Daily Bible GNT May 01 Scroll

In Iconium

Acts 14 The same thing happened in Iconium: Paul and Barnabas went to the synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of Jews and Gentiles became believers. ²But the Jews who would not believe stirred up the Gentiles and turned them against the believers. ³The apostles stayed there for a long time, speaking boldly about the Lord, who proved that their message about his grace was true by giving them the power to perform miracles and wonders. ⁴The people of the city were divided: some were for the Jews, others for the apostles.

⁵Then some Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, decided to mistreat the apostles and stone them. ⁶When the apostles learned about it, they fled to the cities of Lystra and Derbe in Lycaonia and to the surrounding territory. ⁷There they preached the Good News.

In Lystra and Derbe

⁸In Lystra there was a crippled man who had been lame from birth and had never been able to walk. ⁹He sat there and listened to Paul's words. Paul saw that he believed and could be healed, so he looked straight at him ¹⁰and said in a loud voice, "Stand up straight on your feet!" The man jumped up and started walking around. ¹¹When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they started shouting in their own Lycaonian language, "The gods have become like men and have come down to us!" ¹²They gave Barnabas the name Zeus, and Paul the name Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. ¹³The priest of the god Zeus, whose temple stood just outside the town, brought bulls and flowers to the gate, for he and the crowds wanted to offer sacrifice to the apostles.

¹⁴When Barnabas and Paul heard what they were about to do, they tore their clothes and ran into the middle of the crowd, shouting, ¹⁵"Why are you doing this? We ourselves are only human beings like you! We are here to announce the Good News, to turn you away from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven, earth, sea, and all that is in them. ¹⁶In the past he allowed all people to go their own way. ¹⁷But he has always given evidence of his existence by the good things he does: he gives you rain from heaven and crops at the right times; he gives you food and fills your hearts with happiness." ¹⁸Even with these words the apostles could hardly keep the crowd from offering a sacrifice to them.

¹⁹Some Jews came from Antioch in Pisidia and from Iconium; they won the crowds over to their side, stoned Paul and dragged him out of the town, thinking that he was dead. ²⁰But when the believers gathered around him, he got up and went back into the town. The next day he and Barnabas went to Derbe.

The Return to Antioch in Syria

²¹Paul and Barnabas preached the Good News in Derbe and won many disciples. Then they went back to Lystra, to Iconium, and on to Antioch in Pisidia. ²²They strengthened the believers and encouraged them to remain true to the faith. "We must pass through many troubles to enter the Kingdom of God," they taught. ²³In each church they appointed elders, and with prayers and fasting they commended them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.

²⁴After going through the territory of Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia. ²⁵There they preached the message in Perga and then went to Attalia, ²⁶and from there they sailed back to Antioch, the place where they had been commended to the care of God's grace for the work they had now completed.

²⁷When they arrived in Antioch, they gathered the people of the church together and told them about all that God had done with them and how he had opened the way for the Gentiles to believe. ²⁸And they stayed a long time there with the believers.

Joshua Sends the Eastern Tribes Home

Joshua 22 Then Joshua called together the people of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh. ²He said to them, "You have done everything that Moses the LORD's servant ordered you to do, and you have obeyed all my commands. ³All this time you have never once deserted the other Israelites. You have been careful to obey the commands of the LORD your God. ⁴Now, as he promised, the LORD your God has given the other Israelites peace. So go back home to the land which you claimed for your own, the land on the east side of the Jordan, that Moses, the LORD's servant, gave you. ⁵Make sure you obey the law that Moses commanded you: love the LORD your God, do his will, obey his commandments, be faithful to him, and serve him with all your heart and soul." ^6-8Joshua sent them home with his blessing and with these words: "You are going back home very rich, with a lot of livestock, silver, gold, bronze, iron, and many clothes. Share with your fellow tribesmen what you took from your enemies." Then they left for home.

Moses had given land east of the Jordan to one half of the tribe of Manasseh, but to the other half Joshua had given land west of the Jordan, along with the other tribes.

⁹So the people of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh went back home. They left the rest of the people of Israel at Shiloh in the land of Canaan and started out for their own land, the land of Gilead, which they had taken as the LORD had commanded them through Moses.

The Altar by the Jordan

¹⁰When the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh arrived at Geliloth, still on the west side of the Jordan, they built a large, impressive altar there by the river. ¹¹The rest of the people of Israel were told, "Listen! The people of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh have built an altar at Geliloth, on our side of the Jordan!" ¹²When the people of Israel heard this, the whole community came together at Shiloh to go to war against the eastern tribes.

¹³Then the people of Israel sent Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, to the people of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh in the land of Gilead. ¹⁴Ten leading men went with Phinehas, one from each of the western tribes and each one the head of a family among the clans. ¹⁵They came to the land of Gilead, to the people of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh, ¹⁶and speaking for the whole community of the LORD, they said to them, "Why have you done this evil thing against the God of Israel? You have rebelled against the LORD by building this altar for yourselves! You are no longer following him! ¹⁷Remember our sin at Peor, when the LORD punished his own people with an epidemic? We are still suffering because of that. Wasn't that sin enough? ¹⁸Are you going to refuse to follow him now? If you rebel against the LORD today, he will be angry with everyone in Israel tomorrow. ¹⁹Now then, if your land is not fit to worship in, come over into the LORD's land, where his Tent is. Claim some land among us. But don't rebel against the LORD or make rebels out of us by building an altar in addition to the altar of the LORD our God. ²⁰Remember how Achan son of Zerah refused to obey the command about the things condemned to destruction; the whole community of Israel was punished for that. Achan was not the only one who died because of his sin."

²¹The people of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh answered the heads of the families of the western tribes: ²²"The Mighty One is God! He is the LORD! The Mighty One is God! He is the LORD! He knows why we did this, and we want you to know too! If we rebelled and did not keep faith with the LORD, do not let us live any longer! ²³If we disobeyed the LORD and built our own altar to burn sacrifices on or to use for grain offerings or fellowship offerings, let the LORD himself punish us. ²⁴No! We did it because we were afraid that in the future your descendants would say to ours, 'What do you have to do with the LORD, the God of Israel? ²⁵He made the Jordan a boundary between us and you people of Reuben and Gad. You have nothing to do with the LORD.' Then your descendants might make our descendants stop worshiping the LORD. ²⁶So we built an altar, not to burn sacrifices or make offerings, ²⁷but instead, as a sign for our people and yours, and for the generations after us, that we do indeed worship the LORD before his sacred Tent with our offerings to be burned and with sacrifices and fellowship offerings. This was to keep your descendants from saying that ours have nothing to do with the LORD. ²⁸It was our idea that, if this should ever happen, our descendants could say, 'Look! Our ancestors made an altar just like the LORD's altar. It was not for burning offerings or for sacrifice, but as a sign for our people and yours.' ²⁹We would certainly not rebel against the LORD or stop following him now by building an altar to burn offerings on or for grain offerings or sacrifices. We would not build any other altar than the altar of the LORD our God that stands in front of the Tent of his presence."

³⁰Phinehas the priest and the ten leading men of the community who were with him, the heads of families of the western tribes, heard what the people of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh had to say, and they were satisfied. ³¹Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, said to them, "Now we know that the LORD is with us. You have not rebelled against him, and so you have saved the people of Israel from the LORD's punishment."

³²Then Phinehas and the leaders left the people of Reuben and Gad in the land of Gilead and went back to Canaan, to the people of Israel, and reported to them. ³³The Israelites were satisfied and praised God. They no longer talked about going to war to devastate the land where the people of Reuben and Gad had settled.

³⁴The people of Reuben and Gad said, "This altar is a witness to all of us that the LORD is God." And so they named it "Witness."

Job 31 I have made a solemn promise

never to look with lust at a woman.

²What does Almighty God do to us?

How does he repay human deeds?

³He sends disaster and ruin

to those who do wrong.

⁴God knows everything I do;

he sees every step I take.

⁵I swear I have never acted wickedly

and never tried to deceive others.

⁶Let God weigh me on honest scales,

and he will see how innocent I am.

⁷If I have turned from the right path

or let myself be attracted to evil,

if my hands are stained with sin,

⁸

then let my crops be destroyed,

or let others eat the food I grow.

⁹If I have been attracted to my neighbor's wife,

and waited, hidden, outside her door,

¹⁰

then let my wife cook another man's food

and sleep in another man's bed.

¹¹Such wickedness should be punished by death.

¹²It would be like a destructive, hellish fire,

consuming everything I have.

¹³When any of my servants complained against me,

I would listen and treat them fairly.

¹⁴If I did not, how could I then face God?

What could I say when God came to judge me?

¹⁵The same God who created me

created my servants also.

¹⁶I have never refused to help the poor;

never have I let widows live in despair

¹⁷

or let orphans go hungry while I ate.

¹⁸All my life I have taken care of them.

¹⁹When I found someone in need,

too poor to buy clothes,

²⁰

I would give him clothing made of wool

that had come from my own flock of sheep.

Then he would praise me with all his heart.

²¹If I have ever cheated an orphan,

knowing I could win in court,

²²

then may my arms be broken;

may they be torn from my shoulders.

²³Because I fear God's punishment,

I could never do such a thing.

²⁴I have never trusted in riches

²⁵

or taken pride in my wealth.

²⁶I have never worshiped the sun in its brightness

or the moon in all its beauty.

²⁷I have not been led astray to honor them

by kissing my hand in reverence to them.

²⁸Such a sin should be punished by death;

it denies Almighty God.

²⁹I have never been glad when my enemies suffered,

or pleased when they met with disaster;

³⁰

I never sinned by praying for their death.

³¹All those who work for me know

that I have always welcomed strangers.

³²I invited travelers into my home

and never let them sleep in the streets.

³³Others try to hide their sins,

but I have never concealed mine.

³⁴I have never feared what people would say;

I have never kept quiet or stayed indoors

because I feared their scorn.

³⁵Will no one listen to what I am saying?

I swear that every word is true.

Let Almighty God answer me.

If the charges my opponent brings against me

were written down so that I could see them,

³⁶I would wear them proudly on my shoulder

and place them on my head like a crown.

³⁷I would tell God everything I have done,

and hold my head high in his presence.

³⁸If I have stolen the land I farm

and taken it from its rightful owners--

³⁹

if I have eaten the food that grew there

but let the farmers that grew it starve--

⁴⁰

then instead of wheat and barley,

may weeds and thistles grow.

The words of Job are ended.

This reading is from The Holy Bible, Today's English Version, Second Edition copyright © American Bible Society, 1992;
Old Testament copyright © American Bible Society, 1976, 1992; New Testament © American Bible Society, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1992.

These daily Bible readings from the Good News Translation (GNT), formerly the Today's English Version (TEV), are published by BibleNetUSA. The web site and BibleCard® designs are by iCreative. All BibleCard® images are copyrighted by iCreative. All rights reserved.