Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
The One Year Bible TLB (23 page)
Listen to me, my son! I know what I am saying;
listen!
2
Watch yourself, lest you be indiscreet and betray some vital information.
3
For the lips of a prostitute
*
are as sweet as honey, and smooth flattery is her stock-in-trade.
4
But afterwards only a bitter conscience is left to you,
*
sharp as a double-edged sword.
5
She leads you down to death and hell.
6
For she does not know the path to life. She staggers down a crooked trail and doesn’t even realize where it leads.
January 26One day, many years later
*
when Moses had grown up and become a man, he went out to visit his fellow Hebrews and saw the terrible conditions they were under. During his visit he saw an Egyptian knock a Hebrew to the ground—one of his own Hebrew brothers!
12
Moses looked this way and that to be sure no one was watching, then killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand.
13
The next day as he was out visiting among the Hebrews again, he saw two of them fighting. “What are you doing, hitting your own Hebrew brother like that?” he said to the one in the wrong.
14
“And who are you?” the man demanded. “I suppose you think you are
our
prince and judge! And do you plan to kill me as you did that Egyptian yesterday?” When Moses realized that his deed was known, he was frightened.
15
And sure enough, when Pharaoh heard about it he ordered Moses arrested and executed. But Moses ran away into the land of Midian. As he was sitting there beside a well,
16
seven girls who were daughters of the priest of Midian came to draw water and fill the water troughs for their father’s flocks.
17
But the shepherds chased the girls away. Moses then came to their aid and rescued them from the shepherds and watered their flocks.
18
When they returned to their father, Reuel, he asked, “How did you get the flocks watered so quickly today?”
19
“An Egyptian defended us against the shepherds,” they told him; “he drew water for us and watered the flocks.”
20
“Well, where is he?” their father demanded. “Did you just leave him there? Invite him home for supper.”
21
Moses eventually decided to accept Reuel’s invitation to live with them, and Reuel gave him one of the girls, Zipporah, as his wife.
22
They had a baby named Gershom (meaning “foreigner”), for he said, “I am a stranger in a foreign land.”
23
Several years later the king of Egypt died. The Israelis were groaning beneath their burdens, in deep trouble because of their slavery, and weeping bitterly before the Lord. He heard their cries from heaven,
24
and remembered his promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to bring their descendants back into the land of Canaan.
*
25
Looking down upon them, he knew that the time had come for their rescue.
*
3:
1
One day as Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro,
*
the priest of Midian, out at the edge of the desert near Horeb, the mountain of God,
2
suddenly the Angel of Jehovah appeared to him as a flame of fire in a bush. When Moses saw that the bush was on fire and that it didn’t burn up,
3-4
he went over to investigate. Then God called out to him, “Moses! Moses!”
“Who is it?” Moses asked.
5
“Don’t come any closer,” God told him. “Take off your shoes, for you are standing on holy ground.
6
I am the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” (Moses covered his face with his hands, for he was afraid to look at God.)
7
Then the Lord told him, “I have seen the deep sorrows of my people in Egypt and have heard their pleas for freedom from their harsh taskmasters.
8
I have come to deliver them from the Egyptians and to take them out of Egypt into a good land, a large land, a land ‘flowing with milk and honey’—the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites live.
9
Yes, the wail of the people of Israel has risen to me in heaven, and I have seen the heavy tasks the Egyptians have oppressed them with.
10
Now I am going to send you to Pharaoh, to demand that he let you lead my people out of Egypt.”
11
“But I’m not the person for a job like that!” Moses exclaimed.
12
Then God told him, “I will certainly be with you, and this is the proof that I am the one who is sending you: When you have led the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God here upon this mountain!”
13
But Moses asked, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them that their fathers’ God has sent me, they will ask, ‘Which God are you talking about?’ What shall I tell them?”
14
“‘The Sovereign God,’”
*
was the reply. “Just say, ‘I Am has sent me!’
15
Yes, tell them, ‘Jehovah,
*
the God of your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has sent me to you.’ (This is my eternal name, to be used throughout all generations.)
16
“Call together all the elders of Israel,” God instructed him, “and tell them about Jehovah appearing to you here in this burning bush and that he said to you, ‘I have visited my people and have seen what is happening to them there in Egypt.
17
I promise to rescue them from the drudgery and humiliation they are undergoing, and to take them to the land now occupied by the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, a land “flowing with milk and honey.’”
18
The elders of the people of Israel will accept your message. They must go with you to the king of Egypt and tell him, ‘Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us and instructed us to go three days’ journey into the desert to sacrifice to him. Give us your permission.’
19
“But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go except under heavy pressure.
20
So I will give him all the pressure he needs! I will destroy Egypt with my miracles, and then at last he will let you go.
21
And I will see to it that the Egyptians load you down with gifts when you leave, so that you will by no means go out empty-handed!
22
Every woman will ask for jewels, silver, gold, and the finest of clothes from her Egyptian master’s wife and neighbors. You will clothe your sons and daughters with the best of Egypt!”
His disciples asked, “Why do the Jewish leaders insist Elijah must return before the Messiah comes?”
*
11
Jesus replied,
“They are right. Elijah must come and set everything in order.
12
And, in fact, he has already come, but he wasn’t recognized, and was badly mistreated by many. And I, the Messiah,
*
shall also suffer at their hands.”
13
Then the disciples realized he was speaking of John the Baptist.
14
When they arrived at the bottom of the hill, a huge crowd was waiting for them. A man came and knelt before Jesus and said,
15
“Sir, have mercy on my son, for he is mentally deranged and in great trouble, for he often falls into the fire or into the water;
16
so I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn’t cure him.”
17
Jesus replied,
“Oh, you stubborn, faithless people! How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to me.”
18
Then Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy and it left him, and from that moment the boy was well.
19
Afterwards the disciples asked Jesus privately, “Why couldn’t we cast that demon out?”
20
“Because of your little faith,”
Jesus told them.
“For if you had faith even as small as a tiny mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move!’ and it would go far away. Nothing would be impossible.
21
But this kind of demon won’t leave unless you have prayed and gone without food.”
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22-23
One day while they were still in Galilee, Jesus told them,
“I am going to be betrayed into the power of those who will kill me, and on the third day afterwards I will be brought back to life again.”
And the disciples’ hearts were filled with sorrow and dread.
24
On their arrival in Capernaum, the Temple tax collectors came to Peter and asked him, “Doesn’t your master pay taxes?”
25
“Of course he does,” Peter replied.
Then he went into the house to talk to Jesus about it, but before he had a chance to speak, Jesus asked him,
“What do you think, Peter? Do kings levy assessments against their own people or against conquered foreigners?”
26-27
“Against the foreigners,” Peter replied.
“Well, then,”
Jesus said,
“the citizens are free! However, we don’t want to offend them, so go down to the shore and throw in a line, and open the mouth of the first fish you catch. You will find a coin to cover the taxes for both of us; take it and pay them.”
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why do you refuse to help me or even to listen to my groans?
2
Day and night I keep on weeping, crying for your help, but there is no reply—
3-4
for
you are holy.
The praises of our fathers surrounded your throne; they trusted you and you delivered them.
5
You heard their cries for help and saved them; they were never disappointed when they sought your aid.
6
But I am a worm, not a man, scorned and despised by my own people and by all mankind.
7
Everyone who sees me mocks and sneers and shrugs.
8
“Is this the one who rolled his burden on the Lord?” they laugh. “Is this the one who claims the Lord delights in him? We’ll believe it when we see God rescue him!”
9-11
Lord, how you have helped me before!
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You took me safely from my mother’s womb and brought me through the years of infancy. I have depended upon you since birth; you have always been my God. Don’t leave me now, for trouble is near and no one else can possibly help.
12
I am surrounded by fearsome enemies, strong as the giant bulls from Bashan.
13
They come at me with open jaws, like roaring lions attacking their prey.
14
My strength has drained away like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart melts like wax;
15
my strength has dried up like sun-baked clay; my tongue sticks to my mouth, for you have laid me in the dust of death.
16
The enemy, this gang of evil men, circles me like a pack of dogs; they have pierced my hands and feet.
17
I can count every bone in my body. See these men of evil gloat and stare;
18
they divide my clothes among themselves by a toss of the dice.
Young men, listen to me, and never forget what I’m about to say:
8
Run from her! Don’t go near her house,
9
lest you fall to her temptation and lose your honor, and give the remainder of your life to the cruel and merciless;
*
10
lest strangers obtain your wealth, and you become a slave of foreigners.
11
Lest afterwards you groan in anguish and in shame when syphilis
*
consumes your body,
12
and you say, “Oh, if only I had listened! If only I had not demanded my own way!
13
Oh, why wouldn’t I take advice? Why was I so stupid?
14
For now I must face public disgrace.”
January 27But Moses said, “They won’t believe me! They won’t do what
I
tell them to. They’ll say, ‘Jehovah never appeared to you!’”
2
“What do you have there in your hand?” the Lord asked him.
And he replied, “A shepherd’s rod.”
3
“Throw it down on the ground,” the Lord told him. So he threw it down—and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it!
4
Then the Lord told him, “Grab it by the tail!” He did, and it became a rod in his hand again!
5
“Do that and they will believe you!” the Lord told him. “Then they will realize that Jehovah, the God of their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has really appeared to you.
6
Now reach your hand inside your robe, next to your chest.” And when he did, and took it out again, it was white with leprosy!
7
“Now put it in again,” Jehovah said. And when he did, and took it out again, it was normal, just as before!
8
“If they don’t believe the first miracle, they will the second,” the Lord said,
9
“and if they don’t accept you after these two signs, then take water from the Nile River and pour it upon the dry land, and it will turn to blood.”
10
But Moses pleaded, “O Lord, I’m just not a good speaker. I never have been, and I’m not now, even after you have spoken to me, for I have a speech impediment.”
*
11
“Who makes mouths?” Jehovah asked him. “Isn’t it I, the Lord? Who makes a man so that he can speak or not speak, see or not see, hear or not hear?
12
Now go ahead and do as I tell you, for I will help you to speak well, and I will tell you what to say.”
13
But Moses said, “Lord, please! Send someone else.”
14
Then the Lord became angry. “All right,” he said, “your brother, Aaron,
*
is a good speaker. And he is coming here to look for you and will be very happy when he finds you.
15
So I will tell you what to tell him, and I will help both of you to speak well, and I will tell you what to do.
16
He will be your spokesman to the people. And you will be as God to him, telling him what to say.
17
And be sure to take your rod along so that you can perform the miracles I have shown you.”
18
Moses returned home and talked it over with Jethro, his father-in-law. “With your permission,” Moses said, “I will go back to Egypt and visit my relatives. I don’t even know whether they are still alive.”
“Go with my blessing,” Jethro replied.
19
Before Moses left Midian, Jehovah said to him, “Don’t be afraid to return to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.”
20
So Moses took his wife and sons and put them on a donkey, and returned to the land of Egypt, holding tightly to the “rod of God”!
21
Jehovah told him, “When you arrive back in Egypt you are to go to Pharaoh and do the miracles I have shown you, but I will make him stubborn so that he will not let the people go.
22
Then you are to tell him, ‘Jehovah says, “Israel is my eldest son,
23
and I have commanded you to let him go away and worship me, but you have refused: and now see, I will slay your eldest son.”’”
24
As Moses and his family were traveling along and had stopped for the night, Jehovah appeared to Moses and threatened to kill him.
25-26
Then Zipporah his wife took a flint knife and cut off the foreskin of her young son’s penis, and threw it against Moses’ feet, remarking disgustedly, “What a blood-smeared husband you’ve turned out to be!”
Then God left him alone.
27
Now Jehovah said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So Aaron traveled to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God, and met Moses there, and they greeted each other warmly.
28
Moses told Aaron what God had said they must do, and what they were to say, and told him about the miracles they must do before Pharaoh.
29
So Moses and Aaron returned to Egypt and summoned the elders of the people of Israel to a council meeting.
30
Aaron told them what Jehovah had said to Moses, and Moses performed the miracles as they watched.
31
Then the elders believed that God had sent them, and when they heard that Jehovah had visited them and had seen their sorrows, and had decided to rescue them, they all rejoiced and bowed their heads and worshiped.
5:
1
After this presentation to the elders, Moses and Aaron went to see Pharaoh. They told him, “We bring you a message from Jehovah, the God of Israel. He says, ‘Let my people go, for they must make a holy pilgrimage out into the wilderness, for a religious feast, to worship me there.’”
2
“Is that so?” retorted Pharaoh. “And who is Jehovah, that I should listen to him, and let Israel go? I don’t know Jehovah and I will not let Israel go.”
3
But Aaron and Moses persisted. “The God of the Hebrews has met with us,” they declared. “We must take a three days’ trip into the wilderness and sacrifice there to Jehovah our God; if we don’t obey him, we face death by plague or sword.”
4-5
“Who do you think you are,” Pharaoh shouted, “distracting the people from their work? Get back to your jobs!”
6
That same day Pharaoh sent this order to the taskmasters and officers he had set over the people of Israel:
7-8
“Don’t give the people any more straw for making bricks! However, don’t reduce their production quotas by a single brick, for they obviously don’t have enough to do or else they wouldn’t be talking about going out into the wilderness and sacrificing to their God.
9
Load them with work and make them sweat; that will teach them to listen to Moses’ and Aaron’s lies!”
10-11
So the taskmasters and officers informed the people: “Pharaoh has given orders to furnish you with no more straw. Go and find it wherever you can; but you must produce just as many bricks as before!”
12
So the people scattered everywhere to gather straw.
13
The taskmasters were brutal. “Fulfill your daily quota just as before,” they kept demanding.
14
Then they whipped the Israeli work-crew bosses. “Why haven’t you fulfilled your quotas either yesterday or today?” they roared.
15
These foremen went to Pharaoh and pleaded with him. “Don’t treat us like this,” they begged.
16
“We are given no straw and told to make as many bricks as before, and we are beaten for something that isn’t our fault—it is the fault of your taskmasters for making such unreasonable demands.”
17
But Pharaoh replied, “You don’t have enough work, or else you wouldn’t be saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to Jehovah.’
18
Get back to work. No straw will be given you, and you must deliver the regular quota of bricks.”
19
Then the foremen saw that they were indeed in a bad situation.
20
When they met Moses and Aaron waiting for them outside the palace, as they came out from their meeting with Pharaoh,
21
they swore at them. “May God judge you for making us stink before Pharaoh and his people,” they said, “and for giving them an excuse to kill us.”
About that time the disciples came to Jesus to ask which of them would be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven!
2
Jesus called a small child over to him and set the little fellow down among them,
3
and said,
“Unless you turn to God from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.
4
Therefore anyone who humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.
5
And any of you who welcomes a little child like this because you are mine is welcoming me and caring for me.
6
But if any of you causes one of these little ones who trusts in me to lose his faith,
*
it would be better for you to have a rock tied to your neck and be thrown into the sea.
7
“Woe upon the world for all its evils.
*
Temptation to do wrong is inevitable, but woe to the man who does the tempting.
8
So if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. Better to enter heaven crippled than to be in hell with both of your hands and feet.
9
And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. Better to enter heaven with one eye than to be in hell with two.
10
“Beware that you don’t look down upon a single one of these little children. For I tell you that in heaven their angels have constant access
*
to my Father.
11
And I, the Messiah,
*
came to save the lost.
12
“If a man has a hundred sheep, and one wanders away and is lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others and go out into the hills to search for the lost one?
13
And if he finds it, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine others safe at home!
14
Just so, it is not my Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.
15
“If a brother sins against you, go to him privately and confront him with his fault. If he listens and confesses it, you have won back a brother.
16
But if not, then take one or two others with you and go back to him again, proving everything you say by these witnesses.
17
If he still refuses to listen, then take your case to the church, and if the church’s verdict favors you, but he won’t accept it, then the church should excommunicate him.
*
18
And I tell you this—whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven, and whatever you free on earth will be freed in heaven.
19
“I also tell you this—if two of you agree down here on earth concerning anything you ask for, my Father in heaven will do it for you.
20
For where two or three gather together because they are mine, I will be right there among them.”
O Lord, don’t stay away. O God my Strength, hurry to my aid.
20
Rescue me from death; spare my precious life from all these evil men.
*
21
Save me from these lions’ jaws and from the horns of these wild oxen. Yes, God will answer me and rescue me.
22
I will praise you to all my brothers; I will stand up before the congregation and testify of the wonderful things you have done.
23
“Praise the Lord, each one of you who fears him,” I will say. “Each of you
*
must fear and reverence his name. Let all Israel sing his praises,
24
for he has not despised my cries of deep despair; he has not turned and walked away. When I cried to him, he heard and came.”
25
Yes, I will stand and praise you
*
before all the people. I will publicly fulfill my vows in the presence of all who reverence your name.
26
The poor
*
shall eat and be satisfied; all who seek the Lord shall find him and shall praise his name. Their hearts shall rejoice with everlasting joy.
27
The whole earth shall see it and return to the Lord; the people of every nation shall worship him.
28
For the Lord is King and rules the nations.
29
Both proud and humble together, all who are mortal—born to die—shall worship him.
30
Our children too shall serve him, for they shall hear from us about the wonders of the Lord;
31
generations yet unborn shall hear of all the miracles he did for us.
Drink from your own well, my son—be faithful and true to your wife.
16
Why should you beget children with women of the street?
17
Why share your children with those outside your home?
18
Be happy, yes, rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19
Let her breasts and tender embrace
*
satisfy you. Let her love alone fill you with delight.
20
Why delight yourself with prostitutes, embracing what isn’t yours?
21
For God is closely watching you,
and he weighs carefully everything you do.