¹Then the men of Kirjath Jearim came and took the ark of the Lᴏʀᴅ, and brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill, and consecrated Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the Lᴏʀᴅ. ²So it was that the ark remained in Kirjath Jearim a long time; it was there twenty years. And all the house of Israel lamented after the Lᴏʀᴅ. ³Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you return to the Lᴏʀᴅ with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and prepare your hearts for the Lᴏʀᴅ, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.” ⁴So the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and served the Lᴏʀᴅ only. ⁵And Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lᴏʀᴅ for you.” ⁶So they gathered together at Mizpah, drew water, and poured it out before the Lᴏʀᴅ. And they fasted that day, and said there, “We have sinned against the Lᴏʀᴅ.” And Samuel judged the children of Israel at Mizpah. ⁷Now when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel had gathered together at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines. ⁸So the children of Israel said to Samuel, “Do not cease to cry out to the Lᴏʀᴅ our God for us, that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines.” ⁹And Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lᴏʀᴅ. Then Samuel cried out to the Lᴏʀᴅ for Israel, and the Lᴏʀᴅ answered him. ¹⁰Now as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the Lᴏʀᴅ thundered with a loud thunder upon the Philistines that day, and so confused them that they were overcome before Israel. ¹¹And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, and drove them back as far as below Beth Car. ¹²Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lᴏʀᴅ has helped us.” ¹³So the Philistines were subdued, and they did not come anymore into the territory of Israel. And the hand of the Lᴏʀᴅ was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. ¹⁴Then the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron to Gath; and Israel recovered its territory from the hands of the Philistines. Also there was peace between Israel and the Amorites. ¹⁵And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. ¹⁶He went from year to year on a circuit to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah, and judged Israel in all those places. ¹⁷But he always returned to Ramah, for his home was there. There he judged Israel, and there he built an altar to the Lᴏʀᴅ.

¹Now it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel. ²The name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. ³But his sons did not walk in his ways; they turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice. ⁴Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, ⁵and said to him, “Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” ⁶But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” So Samuel prayed to the Lᴏʀᴅ. ⁷And the Lᴏʀᴅ said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. ⁸According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day—with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also. ⁹Now therefore, heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them.” ¹⁰So Samuel told all the words of the Lᴏʀᴅ to the people who asked him for a king. ¹¹And he said, “This will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen, and some will run before his chariots. ¹²He will appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties, will set some to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and some to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. ¹³He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers. ¹⁴And he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants. ¹⁵He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage, and give it to his officers and servants. ¹⁶And he will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work. ¹⁷He will take a tenth of your sheep. And you will be his servants. ¹⁸And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the Lᴏʀᴅ will not hear you in that day.” ¹⁹Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, “No, but we will have a king over us, ²⁰that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” ²¹And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he repeated them in the hearing of the Lᴏʀᴅ. ²²So the Lᴏʀᴅ said to Samuel, “Heed their voice, and make them a king.” And Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Every man go to his city.”

¹What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? ²Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? ³Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? ⁴Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. ⁵For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, ⁶knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. ⁷For he who has died has been freed from sin. ⁸Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, ⁹knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. ¹⁰For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. ¹¹Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. ¹²Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. ¹³And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. ¹⁴For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. ¹⁵What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! ¹⁶Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? ¹⁷But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. ¹⁸And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. ¹⁹I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. ²⁰For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ²¹What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. ²²But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. ²³For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

¹The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who dwell in the land of Egypt, who dwell at Migdol, at Tahpanhes, at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying, ²“Thus says the Lᴏʀᴅ of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘You have seen all the calamity that I have brought on Jerusalem and on all the cities of Judah; and behold, this day they are a desolation, and no one dwells in them, ³because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke Me to anger, in that they went to burn incense and to serve other gods whom they did not know, they nor you nor your fathers. ⁴However I have sent to you all My servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, “Oh, do not do this abominable thing that I hate!” ⁵But they did not listen or incline their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense to other gods. ⁶So My fury and My anger were poured out and kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as it is this day.’ ⁷Now therefore, thus says the Lᴏʀᴅ, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Why do you commit this great evil against yourselves, to cut off from you man and woman, child and infant, out of Judah, leaving none to remain, ⁸in that you provoke Me to wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have gone to dwell, that you may cut yourselves off and be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth? ⁹Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, the wickedness of the kings of Judah, the wickedness of their wives, your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁰They have not been humbled, to this day, nor have they feared; they have not walked in My law or in My statutes that I set before you and your fathers.’ ¹¹“Therefore thus says the Lᴏʀᴅ of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will set My face against you for catastrophe and for cutting off all Judah. ¹²And I will take the remnant of Judah who have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to dwell there, and they shall all be consumed and fall in the land of Egypt. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine. They shall die, from the least to the greatest, by the sword and by famine; and they shall be an oath, an astonishment, a curse and a reproach! ¹³For I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, ¹⁴so that none of the remnant of Judah who have gone into the land of Egypt to dwell there shall escape or survive, lest they return to the land of Judah, to which they desire to return and dwell. For none shall return except those who escape.’ ” ¹⁵Then all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense to other gods, with all the women who stood by, a great multitude, and all the people who dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying: ¹⁶“As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lᴏʀᴅ, we will not listen to you! ¹⁷But we will certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and saw no trouble. ¹⁸But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine.” ¹⁹The women also said, “And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make cakes for her, to worship her, and pour out drink offerings to her without our husbands’ permission?” ²⁰Then Jeremiah spoke to all the people—the men, the women, and all the people who had given him that answer—saying: ²¹“The incense that you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the Lᴏʀᴅ remember them, and did it not come into His mind? ²²So the Lᴏʀᴅ could no longer bear it, because of the evil of your doings and because of the abominations which you committed. Therefore your land is a desolation, an astonishment, a curse, and without an inhabitant, as it is this day. ²³Because you have burned incense and because you have sinned against the Lᴏʀᴅ, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lᴏʀᴅ or walked in His law, in His statutes or in His testimonies, therefore this calamity has happened to you, as at this day.” ²⁴Moreover Jeremiah said to all the people and to all the women, “Hear the word of the Lᴏʀᴅ, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt! ²⁵Thus says the Lᴏʀᴅ of hosts, the God of Israel, saying: ‘You and your wives have spoken with your mouths and fulfilled with your hands, saying, “We will surely keep our vows that we have made, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her.” You will surely keep your vows and perform your vows!’ ²⁶Therefore hear the word of the Lᴏʀᴅ, all Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt: ‘Behold, I have sworn by My great name,’ says the Lᴏʀᴅ, ‘that My name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, “The Lᴏʀᴅ God lives.” ²⁷Behold, I will watch over them for adversity and not for good. And all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, until there is an end to them. ²⁸Yet a small number who escape the sword shall return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah; and all the remnant of Judah, who have gone to the land of Egypt to dwell there, shall know whose words will stand, Mine or theirs. ²⁹And this shall be a sign to you,’ says the Lᴏʀᴅ, ‘that I will punish you in this place, that you may know that My words will surely stand against you for adversity.’ ³⁰Thus says the Lᴏʀᴅ: ‘Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies and into the hand of those who seek his life, as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, his enemy who sought his life.’ ”

¹To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. May the Lᴏʀᴅ answer you in the day of trouble; May the name of the God of Jacob defend you; ²May He send you help from the sanctuary, And strengthen you out of Zion; ³May He remember all your offerings, And accept your burnt sacrifice. Selah ⁴May He grant you according to your heart’s desire, And fulfill all your purpose. ⁵We will rejoice in your salvation, And in the name of our God we will set up our banners! May the Lᴏʀᴅ fulfill all your petitions. ⁶Now I know that the Lᴏʀᴅ saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven With the saving strength of His right hand. ⁷Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the Lᴏʀᴅ our God. ⁸They have bowed down and fallen; But we have risen and stand upright. ⁹Save, Lord! May the King answer us when we call.

¹To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. The king shall have joy in Your strength, O Lᴏʀᴅ; And in Your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! ²You have given him his heart’s desire, And have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah ³For You meet him with the blessings of goodness; You set a crown of pure gold upon his head. ⁴He asked life from You, and You gave it to him— Length of days forever and ever. ⁵His glory is great in Your salvation; Honor and majesty You have placed upon him. ⁶For You have made him most blessed forever; You have made him exceedingly glad with Your presence. ⁷For the king trusts in the Lᴏʀᴅ, And through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved. ⁸Your hand will find all Your enemies; Your right hand will find those who hate You. ⁹You shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of Your anger; The Lᴏʀᴅ shall swallow them up in His wrath, And the fire shall devour them. ¹⁰Their offspring You shall destroy from the earth, And their descendants from among the sons of men. ¹¹For they intended evil against You; They devised a plot which they are not able to perform. ¹²Therefore You will make them turn their back; You will make ready Your arrows on Your string toward their faces. ¹³Be exalted, O Lᴏʀᴅ, in Your own strength! We will sing and praise Your power.