ He said to the men of Sukkoth, “Please give some loaves of bread to the people who are following me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian.”

⁶ The officials of Sukkoth said, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hands that we should give bread to your army?”

⁷ So Gideon said, “Because of this, when the Lord gives Zebah and Zalmunna into my hands, I will tear your bodies with desert thorns and briers.”

⁸ He went up from there to Peniel and spoke to them in the same way. The men of Peniel answered him just as the men of Sukkoth had. ⁹ So he also said to the men of Peniel, “When I return safely, I will tear down this tower.”

¹⁰ Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their armies, about fifteen thousand survivors; they were all who were left of all the army of the Kedemites, for one hundred twenty thousand arms-bearing men had fallen. ¹¹ Gideon went up on the route of the tent dwellers east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked the camp while the army was off guard. ¹² Zebah and Zalmunna fled, and Gideon chased after them. He captured Zebah and Zalmunna, the two kings of Midian, and the entire army was terrified.

¹² When Peter saw it, he answered the people: “Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this man? Or why do you stare at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk? ¹³ The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His Son Jesus, whom you handed over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. ¹⁴ You denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, ¹⁵ and you killed the Creator of Life, whom God has raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. ¹⁶ And His name, by faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. And faith which comes through Him has given him perfect health in your presence.

¹⁷ “Now brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. ¹⁸ But what God foretold through all the prophets, that His Christ should suffer, He thus fulfilled. ¹⁹ Therefore repent and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, ²⁰ and that He may send the One who previously was preached to you, Jesus Christ, ²¹ whom the heavens must receive until the time of restoring what God spoke through all His holy prophets since the world began. ²² For Moses indeed said to the fathers, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall hear whatever He may say to you. ²³ And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that prophet shall be utterly eliminated from the people.’^[a]

²⁴ “Indeed, all the prophets since Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold these days. ²⁵ You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’^{[b] 26} God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to you first, to bless you in turning every one of you from your iniquities.”

The Lamb of God

²⁹ The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. ³⁰ This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ ³¹ I did not know Him, but for this reason I came baptizing with water: so that He might be revealed to Israel.”

³² Then John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on Him. ³³ I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘The One on whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴ I have seen and have borne witness that He is the Son of God.”

The First Disciples

³⁵ Again, the next day John was standing with two of his disciples. ³⁶ Looking upon Jesus as He walked, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”

³⁷ The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. ³⁸ Then Jesus turned, saw them following, and said to them, “What do you seek?”

And they said to Him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are You staying?”

³⁹ Jesus said to them, “Come and see.”

So they came and saw where He stayed and remained with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.

⁴⁰ One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. ⁴¹ He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means the Christ). ⁴² Then he brought him to Jesus.

When Jesus saw him, He said, “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).