Mark 7:1-23
[1]
Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who
had come from Jerusalem, [2] they saw that some of his disciples ate
with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. [3] (For the Pharisees
and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly,
holding to the tradition of the elders, [4] and when they come from the
marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other
traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and
copper vessels and dining couches.) [5] And the Pharisees and the
scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the
tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” [6] And he said to
them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,
“‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
[7] in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
[8] You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”
[9]
And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment
of God in order to establish your tradition! [10] For Moses said, ‘Honor
your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother
must surely die.’ [11] But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his
mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is,
given to God)—[12] then you no longer permit him to do anything for his
father or mother, [13] thus making void the word of God by your
tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
[14]
And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all
of you, and understand: [15] There is nothing outside a person that by
going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person
are what defile him.” [17] And when he had entered the house and left
the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. [18] And he said
to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that
whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, [19] since
it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he
declared all foods clean.) [20] And he said, “What comes out of a person
is what defiles him. [21] For from within, out of the heart of man,
come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, [22]
coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride,
foolishness. [23] All these evil things come from within, and they
defile a person.”
1 Corinthians 12:1-13
[1]
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be
uninformed. [2] You know that when you were pagans you were led astray
to mute idols, however you were led. [3] Therefore I want you to
understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is
accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy
Spirit.
[4]
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; [5] and there
are varieties of service, but the same Lord; [6] and there are varieties
of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in
everyone. [7] To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the
common good. [8] For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of
wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same
Spirit, [9] to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of
healing by the one Spirit, [10] to another the working of miracles, to
another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits,
to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of
tongues. [11] All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who
apportions to each one individually as he wills.
[12]
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members
of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. [13] For
in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves
or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
Psalm 88
A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.
[1] O LORD, God of my salvation,
I cry out day and night before you.
[2] Let my prayer come before you;
incline your ear to my cry!
[3] For my soul is full of troubles,
and my life draws near to Sheol.
[4] I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
I am a man who has no strength,
[5] like one set loose among the dead,
like the slain that lie in the grave,
like those whom you remember no more,
for they are cut off from your hand.
[6] You have put me in the depths of the pit,
in the regions dark and deep.
[7] Your wrath lies heavy upon me,
and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah
[8] You have caused my companions to shun me;
you have made me a horror to them.
I am shut in so that I cannot escape;
[9] my eye grows dim through sorrow.
Every day I call upon you, O LORD;
I spread out my hands to you.
[10] Do you work wonders for the dead?
Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah
[11] Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,
or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
[12] Are your wonders known in the darkness,
or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
[13] But I, O LORD, cry to you;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
[14] O LORD, why do you cast my soul away?
Why do you hide your face from me?
[15] Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,
I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.
[16] Your wrath has swept over me;
your dreadful assaults destroy me.
[17] They surround me like a flood all day long;
they close in on me together.
[18] You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;
my companions have become darkness.
Judges 13
[1]
And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the
LORD, so the LORD gave them into the hand of the Philistines for forty
years.
[2]
There was a certain man of Zorah, of the tribe of the Danites, whose
name was Manoah. And his wife was barren and had no children. [3] And
the angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold,
you are barren and have not borne children, but you shall conceive and
bear a son. [4] Therefore be careful and drink no wine or strong drink,
and eat nothing unclean, [5] for behold, you shall conceive and bear a
son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a
Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from
the hand of the Philistines.” [6] Then the woman came and told her
husband, “A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the
appearance of the angel of God, very awesome. I did not ask him where he
was from, and he did not tell me his name, [7] but he said to me,
‘Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. So then drink no wine or
strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, for the child shall be a Nazirite
to God from the womb to the day of his death.’”
[8]
Then Manoah prayed to the LORD and said, “O Lord, please let the man of
God whom you sent come again to us and teach us what we are to do with
the child who will be born.” [9] And God listened to the voice of
Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the
field. But Manoah her husband was not with her. [10] So the woman ran
quickly and told her husband, “Behold, the man who came to me the other
day has appeared to me.” [11] And Manoah arose and went after his wife
and came to the man and said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to this
woman?” And he said, “I am.” [12] And Manoah said, “Now when your words
come true, what is to be the child’s manner of life, and what is his
mission?” [13] And the angel of the LORD said to Manoah, “Of all that I
said to the woman let her be careful. [14] She may not eat of anything
that comes from the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, or
eat any unclean thing. All that I commanded her let her observe.”
[15]
Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “Please let us detain you and
prepare a young goat for you.” [16] And the angel of the LORD said to
Manoah, “If you detain me, I will not eat of your food. But if you
prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the LORD.” (For Manoah did
not know that he was the angel of the LORD.) [17] And Manoah said to the
angel of the LORD, “What is your name, so that, when your words come
true, we may honor you?” [18] And the angel of the LORD said to him,
“Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?” [19] So Manoah took
the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it on the rock to
the LORD, to the one who works wonders, and Manoah and his wife were
watching. [20] And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar,
the angel of the LORD went up in the flame of the altar. Now Manoah and
his wife were watching, and they fell on their faces to the ground.
[21]
The angel of the LORD appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife. Then
Manoah knew that he was the angel of the LORD. [22] And Manoah said to
his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.” [23] But his wife
said to him, “If the LORD had meant to kill us, he would not have
accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands, or shown us
all these things, or now announced to us such things as these.” [24]
And the woman bore a son and called his name Samson. And the young man
grew, and the LORD blessed him. [25] And the Spirit of the LORD began to
stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
Judges 14
[1]
Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters
of the Philistines. [2] Then he came up and told his father and mother,
“I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her
for me as my wife.” [3] But his father and mother said to him, “Is there
not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our
people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised
Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is
right in my eyes.”
[4]
His father and mother did not know that it was from the LORD, for he
was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. At that time the
Philistines ruled over Israel.
[5]
Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah, and they
came to the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young lion came toward
him roaring. [6] Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and
although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one
tears a young goat. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he
had done. [7] Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she was
right in Samson’s eyes.
[8]
After some days he returned to take her. And he turned aside to see the
carcass of the lion, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body
of the lion, and honey. [9] He scraped it out into his hands and went
on, eating as he went. And he came to his father and mother and gave
some to them, and they ate. But he did not tell them that he had scraped
the honey from the carcass of the lion.
[10]
His father went down to the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there,
for so the young men used to do. [11] As soon as the people saw him,
they brought thirty companions to be with him. [12] And Samson said to
them, “Let me now put a riddle to you. If you can tell me what it is,
within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give
you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes, [13] but if you
cannot tell me what it is, then you shall give me thirty linen garments
and thirty changes of clothes.” And they said to him, “Put your riddle,
that we may hear it.” [14] And he said to them,
“Out of the eater came something to eat.
Out of the strong came something sweet.”
And in three days they could not solve the riddle.
[15]
On the fourth day they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband to
tell us what the riddle is, lest we burn you and your father’s house
with fire. Have you invited us here to impoverish us?” [16] And Samson’s
wife wept over him and said, “You only hate me; you do not love me. You
have put a riddle to my people, and you have not told me what it is.”
And he said to her, “Behold, I have not told my father nor my mother,
and shall I tell you?” [17] She wept before him the seven days that
their feast lasted, and on the seventh day he told her, because she
pressed him hard. Then she told the riddle to her people. [18] And the
men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went
down,
“What is sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?”
And he said to them,
“If you had not plowed with my heifer,
you would not have found out my riddle.”
[19] And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and he went down to
Ashkelon and struck down thirty men of the town and took their spoil and
gave the garments to those who had told the riddle. In hot anger he
went back to his father’s house. [20] And Samson’s wife was given to his
companion, who had been his best man.
Judges 15
[1]
After some days, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his
wife with a young goat. And he said, “I will go in to my wife in the
chamber.” But her father would not allow him to go in. [2] And her
father said, “I really thought that you utterly hated her, so I gave her
to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she?
Please take her instead.” [3] And Samson said to them, “This time I
shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines, when I do them harm.”
[4] So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches. And he turned
them tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails. [5] And
when he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the
standing grain of the Philistines and set fire to the stacked grain and
the standing grain, as well as the olive orchards. [6] Then the
Philistines said, “Who has done this?” And they said, “Samson, the
son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her
to his companion.” And the Philistines came up and burned her and her
father with fire. [7] And Samson said to them, “If this is what you do, I
swear I will be avenged on you, and after that I will quit.” [8] And he
struck them hip and thigh with a great blow, and he went down and
stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam.
[9]
Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and made a raid on
Lehi. [10] And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?”
They said, “We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he did to
us.” [11] Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of
Etam, and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines are
rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?” And 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 give you into
the hands of the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me
that you will not attack me yourselves.” [13] They said to him, “No; we
will only bind you and give you into their hands. We will surely not
kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from
the rock.
[14]
When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. Then
the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his
arms became as flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his
hands. [15] And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his
hand and took it, and with it he struck 1,000 men. [16] And Samson
said,
“With the jawbone of a donkey,
heaps upon heaps,
with the jawbone of a donkey
have I struck down a thousand men.”
[17] As soon as he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone out of his hand. And that place was called Ramath-lehi.
[18]
And he was very thirsty, and he called upon the LORD and said, “You
have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and shall
I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” [19]
And God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out
from it. And when he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived.
Therefore the name of it was called En-hakkore; it is at Lehi to this
day. [20] And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty
years.
