Judges 20, Acts 24, Jeremiah 34, Psalm 5, 6

Judges 20,

1 Then all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came out as one man and assembled before the LORD in Mizpah.
 
2 The leaders of all the people of the tribes of Israel took their places in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand soldiers armed with swords.
 
3 (The Benjamites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah.) Then the Israelites said, "Tell us how this awful thing happened."
 
4 So the Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, said, "I and my concubine came to Gibeah in Benjamin to spend the night.
 
5 During the night the men of Gibeah came after me and surrounded the house, intending to kill me. They raped my concubine, and she died.
 
6 I took my concubine, cut her into pieces and sent one piece to each region of Israel's inheritance, because they committed this lewd and disgraceful act in Israel.
 
7 Now, all you Israelites, speak up and give your verdict."
 
8 All the people rose as one man, saying, "None of us will go home. No, not one of us will return to his house.
 
9 But now this is what we'll do to Gibeah: We'll go up against it as the lot directs.
 
10 We'll take ten men out of every hundred from all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred from a thousand, and a thousand from ten thousand, to get provisions for the army. Then, when the army arrives at Gibeah in Benjamin, it can give them what they deserve for all this vileness done in Israel."
 
11 So all the men of Israel got together and united as one man against the city.
 
12 The tribes of Israel sent men throughout the tribe of Benjamin, saying, "What about this awful crime that was committed among you?
 
13 Now surrender those wicked men of Gibeah so that we may put them to death and purge the evil from Israel." But the Benjamites would not listen to their fellow Israelites.
 
14 From their towns they came together at Gibeah to fight against the Israelites.
 
15 At once the Benjamites mobilized twenty-six thousand swordsmen from their towns, in addition to seven hundred chosen men from those living in Gibeah.
 
16 Among all these soldiers there were seven hundred chosen men who were left-handed, each of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.
 
17 Israel, apart from Benjamin, mustered four hundred thousand swordsmen, all of them fighting men.
 
18 The Israelites went up to Bethel and inquired of God. They said, "Who of us shall go first to fight against the Benjamites?" The LORD replied, "Judah shall go first."
 
19 The next morning the Israelites got up and pitched camp near Gibeah.
 
20 The men of Israel went out to fight the Benjamites and took up battle positions against them at Gibeah.
 
21 The Benjamites came out of Gibeah and cut down twenty-two thousand Israelites on the battlefield that day.
 
22 But the men of Israel encouraged one another and again took up their positions where they had stationed themselves the first day.
 
23 The Israelites went up and wept before the LORD until evening, and they inquired of the LORD. They said, "Shall we go up again to battle against the Benjamites, our brothers?" The LORD answered, "Go up against them."
 
24 Then the Israelites drew near to Benjamin the second day.
 
25 This time, when the Benjamites came out from Gibeah to oppose them, they cut down another eighteen thousand Israelites, all of them armed with swords.
 
26 Then the Israelites, all the people, went up to Bethel, and there they sat weeping before the LORD. They fasted that day until evening and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the LORD.
 
27 And the Israelites inquired of the LORD. (In those days the ark of the covenant of God was there,
 
28 with Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, ministering before it.) They asked, "Shall we go up again to battle with Benjamin our brother, or not?" The LORD responded, "Go, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands."
 
29 Then Israel set an ambush around Gibeah.
 
30 They went up against the Benjamites on the third day and took up positions against Gibeah as they had done before.
 
31 The Benjamites came out to meet them and were drawn away from the city. They began to inflict casualties on the Israelites as before, so that about thirty men fell in the open field and on the roads-the one leading to Bethel and the other to Gibeah.
 
32 While the Benjamites were saying, "We are defeating them as before," the Israelites were saying, "Let's retreat and draw them away from the city to the roads."
 
33 All the men of Israel moved from their places and took up positions at Baal Tamar, and the Israelite ambush charged out of its place on the west of Gibeah.
 
34 Then ten thousand of Israel's finest men made a frontal attack on Gibeah. The fighting was so heavy that the Benjamites did not realize how near disaster was.
 
35 The LORD defeated Benjamin before Israel, and on that day the Israelites struck down 25,100 Benjamites, all armed with swords.
 
36 Then the Benjamites saw that they were beaten. Now the men of Israel had given way before Benjamin, because they relied on the ambush they had set near Gibeah.
 
37 The men who had been in ambush made a sudden dash into Gibeah, spread out and put the whole city to the sword.
 
38 The men of Israel had arranged with the ambush that they should send up a great cloud of smoke from the city,
 
39 and then the men of Israel would turn in the battle. The Benjamites had begun to inflict casualties on the men of Israel (about thirty), and they said, "We are defeating them as in the first battle."
 
40 But when the column of smoke began to rise from the city, the Benjamites turned and saw the smoke of the whole city going up into the sky.
 
41 Then the men of Israel turned on them, and the men of Benjamin were terrified, because they realized that disaster had come upon them.
 
42 So they fled before the Israelites in the direction of the desert, but they could not escape the battle. And the men of Israel who came out of the towns cut them down there.
 
43 They surrounded the Benjamites, chased them and easily overran them in the vicinity of Gibeah on the east.
 
44 Eighteen thousand Benjamites fell, all of them valiant fighters.
 
45 As they turned and fled toward the desert to the rock of Rimmon, the Israelites cut down five thousand men along the roads. They kept pressing after the Benjamites as far as Gidom and struck down two thousand more.
 
46 On that day twenty-five thousand Benjamite swordsmen fell, all of them valiant fighters.
 
47 But six hundred men turned and fled into the desert to the rock of Rimmon, where they stayed four months.
 
48 The men of Israel went back to Benjamin and put all the towns to the sword, including the animals and everything else they found. All the towns they came across they set on fire.

Acts 24,

1 Five days later the high priest Ananias went down to Caesarea with some of the elders and a lawyer named Tertullus, and they brought their charges against Paul before the governor.
 
2 When Paul was called in, Tertullus presented his case before Felix: "We have enjoyed a long period of peace under you, and your foresight has brought about reforms in this nation.
 
3 Everywhere and in every way, most excellent Felix, we acknowledge this with profound gratitude.
 
4 But in order not to weary you further, I would request that you be kind enough to hear us briefly.
 
5 "We have found this man to be a troublemaker, stirring up riots among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the Nazarene sect
 
6 and even tried to desecrate the temple; so we seized him.
 
7 NONE
 
8 By examining him yourself you will be able to learn the truth about all these charges we are bringing against him."
 
9 The Jews joined in the accusation, asserting that these things were true.
 
10 When the governor motioned for him to speak, Paul replied: "I know that for a number of years you have been a judge over this nation; so I gladly make my defense.
 
11 You can easily verify that no more than twelve days ago I went up to Jerusalem to worship.
 
12 My accusers did not find me arguing with anyone at the temple, or stirring up a crowd in the synagogues or anywhere else in the city.
 
13 And they cannot prove to you the charges they are now making against me.
 
14 However, I admit that I worship the God of our fathers as a follower of the Way, which they call a sect. I believe everything that agrees with the Law and that is written in the Prophets,
 
15 and I have the same hope in God as these men, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.
 
16 So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man.
 
17 "After an absence of several years, I came to Jerusalem to bring my people gifts for the poor and to present offerings.
 
18 I was ceremonially clean when they found me in the temple courts doing this. There was no crowd with me, nor was I involved in any disturbance.
 
19 But there are some Jews from the province of Asia, who ought to be here before you and bring charges if they have anything against me.
 
20 Or these who are here should state what crime they found in me when I stood before the Sanhedrin-
 
21 unless it was this one thing I shouted as I stood in their presence: 'It is concerning the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you today.' "
 
22 Then Felix, who was well acquainted with the Way, adjourned the proceedings. "When Lysias the commander comes," he said, "I will decide your case."
 
23 He ordered the centurion to keep Paul under guard but to give him some freedom and permit his friends to take care of his needs
 
24 Several days later Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was a Jewess. He sent for Paul and listened to him as he spoke about faith in Christ Jesus.
 
25 As Paul discoursed on righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, "That's enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you."
 
26 At the same time he was hoping that Paul would offer him a bribe, so he sent for him frequently and talked with him.
 
27 When two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, but because Felix wanted to grant a favor to the Jews, he left Paul in prison.
 

Jeremiah 34,

1 While Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms and peoples in the empire he ruled were fighting against Jerusalem and all its surrounding towns, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
 
2 "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Go to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him, 'This is what the LORD says: I am about to hand this city over to the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down.
 
3 You will not escape from his grasp but will surely be captured and handed over to him. You will see the king of Babylon with your own eyes, and he will speak with you face to face. And you will go to Babylon.
 
4 " 'Yet hear the promise of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the LORD says concerning you: You will not die by the sword;
 
5 you will die peacefully. As people made a funeral fire in honor of your fathers, the former kings who preceded you, so they will make a fire in your honor and lament, "Alas, O master!" I myself make this promise, declares the LORD.' "
 
6 Then Jeremiah the prophet told all this to Zedekiah king of Judah, in Jerusalem,
 
7 while the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah that were still holding out-Lachish and Azekah. These were the only fortified cities left in Judah.
 
8 The word came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for the slaves.
 
9 Everyone was to free his Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Jew in bondage.
 
10 So all the officials and people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their male and female slaves and no longer hold them in bondage. They agreed, and set them free.
 
11 But afterward they changed their minds and took back the slaves they had freed and enslaved them again.
 
12 Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:
 
13 "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your forefathers when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I said,
 
14 'Every seventh year each of you must free any fellow Hebrew who has sold himself to you. After he has served you six years, you must let him go free.' Your fathers, however, did not listen to me or pay attention to me.
 
15 Recently you repented and did what is right in my sight: Each of you proclaimed freedom to his countrymen. You even made a covenant before me in the house that bears my Name.
 
16 But now you have turned around and profaned my name; each of you has taken back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where they wished. You have forced them to become your slaves again.
 
17 "Therefore, this is what the LORD says: You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom for your fellow countrymen. So I now proclaim 'freedom' for you, declares the LORD-'freedom' to fall by the sword, plague and famine. I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth.
 
18 The men who have violated my covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two and then walked between its pieces.
 
19 The leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests and all the people of the land who walked between the pieces of the calf,
 
20 I will hand over to their enemies who seek their lives. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.
 
21 "I will hand Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials over to their enemies who seek their lives, to the army of the king of Babylon, which has withdrawn from you.
 
22 I am going to give the order, declares the LORD, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, take it and burn it down. And I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there."
 

Psalm 5, 6

1 Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my sighing.
 
2 Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray.
 
3 In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.
 
4 You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with you the wicked cannot dwell.
 
5 The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong.
 
6 You destroy those who tell lies; bloodthirsty and deceitful men the LORD abhors.
 
7 But I, by your great mercy, will come into your house; in reverence will I bow down toward your holy temple.
 
8 Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies-make straight your way before me.
 
9 Not a word from their mouth can be trusted; their heart is filled with destruction. Their throat is an open grave; with their tongue they speak deceit.
 
10 Declare them guilty, O God! Let their intrigues be their downfall. Banish them for their many sins, for they have rebelled against you.
 
11 But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you.
 
12 For surely, O LORD, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield.
 

    
1 O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath.
 
2 Be merciful to me, LORD, for I am faint; O LORD, heal me, for my bones are in agony.
 
3 My soul is in anguish. How long, O LORD, how long?
 
4 Turn, O LORD, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love.
 
5 No one remembers you when he is dead. Who praises you from the grave?
 
6 I am worn out from groaning; all night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears.
 
7 My eyes grow weak with sorrow; they fail because of all my foes.
 
8 Away from me, all you who do evil, for the LORD has heard my weeping.
 
9 The LORD has heard my cry for mercy; the LORD accepts my prayer.
 
10 All my enemies will be ashamed and dismayed; they will turn back in sudden disgrace.