The One Year Bible TLB (7 page)
Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
Every young man who listens to me and obeys my instructions will be given wisdom and good sense.
3-5
Yes, if you want better insight and discernment, and are searching for them as you would for lost money or hidden treasure, then wisdom will be given you and knowledge of God himself; you will soon learn the importance of reverence for the Lord and of trusting him.
January 8Then the men stood up from their meal and started on toward Sodom; and Abraham went with them part of the way.
17
“Should I hide my plan from Abraham?” God asked.
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“For Abraham shall become a mighty nation, and he will be a source of blessing for all the nations of the earth.
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And I have picked him out to have godly descendants and a godly household—men who are just and good—so that I can do for him all I have promised.”
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So the Lord told Abraham, “I have heard that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah are utterly evil, and that everything they do is wicked.
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I am going down to see whether these reports are true or not. Then I will know.”
22-23
So the other two went on toward Sodom, but the Lord remained with Abraham a while. Then Abraham approached him and said, “Will you kill good and bad alike?
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Suppose you find fifty godly people there within the city—will you destroy it, and not spare it for their sakes?
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That wouldn’t be right! Surely you wouldn’t do such a thing, to kill the godly with the wicked! Why, you would be treating godly and wicked exactly the same! Surely you wouldn’t do that! Should not the Judge of all the earth be fair?”
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And God replied, “If I find fifty godly people there, I will spare the entire city for their sake.”
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Then Abraham spoke again. “Since I have begun, let me go on and speak further to the Lord, though I am but dust and ashes.
28
Suppose there are only forty-five?
Will you destroy the city for lack of five?”
And God said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five.”
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Then Abraham went further with his request.
“Suppose there are only forty?”
And God replied, “I won’t destroy it if there are forty.”
30
“Please don’t be angry,” Abraham pleaded. “Let me speak:
suppose only thirty are found there?”
And God replied, “I won’t do it if there are thirty there.”
31
Then Abraham said, “Since I have dared to speak to God, let me continue
—suppose there are only twenty?”
And God said, “Then I won’t destroy it for the sake of the twenty.”
32
Finally, Abraham said, “Oh, let not the Lord be angry; I will speak but this once more!
Suppose only ten are found?”
And God said, “Then, for the sake of the ten, I won’t destroy it.”
33
And the Lord went on his way when he had finished his conversation with Abraham. And Abraham returned to his tent.
19:
1
That evening the two angels came to the entrance of the city of Sodom, and Lot was sitting there as they arrived. When he saw them he stood up to meet them, and welcomed them.
2
“Sirs,” he said, “come to my home as my guests for the night; you can get up as early as you like and be on your way again.”
“Oh, no thanks,” they said, “we’ll just stretch out here along the street.”
3
But he was very urgent, until at last they went home with him, and he set a great feast before them, complete with freshly baked unleavened bread. After the meal,
4
as they were preparing to retire for the night, the men of the city—yes, Sodomites, young and old from all over the city—surrounded the house
5
and shouted to Lot, “Bring out those men to us so we can rape them.”
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Lot stepped outside to talk to them, shutting the door behind him.
7
“Please, fellows,” he begged, “don’t do such a wicked thing.
8
Look—I have two virgin daughters, and I’ll surrender them to you to do with as you wish. But leave these men alone, for they are under my protection.”
9
“Stand back,” they yelled. “Who do you think you are? We let this fellow settle among us and now he tries to tell us what to do! We’ll deal with you far worse than with those other men.” And they lunged at Lot and began breaking down the door.
10
But the two men reached out and pulled Lot in and bolted the door
11
and temporarily blinded the men of Sodom so that they couldn’t find the door.
12
“What relatives do you have here in the city?” the men asked. “Get them out of this place—sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone else.
13
For we will destroy the city completely. The stench of the place has reached to heaven and God has sent us to destroy it.”
14
So Lot rushed out to tell his daughters’ fiancés, “Quick, get out of the city, for the Lord is going to destroy it.” But the young men looked at him as though he had lost his senses.
15
At dawn the next morning the angels became urgent. “Hurry,” they said to Lot, “take your wife and your two daughters who are here and get out while you can, or you will be caught in the destruction of the city.”
16
When Lot still hesitated, the angels seized his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters and rushed them to safety, outside the city, for the Lord was merciful.
17
“Flee for your lives,” the angels told him.
“And don’t look back.
Escape to the mountains. Don’t stay down here on the plain or you will die.”
18-20
“Oh no, sirs, please,” Lot begged, “since you’ve been so kind to me and saved my life, and you’ve granted me such mercy, let me flee to that little village over there instead of into the mountains, for I fear disaster in the mountains. See, the village is close by and it is just a small one. Please, please, let me go there instead. Don’t you see how small it is? And my life will be saved.”
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“All right,” the angel said, “I accept your proposition and won’t destroy that little city.
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But hurry! For I can do nothing until you are there.” (From that time on that village was named Zoar, meaning “Little City.”)
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The sun was rising as Lot reached the village.
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Then the Lord rained down fire and flaming tar from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah,
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and utterly destroyed them, along with the other cities and villages of the plain, eliminating all life—people, plants, and animals alike.
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But Lot’s wife looked back as she was following along behind him and became a pillar of salt.
27
That morning Abraham was up early and hurried out to the place where he had stood before the Lord.
28
He looked out across the plain to Sodom and Gomorrah and saw columns of smoke and fumes, as from a furnace, rising from the cities there.
29
So God heeded Abraham’s plea and kept Lot safe, removing him from the maelstrom of death that engulfed the cities.
30
Afterwards Lot left Zoar, fearful of the people there, and went to live in a cave in the mountains with his two daughters.
31
One day the older girl said to her sister, “There isn’t a man anywhere in this entire area that our father would let us marry. And our father will soon be too old for having children.
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Come, let’s fill him with wine and then we will sleep with him, so that our clan will not come to an end.”
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So they got him drunk that night, and the older girl went in and had sexual intercourse with her father; but he was unaware of her lying down or getting up again.
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The next morning she said to her younger sister, “I slept with my father last night. Let’s fill him with wine again tonight, and you go in and lie with him, so that our family line will continue.”
35
So they got him drunk again that night, and the younger girl went in and lay with him, and, as before, he didn’t know that anyone was there.
36
And so it was that both girls became pregnant from their father.
37
The older girl’s baby was named Moab; he became the ancestor of the nation of the Moabites.
38
The name of the younger girl’s baby was Benammi; he became the ancestor of the nation of the Ammonites.
“So my counsel is: Don’t worry about
things—
food, drink, and clothes. For you already have life and a body—and they are far more important than what to eat and wear.
26
Look at the birds! They don’t worry about what to eat—they don’t need to sow or reap or store up food—for your heavenly Father feeds them. And you are far more valuable to him than they are.
27
Will all your worries add a single moment to your life?
28
“And why worry about your clothes? Look at the field lilies! They don’t worry about theirs.
29
Yet King Solomon in all his glory was not clothed as beautifully as they.
30
And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won’t he more surely care for you, O men of little faith?
31-32
“So don’t worry at all about having enough food and clothing. Why be like the heathen? For they take pride in all these things and are deeply concerned about them. But your heavenly Father already knows perfectly well that you need them,
33
and he will give them to you if you give him first place in your life and live as he wants you to.
34
“So don’t be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time.
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7:
1
“Don’t criticize, and then you won’t be criticized.
2
For others will treat you as you treat them.
3
And why worry about a speck in the eye of a brother when you have a board in your own?
4
Should you say, ‘Friend, let me help you get that speck out of your eye,’ when you can’t even see because of the board in your own?
5
Hypocrite! First get rid of the board. Then you can see to help your brother.
6
“Don’t give holy things to depraved men. Don’t give pearls to swine! They will trample the pearls and turn and attack you.
7
“Ask, and you will be given what you ask for. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened.
8
For everyone who asks, receives. Anyone who seeks, finds. If only you will knock, the door will open.
9
If a child asks his father for a loaf of bread, will he be given a stone instead?
10
If he asks for fish, will he be given a poisonous snake? Of course not!
11
And if you hard-hearted, sinful men know how to give good gifts to your children, won’t your Father in heaven even more certainly give good gifts to those who ask him for them?
12
“Do for others what you want them to do for you. This is the teaching of the laws of Moses in a nutshell.
*
13
“Heaven can be entered only through the narrow gate! The highway to hell
*
is broad, and its gate is wide enough for all the multitudes who choose its easy way.
14
But the Gateway to Life is small, and the road is narrow, and only a few ever find it.”
O Lord our God, the majesty and glory of your name fills all the earth and overflows the heavens.
2
You have taught the little children to praise you perfectly. May their example shame and silence your enemies!
3
When I look up into the night skies and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you have made—
4
I cannot understand how you can bother with mere puny man, to pay any attention to him!
5
And yet you have made him only a little lower than the angels
*
and placed a crown of glory and honor upon his head.
6
You have put him in charge of everything you made; everything is put under his authority:
7
all sheep and oxen, and wild animals too,
8
the birds and fish, and all the life in the sea.
9
O Jehovah, our Lord, the majesty and glory of your name fills the earth.
For the Lord grants wisdom! His every word is a treasure of knowledge and understanding.
7-8
He grants good sense to the godly—his saints. He is their shield, protecting them and guarding their pathway.
9
He shows how to distinguish right from wrong, how to find the right decision every time.
10
For wisdom and truth will enter the very center of your being, filling your life with joy.
11-13
You will be given the sense to stay away from evil men who want you to be their partners in crime—men who turn from God’s ways to walk down dark and evil paths
14
and exult in doing wrong, for they thoroughly enjoy their sins.
15
Everything they do is crooked and wrong.