Simple Spiritual acts that Provoked Miracles:
Noah and the Flood:
Genesis 6:
9. This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.
10. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
11. Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence.
12. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.
13. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.
14. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.
15. This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.
16. Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.
17. I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.
18. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.
19. You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.
20.Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive.
21.You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”
22. Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
Genesis 7:
5. And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.
6. Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth.
7. And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.
8. Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground,
9. male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah.
10. And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.
11. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.
12. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.
13. On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark.
14. They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings.
15. Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark.
16. The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in.
17. For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth.
18. The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water.
19. They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered.
20. The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits.
21. Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind.
22. Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.
23. Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.
24. The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.
Genesis 8:
1. But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.
2. Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky.
3. The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down,
4. and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
5. The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.
6. After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark
7. and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.
8. Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground.
9. But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark.
10. He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark.
11. When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth.
12. He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.
13. By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry.
14. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.
15. Then God said to Noah,
16. “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives.
17. Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.”
18. So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives.
19. All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another.
20. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.
21. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
22. “As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”
Jacob’s sheep business:
Genesis 31:
4. So Jacob sent word to Rachel and Leah to come out to the fields where his flocks were.
5. He said to them, “I see that your father’s attitude toward me is not what it was before, but the God of my father has been with me.
6. You know that I’ve worked for your father with all my strength,
7. yet your father has cheated me by changing my wages ten times. However, God has not allowed him to harm me.
8. If he said, ‘The speckled ones will be your wages,’ then all the flocks gave birth to speckled young; and if he said, ‘The streaked ones will be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore streaked young.
9. So God has taken away your father’s livestock and has given them to me.
10. “In breeding season I once had a dream in which I looked up and saw that the male goats mating with the flock were streaked, speckled or spotted.
11. The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob.’ I answered, ‘Here I am.’
12. And he said, ‘Look up and see that all the male goats mating with the flock are streaked, speckled or spotted, for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you.
13. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to me. Now leave this land at once and go back to your native land.’”
Genesis 30:
25. After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so I can go back to my own homeland.
26. Give me my wives and children, for whom I have served you, and I will be on my way. You know how much work I’ve done for you.”
27. But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.”
28. He added, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”
29. Jacob said to him, “You know how I have worked for you and how your livestock has fared under my care.
30. The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when may I do something for my own household?”
31. “What shall I give you?” he asked. “Don’t give me anything,” Jacob replied. “But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them:
32. Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages.
33. And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will be considered stolen.”
34. “Agreed,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.”
35. That same day he removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted, and all the speckled or spotted female goats (all that had white on them) and all the dark-colored lambs, and he placed them in the care of his sons.
36. Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban’s flocks.
37. Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches.
38. Then he placed the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink,
39. they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted.
40. Jacob set apart the young of the flock by themselves, but made the rest face the streaked and dark-colored animals that belonged to Laban. Thus he made separate flocks for himself and did not put them with Laban’s animals.
41. Whenever the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the animals so they would mate near the branches,
42. but if the animals were weak, he would not place them there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to Jacob.
43. In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
Issac sows in famine:
Genesis 26:
1. Now there was a famine in the land—besides the previous famine in Abraham’s time—and Isaac went to Abimelek king of the Philistines in Gerar.
2. The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live.
3. .Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham.
4. I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring, all nations on earth will be blessed,
5. because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.”
6. So Isaac stayed in Gerar.
12. Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him.
13. The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy.
14. He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him.
Elisha sweetens the water:
2 Kings 2:
15. The company of the prophets from Jericho, who were watching, said, “The spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha.” And they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.
19. The people of the city said to Elisha, “Look, our lord, this town is well situated, as you can see, but the water is bad and the land is unproductive.”
20. “Bring me a new bowl,” he said, “and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him.
21. Then he went out to the spring and threw the salt into it, saying, “This is what the Lord says: ‘I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.’ ”
22. And the water has remained pure to this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken.
Healing of Death in the Pot:
2 Kings 4:
38. Elisha returned to Gilgal and there was a famine in that region. While the company of the prophets was meeting with him, he said to his servant, “Put on the large pot and cook some stew for these prophets.”
39. One of them went out into the fields to gather herbs and found a wild vine and picked as many of its gourds as his garment could hold. When he returned, he cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were.
40. The stew was poured out for the men, but as they began to eat it, they cried out, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it.
41. Elisha said, “Get some flour.” He put it into the pot and said, “Serve it to the people to eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.
Feeding of a Hundred:
42. A man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing the man of God twenty loaves of barley bread baked from the first ripe grain, along with some heads of new grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” Elisha said.
43. “How can I set this before a hundred men?” his servant asked. But Elisha answered, “Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the Lord says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’ ”
44. Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord.
Red sea and Marah:
Exodus 14:
5. When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, “What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!”
6. So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him.
7. He took six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them.
8. The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly.
9. The Egyptians—all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, horsemen and troops—pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon.
10. As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord.
11. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?
12. Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”
13. Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.
14. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
15. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.
16. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.
17. I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen.
18. The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.”
19. Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them,
20. coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.
21. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided,
22. and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.
23. The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea.
24. During the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion.
25. He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.”
26. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.”
27. Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward[c] it, and the Lord swept them into the sea.
28. The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.
29. But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.
30. That day the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore.
31. And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.
Exodus 15:
19. When Pharaoh’s horses, chariots and horsemen went into the sea, the Lord brought the waters of the sea back over them, but the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground.
20. Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women followed her, with timbrels and dancing.
21 Miriam sang to them:
The Waters of Marah and Elim:
22. Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water.
23. When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.[f])
24. So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”
25. Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink. There the Lord issued a ruling and instruction for them and put them to the test.
26. He said, “If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.”
27. Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.
Exodus 17: Water From the Rock Part-1:
1.The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.
2.So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?”
3.But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”
4.Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”
5.The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.
6.I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.
7.And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
Numbers 20: Water From the Rock Part -2:
1. In the first month the whole Israelite community arrived at the Desert of Zin, and they stayed at Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried.
2. Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron.
3. They quarreled with Moses and said, “If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord!
4. Why did you bring the Lord’s community into this wilderness, that we and our livestock should die here?
5. Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!”
6. Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the tent of meeting and fell facedown, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them.
7. The Lord said to Moses,
8. “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.”
9. So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him.
10. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?”
11. Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.
12. But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”
13 These were the waters of Meribah,[a] where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord and where he was proved holy among them.
Exodus 17: The Amalekites Defeated:
8.The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim.
9.Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.”
10.So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill.
11.As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning.
12.When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset.
13.So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.
14.Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven.”
15.Moses built an altar and called it The Lord is my Banner.
16.He said, “Because hands were lifted up against the throne of the Lord, the Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation.”
Neither wind nor rain, yet valley filled with water:
2 Kings 3:
1.In the eighteenth year of the reign of King Jehoshaphat of Judah, Joram son of Ahab became king of Israel, and he ruled in Samaria for twelve years.
2.He sinned against the LORD, but he was not as bad as his father or his mother Jezebel; he pulled down the image his father had made for the worship of Baal.
3.Yet, like King Jeroboam son of Nebat before him, he led Israel into sin and would not stop.
4.King Mesha of Moab raised sheep, and every year he gave as tribute to the king of Israel 100,000 lambs and the wool from 100,000 sheep.
5.But when King Ahab of Israel died, Mesha rebelled against Israel.
6.At once King Joram left Samaria and gathered all his troops.
7.He sent word to King Jehoshaphat of Judah: “The king of Moab has rebelled against me; will you join me in war against him?” “I will,” King Jehoshaphat replied. “I am at your disposal, and so are my men and my horses.
8.What route shall we take for the attack?” “We will go the long way through the wilderness of Edom,” Joram answered.
9.So King Joram and the kings of Judah and Edom set out. After marching seven days, they ran out of water, and there was none left for the men or the pack animals.
10.“We’re done for!” King Joram exclaimed. “The LORD has put the three of us at the mercy of the king of Moab!”
11.King Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there a prophet here through whom we can consult the LORD?” An officer of King Joram’s forces answered, “Elisha son of Shaphat is here. He was Elijah’s assistant.”
12.“He is a true prophet,” King Jehoshaphat said. So the three kings went to Elisha.
13.“Why should I help you?” Elisha said to the king of Israel. “Go and consult those prophets that your father and mother consulted.” “No!” Joram replied. “It is the LORD who has put us three kings at the mercy of the king of Moab.”
14.Elisha answered, “By the living LORD, whom I serve, I swear that I would have nothing to do with you if I didn’t respect your ally, King Jehoshaphat of Judah.
15.Now get me a musician.”As the musician played his harp, the power of the LORD came on Elisha,
16.and he said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Dig ditches all over this dry stream bed.
17.Even though you will not see any rain or wind, this stream bed will be filled with water, and you, your livestock, and your pack animals will have plenty to drink.’”
18.And Elisha continued, “But this is an easy thing for the LORD to do; he will also give you victory over the Moabites.
19.You will conquer all their beautiful fortified cities; you will cut down all their fruit trees, stop all their springs, and ruin all their fertile fields by covering them with stones.”
20.The next morning, at the time of the regular morning sacrifice, water came flowing from the direction of Edom and covered the ground.
21.When the Moabites heard that the three kings had come to attack them, all the men who could bear arms, from the oldest to the youngest, were called out and stationed at the border.
22.When they got up the following morning, the sun was shining on the water, making it look as red as blood.
23.“It’s blood!” they exclaimed. “The three enemy armies must have fought and killed each other! Let’s go and loot their camp!”
24.But when they reached the camp, the Israelites attacked them and drove them back. The Israelites kept up the pursuit, slaughtering the Moabites
25.and destroying their cities. As they passed by a fertile field, every Israelite would throw a stone on it until finally all the fields were covered; they also stopped up the springs and cut down the fruit trees. At last only the capital city of Kir Heres+ was left, and the slingers surrounded it and attacked it.
26.When the king of Moab realized that he was losing the battle, he took seven hundred swordsmen with him and tried to force his way through the enemy lines and escape to the king of Syria,+ but he failed.
27.So he took his oldest son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him on the city wall as a sacrifice to the god of Moab. The Israelites were terrified+ and so they drew back from the city and returned to their own country.
2 Kings 4: The Widow’s Olive Oil:
1.The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”
2. Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?” “Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.”
3. Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few.
4. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”
5. She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring.
6.When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.” But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.
7. She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”
2 Kings 6: An Axhead Floats:
1.The company of the prophets said to Elisha, “Look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us.
2.Let us go to the Jordan, where each of us can get a pole; and let us build a place there for us to meet.” And he said, “Go.”
3.Then one of them said, “Won’t you please come with your servants?” “I will,” Elisha replied.
4.And he went with them. They went to the Jordan and began to cut down trees.
5.As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axhead fell into the water. “Oh no, my lord!” he cried out. “It was borrowed!”
6.The man of God asked, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float.
7.“Lift it out,” he said. Then the man reached out his hand and took it.
2 Kings 5: Naaman Healed of Leprosy:
1.Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy.
2. Now bands of raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife.
3. She said to her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”
4. Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said.
5. “By all means, go,” the king of Aram replied. “I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing.
6. The letter that he took to the king of Israel read: “With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy.”
7. As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, “Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me!”
8. When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message: “Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.”
9. So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house.
10. Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”
11. But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy.
12. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.
13. Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!”
14. So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.
15. Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. So please accept a gift from your servant.”
16. The prophet answered, “As surely as the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will not accept a thing.” And even though Naaman urged him, he refused.
17. “If you will not,” said Naaman, “please let me, your servant, be given as much earth as a pair of mules can carry, for your servant will never again make burnt offerings and sacrifices to any other god but the Lord.
18. But may the Lord forgive your servant for this one thing: When my master enters the temple of Rimmon to bow down and he is leaning on my arm and I have to bow there also—when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord forgive your servant for this.”
19. “Go in peace,” Elisha said.
1 Samuel 11: Saul Rescues the City of Jabesh:
1.Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh Gilead. And all the men of Jabesh said to him, “Make a treaty with us, and we will be subject to you.”
2.But Nahash the Ammonite replied, “I will make a treaty with you only on the condition that I gouge out the right eye of every one of you and so bring disgrace on all Israel.”
3.The elders of Jabesh said to him, “Give us seven days so we can send messengers throughout Israel; if no one comes to rescue us, we will surrender to you.”
4.When the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul and reported these terms to the people, they all wept aloud.
5.Just then Saul was returning from the fields, behind his oxen, and he asked, “What is wrong with everyone? Why are they weeping?” Then they repeated to him what the men of Jabesh had said.
6.When Saul heard their words, the Spirit of God came powerfully upon him, and he burned with anger.
7.He took a pair of oxen, cut them into pieces, and sent the pieces by messengers throughout Israel, proclaiming, “This is what will be done to the oxen of anyone who does not follow Saul and Samuel.” Then the terror of the Lord fell on the people, and they came out together as one.
8.When Saul mustered them at Bezek, the men of Israel numbered three hundred thousand and those of Judah thirty thousand.
9.They told the messengers who had come, “Say to the men of Jabesh Gilead, ‘By the time the sun is hot tomorrow, you will be rescued.’ ” When the messengers went and reported this to the men of Jabesh, they were elated.
10.They said to the Ammonites, “Tomorrow we will surrender to you, and you can do to us whatever you like.”
11.The next day Saul separated his men into three divisions; during the last watch of the night they broke into the camp of the Ammonites and slaughtered them until the heat of the day. Those who survived were scattered, so that no two of them were left together.
Saul Confirmed as King:
12.The people then said to Samuel, “Who was it that asked, ‘Shall Saul reign over us?’ Turn these men over to us so that we may put them to death.”
13.But Saul said, “No one will be put to death today, for this day the Lord has rescued Israel.”
14.Then Samuel said to the people, “Come, let us go to Gilgal and there renew the kingship.”
15.So all the people went to Gilgal and made Saul king in the presence of the Lord. There they sacrificed fellowship offerings before the Lord, and Saul and all the Israelites held a great celebration.
1 Samuel 30: David Destroys the Amalekites:
1.David and his men reached Ziklag on the third day. Now the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag and burned it,
2.and had taken captive the women and everyone else in it, both young and old. They killed none of them, but carried them off as they went on their way.
3.When David and his men reached Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive.
4.So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep.
5.David’s two wives had been captured—Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel.
6.David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the Lord his God.
7.Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelek, “Bring me the ephod.” Abiathar brought it to him,
8.and David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I overtake them?” “Pursue them,” he answered. “You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue.”
9.David and the six hundred men with him came to the Besor Valley, where some stayed behind.
10.Two hundred of them were too exhausted to cross the valley, but David and the other four hundred continued the pursuit.
11.They found an Egyptian in a field and brought him to David. They gave him water to drink and food to eat—
12.part of a cake of pressed figs and two cakes of raisins. He ate and was rev.ived, for he had not eaten any food or drunk any water for three days and three nights.
13.David asked him, “Who do you belong to? Where do you come from?”
He said, “I am an Egyptian, the slave of an Amalekite. My master abandoned me when I became ill three days ago.
14.We raided the Negev of the Kerethites, some territory belonging to Judah and the Negev of Caleb. And we burned Ziklag.”
15.David asked him, “Can you lead me down to this raiding party?” He answered, “Swear to me before God that you will not kill me or hand me over to my master, and I will take you down to them.”
16.He led David down, and there they were, scattered over the countryside, eating, drinking and reveling because of the great amount of plunder they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from Judah.
17.David fought them from dusk until the evening of the next day, and none of them got away, except four hundred young men who rode off on camels and fled.
18.David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives.
19.Nothing was missing: young or old, boy or girl, plunder or anything else they had taken. David brought everything back.
20.He took all the flocks and herds, and his men drove them ahead of the other livestock, saying, “This is David’s plunder.”
21Then David came to the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to follow him and who were left behind at the Besor Valley. They came out to meet David and the men with him. As David and his men approached, he asked them how they were.
22.But all the evil men and troublemakers among David’s followers said, “Because they did not go out with us, we will not share with them the plunder we recovered. However, each man may take his wife and children and go.”
23.David replied, “No, my brothers, you must not do that with what the Lord has given us. He has protected us and delivered into our hands the raiding party that came against us.
24.Who will listen to what you say? The share of the man who stayed with the supplies is to be the same as that of him who went down to the battle. All will share alike.”
25.David made this a statute and ordinance for Israel from that day to this.
26.When David reached Ziklag, he sent some of the plunder to the elders of Judah, who were his friends, saying, “Here is a gift for you from the plunder of the Lord’s enemies.”
Healed by the shadows of apostles:
Acts 5:
12.The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade.
13.No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people.
14.Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.
15.As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.
16.Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed.
