Genesis 24, Matthew 23, Nehemiah 13, Acts 23

Genesis 24,

Abraham was now old and well advanced in years, and the LORD had blessed him in every way.
He said to the chief servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, "Put your hand under my thigh.
I want you to swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living,
but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac."
The servant asked him, "What if the woman is unwilling to come back with me to this land? Shall I then take your son back to the country you came from?"
  
  "Make sure that you do not take my son back there," Abraham said.
"The LORD, the God of heaven, who brought me out of my father's household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, 'To your offspring I will give this land'-he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there.
If the woman is unwilling to come back with you, then you will be released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there."
So the servant put his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and swore an oath to him concerning this matter.
Then the servant took ten of his master's camels and left, taking with him all kinds of good things from his master. He set out for Aram Naharaim and made his way to the town of Nahor.
  
  He had the camels kneel down near the well outside the town; it was toward evening, the time the women go out to draw water.
Then he prayed, "O LORD, God of my master Abraham, give me success today, and show kindness to my master Abraham.
See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water.
May it be that when I say to a girl, 'Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,' and she says, 'Drink, and I'll water your camels too'-let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master."
Before he had finished praying, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah, who was the wife of Abraham's brother Nahor.
  
  The girl was very beautiful, a virgin; no man had ever lain with her. She went down to the spring, filled her jar and came up again.
The servant hurried to meet her and said, "Please give me a little water from your jar."
"Drink, my lord," she said, and quickly lowered the jar to her hands and gave him a drink.
After she had given him a drink, she said, "I'll draw water for your camels too, until they have finished drinking."
So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough, ran back to the well to draw more water, and drew enough for all his camels.
  
  Without saying a word, the man watched her closely to learn whether or not the LORD had made his journey successful.
When the camels had finished drinking, the man took out a gold nose ring weighing a beka and two gold bracelets weighing ten shekels.
Then he asked, "Whose daughter are you? Please tell me, is there room in your father's house for us to spend the night?"
She answered him, "I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son that Milcah bore to Nahor."
And she added, "We have plenty of straw and fodder, as well as room for you to spend the night."
  
  Then the man bowed down and worshiped the LORD,
saying, "Praise be to the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his kindness and faithfulness to my master. As for me, the LORD has led me on the journey to the house of my master's relatives."
The girl ran and told her mother's household about these things.
Now Rebekah had a brother named Laban, and he hurried out to the man at the spring.
As soon as he had seen the nose ring, and the bracelets on his sister's arms, and had heard Rebekah tell what the man said to her, he went out to the man and found him standing by the camels near the spring.
  
  "Come, you who are blessed by the LORD," he said. "Why are you standing out here? I have prepared the house and a place for the camels."
So the man went to the house, and the camels were unloaded. Straw and fodder were brought for the camels, and water for him and his men to wash their feet.
Then food was set before him, but he said, "I will not eat until I have told you what I have to say." "Then tell us," Laban said.
So he said, "I am Abraham's servant.
The LORD has blessed my master abundantly, and he has become wealthy. He has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, menservants and maidservants, and camels and donkeys.
  
  My master's wife Sarah has borne him a son in her old age, and he has given him everything he owns.
And my master made me swear an oath, and said, 'You must not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live,
but go to my father's family and to my own clan, and get a wife for my son.'
"Then I asked my master, 'What if the woman will not come back with me?'
"He replied, 'The LORD, before whom I have walked, will send his angel with you and make your journey a success, so that you can get a wife for my son from my own clan and from my father's family.
  
  Then, when you go to my clan, you will be released from my oath even if they refuse to give her to you--you will be released from my oath.'
"When I came to the spring today, I said, 'O LORD, God of my master Abraham, if you will, please grant success to the journey on which I have come.
See, I am standing beside this spring; if a maiden comes out to draw water and I say to her, "Please let me drink a little water from your jar,"
and if she says to me, "Drink, and I'll draw water for your camels too," let her be the one the LORD has chosen for my master's son.'
"Before I finished praying in my heart, Rebekah came out, with her jar on her shoulder. She went down to the spring and drew water, and I said to her, 'Please give me a drink.'
  
  "She quickly lowered her jar from her shoulder and said, 'Drink, and I'll water your camels too.' So I drank, and she watered the camels also.
"I asked her, 'Whose daughter are you?' "She said, 'The daughter of Bethuel son of Nahor, whom Milcah bore to him.' "Then I put the ring in her nose and the bracelets on her arms,
and I bowed down and worshiped the LORD. I praised the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me on the right road to get the granddaughter of my master's brother for his son.
Now if you will show kindness and faithfulness to my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, so I may know which way to turn."
Laban and Bethuel answered, "This is from the LORD; we can say nothing to you one way or the other.
  
  Here is Rebekah; take her and go, and let her become the wife of your master's son, as the LORD has directed."
When Abraham's servant heard what they said, he bowed down to the ground before the LORD.
Then the servant brought out gold and silver jewelry and articles of clothing and gave them to Rebekah; he also gave costly gifts to her brother and to her mother.
Then he and the men who were with him ate and drank and spent the night there. When they got up the next morning, he said, "Send me on my way to my master."
But her brother and her mother replied, "Let the girl remain with us ten days or so; then you may go."
  
  But he said to them, "Do not detain me, now that the LORD has granted success to my journey. Send me on my way so I may go to my master."
Then they said, "Let's call the girl and ask her about it."
So they called Rebekah and asked her, "Will you go with this man?" "I will go," she said.
So they sent their sister Rebekah on her way, along with her nurse and Abraham's servant and his men.
And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, "Our sister, may you increase to thousands upon thousands; may your offspring possess the gates of their enemies."
  
  Then Rebekah and her maids got ready and mounted their camels and went back with the man. So the servant took Rebekah and left.
Now Isaac had come from Beer Lahai Roi, for he was living in the Negev.
He went out to the field one evening to meditate, and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching.
Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac. She got down from her camel
and asked the servant, "Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?" "He is my master," the servant answered. So she took her veil and covered herself.
  
  Then the servant told Isaac all he had done.
Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.

Matthew 23,

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:
"The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat.
So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.
They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
"Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long;
  
  they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues;
they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them 'Rabbi.'
"But you are not to be called 'Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers.
And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.
Nor are you to be called 'teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ.
  
  The greatest among you will be your servant.
For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.
  
  "Woe to you, blind guides! You say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.'
You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?
You also say, 'If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.'
You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.
  
  And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it.
And he who swears by heaven swears by God's throne and by the one who sits on it.
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
  
  Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.
In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.
And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.'
  
  So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.
Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!
"You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?
Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.
And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.
  
  I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.
Look, your house is left to you desolate.
For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'"
 

Nehemiah 13,

On that day the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people and there it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be admitted into the assembly of God,
because they had not met the Israelites with food and water but had hired Balaam to call a curse down on them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into a blessing.)
When the people heard this law, they excluded from Israel all who were of foreign descent.
Before this, Eliashib the priest had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God. He was closely associated with Tobiah,
and he had provided him with a large room formerly used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple articles, and also the tithes of grain, new wine and oil prescribed for the Levites, singers and gatekeepers, as well as the contributions for the priests.
  
  But while all this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had returned to the king. Some time later I asked his permission
and came back to Jerusalem. Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God.
I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah's household goods out of the room.
I gave orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense.
I also learned that the portions assigned to the Levites had not been given to them, and that all the Levites and singers responsible for the service had gone back to their own fields.
  
  So I rebuked the officials and asked them, "Why is the house of God neglected?" Then I called them together and stationed them at their posts.
All Judah brought the tithes of grain, new wine and oil into the storerooms.
I put Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and a Levite named Pedaiah in charge of the storerooms and made Hanan son of Zaccur, the son of Mattaniah, their assistant, because these men were considered trustworthy. They were made responsible for distributing the supplies to their brothers.
Remember me for this, O my God, and do not blot out what I have so faithfully done for the house of my God and its services.
In those days I saw men in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, together with wine, grapes, figs and all other kinds of loads. And they were bringing all this into Jerusalem on the Sabbath. Therefore I warned them against selling food on that day.
  
  Men from Tyre who lived in Jerusalem were bringing in fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling them in Jerusalem on the Sabbath to the people of Judah.
I rebuked the nobles of Judah and said to them, "What is this wicked thing you are doing--desecrating the Sabbath day?
Didn't your forefathers do the same things, so that our God brought all this calamity upon us and upon this city? Now you are stirring up more wrath against Israel by desecrating the Sabbath."
When evening shadows fell on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered the doors to be shut and not opened until the Sabbath was over. I stationed some of my own men at the gates so that no load could be brought in on the Sabbath day.
Once or twice the merchants and sellers of all kinds of goods spent the night outside Jerusalem.
  
  But I warned them and said, "Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you do this again, I will lay hands on you." From that time on they no longer came on the Sabbath.
Then I commanded the Levites to purify themselves and go and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember me for this also, O my God, and show mercy to me according to your great love.
Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab.
Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of one of the other peoples, and did not know how to speak the language of Judah.
I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath in God's name and said: "You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves.
  
  Was it not because of marriages like these that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel, but even he was led into sin by foreign women.
Must we hear now that you too are doing all this terrible wickedness and are being unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women?"
One of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high priest was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite. And I drove him away from me.
Remember them, O my God, because they defiled the priestly office and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites.
So I purified the priests and the Levites of everything foreign, and assigned them duties, each to his own task.
  
  I also made provision for contributions of wood at designated times, and for the firstfruits. Remember me with favor, O my God.
 

Acts 23

Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, "My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day."
At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth.
Then Paul said to him, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!"
Those who were standing near Paul said, "You dare to insult God's high priest?"
Paul replied, "Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: 'Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.'"
  
  Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, "My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. I stand on trial because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead."
When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.
(The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, and that there are neither angels nor spirits, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.)
There was a great uproar, and some of the teachers of the law who were Pharisees stood up and argued vigorously. "We find nothing wrong with this man," they said. "What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?"
The dispute became so violent that the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them. He ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force and bring him into the barracks.
  
  The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, "Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome."
The next morning the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul.
More than forty men were involved in this plot.
They went to the chief priests and elders and said, "We have taken a solemn oath not to eat anything until we have killed Paul.
Now then, you and the Sanhedrin petition the commander to bring him before you on the pretext of wanting more accurate information about his case. We are ready to kill him before he gets here."
  
  But when the son of Paul's sister heard of this plot, he went into the barracks and told Paul.
Then Paul called one of the centurions and said, "Take this young man to the commander; he has something to tell him."
So he took him to the commander. The centurion said, "Paul, the prisoner, sent for me and asked me to bring this young man to you because he has something to tell you."
The commander took the young man by the hand, drew him aside and asked, "What is it you want to tell me?"
He said: "The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul before the Sanhedrin tomorrow on the pretext of wanting more accurate information about him.
  
  Don't give in to them, because more than forty of them are waiting in ambush for him. They have taken an oath not to eat or drink until they have killed him. They are ready now, waiting for your consent to their request."
The commander dismissed the young man and cautioned him, "Don't tell anyone that you have reported this to me."
Then he called two of his centurions and ordered them, "Get ready a detachment of two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen to go to Caesarea at nine tonight.
Provide mounts for Paul so that he may be taken safely to Governor Felix."
He wrote a letter as follows:
  
  Claudius Lysias, To His Excellency, Governor Felix: Greetings.
This man was seized by the Jews and they were about to kill him, but I came with my troops and rescued him, for I had learned that he is a Roman citizen.
I wanted to know why they were accusing him, so I brought him to their Sanhedrin.
I found that the accusation had to do with questions about their law, but there was no charge against him that deserved death or imprisonment.
When I was informed of a plot to be carried out against the man, I sent him to you at once. I also ordered his accusers to present to you their case against him.
  
  So the soldiers, carrying out their orders, took Paul with them during the night and brought him as far as Antipatris.
The next day they let the cavalry go on with him, while they returned to the barracks.
When the cavalry arrived in Caesarea, they delivered the letter to the governor and handed Paul over to him.
The governor read the letter and asked what province he was from. Learning that he was from Cilicia,
he said, "I will hear your case when your accusers get here." Then he ordered that Paul be kept under guard in Herod's palace.