155 passages · Humanity
A crafty serpent asks the woman whether God really forbade eating from any tree. She restates the command, and the serpent contradicts it, saying God is withholding godlike knowledge.
Abimelech, alarmed, asks why Abraham brought guilt on his kingdom. Abraham explains he feared no one there feared God and says Sarah is his half-sister.
Moses says he is slow of speech, and God replies that he made the mouth and will help him. When Moses asks him to send someone else, God grows angry and appoints his brother Aaron as spokesman.
Israel is not to misuse the LORD's name. They are to keep the seventh day as a Sabbath, with no work for family, servants, animals, or foreigners, because God made everything in six days and rested on the seventh.
A man with an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father fights with another Israelite in the camp and curses God's name. He is taken to Moses and held until the LORD's will is known.
Balak meets Balaam at the border and Balaam warns that he can only speak what God puts in his mouth. Balak sacrifices and next morning takes Balaam up to Bamoth-baal, from where Israel's camp is visible.
Balak strikes his hands together in anger and tells Balaam to go home, saying the LORD has denied his reward. Balaam repeats that he can only speak the LORD's words, and offers to warn Balak what Israel will do in future.
Moses tells the tribal heads that anyone who makes a vow to the LORD must keep it. A young woman's vow in her father's house stands unless her father forbids it the day he hears of it.
A married woman's vow stands if her husband hears and says nothing that day, but he may nullify it. The vows of a widow or divorced woman are binding on her.
If a wife's vow is heard by her husband, it stands if he says nothing, and is cancelled if he nullifies it the same day. If he cancels it later, he bears responsibility for it. The chapter closes by summarizing these rules.
Moses forbids moving a neighbor's boundary marker and requires more than one witness for any charge. A false witness must receive the punishment he intended for the accused.
Moses gives rules against returning a fugitive slave, shrine prostitution, and charging interest to a fellow Israelite. He also says vows must be kept and neighbors' fields may be eaten from but not carried away.
The people of Gibeon disguise themselves with worn clothing and moldy bread. They come to Gilgal and claim to be from a far country, asking for a treaty.
The Spirit of the LORD comes on Jephthah, who vows that whatever first comes out of his house on his return will be the LORD's and offered as a burnt offering. The LORD gives him victory and he devastates twenty Ammonite cities.
At the seven-day wedding feast, Samson bets thirty companions thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes that they cannot solve his riddle. They fail to answer for three days.
Eli sees her lips moving and wrongly thinks she is drunk. Hannah explains she is pouring out her sorrow to the LORD, and Eli sends her off with a blessing, after which she is no longer downcast.
Hearing that Nabal is shearing sheep, David sends ten young men to greet him. They are to say David's men protected Nabal's shepherds and to ask for whatever he can spare at feast time.
Nabal scornfully refuses, saying he does not know David and calling him a runaway servant. David tells his men to strap on swords, and about four hundred set out.
Abigail bows, takes the blame on herself, and calls Nabal a fool. She offers her gift, credits the LORD with restraining David, and says that a future without needless bloodshed will spare him guilt.
From a distant hilltop David shouts to Abner, accusing him of failing to guard the king and pointing to the missing spear and jug as proof.
Shimei of Saul's family throws stones and curses David as a man of bloodshed. David refuses Abishai's offer to kill him, saying the LORD may have told him to curse and might repay good for it.
Ahimaaz and a Cushite run to David with the news. The Cushite tells him Absalom is dead in indirect words.
Four hundred prophets, led by Zedekiah, predict victory. Micaiah at first says the same, but Ahab presses him, and he describes Israel scattered like sheep without a shepherd.
Hezekiah's officials ask him to use Aramaic, but he shouts in Hebrew to the people on the wall. He tells them not to trust Hezekiah or the LORD and offers peace on Assyrian terms, and the people stay silent.
Memucan argues that Vashti's conduct wronged everyone and will make wives across the empire despise their husbands. He proposes an irrevocable decree removing her as queen and replacing her with a better woman.
Job says his friends are unreliable like seasonal streams that vanish in summer and disappoint thirsty caravans. He notes he never asked them for money or rescue, only for kindness.
Job invites his friends to show him where he is wrong. He says their arguments prove nothing and asks them to look at him honestly, insisting his integrity is at stake.
Zophar says Job's stream of words should not go unanswered and that Job claims to be pure. He wishes God would speak and says God is exacting less than Job's sin deserves.
Job sarcastically says his friends must be the only wise people and insists he understands as much as they do. He says the righteous are mocked while those who provoke God are secure.
Job says he knows all that they know and wants to argue his case with God. He calls his friends worthless physicians and warns that defending God with lies will not please Him.