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5 Steps to Standing Strong in Spiritual Warfare (For Women)

Spiritual Training: The Discipline of Fasting and Solitude

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The Way to True Happiness

Strength for Singles - Lessons From Sampson

Is God Really Trustworthy?

Kingdom Masculinity

What Is the Fear of the Lord?

The Listener’s Bible®: NIV Edition

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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 ch27" data-usfm="GEN.27">
 <div class="label">27</div><div class="p"> 1When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called for Esau his older son and said to him, &#8220;My son.&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;Here I am,&#8221; he answered.</div><div class="p"> 2Isaac said, &#8220;I am now an old man and don&#8217;t know the day of my death. 3Now then, get your equipment&#8212;your quiver and bow&#8212;and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me. 4Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 5Now Rebekah was listening as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau left for the open country to hunt game and bring it back, 6Rebekah said to her son Jacob, &#8220;Look, I overheard your father say to your brother Esau, 7&#8216;Bring me some game and prepare me some tasty food to eat, so that I may give you my blessing in the presence of the Lord before I die.&#8217; 8Now, my son, listen carefully and do what I tell you: 9Go out to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, so I can prepare some tasty food for your father, just the way he likes it. 10Then take it to your father to eat, so that he may give you his blessing before he dies.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 11Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, &#8220;But my brother Esau is a hairy man while I have smooth skin. 12What if my father touches me? I would appear to be tricking him and would bring down a curse on myself rather than a blessing.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 13His mother said to him, &#8220;My son, let the curse fall on me. Just do what I say; go and get them for me.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 14So he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and she prepared some tasty food, just the way his father liked it. 15Then Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob. 16She also covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the goatskins. 17Then she handed to her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made.</div><div class="p"> 18He went to his father and said, &#8220;My father.&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;Yes, my son,&#8221; he answered. &#8220;Who is it?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 19Jacob said to his father, &#8220;I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 20Isaac asked his son, &#8220;How did you find it so quickly, my son?&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;The Lord your God gave me success,&#8221; he replied.</div><div class="p"> 21Then Isaac said to Jacob, &#8220;Come near so I can touch you, my son, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 22Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, &#8220;The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.&#8221; 23He did not recognize him, for his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he proceeded to bless him. 24&#8220;Are you really my son Esau?&#8221; he asked.</div><div class="p">&#8220;I am,&#8221; he replied.</div><div class="p"> 25Then he said, &#8220;My son, bring me some of your game to eat, so that I may give you my blessing.&#8221;</div><div class="p">Jacob brought it to him and he ate; and he brought some wine and he drank. 26Then his father Isaac said to him, &#8220;Come here, my son, and kiss me.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 27So he went to him and kissed him. When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said,</div><div class="q1">&#8220;Ah, the smell of my son</div><div class="q2">is like the smell of a field</div><div class="q2">that the Lord has blessed.</div><div class="q1"> 28May God give you heaven&#8217;s dew</div><div class="q2">and earth&#8217;s richness&#8212;</div><div class="q2">an abundance of grain and new wine.</div><div class="q1"> 29May nations serve you</div><div class="q2">and peoples bow down to you.</div><div class="q1">Be lord over your brothers,</div><div class="q2">and may the sons of your mother bow down to you.</div><div class="q1">May those who curse you be cursed</div><div class="q2">and those who bless you be blessed.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 30After Isaac finished blessing him, and Jacob had scarcely left his father&#8217;s presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting. 31He too prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Then he said to him, &#8220;My father, please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 32His father Isaac asked him, &#8220;Who are you?&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;I am your son,&#8221; he answered, &#8220;your firstborn, Esau.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 33Isaac trembled violently and said, &#8220;Who was it, then, that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came and I blessed him&#8212;and indeed he will be blessed!&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 34When Esau heard his father&#8217;s words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, &#8220;Bless me&#8212;me too, my father!&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 35But he said, &#8220;Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 36Esau said, &#8220;Isn&#8217;t he rightly named Jacob#27:36 Jacob means he grasps the heel, a Hebrew idiom for he takes advantage of or he deceives.? This is the second time he has taken advantage of me: He took my birthright, and now he&#8217;s taken my blessing!&#8221; Then he asked, &#8220;Haven&#8217;t you reserved any blessing for me?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 37Isaac answered Esau, &#8220;I have made him lord over you and have made all his relatives his servants, and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. So what can I possibly do for you, my son?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 38Esau said to his father, &#8220;Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!&#8221; Then Esau wept aloud.</div><div class="p"> 39His father Isaac answered him,</div><div class="q1">&#8220;Your dwelling will be</div><div class="q2">away from the earth&#8217;s richness,</div><div class="q2">away from the dew of heaven above.</div><div class="q1"> 40You will live by the sword</div><div class="q2">and you will serve your brother.</div><div class="q1">But when you grow restless,</div><div class="q2">you will throw his yoke</div><div class="q2">from off your neck.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 41Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, &#8220;The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 42When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, &#8220;Your brother Esau is planning to avenge himself by killing you. 43Now then, my son, do what I say: Flee at once to my brother Laban in Harran. 44Stay with him for a while until your brother&#8217;s fury subsides. 45When your brother is no longer angry with you and forgets what you did to him, I&#8217;ll send word for you to come back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 46Then Rebekah said to Isaac, &#8220;I&#8217;m disgusted with living because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living.&#8221;</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bk1SA">
 <div class="chapter ch5" data-usfm="1SA.5">
 <div class="label">5</div><div class="s1">The Ark in Ashdod and Ekron</div><div class="p"> 1After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 2Then they carried the ark into Dagon&#8217;s temple and set it beside Dagon. 3When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! They took Dagon and put him back in his place. 4But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained. 5That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor any others who enter Dagon&#8217;s temple at Ashdod step on the threshold.</div><div class="p"> 6The Lord&#8217;s hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity; he brought devastation on them and afflicted them with tumors.#5:6 Hebrew; Septuagint and Vulgate tumors. And rats appeared in their land, and there was death and destruction throughout the city 7When the people of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, &#8220;The ark of the god of Israel must not stay here with us, because his hand is heavy on us and on Dagon our god.&#8221; 8So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and asked them, &#8220;What shall we do with the ark of the god of Israel?&#8221;</div><div class="p">They answered, &#8220;Have the ark of the god of Israel moved to Gath.&#8221; So they moved the ark of the God of Israel.</div><div class="p"> 9But after they had moved it, the Lord&#8217;s hand was against that city, throwing it into a great panic. He afflicted the people of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumors.#5:9 Or with tumors in the groin (see Septuagint) 10So they sent the ark of God to Ekron.</div><div class="p">As the ark of God was entering Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, &#8220;They have brought the ark of the god of Israel around to us to kill us and our people.&#8221; 11So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, &#8220;Send the ark of the god of Israel away; let it go back to its own place, or it#5:11 Or he will kill us and our people.&#8221; For death had filled the city with panic; God&#8217;s hand was very heavy on it. 12Those who did not die were afflicted with tumors, and the outcry of the city went up to heaven.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bk1SA">
 <div class="chapter ch6" data-usfm="1SA.6">
 <div class="label">6</div><div class="s1">The Ark Returned to Israel</div><div class="p"> 1When the ark of the Lord had been in Philistine territory seven months, 2the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, &#8220;What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we should send it back to its place.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 3They answered, &#8220;If you return the ark of the god of Israel, do not send it back to him without a gift; by all means send a guilt offering to him. Then you will be healed, and you will know why his hand has not been lifted from you.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 4The Philistines asked, &#8220;What guilt offering should we send to him?&#8221;</div><div class="p">They replied, &#8220;Five gold tumors and five gold rats, according to the number of the Philistine rulers, because the same plague has struck both you and your rulers. 5Make models of the tumors and of the rats that are destroying the country, and give glory to Israel&#8217;s god. Perhaps he will lift his hand from you and your gods and your land. 6Why do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh did? When Israel&#8217;s god dealt harshly with them, did they not send the Israelites out so they could go on their way?</div><div class="p"> 7&#8220;Now then, get a new cart ready, with two cows that have calved and have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up. 8Take the ark of the Lord and put it on the cart, and in a chest beside it put the gold objects you are sending back to him as a guilt offering. Send it on its way, 9but keep watching it. If it goes up to its own territory, toward Beth Shemesh, then the Lord has brought this great disaster on us. But if it does not, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us but that it happened to us by chance.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 10So they did this. They took two such cows and hitched them to the cart and penned up their calves. 11They placed the ark of the Lord on the cart and along with it the chest containing the gold rats and the models of the tumors. 12Then the cows went straight up toward Beth Shemesh, keeping on the road and lowing all the way; they did not turn to the right or to the left. The rulers of the Philistines followed them as far as the border of Beth Shemesh.</div><div class="p"> 13Now the people of Beth Shemesh were harvesting their wheat in the valley, and when they looked up and saw the ark, they rejoiced at the sight. 14The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and there it stopped beside a large rock. The people chopped up the wood of the cart and sacrificed the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. 15The Levites took down the ark of the Lord, together with the chest containing the gold objects, and placed them on the large rock. On that day the people of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the Lord. 16The five rulers of the Philistines saw all this and then returned that same day to Ekron.</div><div class="p"> 17These are the gold tumors the Philistines sent as a guilt offering to the Lord&#8212;one each for Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron. 18And the number of the gold rats was according to the number of Philistine towns belonging to the five rulers&#8212;the fortified towns with their country villages. The large rock on which the Levites set the ark of the Lord is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh.</div><div class="p"> 19But God struck down some of the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, putting seventy#6:19 A few Hebrew manuscripts; most Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint 50,070 of them to death because they looked into the ark of the Lord. The people mourned because of the heavy blow the Lord had dealt them. 20And the people of Beth Shemesh asked, &#8220;Who can stand in the presence of the Lord, this holy God? To whom will the ark go up from here?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 21Then they sent messengers to the people of Kiriath Jearim, saying, &#8220;The Philistines have returned the ark of the Lord. Come down and take it up to your town.&#8221;</div>
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