1 Samuel 2, Romans 2, Jeremiah 41, Psalm 15, 16

1 Samuel 2,

1 Then Hannah prayed and said: "My heart rejoices in the LORD; in the LORD my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance.
 
2 "There is no one holy like the LORD; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.
 
3 "Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the LORD is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed.
 
4 "The bows of the warriors are broken, but those who stumbled are armed with strength.
 
5 Those who were full hire themselves out for food, but those who were hungry hunger no more. She who was barren has borne seven children, but she who has had many sons pines away.
 
6 "The LORD brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up.
 
7 The LORD sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts.
 
8 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor. "For the foundations of the earth are the LORD's; upon them he has set the world.
 
9 He will guard the feet of his saints, but the wicked will be silenced in darkness. "It is not by strength that one prevails;
 
10 those who oppose the LORD will be shattered. He will thunder against them from heaven; the LORD will judge the ends of the earth. "He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed."
 
11 Then Elkanah went home to Ramah, but the boy ministered before the LORD under Eli the priest.
 
12 Eli's sons were wicked men; they had no regard for the LORD.
 
13 Now it was the practice of the priests with the people that whenever anyone offered a sacrifice and while the meat was being boiled, the servant of the priest would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand.
 
14 He would plunge it into the pan or kettle or caldron or pot, and the priest would take for himself whatever the fork brought up. This is how they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh.
 
15 But even before the fat was burned, the servant of the priest would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, "Give the priest some meat to roast; he won't accept boiled meat from you, but only raw."
 
16 If the man said to him, "Let the fat be burned up first, and then take whatever you want," the servant would then answer, "No, hand it over now; if you don't, I'll take it by force."
 
17 This sin of the young men was very great in the LORD's sight, for they were treating the LORD's offering with contempt.
 
18 But Samuel was ministering before the LORD-a boy wearing a linen ephod.
 
19 Each year his mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice.
 
20 Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, "May the LORD give you children by this woman to take the place of the one she prayed for and gave to the LORD." Then they would go home.
 
21 And the LORD was gracious to Hannah; she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the LORD.
 
22 Now Eli, who was very old, heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
 
23 So he said to them, "Why do you do such things? I hear from all the people about these wicked deeds of yours.
 
24 No, my sons; it is not a good report that I hear spreading among the LORD's people.
 
25 If a man sins against another man, God may mediate for him; but if a man sins against the LORD, who will intercede for him?" His sons, however, did not listen to their father's rebuke, for it was the LORD's will to put them to death.
 
26 And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the LORD and with men.
 
27 Now a man of God came to Eli and said to him, "This is what the LORD says: 'Did I not clearly reveal myself to your father's house when they were in Egypt under Pharaoh?
 
28 I chose your father out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, and to wear an ephod in my presence. I also gave your father's house all the offerings made with fire by the Israelites.
 
29 Why do you scorn my sacrifice and offering that I prescribed for my dwelling? Why do you honor your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by my people Israel?'
 
30 "Therefore the LORD, the God of Israel, declares: 'I promised that your house and your father's house would minister before me forever.' But now the LORD declares: 'Far be it from me! Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained.
 
31 The time is coming when I will cut short your strength and the strength of your father's house, so that there will not be an old man in your family line
 
32 and you will see distress in my dwelling. Although good will be done to Israel, in your family line there will never be an old man.
 
33 Every one of you that I do not cut off from my altar will be spared only to blind your eyes with tears and to grieve your heart, and all your descendants will die in the prime of life.
 
34 " 'And what happens to your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, will be a sign to you-they will both die on the same day.
 
35 I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do according to what is in my heart and mind. I will firmly establish his house, and he will minister before my anointed one always.
 
36 Then everyone left in your family line will come and bow down before him for a piece of silver and a crust of bread and plead, "Appoint me to some priestly office so I can have food to eat." ' "
 

Romans 2,

1 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.
 
2 Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.
 
3 So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment?
 
4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?
 
5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.
 
6 God "will give to each person according to what he has done."
 
7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.
 
8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.
 
9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile;
 
10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
 
11 For God does not show favoritism.
 
12 All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.
 
13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.
 
14 (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law,
 
15 since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)
 
16 This will take place on the day when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.
 
17 Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God;
 
18 if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law;
 
19 if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark,
 
20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth-
 
21 you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?
 
22 You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
 
23 You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?
 
24 As it is written: "God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."
 
25 Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised.
 
26 If those who are not circumcised keep the law's requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised?
 
27 The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.
 
28 A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.
 
29 No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God.
 

Jeremiah 41,

1 In the seventh month Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, who was of royal blood and had been one of the king's officers, came with ten men to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah. While they were eating together there,
 
2 Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the ten men who were with him got up and struck down Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword, killing the one whom the king of Babylon had appointed as governor over the land.
 
3 Ishmael also killed all the Jews who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah, as well as the Babylonian soldiers who were there.
 
4 The day after Gedaliah's assassination, before anyone knew about it,
 
5 eighty men who had shaved off their beards, torn their clothes and cut themselves came from Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria, bringing grain offerings and incense with them to the house of the LORD.
 
6 Ishmael son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went. When he met them, he said, "Come to Gedaliah son of Ahikam."
 
7 When they went into the city, Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the men who were with him slaughtered them and threw them into a cistern.
 
8 But ten of them said to Ishmael, "Don't kill us! We have wheat and barley, oil and honey, hidden in a field." So he let them alone and did not kill them with the others.
 
9 Now the cistern where he threw all the bodies of the men he had killed along with Gedaliah was the one King Asa had made as part of his defense against Baasha king of Israel. Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled it with the dead.
 
10 Ishmael made captives of all the rest of the people who were in Mizpah-the king's daughters along with all the others who were left there, over whom Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam. Ishmael son of Nethaniah took them captive and set out to cross over to the Ammonites.
 
11 When Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers who were with him heard about all the crimes Ishmael son of Nethaniah had committed,
 
12 they took all their men and went to fight Ishmael son of Nethaniah. They caught up with him near the great pool in Gibeon.
 
13 When all the people Ishmael had with him saw Johanan son of Kareah and the army officers who were with him, they were glad.
 
14 All the people Ishmael had taken captive at Mizpah turned and went over to Johanan son of Kareah.
 
15 But Ishmael son of Nethaniah and eight of his men escaped from Johanan and fled to the Ammonites.
 
16 Then Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers who were with him led away all the survivors from Mizpah whom he had recovered from Ishmael son of Nethaniah after he had assassinated Gedaliah son of Ahikam: the soldiers, women, children and court officials he had brought from Gibeon.
 
17 And they went on, stopping at Geruth Kimham near Bethlehem on their way to Egypt
 
18 to escape the Babylonians. They were afraid of them because Ishmael son of Nethaniah had killed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had appointed as governor over the land.
 

Psalm 15, 16

1 LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill?
 
2 He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart
 
3 and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman,
 
4 who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the LORD, who keeps his oath even when it hurts,
 
5 who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.
 

1 Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge.
 
2 I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing."
 
3 As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.
 
4 The sorrows of those will increase who run after other gods. I will not pour out their libations of blood or take up their names on my lips.
 
5 LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure.
 
6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.
 
7 I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.
 
8 I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
 
9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure,
 
10 because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.
 
11 You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.