-
Genesis 35:1-15
/RSS FeedGenesis 35:1-15
1 Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and settle there. Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”
2 So Jacob told his household and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves and change your garments.
3 Then let us arise and go to Bethel. I will build an altar there to God, who answered me in my day of distress. He has been with me wherever I have gone.”
4 So they gave Jacob all their foreign gods and all their earrings, and Jacob buried them under the oak near Shechem.
5 As they set out, a terror from God fell over the surrounding cities, so that they did not pursue Jacob’s sons.
6 So Jacob and everyone with him arrived in Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan.
7 There Jacob built an altar, and he called that place El-bethel, because it was there that God had revealed Himself to Jacob as he fled from his brother.
8 Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel. So Jacob named it Allon-bachuth.
9 After Jacob had returned from Paddan-aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him.
10 And God said to him, “Though your name is Jacob, you will no longer be called Jacob. Instead, your name will be Israel.” So God named him Israel.
11 And God told him, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation—even a company of nations—shall come from you, and kings shall descend from you.
12 The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you.”
13 Then God went up from the place where He had spoken with him.
14 So Jacob set up a pillar in the place where God had spoken with him—a stone marker—and he poured out a drink offering on it and anointed it with oil.
15 Jacob called the place where God had spoken with him Bethel. -
Genesis 31:22-42
/RSS FeedGenesis 31:22-42
22 On the third day Laban was informed that Jacob had fled.
23 So he took his relatives with him, pursued Jacob for seven days, and overtook him in the hill country of Gilead.
24 But that night God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream and warned him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
25 Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country of Gilead when Laban overtook him, and Laban and his relatives camped there as well.
26 Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You have deceived me and carried off my daughters like captives of war!
27 Why did you run away secretly and deceive me, without even telling me? I would have sent you away with joy and singing, with tambourines and harps.
28 But you did not even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters goodbye. Now you have done a foolish thing.
29 I have power to do you great harm, but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’
30 Now you have gone off because you long for your father’s house. But why have you stolen my gods?”
31 “I was afraid,” Jacob answered, “for I thought you would take your daughters from me by force.
32 If you find your gods with anyone here, he shall not live! In the presence of our relatives, see for yourself if anything is yours, and take it back.” For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the idols.
33 So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, then Leah’s tent, and then the tents of the two maidservants, but he found nothing. Then he left Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent.
34 Now Rachel had taken Laban’s household idols, put them in the saddlebag of her camel, and was sitting on them. And Laban searched everything in the tent but found nothing.
35 Rachel said to her father, “Sir, do not be angry that I cannot stand up before you; for I am having my period.” So Laban searched, but could not find the household idols.
36 Then Jacob became incensed and challenged Laban. “What is my crime?” he said. “For what sin of mine have you so hotly pursued me?
37 You have searched all my goods! Have you found anything that belongs to you? Put it here before my brothers and yours, that they may judge between the two of us.
38 I have been with you for twenty years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten the rams of your flock.
39 I did not bring you anything torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for what was stolen by day or night.
40 As it was, the heat consumed me by day and the frost by night, and sleep fled from my eyes.
41 Thus for twenty years I have served in your household—fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks—and you have changed my wages ten times!
42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, surely by now you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, and last night He rendered judgment.” -
Revelation 9:13-21
/RSS FeedRevelation 9:13-21
13 Then the sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God
14 saying to the sixth angel with the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”
15 So the four angels who had been prepared for this hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind.
16 And the number of mounted troops was two hundred million; I heard their number.
17 Now the horses and riders in my vision looked like this: The riders had breastplates the colors of fire, sapphire, and sulfur. The heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and out of their mouths proceeded fire, smoke, and sulfur.
18 A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke, and sulfur that proceeded from their mouths.
19 For the power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; indeed, their tails were like snakes, having heads with which to inflict harm.
20 Now the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the works of their hands. They did not stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk.
21 Furthermore, they did not repent of their murder, sorcery, sexual immorality, and theft. -
Revelation 2:18-29
/RSS FeedRevelation 2:18-29
18 To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like a blazing fire and whose feet are like polished bronze.
19 I know your deeds—your love, your faith, your service, your perseverance—and your latter deeds are greater than your first.
20 But I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads My servants to be sexually immoral and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
21 Even though I have given her time to repent of her immorality, she is unwilling.
22 Behold, I will cast her onto a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her will suffer great tribulation unless they repent of her deeds.
23 Then I will strike her children dead, and all the churches will know that I am the One who searches minds and hearts, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.
24 But I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned the so-called deep things of Satan: I will place no further burden upon you.
25 Nevertheless, hold fast to what you have until I come.
26 And to the one who overcomes and continues in My work until the end, I will give authority over the nations.
27 He will rule them with an iron scepter and shatter them like pottery—just as I have received authority from My Father.
28 And I will give him the morning star.
29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. -
Revelation 2:12-17
/RSS FeedRevelation 2:12-17
12 To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of the One who holds the sharp, double-edged sword.
13 I know where you live, where the throne of Satan sits. Yet you have held fast to My name and have not denied your faith in Me, even in the day when My faithful witness Antipas was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
14 But I have a few things against you, because some of you hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to place a stumbling block before the Israelites so they would eat food sacrificed to idols and commit sexual immorality.
15 In the same way, some of you also hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
16 Therefore repent! Otherwise I will come to you shortly and wage war against them with the sword of My mouth.
17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will give the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone inscribed with a new name, known only to the one who receives it.
