The One Year Bible TLB (103 page)
Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
Reverence for God gives a man deep strength; his children have a place of refuge and security.
27
Reverence for the Lord is a fountain of life; its waters keep a man from death.
May 7This is the story of Elkanah, a man of the tribe of Ephraim who lived in Ramathaim-zophim, in the hills of Ephraim.
His father’s name was Jeroham,
His grandfather was Elihu,
His great-grandfather was Tohu,
His great-great-grandfather was Zuph.
2
He had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. Peninnah had some children, but Hannah didn’t.
3
Each year Elkanah and his families journeyed to the Tabernacle at Shiloh to worship the Lord of the heavens and to sacrifice to him. (The priests on duty at that time were the two sons of Eli—Hophni and Phinehas.)
4
On the day he presented his sacrifice, Elkanah would celebrate the happy occasion by giving presents to Peninnah and her children;
5
but although he loved Hannah very much, he could give her only one present, for the Lord had sealed her womb; so she had no children to give presents to.
6
Peninnah made matters worse by taunting Hannah because of her barrenness.
7
Every year it was the same—Peninnah scoffing and laughing at her as they went to Shiloh, making her cry so much she couldn’t eat.
8
“What’s the matter, Hannah?” Elkanah would exclaim. “Why aren’t you eating? Why make such a fuss over having no children? Isn’t having me better than having ten sons?”
9
One evening after supper, when they were at Shiloh, Hannah went over to the Tabernacle. Eli the priest was sitting at his customary place beside the entrance.
10
She was in deep anguish and was crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord.
11
And she made this vow: “O Lord of heaven, if you will look down upon my sorrow and answer my prayer and give me a son, then I will give him back to you, and he’ll be yours for his entire lifetime, and his hair shall never be cut.”
*
12-13
Eli noticed her mouth moving as she was praying silently and, hearing no sound, thought she had been drinking.
14
“Must you come here drunk?” he demanded. “Throw away your bottle.”
15-16
“Oh no, sir!” she replied, “I’m not drunk! But I am very sad and I was pouring out my heart to the Lord. Please don’t think that I am just some drunken bum!”
17
“In that case,” Eli said, “cheer up! May the Lord of Israel grant you your petition, whatever it is!”
18
“Oh, thank you, sir!” she exclaimed, and went happily back, and began to take her meals again.
19-20
The entire family was up early the next morning and went to the Tabernacle to worship the Lord once more. Then they returned home to Ramah, and when Elkanah slept with Hannah, the Lord remembered her petition; in the process of time, a baby boy was born to her. She named him Samuel (meaning “asked of God”)
*
because, as she said, “I asked the Lord for him.”
21-22
The next year Elkanah and Peninnah and her children went on the annual trip to the Tabernacle without Hannah, for she told her husband, “Wait until the baby is weaned, and then I will take him to the Tabernacle and leave him there.”
23
“Well, whatever you think best,” Elkanah agreed. “May the Lord’s will be done.”
So she stayed home until the baby was weaned.
24
Then, though he was still so small, they took him to the Tabernacle in Shiloh, along with a three-year-old bull for the sacrifice, and a bushel of flour and some wine.
25
After the sacrifice they took the child to Eli.
26
“Sir, do you remember me?” Hannah asked him. “I am the woman who stood here that time praying to the Lord!
27
I asked him to give me this child, and he has given me my request;
28
and now I am giving him to the Lord for as long as he lives.” So she left him there at the Tabernacle for the Lord to use.
2:
1
This was Hannah’s prayer:
“How I rejoice in the Lord!
How he has blessed me!
Now I have an answer for my enemies,
For the Lord has solved my problem.
How I rejoice!
2
No one is as holy as the Lord!
There is no other God,
Nor any Rock like our God.
3
Quit acting so proud and arrogant!
The Lord knows what you have done,
And he will judge your deeds.
4
Those who were mighty are mighty no more!
Those who were weak are now strong.
5
Those who were well are now starving;
Those who were starving are fed.
The barren woman now has seven children;
She with many children has no more!
6
The Lord kills,
The Lord gives life.
7
Some he causes to be poor
And others to be rich.
He cuts one down
And lifts another up.
8
He lifts the poor from the dust—
Yes, from a pile of ashes—
And treats them as princes
Sitting in the seats of honor.
For all the earth is the Lord’s
And he has set the world in order.
9
He will protect his godly ones,
But the wicked shall be silenced in darkness.
No one shall succeed by strength alone.
10
Those who fight against the Lord shall be broken;
He thunders against them from heaven.
He judges throughout the earth.
He gives mighty strength to his king,
And gives great glory to his anointed one.”
11
So they returned home to Ramah without Samuel; and the child became the Lord’s helper, for he assisted Eli the priest.
12
Now the sons of Eli were evil men who didn’t love the Lord.
13-14
It was their regular practice to send out a servant whenever anyone was offering a sacrifice, and while the flesh of the sacrificed animal was boiling, the servant would put a three-pronged flesh hook into the pot and demand that whatever it brought up be given to Eli’s sons. They treated all of the Israelites in this way when they came to Shiloh to worship.
15
Sometimes the servant would come even before the rite of burning the fat on the altar had been performed, and he would demand raw meat before it was boiled, so that it could be used for roasting.
16
If the man offering the sacrifice replied, “Take as much as you want, but the fat must first be burned as the law requires,
*
” then the servant would say, “No, give it to me now or I’ll take it by force.”
17
So the sin of these young men was very great in the eyes of the Lord; for they treated the people’s offerings to the Lord with contempt.
18
Samuel, though only a child, was the Lord’s helper and wore a little linen robe just like the priest’s.
*
19
Each year his mother made a little coat for him and brought it to him when she came with her husband for the sacrifice.
20
Before they returned home Eli would bless Elkanah and Hannah and ask God to give them other children to take the place of this one they had given to the Lord.
21
And the Lord gave Hannah three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile Samuel grew up in the service of the Lord.
Afterwards Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish religious holidays.
2
Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was Bethesda Pool, with five covered platforms or porches surrounding it.
3
Crowds of sick folks—lame, blind, or with paralyzed limbs—lay on the platforms (waiting for a certain movement of the water,
4
for an angel of the Lord came from time to time and disturbed the water, and the first person to step down into it afterwards was healed).
*
5
One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years.
6
When Jesus saw him and knew how long he had been ill, he asked him,
“Would you like to get well?”
7
“I can’t,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to help me into the pool at the movement of the water. While I am trying to get there, someone else always gets in ahead of me.”
8
Jesus told him,
“Stand up, roll up your sleeping mat and go on home!”
9
Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up the mat and began walking!
But it was on the Sabbath when this miracle was done.
10
So the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! It’s illegal to carry that sleeping mat!”
11
“The man who healed me told me to,” was his reply.
12
“Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded.
13
The man didn’t know, and Jesus had disappeared into the crowd.
14
But afterwards Jesus found him in the Temple and told him,
“Now you are well; don’t sin as you did before,
*
or something even worse may happen to you.”
15
Then the man went to find the Jewish leaders and told them it was Jesus who had healed him.
16
So they began harassing Jesus as a Sabbath breaker.
17
But Jesus replied,
“My Father constantly does good, and I’m following his example.”
*
18
Then the Jewish leaders were all the more eager to kill him because in addition to disobeying their Sabbath laws, he had spoken of God as his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.
19
Jesus replied,
“The Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing, and in the same way.
20
For the Father loves the Son, and tells him everything he is doing; and the Son will do far more awesome miracles than this man’s healing.
21
He will even raise from the dead anyone he wants to, just as the Father does.
22
And the Father leaves all judgment of sin to his Son,
23
so that everyone will honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. But if you refuse to honor God’s Son, whom he sent to you, then you are certainly not honoring the Father.”
and brought his people safely out from Egypt, loaded with silver and gold; there were no sick and feeble folk among them then.
38
Egypt was glad when they were gone, for the dread of them was great.
39
He spread out a cloud above them to shield them from the burning sun and gave them a pillar of flame at night to give them light.
40
They asked for meat, and he sent them quail and gave them manna—bread from heaven.
41
He opened up a rock, and water gushed out to form a river through the dry and barren land;
42
for he remembered his sacred promises to Abraham his servant.
43
So he brought his chosen ones singing into the Promised Land.
44
He gave them the lands of the Gentiles, complete with their growing crops; they ate what others planted.
45
This was done to make them faithful and obedient to his laws. Hallelujah!
A growing population is a king’s glory; a dwindling nation is his doom.
29
A wise man controls his temper. He knows that anger causes mistakes.
May 8Eli was now very old, but he was aware of what was going on around him. He knew, for instance, that his sons were seducing the young women who assisted at the entrance of the Tabernacle.
23-25
“I have been hearing terrible reports from the Lord’s people about what you are doing,” Eli told his sons. “It is an awful thing to make the Lord’s people sin. Ordinary sin receives heavy punishment, but how much more this sin of yours that has been committed against the Lord!” But they wouldn’t listen to their father, for the Lord was already planning to kill them.
26
Little Samuel was growing in two ways—he was getting taller, and he was becoming everyone’s favorite (and he was a favorite of the Lord’s, too!).
27
One day a prophet
*
came to Eli and gave him this message from the Lord: “Didn’t I demonstrate my power when the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt?
28
Didn’t I choose your ancestor Levi from among all his brothers to be my priest, and to sacrifice upon my altar, and to burn incense, and to wear a priestly robe
*
as he served me? And didn’t I assign the sacrificial offerings to you priests?
29
Then why are you so greedy for all the other offerings which are brought to me? Why have you honored your sons more than me—for you and they have become fat from the best of the offerings of my people!
30
“Therefore, I, the Lord God of Israel, declare that although I promised that your branch of the tribe of Levi could always be my priests, it is ridiculous to think that what you are doing can continue. I will honor only those who honor me, and I will despise those who despise me.
31
I will put an end to your family, so that it will no longer serve as priests. Every member will die before his time. None shall live to be old.
32
You will envy the prosperity I will give my people, but you and your family will be in distress and need. Not one of them will live out his days.
33
Those who are left alive will live in sadness and grief; and their children shall die by the sword.
34
And to prove that what I have said will come true, I will cause your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, to die on the same day!
35
“Then I will raise up a faithful priest who will serve me and do whatever I tell him to do. I will bless his descendants, and his family shall be priests to my kings forever.
36
Then all of your descendants shall bow before him, begging for money and food. ‘Please,’ they will say, ‘give me a job among the priests so that I will have enough to eat.’”
3:
1
Meanwhile little Samuel was helping the Lord by assisting Eli. Messages from the Lord were very rare in those days,
2-3
but one night after Eli had gone to bed (he was almost blind with age by now), and Samuel was sleeping in the Temple near the Ark,
4-5
the Lord called out, “Samuel! Samuel!”
“Yes?” Samuel replied. “What is it?” He jumped up and ran to Eli. “Here I am. What do you want?” he asked.
“I didn’t call you,” Eli said. “Go on back to bed.” So he did.
6
Then the Lord called again, “Samuel!” And again Samuel jumped up and ran to Eli.
“Yes?” he asked. “What do you need?”
“No, I didn’t call you, my son,” Eli said. “Go on back to bed.”
7
(Samuel had never had a message from Jehovah before.
*
)
8
So now the Lord called the third time, and once more Samuel jumped up and ran to Eli.
“Yes?” he asked. “What do you need?”
Then Eli realized it was the Lord who had spoken to the child.
9
So he said to Samuel, “Go and lie down again, and if he calls again, say, ‘Yes, Lord, I’m listening.’” So Samuel went back to bed.
10
And the Lord came and called as before, “Samuel! Samuel!”
And Samuel replied, “Yes, I’m listening.”
11
Then the Lord said to Samuel, “I am going to do a shocking thing in Israel.
12
I am going to do all of the dreadful things I warned Eli about.
13
I have continually threatened him and his entire family with punishment because his sons are blaspheming God, and he doesn’t stop them.
14
So I have vowed that the sins of Eli and of his sons shall never be forgiven by sacrifices and offerings.”
15
Samuel stayed in bed until morning, then opened the doors of the Temple as usual, for he was afraid to tell Eli what the Lord had said to him.
16-17
But Eli called him.
“My son,” he said, “what did the Lord say to you? Tell me everything. And may God punish you if you hide anything from me!”
18
So Samuel told him what the Lord had said.
“It is the Lord’s will,” Eli replied; “let him do what he thinks best.”
19
As Samuel grew, the Lord was with him and people listened carefully to his advice.
20
And all Israel from one end of the land to the other knew that Samuel was going to be a prophet of the Lord.
21
Then the Lord began to give messages to him there at the Tabernacle in Shiloh,
4:1
and he passed them on to the people of Israel.
4:
1
At that time Israel was at war with the Philistines. The Israeli army was camped near Ebenezer, the Philistines at Aphek.
2
And the Philistines defeated Israel, killing four thousand of them.
3
After the battle was over, the army of Israel returned to their camp and their leaders discussed why the Lord had let them be defeated.
“Let’s bring the Ark here from Shiloh,” they said. “If we carry it into battle with us, the Lord will be among us and he will surely save us from our enemies.”
4
So they sent for the Ark of the Lord of heaven who is enthroned above the angels. Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli, accompanied it into the battle.
5
When the Israelis saw the Ark coming, their shout of joy was so loud that it almost made the ground shake!
6
“What’s going on?” the Philistines asked. “What’s all the shouting about over in the camp of the Hebrews?”
When they were told it was because the Ark of the Lord had arrived,
7
they panicked.
“God has come into their camp!” they cried out. “Woe upon us, for we have never had to face anything like this before!
8
Who can save us from these mighty gods of Israel? They are the same gods who destroyed the Egyptians with plagues when Israel was in the wilderness.
9
Fight as you never have before, O Philistines, or we will become their slaves just as they have been ours.”
10
So the Philistines fought desperately and Israel was defeated again. Thirty thousand men of Israel died that day, and the remainder fled to their tents.
11
And the Ark of God was captured, and Hophni and Phinehas were killed.
12
A man from the tribe of Benjamin ran from the battle and arrived at Shiloh the same day with his clothes torn and dirt on his head.
*
13
Eli was waiting beside the road to hear the news of the battle, for his heart trembled for the safety of the Ark of God. As the messenger from the battlefront arrived and told what had happened, a great cry arose throughout the city.
14
“What is all the noise about?” Eli asked. And the messenger rushed over to Eli and told him what had happened.
15
(Eli was ninety-eight years old and was blind.)
16
“I have just come from the battle—I was there today,” he told Eli,
17
“and Israel has been defeated and thousands of the Israeli troops are dead on the battlefield. Hophni and Phinehas were killed too, and the Ark has been captured.”
18
When the messenger mentioned what had happened to the Ark, Eli fell backward from his seat beside the gate and his neck was broken by the fall, and he died (for he was old and fat). He had judged Israel for forty years.
19
When Eli’s daughter-in-law, Phinehas’ wife, who was pregnant, heard that the Ark had been captured and that her husband and father-in-law were dead, her labor pains suddenly began.
20
Just before she died, the women who were attending her told her that everything was all right and that the baby was a boy. But she did not reply or respond in any way.
21-22
Then she murmured, “Name the child ‘Ichabod,’ for Israel’s glory is gone.” (Ichabod means “there is no glory.” She named him this because the Ark of God had been captured and because her husband and her father-in-law were dead.)
“I say emphatically that anyone who listens to my message and believes in God who sent me has eternal life, and will never be damned for his sins, but has already passed out of death into life.
25
“And I solemnly declare that the time is coming, in fact, it is here, when the dead shall hear my voice—the voice of the Son of God—and those who listen shall live.
26
The Father has life in himself, and has granted his Son to have life in himself,
27
and to judge the sins of all mankind because he is the Son of Man.
28
Don’t be so surprised! Indeed the time is coming when all the dead in their graves shall hear the voice of God’s Son,
29
and shall rise again—those who have done good, to eternal life; and those who have continued in evil, to judgment.
30
“But I pass no judgment without consulting the Father. I judge as I am told. And my judgment is absolutely fair and just, for it is according to the will of God who sent me and is not merely my own.
31
“When I make claims about myself they aren’t believed,
32-33
but someone else, yes, John the Baptist,
*
is making these claims for me too. You have gone out to listen to his preaching, and I can assure you that all he says about me is true!
34
But the truest witness I have is not from a man, though I have reminded you about John’s witness so that you will believe in me and be saved.
35
John shone brightly for a while, and you benefited and rejoiced,
36
but I have a greater witness than John. I refer to the miracles I do; these have been assigned me by the Father, and they prove that the Father has sent me.
37
And the Father himself has also testified about me, though not appearing to you personally, or speaking to you directly.
38
But you are not listening to him, for you refuse to believe me—the one sent to you with God’s message.
39
“You search the Scriptures, for you believe they give you eternal life. And the Scriptures point to me!
40
Yet you won’t come to me so that I can give you this life eternal!
41-42
“Your approval or disapproval means nothing to me, for as I know so well, you don’t have God’s love within you.
43
I know, because I have come to you representing my Father and you refuse to welcome me, though you readily enough receive those who aren’t sent from him, but represent only themselves!
44
No wonder you can’t believe! For you gladly honor each other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from the only God!
45
“Yet it is not I who will accuse you of this to the Father—Moses will! Moses, on whose laws you set your hopes of heaven.
46
For you have refused to believe Moses. He wrote about me, but you refuse to believe him, so you refuse to believe in me.
47
And since you don’t believe what he wrote, no wonder you don’t believe me either.”
Hallelujah! Thank you, Lord! How good you are! Your love for us continues on forever.
2
Who can ever list the glorious miracles of God? Who can ever praise him half enough?
3
Happiness comes to those who are fair to others and are always just and good.
4
Remember me too, O Lord, while you are blessing and saving your people.
5
Let me share in your chosen ones’ prosperity and rejoice in all their joys, and receive the glory you give to them.
6
Both we and our fathers have sinned so much.
7
They weren’t impressed by the wonder of your miracles in Egypt and soon forgot your many acts of kindness to them. Instead they rebelled against you at the Red Sea.
8
Even so you saved them—to defend the honor of your name and demonstrate your power to all the world.
9
You commanded the Red Sea to divide, forming a dry road across its bottom. Yes, as dry as any desert!
10
Thus you rescued them from their enemies.
11
Then the water returned and covered the road and drowned their foes; not one survived.
12
Then at last his people believed him. Then they finally sang his praise.