The Way Up Is Down

Scarcity & Abundance: A Three-Day Journey in God’s Word

The Battle of Pride vs. Humility

Finding Hope: A Journey With Jesus for Women

Five Mere Christians

The Adversity Gospel: Trading Prosperity Promises and Deep Disappointment for Unsinkable Hope

Building Unshakeable Faith

Holy Week

You Are Called: Discover Your God-Given Gifts to Fulfill Your Purpose

Beautifully Scarred

The Listener’s Bible®: NIV Edition

New International Version™  (Anglicised), Audio Edition

Holy Bible, New International Version™ (Anglicised), South Asian Audio Edition

<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkGEN">
 <div class="chapter ch22" data-usfm="GEN.22">
 <div class="label">22</div><div class="s1">Abraham Tested</div><div class="p">1Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, &#8220;Abraham!&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;Here I am,&#8221; he replied.</div><div class="p">2Then God said, &#8220;Take your son, your only son, whom you love&#8212;Isaac&#8212;and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.&#8221;</div><div class="p">3Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5He said to his servants, &#8220;Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.&#8221;</div><div class="p">6Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, &#8220;Father?&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;Yes, my son?&#8221; Abraham replied.</div><div class="p">&#8220;The fire and wood are here,&#8221; Isaac said, &#8220;but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?&#8221;</div><div class="p">8Abraham answered, &#8220;God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.&#8221; And the two of them went on together.</div><div class="p">9When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, &#8220;Abraham! Abraham!&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;Here I am,&#8221; he replied.</div><div class="p">12&#8220;Do not lay a hand on the boy,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.&#8221;</div><div class="p">13Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram#22:13 Many manuscripts of the Masoretic Text, Samaritan Pentateuch, Septuagint and Syriac; most manuscripts of the Masoretic Text a ram behind him caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, &#8220;On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.&#8221;</div><div class="p">15The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16and said, &#8220;I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18and through your offspring#22:18 Or seed all nations on earth will be blessed,#22:18 Or and all nations on earth will use the name of your offspring in blessings (see 48:20) because you have obeyed me.&#8221;</div><div class="p">19Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.</div><div class="s1">Nahor&#8217;s Sons</div><div class="p">20Some time later Abraham was told, &#8220;Milkah is also a mother; she has borne sons to your brother Nahor: 21Uz the firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel (the father of Aram), 22Kesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph and Bethuel.&#8221; 23Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. Milkah bore these eight sons to Abraham&#8217;s brother Nahor. 24His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also had sons: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash and Maakah.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkJDG">
 <div class="chapter ch15" data-usfm="JDG.15">
 <div class="label">15</div><div class="s1">Samson&#8217;s Vengeance on the Philistines</div><div class="p">1Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He said, &#8220;I&#8217;m going to my wife&#8217;s room.&#8221; But her father would not let him go in.</div><div class="p">2&#8220;I was so sure you hated her,&#8221; he said, &#8220;that I gave her to your companion. Isn&#8217;t her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead.&#8221;</div><div class="p">3Samson said to them, &#8220;This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them.&#8221; 4So he went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails, 5lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves.</div><div class="p">6When the Philistines asked, &#8220;Who did this?&#8221; they were told, &#8220;Samson, the Timnite&#8217;s son-in-law, because his wife was given to his companion.&#8221;</div><div class="p">So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death. 7Samson said to them, &#8220;Since you&#8217;ve acted like this, I swear that I won&#8217;t stop until I get my revenge on you.&#8221; 8He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam.</div><div class="p">9The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi. 10The people of Judah asked, &#8220;Why have you come to fight us?&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;We have come to take Samson prisoner,&#8221; they answered, &#8220;to do to him as he did to us.&#8221;</div><div class="p">11Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, &#8220;Don&#8217;t you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?&#8221;</div><div class="p">He answered, &#8220;I merely did to them what they did to me.&#8221;</div><div class="p">12They said to him, &#8220;We&#8217;ve come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.&#8221;</div><div class="p">Samson said, &#8220;Swear to me that you won&#8217;t kill me yourselves.&#8221;</div><div class="p">13&#8220;Agreed,&#8221; they answered. &#8220;We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you.&#8221; So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock. 14As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. 15Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.</div><div class="p">16Then Samson said,</div><div class="q1">&#8220;With a donkey&#8217;s jawbone</div><div class="q2">I have made donkeys of them.#15:16 Or made a heap or two; the Hebrew for donkey sounds like the Hebrew for heap.</div><div class="q1">With a donkey&#8217;s jawbone</div><div class="q2">I have killed a thousand men.&#8221;</div><div class="m">17When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi.#15:17 Ramath Lehi means jawbone hill.</div><div class="p">18Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the Lord, &#8220;You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?&#8221; 19Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore,#15:19 En Hakkore means caller&#8217;s spring. and it is still there in Lehi.</div><div class="p">20Samson led#15:20 Traditionally judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkJDG">
 <div class="chapter ch16" data-usfm="JDG.16">
 <div class="label">16</div><div class="s1">Samson and Delilah</div><div class="p">1One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her. 2The people of Gaza were told, &#8220;Samson is here!&#8221; So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move during the night, saying, &#8220;At dawn we&#8217;ll kill him.&#8221;</div><div class="p">3But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night. Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.</div><div class="p">4Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. 5The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, &#8220;See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels#16:5 That is, about 28 pounds or about 13 kilograms of silver.&#8221;</div><div class="p">6So Delilah said to Samson, &#8220;Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.&#8221;</div><div class="p">7Samson answered her, &#8220;If anyone ties me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, I&#8217;ll become as weak as any other man.&#8221;</div><div class="p">8Then the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him with them. 9With men hidden in the room, she called to him, &#8220;Samson, the Philistines are upon you!&#8221; But he snapped the bowstrings as easily as a piece of string snaps when it comes close to a flame. So the secret of his strength was not discovered.</div><div class="p">10Then Delilah said to Samson, &#8220;You have made a fool of me; you lied to me. Come now, tell me how you can be tied.&#8221;</div><div class="p">11He said, &#8220;If anyone ties me securely with new ropes that have never been used, I&#8217;ll become as weak as any other man.&#8221;</div><div class="p">12So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them. Then, with men hidden in the room, she called to him, &#8220;Samson, the Philistines are upon you!&#8221; But he snapped the ropes off his arms as if they were threads.</div><div class="p">13Delilah then said to Samson, &#8220;All this time you have been making a fool of me and lying to me. Tell me how you can be tied.&#8221;</div><div class="p">He replied, &#8220;If you weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric on the loom and tighten it with the pin, I&#8217;ll become as weak as any other man.&#8221; So while he was sleeping, Delilah took the seven braids of his head, wove them into the fabric 14and#16:13,14 Some Septuagint manuscripts; Hebrew replied, &#8220;I can if you weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric on the loom.&#8221; 14 So she tightened it with the pin.</div><div class="p">Again she called to him, &#8220;Samson, the Philistines are upon you!&#8221; He awoke from his sleep and pulled up the pin and the loom, with the fabric.</div><div class="p">15Then she said to him, &#8220;How can you say, &#8216;I love you,&#8217; when you won&#8217;t confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven&#8217;t told me the secret of your great strength.&#8221; 16With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was sick to death of it.</div><div class="p">17So he told her everything. &#8220;No razor has ever been used on my head,&#8221; he said, &#8220;because I have been a Nazirite dedicated to God from my mother&#8217;s womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.&#8221;</div><div class="p">18When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, &#8220;Come back once more; he has told me everything.&#8221; So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands. 19After putting him to sleep on her lap, she called for someone to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him.#16:19 Hebrew; some Septuagint manuscripts and he began to weaken And his strength left him.</div><div class="p">20Then she called, &#8220;Samson, the Philistines are upon you!&#8221;</div><div class="p">He awoke from his sleep and thought, &#8220;I&#8217;ll go out as before and shake myself free.&#8221; But he did not know that the Lord had left him.</div><div class="p">21Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison. 22But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.</div><div class="s1">The Death of Samson</div><div class="p">23Now the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate, saying, &#8220;Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands.&#8221;</div><div class="p">24When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying,</div><div class="q1">&#8220;Our god has delivered our enemy</div><div class="q2">into our hands,</div><div class="q1">the one who laid waste our land</div><div class="q2">and multiplied our slain.&#8221;</div><div class="p">25While they were in high spirits, they shouted, &#8220;Bring out Samson to entertain us.&#8221; So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them.</div><div class="p">When they stood him among the pillars, 26Samson said to the servant who held his hand, &#8220;Put me where I can feel the pillars that support the temple, so that I may lean against them.&#8221; 27Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform. 28Then Samson prayed to the Lord, &#8220;Sovereign Lord, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.&#8221; 29Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, 30Samson said, &#8220;Let me die with the Philistines!&#8221; Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.</div><div class="p">31Then his brothers and his father&#8217;s whole family went down to get him. They brought him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led#16:31 Traditionally judged Israel twenty years.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkMAT">
 <div class="chapter ch23" data-usfm="MAT.23">
 <div class="label">23</div><div class="s1">A Warning Against Hypocrisy</div><div class="p">1Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2&#8220;The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses&#8217; seat. 3So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people&#8217;s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.</div><div class="p">5 &#8220;Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries #23:5 That is, boxes containing Scripture verses, worn on forehead and arm wide and the tassels on their garments long; 6they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; 7they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called &#8216;Rabbi&#8217; by others.</div><div class="p">8 &#8220;But you are not to be called &#8216;Rabbi,&#8217; for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9And do not call anyone on earth &#8216;father,&#8217; for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. 10Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. 11The greatest among you will be your servant. 12For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.</div><div class="s1">Seven Woes on the Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees</div><div class="p">13 &#8220;Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people&#8217;s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. [14]#23:14 Some manuscripts include here words similar to Mark 12:40 and Luke 20:47.</div><div class="p">15 &#8220;Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.</div><div class="p">16 &#8220;Woe to you, blind guides! You say, &#8216;If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.&#8217; 17You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? 18You also say, &#8216;If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.&#8217; 19You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21And anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. 22And anyone who swears by heaven swears by God&#8217;s throne and by the one who sits on it.</div><div class="p">23 &#8220;Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices&#8212;mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law&#8212;justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.</div><div class="p">25 &#8220;Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.</div><div class="p">27 &#8220;Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.</div><div class="p">29 &#8220;Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. 30And you say, &#8216;If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.&#8217; 31So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 32Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!</div><div class="p">33 &#8220;You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? 34Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. 35And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.</div><div class="p">37 &#8220;Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. 38Look, your house is left to you desolate. 39For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, &#8216;Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.&#8217;#23:39 Psalm 118:26&#8221;</div>
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