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God made all kinds of wild animals, all kinds of cattle, and
all kinds of creeping things of the earth. God saw how good it
was. Then God said: "Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the
birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all the wild animals
and all the creatures that crawl on the ground." God created
man in his image; in the divine image he created
him; male and female he created them. God blessed them,
saying: "Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue
it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air,
and all the living things that move on the earth." God also
said: "See, I give you every seed-bearing plant all over the
earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your
food; and to all the animals of the land, all the birds of the
air, and all the living creatures that crawl on the ground, I give
all the green plants for food." And so it happened. God
looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good.
Evening came, and morning followed - the sixth day. [GEN 1:25-31]
Such is the story of the heavens and the earth at their
creation. At the time when the LORD God made the earth and
the heavens - while as yet there was no field shrub on earth and
no grass of the field had sprouted, for the LORD God had sent no
rain upon the earth and there was no man to till the soil, but a
stream was welling up out of the earth and was watering all the
surface of the ground - the LORD God formed man out of the clay of
the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so
man became a living being. Then the LORD God planted a garden in
Eden, in the east, and he placed there the man whom he had formed.
[GEN 2:4-8]
The LORD God then took the man and settled him in the garden of
Eden, to cultivate and care for it. The LORD God gave man this
order: "You are free to eat from any of the trees of the
garden except the tree of knowledge of good and bad. From that
tree you shall not eat; the moment you eat from it you are surely
doomed to die." The LORD God said: "It is not good for
the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him."
So the LORD God formed out of the ground various wild animals and
various birds of the air, and he brought them to the man to see
what he would call them; whatever the man called each of them
would be its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, all the
birds of the air, and all the wild animals; but none proved to be
the suitable partner for the man. So the LORD God cast a deep
sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his
ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The LORD God then built
up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man. When he
brought her to the man, the man said: "This one, at
last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; This
one shall be called 'woman,' for out of 'her man' this one
has been taken." That is why a man leaves his father and
mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one
body. The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no
shame. [GEN 2:15-25]
Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals that
the LORD God had made. The serpent asked the woman, "Did God
really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the
garden?" The woman answered the serpent: "We may eat of
the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit
of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, 'You shall
not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.'" But the serpent
said to the woman: "You certainly will not die! No, God knows
well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and
you will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad."
The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the
eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its
fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was
with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were
opened, and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig
leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. When they
heard the sound of the LORD God moving about in the garden at the
breezy time of the day, the man and his wife hid themselves from
the LORD God among the trees of the garden. The LORD God then
called to the man and asked him, "Where are you?" He
answered, "I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid,
because I was naked, so I hid myself." Then he asked,
"Who told you that you were naked? You have eaten, then, from
the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!" The man
replied, "The woman whom you put here with me - she gave me
fruit from the tree, so I ate it." The LORD God then asked
the woman, "Why did you do such a thing?" The woman
answered, "The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it."
Then the LORD God said to the serpent: "Because you have
done this, you shall be banned from all the animals and
from all the wild creatures; On your belly shall you
crawl, and dirt shall you eat all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your
offspring and hers; He will strike at your head, while
you strike at his heel." To the woman he said: "I
will intensify the pangs of your childbearing; in pain shall
you bring forth children. Yet your urge shall be for your
husband, and he shall be your master." To the man he
said: "Because you listened to your wife and ate from
the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat, Cursed be
the ground because of you! In toil shall you eat its
yield all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles shall it
bring forth to you, as you eat of the plants of the field. By
the sweat of your face shall you get bread to eat, Until
you return to the ground, from which you were taken; For
you are dirt, and to dirt you shall return." Then the
LORD God said: "See! The man has become like one of us,
knowing what is good and what is bad! Therefore, he must not be
allowed to put out his hand to take fruit from the tree of life
also, and thus eat of it and live forever." The LORD God
therefore banished him from the garden of Eden, to till the ground
from which he had been taken. When he expelled the man, he settled
him east of the garden of Eden; and he stationed the cherubim and
the fiery revolving sword, to guard the way to the tree of life.
[GEN 3:1-19,22-24]
The man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and
bore Cain, saying, "I have produced a man with the help of
the LORD." [GEN 4:1]
To Seth, in turn, a son was born, and he named him Enosh. At
that time men began to invoke the LORD by name. [GEN 4:26]
This is the record of the descendants of Adam. When God created
man, he made him in the likeness of God; he created them male and female. When they were created, he
blessed them and named them "man." [GEN 5:1-2]
When men began to multiply on earth and daughters were born to
them, the sons of heaven saw how beautiful the daughters of man
were, and so they took for their wives as many of them as they
chose. Then the LORD said: "My spirit shall not remain in man
forever, since he is but flesh. His days shall comprise one
hundred and twenty years." At that time the Nephilim appeared
on earth (as well as later), after the sons of heaven had
intercourse with the daughters of man, who bore them sons. They
were the heroes of old, the men of renown. [GEN 6:1-4]
When the LORD saw how great was man's wickedness on earth, and
how no desire that his heart conceived was ever anything but evil,
he regretted that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was
grieved. So the LORD said: "I will wipe out from the earth
the men whom I have created, and not only the men, but also the
beasts and the creeping things and the birds of the air, for I am
sorry that I made them." But Noah found favor with the LORD.
These are the descendants of Noah. Noah, a good man and blameless
in that age, for he walked with God, begot three sons: Shem, Ham,
and Japheth. [GEN 6:5-10]
All creatures that stirred on earth perished: birds, cattle,
wild animals, and all that swarmed on the earth, as well as all
mankind. Everything on dry land with the faintest breath of life
in its nostrils died out. The LORD wiped out every living thing on
earth: man and cattle, the creeping things and the birds of the
air; all were wiped out from the earth. Only Noah and those with
him in the ark were left. [GEN 7:21-23]
When the LORD smelled the sweet odor, he said to himself:
"Never again will I doom the earth because of man, since the
desires of man's heart are evil from the start; nor will I ever
again strike down all living beings, as I have done." [GEN 8:21]
For your own lifeblood, too, I will demand an accounting: from
every animal I will demand it, and from man in regard to his
fellow man I will demand an accounting for human life. [GEN 9:5]
Now Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard.
[GEN 9:20]
The LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men
had built. Then the LORD said: "If now, while they are one
people, all speaking the same language, they have started to do
this, nothing will later stop them from doing whatever they
presume to do. Let us then go down and there confuse their
language, so that one will not understand what another says."
Thus the LORD scattered them from there all over the earth, and
they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel,
because there the LORD confused the speech of all the world. It
was from that place that he scattered them all over the earth. [GEN 11:5-9]
Abraham prostrated himself and laughed as he said to himself,
"Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Or
can Sarah give birth at ninety?" [GEN 17:17]
Before they went to bed, all the townsmen of Sodom, both young
and old - all the people to the last man - closed in on the house.
[GEN 19:4]
But his guests put out their hands, pulled Lot inside with
them, and closed the door; at the same time they struck the men at
the entrance of the house, one and all, with such a blinding light
that they were utterly unable to reach the doorway. Then the
angels said to Lot: "Who else belongs to you here? Your sons
(sons-in-law) and your daughters and all who belong to you in the
city - take them away from it! We are about to destroy this place,
for the outcry reaching the LORD against those in the city is so
great that he has sent us to destroy it." So Lot went out and
spoke to his sons-in-law, who had contracted marriage with his
daughters. "Get up and leave this place," he told them;
"the LORD is about to destroy the city." But his
sons-in-law thought he was joking. As dawn was breaking, the
angels urged Lot on, saying, "On your way! Take with you your
wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept
away in the punishment of the city." When he hesitated, the
men, by the LORD'S mercy, seized his hand and the hands of his
wife and his two daughters and led them to safety outside the
city. [GEN 19:10-16]
Abimelech, who had not approached her, said: "O Lord,
would you slay a man even though he is innocent? He himself told
me, 'She is my sister,' and she herself also stated, 'He is my
brother.' I did it in good faith and with clean hands." God
answered him in the dream: "Yes, I know you did it in good
faith. In fact, it was I who kept you from sinning against me;
that is why I did not let you touch her. Therefore, return the
man's wife - as a spokesman he will intercede for you - that your
life may be saved. If you do not return her, you can be sure that
you and all who are yours will certainly die." [GEN 20:4-7]
The man watched her the whole time, silently waiting to learn
whether or not the LORD had made his errand successful. [GEN
24:21]
"But my brother Esau is a hairy man," said Jacob to
his mother Rebekah, "and I am smooth-skinned!" [GEN 27:11]
After he had taken them across the stream and had brought over
all his possessions, Jacob was left there alone. Then some man
wrestled with him until the break of dawn. When the man saw that
he could not prevail over him, he struck Jacob's hip at its
socket, so that the hip socket was wrenched as they wrestled. The
man then said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But
Jacob said, "I will not let you go until you bless me."
"What is your name?" the man asked. He answered,
"Jacob." Then the man said, "You shall no longer be
spoken of as Jacob, but as Israel, because you have contended with
divine and human beings and have prevailed." [GEN 32:24-29]
"Could we find another like him," Pharaoh asked his
officials, "a man so endowed with the spirit of God?"
[GEN 41:38]
When Joseph recognized his brothers, although they did not
recognize him, he was reminded of the dreams he had about them. He
said to them: "You are spies. You have come to see the
nakedness of the land." "No, my lord," they
replied. "On the contrary, your servants have come to procure
food. All of us are sons of the same man. We are honest men; your
servants have never been spies." But he answered them:
"Not so! You have come to see the nakedness of the
land." "We your servants," they said, "were
twelve brothers, sons of a certain man in Canaan; but the youngest
one is at present with our father, and the other one is
gone." [GEN 42:8-13]
Then Joseph gave his head steward these instructions:
"Fill the men's bags with as much food as they can carry, and
put each man's money in the mouth of his bag. In the mouth of the
youngest one's bag put also my silver goblet, together with the
money for his rations." The steward carried out Joseph's
instructions. At daybreak the men and their donkeys were sent off.
They had not gone far out of the city when Joseph said to his head
steward: "Go at once after the men! When you overtake them,
say to them, 'Why did you repay good with evil? Why did you steal
the silver goblet from me?'" [GEN 44:1-4]
"You, Reuben, my first-born, my strength and the first
fruit of my manhood, excelling in rank and excelling in power!"
[GEN 49:3]
The LORD said to him, "Who gives one man speech and makes
another deaf and dumb? Or who gives sight to one and makes another
blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Go, then! It is I who will assist
you in speaking and will teach you what you are to say." [EX 4:11-12]
In Midian the LORD said to Moses, "Go back to Egypt, for
all the men who sought your life are dead." [EX 4:19]
"Increase the work for the men, so that they keep their mind on
it and pay no attention to lying words." So the taskmasters
and foremen of the people went out and told them, "Thus says
Pharaoh: I will not provide you with straw. Go and gather the
straw yourselves, wherever you can find it. Yet there must not be
the slightest reduction in your work." [EX 5:9-11]
But Pharaoh's servants said to him, "How long must he be a
menace to us? Let the men go to worship the LORD, their God. Do
you not yet realize that Egypt is being destroyed?" So Moses
and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, who said to them,
"You may go and worship the LORD, your God. But how many of
you will go?" "Young and old must go with us,"
Moses answered, "our sons and daughters as well as our flocks
and herds must accompany us. That is what a feast of the LORD
means to us." "The LORD help you," Pharaoh replied,
"if I ever let your little ones go with you! Clearly, you
have some evil in mind. No, no! Just you men can go and worship
the LORD. After all, that is what you want." With that they
were driven from Pharaoh's presence. The LORD then said to Moses,
"Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt, that locusts
may swarm over it and eat up all the vegetation and whatever the
hail has left." [EX 10:7-12]
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward
the sky, that over the land of Egypt there may be such intense
darkness that one can feel it." So Moses stretched out his
hand toward the sky, and there was dense darkness throughout the
land of Egypt for three days. Men could not see one another, nor
could they move from where they were, for three days. But all the
Israelites had light where they dwelt. [EX 10:21-23]
For on this same night I will go through Egypt, striking down
every first-born of the land, both man and beast, and executing
judgment on all the gods of Egypt-I, the LORD! [EX 12:12]
"Consecrate to me every first-born that opens the womb
among the Israelites, both of man and beast, for it belongs to
me." [EX 13:2]
When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed
every first-born in the land of Egypt, every first-born of man and
of beast. That is why I sacrifice to the LORD everything of the
male sex that opens the womb, and why I redeem every first-born of
my sons. [EX 13:15]
On seeing it, the Israelites asked one another, "What is
this?" for they did not know what it was. But Moses told
them, "This is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat.
Now, this is what the LORD has commanded. So gather it that
everyone has enough to eat, an omer for each person, as many of
you as there are, each man providing for those of his own
tent." The Israelites did so. Some gathered a large and some
a small amount. But when they measured it out by the omer, he who
had gathered a large amount did not have too much, and he who had
gathered a small amount did not have too little. They so gathered
that everyone had enough to eat. [EX 16:15-18]
The next day Moses sat in judgment for the people, who waited
about him from morning until evening. When his father-in-law saw
all that he was doing for the people, he inquired, "What sort
of thing is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit
alone while all the people have to stand about you from morning
till evening?" Moses answered his father-in-law, "The
people come to me to consult God. Whenever they have a
disagreement, they come to me to have me settle the matter between
them and make known to them God's decisions and regulations."
"You are not acting wisely," his father-in-law replied.
"You will surely wear yourself out, and not only yourself but
also these people with you. The task is too heavy for you; you
cannot do it alone. Now, listen to me, and I will give you some
advice, that God may be with you. Act as the people's
representative before God, bringing to him whatever they have to
say. Enlighten them in regard to the decisions and regulations,
showing them how they are to live and what they are to do. But you
should also look among all the people for able and God-fearing
men, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain, and set them as
officers over groups of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of
tens. Let these men render decisions for the people in all
ordinary cases. More important cases they should refer to you, but
all the lesser cases they can settle themselves. Thus, your burden
will be lightened, since they will bear it with you. If you do
this, when God gives you orders you will be able to stand the
strain, and all these people will go home satisfied." Moses
followed the advice of his father-in-law and did all that he had
suggested. He picked out able men from all Israel and put them in
charge of the people as officers over groups of thousands, of
hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. They rendered decisions for the
people in all ordinary cases. The more difficult cases they
referred to Moses, but all the lesser cases they settled
themselves. Then Moses bade farewell to his father-in-law, who
went off to his own country. [EX 18:13-27]
Thrice a year shall all your men appear before the Lord GOD.
[EX 23:17]
"Tell the Israelites to take up a collection for me. From
every man you shall accept the contribution that his heart prompts
him to give me." [EX 25:2]
When the people became aware of Moses' delay in coming down
from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him,
"Come, make us a god who will be our leader; as for the man
Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what
has happened to him." [EX 32:1]
The LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as one man speaks
to another. Moses would then return to the camp, but his young
assistant, Joshua, son of Nun, would not move out of the tent.
Moses said to the LORD, "You, indeed, are telling me to lead
this people on; but you have not let me know whom you will send
with me. Yet you have said, 'You are my intimate friend,' and
also, 'You have found favor with me.' Now, if I have found favor
with you, do let me know your ways so that, in knowing you, I may
continue to find favor with you. Then, too, this nation is, after
all, your own people." "I myself," the LORD
answered, "will go along, to give you rest." Moses
replied, "If you are not going yourself, do not make us go up
from here. For how can it be known that we, your people and I,
have found favor with you, except by your going with us? Then we,
your people and I, will be singled out from every other people on
the earth." The LORD said to Moses, "This request, too,
which you have just made, I will carry out, because you have found
favor with me and you are my intimate friend." Then Moses
said, "Do let me see your glory!" He answered, "I
will make all my beauty pass before you, and in your presence I
will pronounce my name, 'LORD'; I who show favors to whom I will,
I who grant mercy to whom I will. But my face you cannot see, for
no man sees me and still lives." [EX 33:11-20]
The princes brought onyx stones and other gems for mounting on
the ephod and on the breastpiece; as well as spices, and oil for
the light, anointing oil, and fragrant incense. Every Israelite
man and woman brought to the LORD such voluntary offerings as they
thought best, for the various kinds of work which the LORD had
commanded Moses to have done. [EX
35:27-29]
Moses, therefore, ordered a proclamation to be made throughout
the camp: "Let neither man nor woman make any more
contributions for the sanctuary." So the people stopped
bringing their offerings; there was already enough at hand, in
fact, more than enough, to complete the work to be done. [EX 36:6-7]
If someone, without being aware of it, rashly utters an oath to do good or evil, such as men are accustomed to utter rashly, and then recognizes that he is guilty of such an
oath... [the guilty person shall] confess the sin he has incurred
[and bring a sin offering]. The priest shall then make atonement for his sin.
[Taken from LEV 5:4-6]
The rest of the oil in his hand the priest shall put on the
head of the man being purified. Thus shall the priest make
atonement for him before the LORD. [LEV 14:18]
Keep, then, my statutes and decrees, for the man who carries
them out will find life through them. I am the LORD. [LEV 18:5]
"You shall not act dishonestly in rendering judgment. Show
neither partiality to the weak nor deference to the mighty, but
judge your fellow men justly." [LEV 19:15]
"You shall not bear hatred for your brother in your heart.
Though you may have to reprove your fellow man, do not incur sin
because of him." [LEV 19:17]
Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your fellow
countrymen. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the
LORD. [LEV 19:18]
If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both [shall receive
the specified punishment for] their abominable deed; they have forfeited
their lives. [Taken from LEV 20:13] [Note: under Mosaic law,
capital punishment was applied in such cases]
Among the Israelites there was a man born of an Israelite
mother (Shelomith, daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan) and an
Egyptian father. This man quarreled publicly with another
Israelite and cursed and blasphemed the LORD'S name. So the people
brought him to Moses, who kept him in custody till a decision from
the LORD should settle the case for them. [LEV 24:10-12]
When one of your countrymen is reduced to poverty and has to
sell some of his property, his closest relative, who has the right
to redeem it, may go and buy back what his kinsman has sold. [LEV
25:25]
The Israelites did just as the LORD had commanded Moses; both
in camp and on the march they were in their own divisions, every
man according to his clan and his ancestral house. [NUM 2:34]
Now the LORD said to Moses: "Summon the tribe of Levi and
present them to Aaron the priest, as his assistants. They shall
discharge his obligations and those of the whole community before
the meeting tent by serving at the Dwelling. They shall have
custody of all the furnishings of the meeting tent and discharge
the duties of the Israelites in the service of the Dwelling. You
shall give the Levites to Aaron and his sons; they have been set
aside from among the Israelites as dedicated to me. But only Aaron
and his descendants shall you appoint to have charge of the
priestly functions. Any layman who comes near shall be put to
death." The LORD said to Moses, "It is I who have chosen
the Levites from the Israelites in place of every first-born that
opens the womb among the Israelites. The Levites, therefore, are
mine, because every first-born is mine. When I slew all the
first-born in the land of Egypt, I made all the first-born in
Israel sacred to me, both of man and of beast. They belong to me;
I am the LORD." [NUM 3:5-13]
The service of the Gershonites shall be entirely under the
direction of Aaron and his sons, with regard to what they must do
and what they must carry; you shall make each man of them
responsible for what he is to carry. [NUM 4:27]
The LORD said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites: If a man (or
a woman) commits a fault against his fellow man and wrongs him,
thus breaking faith with the LORD, he shall confess the wrong he
has done, restore his ill-gotten goods in full, and in addition
give one fifth of their value to the one he has wronged." [NUM 5:5-7]
The LORD said to Moses: "Speak to the Israelites and tell
them: When a man (or a woman) solemnly takes the nazirite vow to
dedicate himself to the LORD, he shall abstain from wine and
strong drink; he may neither drink wine vinegar, other vinegar, of
any kind of grape juice, nor eat either fresh or dried grapes. As
long as he is a nazirite he shall not eat anything of the produce
of the vine; not even unripe grapes or grapeskins. While he is
under the nazirite vow, no razor shall touch his hair. Until the
period of his dedication to the LORD is over, he shall be sacred,
and shall let the hair of his head grow freely. As long as he is
dedicated to the LORD, he shall not enter where a dead person is.
Not even for his father or mother, his sister or brother, should
they die, may he become unclean, since his head bears his
dedication to God. As long as he is a nazirite he is sacred to the
LORD." [NUM 6:1-8]
Indeed, all the first-born among the Israelites, both of man
and of beast, belong to me; I consecrated them to myself on the
day I slew all the first-born in the land of Egypt. [NUM 8:17]
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Assemble for me seventy of
the elders of Israel, men you know for true elders and authorities
among the people, and bring them to the meeting tent. When they
are in place beside you, I will come down and speak with you
there. I will also take some of the spirit that is on you and will
bestow it on them, that they may share the burden of the people
with you. You will then not have to bear it by yourself." [NUM 11:16-17]
So Moses went out and told the people what the LORD had said.
Gathering seventy elders of the people, he had them stand around
the tent. The LORD then came down in the cloud and spoke to him.
Taking some of the spirit that was on Moses, he bestowed it on the
seventy elders; and as the spirit came to rest on them, they
prophesied. Now two men, one named Eldad and the other Medad, were
not in the gathering but had been left in the camp. They too had
been on the list, but had not gone out to the tent; yet the spirit
came to rest on them also, and they prophesied in the camp. So,
when a young man quickly told Moses, "Eldad and Medad are
prophesying in the camp," Joshua, son of Nun, who from his
youth had been Moses' aide, said, "Moses, my lord, stop
them." But Moses answered him, "Are you jealous for my
sake? Would that all the people of the LORD were prophets! Would
that the LORD might bestow his spirit on them all!" Then
Moses retired to the camp, along with the elders of Israel. [NUM 11:24-30]
Now, Moses himself was by far the meekest man on the face of
the earth. [NUM 12:3]
The LORD said to Moses, "Send men to reconnoiter the land
of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. You shall send one
man from each ancestral tribe, all of them princes." [NUM 13:1-2]
Caleb, however, to quiet the people toward Moses, said,
"We ought to go up and seize the land, for we can certainly
do so." But the men who had gone up with him said, "We
cannot attack these people; they are too strong for us." So
they spread discouraging reports among the Israelites about the
land they had scouted, saying, "The land that we explored is
a country that consumes its inhabitants. And all the people we saw
there are huge men, veritable giants (the Anakim were a race of
giants); we felt like mere grasshoppers, and so we must have
seemed to them." [NUM 13:30-33]
The LORD answered: "I pardon them as you have asked. Yet,
by my life and the LORD'S glory that fills the whole earth, of all
the men who have seen my glory and the signs I worked in Egypt and
in the desert, and who nevertheless have put me to the test ten
times already and have failed to heed my voice, not one shall see
the land which I promised on oath to their fathers. None of these
who have spurned me shall see it. But because my servant Caleb has
a different spirit and follows me unreservedly, I will bring him
into the land where he has just been, and his descendants shall
possess it." [NUM 14:20-24]
And so it happened to the men whom Moses had sent to
reconnoiter the land and who on returning had set the whole
community grumbling against him by spreading discouraging reports
about the land; these men who had given out the bad report about
the land were struck down by the LORD and died. Of all the men who
had gone to reconnoiter the land, only Joshua, son of Nun, and
Caleb, son of Jephunneh, survived. [NUM 14:36-38]
The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Stand apart from this
band, that I may consume them at once." But they fell
prostrate and cried out, "O God, God of the spirits of all
mankind, will one man's sin make you angry with the whole
community?" [Taken from NUM 16:20-22]
Moses, followed by the elders of Israel, arose and went to
Dathan and Abiram. Then he warned the community, "Keep away
from the tents of these wicked men and do not touch anything that
is theirs: otherwise you too will be swept away because of all
their sins." When Dathan and Abiram had come out and were
standing at the entrances of their tents with their wives and sons
and little ones, Moses said, "This is how you shall know that
it was the LORD who sent me to do all I have done, and that it was
not I who planned it: if these men die an ordinary death, merely
suffering the fate common to all mankind, then it was not the LORD
who sent me. But if the LORD does something entirely new, and the
ground opens its mouth and swallows them alive down into the
nether world, with all belonging to them, then you will know that
these men have defied the LORD." No sooner had he finished
saying all this than the ground beneath them split open, and the
earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their families (and
all of Korah's men) and all their possessions. They went down
alive to the nether world with all belonging to them; the earth
closed over them, and they perished from the community. But all
the Israelites near them fled at their shrieks, saying, "The
earth might swallow us too!" So they withdrew from the space
around the Dwelling (of Korah, Dathan and Abiram). And fire from
the LORD came forth which consumed the two hundred and fifty men
who were offering the incense. [NUM 16:25-35]
The LORD now said to Moses, "Speak to the Israelites and
get one staff from them for each ancestral house, twelve staffs in
all, one from each of their tribal princes. Mark each man's name
on his staff; and mark Aaron's name on Levi's staff, for the head
of Levi's ancestral house shall also have a staff. Then lay them
down in the meeting tent, in front of the commandments, where I
meet you. There the staff of the man of my choice shall sprout.
Thus will I suppress from my presence the Israelites' grumbling
against you." So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and their
princes gave him staffs, twelve in all, one from each tribal
prince; and Aaron's staff was with them. Then Moses laid the
staffs down before the LORD in the tent of the commandments. The
next day, when Moses entered the tent, Aaron's staff, representing
the house of Levi, had sprouted and put forth not only shoots, but
blossoms as well, and even bore ripe almonds! Moses thereupon
brought out all the staffs from the LORD'S presence to the
Israelites. After each prince identified his own staff and took
it, the LORD said to Moses, "Put back Aaron's staff in front
of the commandments, to be kept there as a warning to the
rebellious, so that their grumbling may cease before me; if it
does not, they will die." And Moses did as the LORD had
commanded him. [NUM 17:16-26]
Then the Israelites cried out to Moses, "We are perishing;
we are lost, we are all lost! Every time anyone approaches the
Dwelling of the LORD, he dies! Are we to perish to the last
man?" [NUM 17:27-28]
Every living thing that opens the womb, whether of man or of
beast, such as are to be offered to the LORD, shall be yours; but
you must let the first-born of man, as well as of unclean animals,
be redeemed. [NUM 18:15]
Any unclean man who fails to have himself purified shall be cut
off from the community, because he defiles the sanctuary of the
LORD. As long as the lustral water has not been splashed over him,
he remains unclean. [NUM 19:20]
Then God came to Balaam and said, "Who are these men
visiting you?" Balaam answered God, "Balak, son of
Zippor, king of Moab, sent me the message: 'This people that came
here from Egypt now cover the face of the earth. Please come and
lay a curse on them for us; we may then be able to give them
battle and drive them out.'" But God said to Balaam, "Do
not go with them and do not curse this people, for they are
blessed." [NUM 22:9-12]
That night God came to Balaam and said to him, "If these
men have come to summon you, you may go with them; yet only on the
condition that you do exactly as I tell you." [NUM 22:20]
But the angel of the LORD said to Balaam, "Go with the
men; but you may say only what I tell you." So Balaam went on
with the princes of Balak. [NUM 22:35]
God is not man that he should speak falsely, nor human, that he
should change his mind. Is he one to speak and not act, to decree
and not fulfill? [NUM 23:19]
These, then, were the men registered by Moses and the priest
Eleazar in the census of the Israelites taken on the plains of
Moab along the Jericho stretch of the Jordan. Among them there was
not a man of those who had been registered by Moses and the priest
Aaron in the census of the Israelites taken in the desert of
Sinai. For the LORD had told them that they would surely die in
the desert, and not one of them was left except Caleb, son of
Jephunneh, and Joshua, son of Nun. [NUM 26:63-65]
Then Moses said to the LORD, "May the LORD, the God of the
spirits of all mankind, set over the community a man who shall act
as their leader in all things, to guide them in all their actions;
that the LORD'S community may not be like sheep without a
shepherd." And the LORD replied to Moses, "Take Joshua,
son of Nun, a man of spirit, and lay your hand upon him. Have him
stand in the presence of the priest Eleazar and of the whole
community, and commission him before their eyes. Invest him with
some of your own dignity, that the whole Israelite community may
obey him. He shall present himself to the priest Eleazar, to have
him seek out for him the decisions of the Urim in the LORD'S
presence; and as he directs, Joshua, all the Israelites with him,
and the community as a whole shall perform all their
actions." Moses did as the LORD had commanded him. Taking
Joshua and having him stand in the presence of the priest Eleazar
and of the whole community, he laid his hands on him and gave him
his commission, as the LORD had directed through Moses. [NUM 27:15-23]
When a man makes a vow to the LORD or binds himself under oath
to a pledge of abstinence, he shall not violate his word, but must
fulfill exactly the promise he has uttered. [NUM 30:3]
So Moses told the people, "Select men from your midst and
arm them for war, to attack the Midianites and execute the LORD'S
vengeance on them." [NUM 31:3]
"At that time the wrath of the LORD flared up, and he swore,
'Because they have not followed me unreservedly, none of these men
of twenty years or more who have come up from Egypt shall ever see
this country I promised under oath to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob,
except the Kenizzite Caleb, son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, son of
Nun, who have followed the LORD unreservedly.' So in his anger
with the Israelites the LORD made them wander in the desert forty
years, until the whole generation that had done evil in the sight
of the LORD had died out. And now here you are, a brood of
sinners, rising up in your fathers' place to add still more to the
LORD'S blazing wrath against the Israelites. If you turn away from
following him, he will make them stay still longer in the desert,
and so you will bring about the ruin of this whole nation." [NUM 32:10-15]
'But how can I alone bear the crushing burden that you are,
along with your bickering? Choose wise, intelligent and
experienced men from each of your tribes, that I may appoint them
as your leaders.' You answered me, 'We agree to do as you have
proposed.' So I took outstanding men of your tribes, wise and
experienced, and made them your leaders as officials over
thousands, over hundreds, over fifties and over tens, and other
tribal officers. I charged your judges at that time, 'Listen to
complaints among your kinsmen, and administer true justice to both
parties even if one of them is an alien. In rendering judgment, do
not consider who a person is; give ear to the lowly and to the
great alike, fearing no man, for judgment is God's. Refer to me
any case that is too hard for you and I will hear it.' Thereupon I
gave you all the commands you were to fulfill. [DEUT 1:12-18]
"But I said to you, 'Have no dread or fear of them. The
LORD, your God, who goes before you, will himself fight for you,
just as he took your part before your very eyes in Egypt, as well
as in the desert, where you saw how the LORD, your God, carried
you, as a man carries his child, all along your journey until you
arrived at this place.' Despite this, you would not trust the
LORD, your God, who journeys before you to find you a resting
place - by day in the cloud, and by night in the fire, to show the
way you must go. When the LORD heard your words, he was angry; and
he swore, 'Not one man of this evil generation shall look upon the
good land I swore to give to your fathers, except Caleb, son of
Jephunneh; he shall see it. For to him and to his sons I will give
the land he trod upon, because he has followed the LORD
unreservedly.'" [DEUT 1:29-36]
"You saw no form at all on the day the LORD spoke to you
at Horeb from the midst of the fire. Be strictly on your guard,
therefore, not to degrade yourselves by fashioning an idol to
represent any figure, whether it be the form of a man or a woman,
of any animal on the earth or of any bird that flies in the sky,
of anything that crawls on the ground or of any fish in the waters
under the earth." [DEUT 4:15-18]
The LORD will scatter you among the nations, and there shall
remain but a handful of you among the nations to which the LORD
will lead you. There you shall serve gods fashioned by the hands
of man out of wood and stone, gods which can neither see nor hear,
neither eat nor smell. Yet there too you shall seek the LORD, your
God; and you shall indeed find him when you search after him with
your whole heart and your whole soul. In your distress, when all
these things shall have come upon you, you shall finally return to
the LORD, your God, and heed his voice. Since the LORD, your God,
is a merciful God, he will not abandon and destroy you, nor forget
the covenant which under oath he made with your fathers. [DEUT 4:27-31]
"Ask now of the days of old, before your time, ever since
God created man upon the earth; ask from one end of the sky to the
other: Did anything so great ever happen before? Was it ever heard
of? Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the
midst of fire, as you did, and live? Or did any god venture to go
and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by
testings, by signs and wonders, by war, with his strong hand and
outstretched arm, and by great terrors, all of which the LORD,
your God, did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? All this you
were allowed to see that you might know the LORD is God and there
is no other. Out of the heavens he let you hear his voice to
discipline you; on earth he let you see his great fire, and you
heard him speaking out of the fire. For love of your fathers he
chose their descendants and personally led you out of Egypt by his
great power, driving out of your way nations greater and mightier
than you, so as to bring you in and to make their land your
heritage, as it is today. This is why you must now know, and fix
in your heart, that the LORD is God in the heavens above and on
earth below, and that there is no other. You must keep his
statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you today, that you
and your children after you may prosper, and that you may have
long life on the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you
forever." [DEUT 4:32-40]
"These words, and nothing more, the LORD spoke with a loud
voice to your entire assembly on the mountain from the midst of
the fire and the dense cloud. He wrote them upon two tablets of
stone and gave them to me. But when you heard the voice from the
midst of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire,
you came to me in the person of all your tribal heads and elders,
and said, 'The LORD, our God, has indeed let us see his glory and
his majesty! We have heard his voice from the midst of the fire
and have found out today that a man can still live after God has
spoken with him. But why should we die now? Surely this great fire
will consume us. If we hear the voice of the LORD, our God, any
more, we shall die. For what mortal has heard, as we have, the
voice of the living God speaking from the midst of fire, and
survived? Go closer, you, and hear all that the LORD, our God,
will say, and then tell us what the LORD, our God, tells you; we
will listen and obey.'" [DEUT 5:22-27]
"As your reward for heeding these decrees and observing
them carefully, the LORD, your God, will keep with you the
merciful covenant which he promised on oath to your fathers. He
will love and bless and multiply you; he will bless the fruit of
your womb and the produce of your soil, your grain and wine and
oil, the issue of your herds and the young of your flocks, in the
land which he swore to your fathers he would give you. You will be
blessed above all peoples; no man or woman among you shall be
childless nor shall your livestock be barren. The LORD will remove
all sickness from you; he will not afflict you with any of the
malignant diseases that you know from Egypt, but will leave them
with all your enemies. You shall consume all the nations
which the LORD, your God, will deliver up to you. You are not to
look on them with pity, lest you be ensnared into serving their
gods... He will deliver their kings into your hand, that you may
make their names perish from under the heavens. No man will be
able to stand up against you, till you have put an end to them." [DEUT 7:12-16,24]
He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you
with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers, in order to
show you that not by bread alone does man live, but by every word
that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD. [DEUT 8:3]
So you must realize that the LORD, your God, disciplines you
even as a man disciplines his son. [DEUT 8:5]
If one of your kinsmen in any community is in need in the land
which the LORD, your God, is giving you, you shall not harden your
heart nor close your hand to him in his need. [DEUT 15:7]
"If there is found among you, in any one of the
communities which the LORD, your God, gives you, a man or a woman
who does evil in the sight of the LORD, your God, and transgresses
his covenant, by serving other gods, or by worshiping the sun or
the moon or any of the host of the sky, against my command; and
if, on being informed of it, you find by careful investigation
that it is true and an established fact that this abomination has
been committed in Israel: you shall bring the man (or woman) who
has done the evil deed out to your city gates... Thus shall you
purge the evil from your midst." [Taken from DEUT 17:2-5,7] [Note: under Mosaic law,
capital punishment was applied in such cases]
Any man who has the insolence to refuse to listen to the priest
who officiates there in the ministry of the LORD, your God, or to
the judge, shall [receive the prescribed sentence]. Thus shall you purge the evil from your
midst. And all the people, on hearing of it, shall fear, and never
again be so insolent. [Taken from DEUT 17:12-13] [Note: under Mosaic law,
capital punishment was applied in such cases]
"When you have come into the land which the LORD, your
God, is giving you, and have occupied it and settled in it, should
you then decide to have a king over you like all the surrounding
nations, you shall set that man over you as your king whom the
LORD, your God, chooses. He whom you set over you as king must be
your kinsman; a foreigner, who is no kin of yours, you may not set
over you. But he shall not have a great number of horses; nor
shall he make his people go back again to Egypt to acquire them,
against the LORD'S warning that you must never go back that way
again. Neither shall he have a great number of wives, lest his
heart be estranged, nor shall he accumulate a vast amount of
silver and gold. When he is enthroned in his kingdom, he shall
have a copy of this law made from the scroll that is in the
custody of the levitical priests. He shall keep it with him and
read it all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the
LORD, his God, and to heed and fulfill all the words of this law
and these statutes. Let him not become estranged from his
countrymen through pride, nor turn aside to the right or to the
left from these commandments. Then he and his descendants will
enjoy a long reign in Israel." [DEUT
17:14-20]
"A prophet like me will the LORD, your God, raise up for
you from among your own kinsmen; to him you shall listen. This is
exactly what you requested of the LORD, your God, at Horeb on the
day of the assembly, when you said, 'Let us not again hear the
voice of the LORD, our God, nor see this great fire any more, lest
we die.' And the LORD said to me, 'This was well said. I will
raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kinsmen, and
will put my words into his mouth; he shall tell them all that I
command him. If any man will not listen to my words which he
speaks in my name, I myself will make him answer for it.'" [DEUT 18:15-19]
"One witness alone shall not take the stand against a man
in regard to any crime or any offense of which he may be guilty; a
judicial fact shall be established only on the testimony of two or
three witnesses. If an unjust witness takes the stand
against a man to accuse him of a defection from the law, the two
parties in the dispute shall appear before the LORD in the
presence of the priests or judges in office at that time; and if
after a thorough investigation the judges find that the witness is
a false witness and has accused his kinsman falsely, you shall do
to him as he planned to do to his kinsman. Thus shall you purge
the evil from your midst. The rest, on hearing of it, shall fear,
and never again do a thing so evil among you." [DEUT 19:15-20]
On the contrary, he shall recognize as his first-born the son
of her whom he dislikes, giving him a double share of whatever he
happens to own, since he is the first fruits of his manhood, and
to him belong the rights of the first-born. [DEUT 21:17]
"If a man has a stubborn and unruly son who will not
listen to his father or mother, and will not obey them even though
they chastise him, his father and mother shall have him
apprehended and brought out to the elders at the gate of his home
city, where they shall say to those city elders, 'This son of ours
is a stubborn and unruly fellow who will not listen to us; he is a
glutton and a drunkard.'" [DEUT 21:18-20] [Note: under Mosaic law,
capital punishment was applied in such cases]
"A woman shall not wear an article proper to a man, nor
shall a man put on a woman's dress; for anyone who does such
things is an abomination to the LORD, your God." [DEUT 22:5]
"When a man is newly wed, he need not go out on a military
expedition, nor shall any public duty be imposed on him. He shall
be exempt for one year for the sake of his family, to bring joy to
the wife he has married." [DEUT 24:5]
"Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor
children for their fathers; only for his own guilt shall a man be
put to death." [DEUT 24:16]
Thereupon the elders of his city shall summon him and admonish
him. If he persists in saying, 'I am not willing to marry her,'
his sister-in-law, in the presence of the elders, shall go up to
him and strip his sandal from his foot and spit in his face,
saying publicly, 'This is how one should be treated who will not
build up his brother's family!' And his lineage shall be spoken of
in Israel as 'the family of the man stripped of his sandal.' [DEUT
25:8-10]
'Cursed be the man who makes a carved or molten idol - an
abomination to the LORD, the product of a craftsman's hands - and
sets it up in secret!' And all the people shall answer, 'Amen!'
[DEUT
27:15]
'Cursed be he who misleads a blind man on his way!' And all the
people shall answer, 'Amen!' [DEUT 27:18]
"You are all now standing before the LORD, your God - your
chiefs and judges, your elders and officials, and all of the men
of Israel, together with your wives and children and the aliens
who live in your camp, down to those who hew wood and draw water
for you - that you may enter into the covenant of the LORD, your
God, which he concluded with you today under this sanction of a
curse; so that he may now establish you as his people and he may
be your God, as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But it is not with you alone that I am
making this covenant, under this sanction of a curse; it is just
as much with those who are not here among us today as it is with
those of us who are now here present before the LORD, our God." [DEUT 29:9-14]
Let there be, then, no man or woman, no clan or tribe among
you, who would now turn away their hearts from the LORD, our God,
to go and serve these pagan gods! Let there be no root that would
bear such poison and wormwood among you. If any such person, upon
hearing the words of this curse, should beguile himself into
thinking that he can safely persist in his stubbornness of heart,
as though to sweep away both the watered soil and the parched
ground, the LORD will never consent to pardon him. Instead, the
LORD'S wrath and jealousy will flare up against that man, and
every curse mentioned in this book will alight on him. The LORD
will blot out his name from under the heavens and will single him
out from all the tribes of Israel for doom, in keeping with all
the curses of the covenant inscribed in this book of the law. [DEUT 29:17-20]
Assemble the people - men, women and children, as well as the
aliens who live in your communities - that they may hear it and
learn it, and so fear the LORD, your God, and carefully observe
all the words of this law. [DEUT 31:12]
This is the blessing which Moses, the man of God, pronounced
upon the Israelites before he died. He said: "The LORD
came from Sinai and dawned on his people from Seir; He
shone forth from Mount Paran and advanced from
Meribath-kadesh, While at his right hand a fire blazed
forth and his wrath devastated the nations. But all his holy
ones were in his hand; they followed at his feet and he
bore them up on his pinions. A law he gave to us; he made the
community of Jacob his domain, and he became king of his
darling. When the chiefs of the people assembled and the
tribes of Israel came together. May Reuben live and not die
out, but let his men be few."... [Taken from DEUT 33:1-6]
After the entire nation had crossed the Jordan, the LORD said
to Joshua, "Choose twelve men from the people, one from each
tribe, and instruct them to take up twelve stones from this spot
in the bed of the Jordan where the priests have been standing
motionless. Carry them over with you, and place them where you are
to stay tonight." Summoning the twelve men whom he had
selected from among the Israelites, one from each tribe, Joshua
said to them: "Go to the bed of the Jordan in front of the
ark of the LORD, your God; lift to your shoulders one stone
apiece, so that they will equal in number the tribes of the
Israelites. In the future, these are to be a sign among you. When
your children ask you what these stones mean to you, you shall
answer them, 'The waters of the Jordan ceased to flow before the
ark of the covenant of the LORD when it crossed the Jordan.' Thus
these stones are to serve as a perpetual memorial to the
Israelites." [JOSH 4:1-7]
On this occasion the LORD said to Joshua, "Make flint
knives and circumcise the Israelite nation for the second
time." So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the
Israelites at Gibeath-haaraloth, under these circumstances: Of all
the people who came out of Egypt, every man of military age had
died in the desert during the journey after they left Egypt.
Though all the men who came out were circumcised, none of those
born in the desert during the journey after the departure from
Egypt were circumcised. [JOSH 5:2-5]
On that occasion Joshua imposed the oath: Cursed before the
LORD be the man who attempts to rebuild this city, Jericho. He
shall lose his first-born when he lays its foundation, and he
shall lose his youngest son when he sets up its gates. Thus the
LORD was with Joshua so that his fame spread throughout the land.
[JOSH
6:26-27]
On this day, when the LORD delivered up the Amorites to
the Israelites, Joshua prayed to the LORD, and said in
the presence of Israel: Stand still, O sun, at Gibeon, O
moon, in the valley of Aijalon! And the sun stood still, and
the moon stayed, while the nation took vengeance on its
foes. Is this not recorded in the Book of Jashar? The sun
halted in the middle of the sky; not for a whole day did it
resume its swift course. Never before or since was there a
day like this, when the LORD obeyed the voice of a man; for the
LORD fought for Israel. [JOSH 10:12-14]
"If you consider the land you now possess unclean, cross over to
the land the LORD possesses, where the Dwelling of the LORD
stands, and share that with us. But do not rebel against the LORD,
nor involve us in rebellion, by building an altar of your own in
addition to the altar of the LORD, our God. When Achan, son of
Zerah, violated the ban, did not wrath fall upon the entire
community of Israel? Though he was but a single man, he did not
perish alone for his guilt!" [JOSH 22:19-20]
"Today, as you see, I am going the way of all men. So now
acknowledge with your whole heart and soul that not one of all the
promises the LORD, your God, made to you has remained unfulfilled.
Every promise has been fulfilled for you, with not one single
exception. But just as every promise the LORD, your God, made to
you has been fulfilled for you, so will he fulfill every threat,
even so far as to exterminate you from this good land which the
LORD, your God, has given you. If you transgress the covenant of
the LORD, your God, which he enjoined on you, serve other gods and
worship them, the anger of the LORD will flare up against you and
you will quickly perish from the good land which he has given
you." [JOSH 23:14-16]
Sing of them to the strains of the harpers at the wells, where
men recount the just deeds of the LORD, his just deeds that
brought freedom to Israel. [JUDG 5:11]
"I shall be with you," the LORD said to him,
"and you will cut down Midian to the last man." [JUDG
6:16]
"Put this question to all the citizens of Shechem: 'Which
is better for you: that seventy men, or all Jerubbaal's sons, rule
over you, or that one man rule over you?' You must remember that I
am your own flesh and bone." [JUDG 9:2]
At the end of the two months she returned to her father, who
did to her as he had vowed. She had not been intimate with man. It
then became a custom in Israel for Israelite women to go yearly to
mourn the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite for four days of the
year. [JUDG 11:39-40]
His father also went down to the woman, and Samson gave a
banquet there, since it was customary for the young men to do
this. When they met him, they brought thirty men to be his
companions. [JUDG 14:10-11]
So while he slept, Delilah wove his seven locks of hair into
the web, and fastened them in with the pin. Then she said,
"The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" Awakening from
his sleep, he pulled out both the weaver's pin and the web. Then
she said to him, "How can you say that you love me when you
do not confide in me? Three times already you have mocked me, and
not told me the secret of your great strength!" She
importuned him continually and vexed him with her complaints till
he was deathly weary of them. So he took her completely into his
confidence and told her, "No razor has touched my head, for I
have been consecrated to God from my mother's womb. If I am
shaved, my strength will leave me, and I shall be as weak as any
other man." When Delilah saw that he had taken her completely
into his confidence, she summoned the lords of the Philistines,
saying, "Come up this time, for he has opened his heart to
me." So the lords of the Philistines came and brought up the
money with them. She had him sleep on her lap, and called for a
man who shaved off his seven locks of hair. Then she began to
mistreat him, for his strength had left him. [JUDG 16:14-19]
Boaz ate and drank to his heart's content. Then when he went
and lay down at the edge of the sheaves, she stole up, uncovered a
place at his feet, and lay down. In the middle of the night,
however, the man gave a start and turned around to find a woman
lying at his feet. He asked, "Who are you?" And she
replied, "I am your servant Ruth. Spread the corner of your
cloak over me, for you are my next of kin." He said,
"May the LORD bless you, my daughter! You have been even more
loyal now than before in not going after the young men, whether
poor or rich. So be assured, daughter, I will do for you whatever
you say; all my townspeople know you for a worthy woman." [RUTH 3:7-11]
"He will guard the footsteps of his faithful ones, but the
wicked shall perish in the darkness. For not by strength does
man prevail; the LORD'S foes shall be shattered. The Most
High in heaven thunders; The LORD judges the ends of the
earth, Now may he give strength to his king, and exalt
the horn of his anointed!" [1SAM 2:9-10]
Thus the young men sinned grievously in the presence of the
LORD; they treated the offerings to the LORD with disdain. [1SAM
2:17]
"If a man sins against another man, one can intercede for him
with the LORD; but if a man sins against the LORD, who can
intercede for him?" But they disregarded their father's
warning, since the LORD had decided on their death. Meanwhile, young Samuel was growing in stature and in worth in
the estimation of the LORD and of men. [1SAM 2:25-26]
This, therefore, is the oracle of the LORD, the God of Israel:
'I said in the past that your family and your father's family
should minister in my presence forever. But now,' the LORD
declares, 'away with this! for I will honor those who honor me,
but those who spurn me shall be accursed. Yes, the time is coming
when I will break your strength and the strength of your father's
family, so that no man in your family shall reach old age. You
shall witness as a disappointed rival all the benefits enjoyed by
Israel, but there shall never be an old man in your family. I will
permit some of your family to remain at my altar, to wear out
their eyes in consuming greed; but the rest of the men of your
family shall die by the sword.' [1SAM 2:30-33]
"Take courage and be manly, Philistines; otherwise you will
become slaves to the Hebrews, as they were your slaves. So fight
manfully!" [1SAM 4:9]
The Philistines fought and Israel was defeated; every man fled
to his own tent. It was a disastrous defeat, in which Israel lost
thirty thousand foot soldiers. The ark of God was captured, and
Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were among the dead. [1SAM 4:10-11]
And the messenger answered: "Israel fled from the
Philistines; in fact, the troops suffered heavy losses. Your two
sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are among the dead, and the ark of God
has been captured." At this mention of the ark of God, Eli
fell backward from his chair into the gateway; since he was an old
man and heavy, he died of a broken neck. He had judged Israel for
forty years. [1SAM 4:17-18]
There was a stalwart man from Benjamin named Kish, who was the
son of Abiel, son of Zeror, son of Becorath, son of Aphiah, a
Benjaminite. He had a son named Saul, who was a handsome young
man. There was no other Israelite handsomer than Saul; he stood
head and shoulders above the people. [1SAM 9:1-2]
When they came to the land of Zuph, Saul said to the servant
who was with him, "Come, let us turn back, lest my father
forget about the asses and become anxious about us." The
servant replied, "Listen! There is a man of God in this city,
a man held in high esteem; all that he says is sure to come true.
Let us go there now! Perhaps he can tell us how to accomplish our
errand." But Saul said to his servant, "If we go, what
can we offer the man? There is no bread in our bags, and we have
no present to give the man of God. What have we?" Again the
servant answered Saul, "I have a quarter of a silver shekel.
If I give that to the man of God, he will tell us our way."
Saul then said to his servant, "Well said! Come on, let us
go!" And they went to the city where the man of God lived. [1SAM 9:5-10]
The day before Saul's arrival, the LORD had given Samuel the
revelation: "At this time tomorrow I will send you a man from
the land of Benjamin whom you are to anoint as commander of my
people Israel. He shall save my people from the clutches of the
Philistines, for I have witnessed their misery and accepted their
cry for help." When Samuel caught sight of Saul, the LORD
assured him, "This is the man of whom I told you; he is to
govern my people." [1SAM 9:15-17]
The spirit of the LORD will rush upon you, and you will join
them in their prophetic state and will be changed into another
man. [1SAM 10:6]
Samuel said to all the people, "Do you see the man whom
the LORD has chosen? There is none like him among all the
people!" Then all the people shouted, "Long live the
king!" [1SAM 10:24]
An unremitting war was waged against the Philistines during
Saul's lifetime. When Saul saw any strong or brave man, he took
him into his service. [1SAM 14:52]
"The Glory of Israel neither retracts nor repents, for he is not
man that he should repent." [1SAM 15:29]
But the LORD said to Samuel: "Do not judge from his
appearance or from his lofty stature, because I have rejected him.
Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance but
the LORD looks into the heart." [1SAM 16:7]
Jesse sent and had the young man brought to them. He was ruddy,
a youth handsome to behold and making a splendid appearance. The
LORD said, "There-anoint him, for this is he!" Then
Samuel, with the horn of oil in hand, anointed him in the midst of
his brothers; and from that day on, the spirit of the LORD rushed
upon David. When Samuel took his leave, he went to Ramah. [1SAM 16:12-13]
While he was talking with them, the Philistine champion, by
name Goliath of Gath, came up from the ranks of the Philistines
and spoke as before, and David listened. When the Israelites saw
the man, they all retreated before him, very much afraid. The
Israelites had been saying: "Do you see this man coming up?
He comes up to insult Israel. If anyone should kill him, the king
would give him great wealth, and his daughter as well, and would
grant exemption to his father's family in Israel." David now
said to the men standing by: "What will be done for the man
who kills this Philistine and frees Israel of the disgrace? Who is
this uncircumcised Philistine in any case, that he should insult
the armies of the living God?" They repeated the same words
to him and said, "That is how the man who kills him will be
rewarded." [1SAM 17:23-27]
David went to Ahimelech, the priest of Nob, who came trembling
to meet him and asked, "Why are you alone? Is there no one
with you?" David answered the priest: "The king gave me
a commission and told me to let no one know anything about the
business on which he sent me or the commission he gave me. For
that reason I have arranged a meeting place with my men. Now what
have you on hand? Give me five loaves, or whatever you can
find." But the priest replied to David, "I have no
ordinary bread on hand, only holy bread; if the men have abstained
from women, you may eat some of that." David answered the
priest: "We have indeed been segregated from women as on
previous occasions. Whenever I go on a journey, all the young men
are consecrated - even for a secular journey. All the more so
today, when they are consecrated at arms!" So the priest gave
him holy bread, for no other bread was on hand except the
showbread which had been removed from the LORD'S presence and
replaced by fresh bread when it was taken away.
[1SAM 21:2-7]
He said to his men, "The LORD forbid that I should do such
a thing to my master, the LORD'S anointed, as to lay a hand on
him, for he is the Lord's anointed." With these words David restrained his men and would not permit
them to attack Saul. Saul then left the cave and went on his way.
[1SAM 24:7-8]
For if a man meets his enemy, does he send him away unharmed?
May the LORD reward you generously for what you have done this
day. [1SAM 24:20]
Let not my lord pay attention to that worthless man Nabal, for
he is just like his name. Fool is his name, and he acts the fool.
I, your handmaid, did not see the young men whom my lord sent.
[1SAM 25:25]
The LORD will reward each man for his justice and faithfulness.
Today, though the LORD delivered you into my grasp, I would not
harm the LORD'S anointed. [1SAM 26:23]
Now David found himself in great difficulty, for the men spoke
of stoning him, so bitter were they over the fate of their sons
and daughters. But with renewed trust in the LORD his God, David
said to Abiathar, the priest, son of Ahimelech, "Bring me the
ephod!" When Abiathar brought him the ephod, David inquired
of the LORD, "Shall I pursue these raiders? Can I overtake
them?" The LORD answered him, "Go in pursuit, for you
shall surely overtake them and effect a rescue." [1SAM
30:6-8]
But all the stingy and worthless men among those who had
accompanied David spoke up to say, "Since they did not
accompany us, we will not give them anything from the booty,
except to each man his wife and children. Let them take those
along and be on their way." [1SAM 30:22]
David seized his garments and rent them, and all the men who
were with him did likewise. [2SAM 1:11]
David also brought up his men with their families, and they
dwelt in the cities near Hebron. Then the men of Judah came there
and anointed David king of the Judahites [Taken from 2SAM 2:3-4]
The king then said to his servants: "You must recognize
that a great general has fallen today in Israel. Although I am the
anointed king, I am weak this day, and these men, the sons of
Zeruiah, are too ruthless for me. May the LORD requite the
evildoer in accordance with his evil deed." [2SAM 3:38-39]
David again assembled all the picked men of Israel, thirty
thousand in number. Then David and all the people who were with
him set out for Baala of Judah to bring up from there the ark of
God, which bears the name of the LORD of hosts enthroned above the
cherubim. [2SAM 6:1-2]
"Now then, speak thus to my servant David, 'The LORD of
hosts has this to say: It was I who took you from the pasture and
from the care of the flock to be commander of my people Israel. I
have been with you wherever you went, and I have destroyed all
your enemies before you. And I will make you famous like the great
ones of the earth. I will fix a place for my people Israel; I will
plant them so that they may dwell in their place without further
disturbance. Neither shall the wicked continue to afflict them as
they did of old, since the time I first appointed judges over my
people Israel. I will give you rest from all your enemies. The
LORD also reveals to you that he will establish a house for you.
And when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will
raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will
make his kingdom firm. It is he who shall build a house for my
name. And I will make his royal throne firm forever. I will be a
father to him, and he shall be a son to me. And if he does wrong,
I will correct him with the rod of men and with human
chastisements; but I will not withdraw my favor from him as I
withdrew it from your predecessor Saul, whom I removed from my
presence. Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before
me; your throne shall stand firm forever.'" Nathan reported
all these words and this entire vision to David.
[2SAM 7:8-17]
Then King David went in and sat before the LORD and said,
"Who am I, Lord GOD, and who are the members of my house,
that you have brought me to this point? Yet even this you see as
too little, Lord GOD; you have also spoken of the house of your
servant for a long time to come: this too you have shown to man,
Lord GOD! What more can David say to you? You know your servant,
Lord GOD! For your servant's sake and as you have had at heart,
you have brought about this entire magnificent disclosure to your
servant. And so - Great are you, Lord GOD! There is none
like you and there is no God but you, just as we have heard it
told. What other nation on earth is there like your people Israel,
which God has led, redeeming it as his people; so that you have
made yourself renowned by doing this magnificent deed, and by
doing awe-inspiring things as you cleared nations and their gods
out of the way of your people, which you redeemed for yourself
from Egypt? You have established for yourself your people Israel
as yours forever, and you, LORD, have become their God. And now,
LORD God, confirm for all time the prophecy you have made
concerning your servant and his house, and do as you have
promised. Your name will be forever great, when men say, 'The LORD
of hosts is God of Israel,' and the house of your servant David
stands firm before you. It is you, LORD of hosts, God of Israel,
who said in a revelation to your servant, 'I will build a house
for you.' Therefore your servant now finds the courage to make
this prayer to you." [2SAM 7:18-27]
Then Nathan said to David: "You are the man! Thus says the
LORD God of Israel: 'I anointed you king of Israel. I rescued you
from the hand of Saul.'" [2SAM 12:7]
In all Israel there was not a man who could so be praised for
his beauty as Absalom, who was without blemish from the sole of
his foot to the crown of his head. [2SAM 14:25]
Absalom would say to him, "Your suit is good and just, but
there is no one to hear you in the king's name." And he would
continue: "If only I could be appointed judge in the land!
Then everyone who has a lawsuit to be decided might come to me and
I would render him justice." Whenever a man approached him to
show homage, he would extend his hand, hold him, and kiss him. By
behaving in this way toward all the Israelites who came to the
king for judgment, Absalom was stealing away the loyalties of the
men of Israel. [2SAM 15:3-6]
Then Ahimaaz called out and greeted the king. With face to the
ground he paid homage to the king and said, "Blessed be the
LORD your God, who has delivered up the men who rebelled against
my lord the king." [2SAM 18:28]
These are the last words of David: "The utterance of
David, son of Jesse; the utterance of the man God raised
up, Anointed of the God of Jacob, favorite of the Mighty
One of Israel. The spirit of the LORD spoke through me; his
word was on my tongue. The God of Israel spoke; of me the
Rock of Israel said, 'He that rules over men in
justice, that rules in the fear of God, Is like the morning
light at sunrise on a cloudless morning, making the
greensward sparkle after rain.' Is not my house firm before
God? He has made an eternal covenant with me, set forth
in detail and secured. Will he not bring to fruition all
my salvation and my every desire? But the wicked are all like
thorns to be cast away; they cannot be taken up by hand. He
who wishes to touch them must arm himself with iron and the
shaft of a spear, and they must be consumed by fire." [2SAM 23:1-7]
David answered Gad: "I am in very serious difficulty. Let
us fall by the hand of God, for he is most merciful; but let me
not fall by the hand of man." [2SAM 24:14]
When the time of David's death drew near, he gave these
instructions to his son Solomon: "I am going the way of all
mankind. Take courage and be a man. Keep the mandate of the LORD,
your God, following his ways and observing his statutes, commands,
ordinances, and decrees as they are written in the law of Moses,
that you may succeed in whatever you do, wherever you turn, and
the LORD may fulfill the promise he made on my behalf when he
said, 'If your sons so conduct themselves that they remain
faithful to me with their whole heart and with their whole soul,
you shall always have someone of your line on the throne of
Israel.'" [1KGS 2:1-4]
Solomon surpassed all the Cedemites and all the Egyptians in
wisdom. He was wiser than all other men - than Ethan the Ezrahite,
or Heman, Chalcol, and Darda, the musicians - and his fame spread
throughout the neighboring nations. [1KGS 5:10-11]
Men came to hear Solomon's wisdom from all nations, sent by all
the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom. [1KGS 5:14]
"Can it indeed be that God dwells among men on earth? If
the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain you, how much
less this temple which I have built!" [1KGS 8:27]
"If there is famine in the land or pestilence; or if
blight comes, or mildew, or a locust swarm, or devouring insects;
if an enemy of your people besieges them in one of their cities;
whatever plague or sickness there may be, if then any one (of your
entire people Israel) has remorse of conscience and offers some
prayer or petition, stretching out his hands toward this temple,
listen from your heavenly dwelling place and forgive. You who
alone know the hearts of all men, render to each one of them
according to his conduct; knowing their hearts, so treat them that
they may fear you as long as they live on the land you gave our
fathers." [1KGS 8:37-40]
"Men will answer: 'They forsook the LORD, their God, who brought
their fathers out of the land of Egypt; they adopted strange gods
which they worshiped and served. That is why the LORD has brought
down upon them all this evil.'" [1KGS 9:9]
Happy are your men, happy these servants of yours, who stand
before you always and listen to your wisdom. [1KGS 10:8]
"'Thus says the LORD: You must not march out to fight against
your brother Israelites. Let every man return home, for I have
brought this about.'" They accepted this message of the LORD
and gave up the expedition accordingly. [1KGS 12:24]
Then the king appealed to the man of God. "Entreat the
LORD, your God," he said, "and intercede for me that I
may be able to withdraw my hand." So the man of God entreated
the LORD, and the king recovered the normal use of his hand. [1KGS
13:6]
The LORD heard the prayer of Elijah; the life breath returned
to the child's body and he revived. Taking the child, Elijah
brought him down into the house from the upper room and gave him
to his mother. "See!" Elijah said to her, "your son
is alive." "Now indeed I know that you are a man of
God," the woman replied to Elijah. "The word of the LORD
comes truly from your mouth." [1KGS 17:22-24]
The young man (the guild prophet) went to Ramoth-gilead. When
he arrived, the commanders of the army were in session. "I
have a message for you, commander," he said. "For which
one of us?" asked Jehu. "For you, commander," he
answered. Jehu got up and went into the house. Then the young man
poured the oil on his head and said, "Thus says the LORD, the
God of Israel: 'I anoint you king over the people of the LORD,
over Israel.'" [2KGS 9:4-6]
None of the funds brought to the temple of the LORD were used
there to make silver cups, snuffers, basins, trumpets, or any gold
or silver article. Instead, they were given to the workmen, and
with them they repaired the temple of the LORD. Moreover, no
reckoning was asked of the men who were provided with the funds to
give to the workmen, because they held positions of trust. [2KGS 12:14-16]
Once some people were burying a man, when suddenly they spied
such a raiding band. So they cast the dead man into the grave of
Elisha, and everyone went off. But when the man came in contact
with the bones of Elisha, he came back to life and rose to his
feet. [2KGS 13:21]
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