Daily Bible GNT May 09 Scroll

Paul in Ephesus

Acts 19 While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior of the province and arrived in Ephesus. There he found some disciples ²and asked them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?"

"We have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit," they answered.

³"Well, then, what kind of baptism did you receive?" Paul asked.

"The baptism of John," they answered.

⁴Paul said, "The baptism of John was for those who turned from their sins; and he told the people of Israel to believe in the one who was coming after him--that is, in Jesus."

⁵When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶Paul placed his hands on them, and the Holy Spirit came upon them; they spoke in strange tongues and also proclaimed God's message. ⁷They were about twelve men in all.

⁸Paul went into the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly with the people, holding discussions with them and trying to convince them about the Kingdom of God. ⁹But some of them were stubborn and would not believe, and before the whole group they said evil things about the Way of the Lord. So Paul left them and took the believers with him, and every day he held discussions in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. ¹⁰This went on for two years, so that all the people who lived in the province of Asia, both Jews and Gentiles, heard the word of the Lord.

The Sons of Sceva

¹¹God was performing unusual miracles through Paul. ¹²Even handkerchiefs and aprons he had used were taken to the sick, and their diseases were driven away, and the evil spirits would go out of them. ¹³Some Jews who traveled around and drove out evil spirits also tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus to do this. They said to the evil spirits, "I command you in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches." ¹⁴Seven brothers, who were the sons of a Jewish High Priest named Sceva, were doing this.

¹⁵But the evil spirit said to them, "I know Jesus, and I know about Paul; but you--who are you?"

¹⁶The man who had the evil spirit in him attacked them with such violence that he overpowered them all. They ran away from his house, wounded and with their clothes torn off. ¹⁷All the Jews and Gentiles who lived in Ephesus heard about this; they were all filled with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was given greater honor. ¹⁸Many of the believers came, publicly admitting and revealing what they had done. ¹⁹Many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in public. They added up the price of the books, and the total came to fifty thousand silver coins. ²⁰In this powerful way the word of the Lord kept spreading and growing stronger.

Tola

Judges 10 After Abimelech's death Tola, the son of Puah and grandson of Dodo, came to free Israel. He was from the tribe of Issachar and lived at Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. ²He was Israel's leader for twenty-three years. Then he died and was buried at Shamir.

Jair

³After Tola came Jair from Gilead. He led Israel for twenty-two years. ⁴He had thirty sons who rode thirty donkeys. They had thirty cities in the land of Gilead, which are still called the villages of Jair. ⁵Jair died and was buried at Kamon.

Jephthah

⁶Once again the Israelites sinned against the LORD by worshiping the Baals and the Astartes, as well as the gods of Syria, of Sidon, of Moab, of Ammon, and of Philistia. They abandoned the LORD and stopped worshiping him. ⁷So the LORD became angry with the Israelites, and let the Philistines and the Ammonites conquer them. ⁸For eighteen years they oppressed and persecuted all the Israelites who lived in Amorite country east of the Jordan River in Gilead. ⁹The Ammonites even crossed the Jordan to fight the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim. Israel was in great distress.

¹⁰Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD and said, "We have sinned against you, for we left you, our God, and worshiped the Baals."

¹¹The LORD gave them this answer: "The Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, ¹²the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Maonites oppressed you in the past, and you cried out to me. Did I not save you from them? ¹³But you still left me and worshiped other gods, so I am not going to rescue you again. ¹⁴Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them rescue you when you get in trouble."

¹⁵But the people of Israel said to the LORD, "We have sinned. Do whatever you like, but please, save us today." ¹⁶So they got rid of their foreign gods and worshiped the LORD; and he became troubled over Israel's distress.

¹⁷Then the Ammonite army prepared for battle and camped in Gilead. The people of Israel came together and camped at Mizpah in Gilead. ¹⁸There the people and the leaders of the Israelite tribes asked one another, "Who will lead the fight against the Ammonites? Whoever does will be the leader of everyone in Gilead."
Judges 11 Jephthah, a brave soldier from Gilead, was the son of a prostitute. His father Gilead ²had other sons by his wife, and when they grew up, they forced Jephthah to leave home. They told him, "You will not inherit anything from our father; you are the son of another woman." ³Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. There he attracted a group of worthless men, and they went around with him.

⁴It was some time later that the Ammonites went to war against Israel. ⁵When this happened, the leaders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah back from the land of Tob. ⁶They told him, "Come and lead us, so that we can fight the Ammonites."

⁷But Jephthah answered, "You hated me so much that you forced me to leave my father's house. Why come to me now that you're in trouble?"

⁸They said to Jephthah, "We are turning to you now because we want you to go with us and fight the Ammonites and lead all the people of Gilead."

⁹Jephthah said to them, "If you take me back home to fight the Ammonites and the LORD gives me victory, I will be your ruler."

¹⁰They replied, "We agree. The LORD is our witness." ¹¹So Jephthah went with the leaders of Gilead, and the people made him their ruler and leader. Jephthah stated his terms at Mizpah in the presence of the LORD.

¹²Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of Ammon to say, "What is your quarrel with us? Why have you invaded our country?"

¹³The king of Ammon answered Jephthah's messengers, "When the Israelites came out of Egypt, they took away my land from the Arnon River to the Jabbok River and the Jordan River. Now you must give it back peacefully."

¹⁴Jephthah sent messengers back to the king of Ammon ¹⁵with this answer: "It is not true that Israel took away the land of Moab or the land of Ammon. ¹⁶This is what happened: when the Israelites left Egypt, they went through the desert to the Gulf of Aqaba and came to Kadesh. ¹⁷Then they sent messengers to the king of Edom to ask permission to go through his land. But the king of Edom would not let them. They also asked the king of Moab, but neither would he let them go through his land. So the Israelites stayed at Kadesh. ¹⁸Then they went on through the desert, going around the land of Edom and the land of Moab until they came to the east side of Moab, on the other side of the Arnon River. They camped there, but they did not cross the Arnon because it was the boundary of Moab. ¹⁹Then the Israelites sent messengers to Sihon, the Amorite king of Heshbon, and asked him for permission to go through his country to their own land. ²⁰But Sihon would not let Israel do it. He brought his whole army together, camped at Jahaz, and attacked Israel. ²¹But the LORD, the God of Israel, gave the Israelites victory over Sihon and his army. So the Israelites took possession of all the territory of the Amorites who lived in that country. ²²They occupied all the Amorite territory from the Arnon in the south to the Jabbok in the north and from the desert on the east to the Jordan on the west. ²³So it was the LORD, the God of Israel, who drove out the Amorites for his people, the Israelites. ²⁴Are you going to try to take it back? You can keep whatever your god Chemosh has given you. But we are going to keep everything that the LORD, our God, has taken for us. ²⁵Do you think you are any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? He never challenged Israel, did he? Did he ever go to war against us? ²⁶For three hundred years Israel has occupied Heshbon and Aroer, and the towns around them, and all the cities on the banks of the Arnon River. Why haven't you taken them back in all this time? ²⁷No, I have not done you any wrong. You are doing wrong by making war on me. The LORD is the judge. He will decide today between the Israelites and the Ammonites." ²⁸But the king of Ammon paid no attention to this message from Jephthah.

²⁹Then the spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah. He went through Gilead and Manasseh and returned to Mizpah in Gilead and went on to Ammon. ³⁰Jephthah promised the LORD: "If you will give me victory over the Ammonites, ³¹I will burn as an offering the first person that comes out of my house to meet me, when I come back from the victory. I will offer that person to you as a sacrifice."

³²So Jephthah crossed the river to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD gave him victory. ³³He struck at them from Aroer to the area around Minnith, twenty cities in all, and as far as Abel Keramim. There was a great slaughter, and the Ammonites were defeated by Israel.

Job 39 ¹Do you know when mountain goats are born?

Have you watched wild deer give birth?

²Do you know how long they carry their young?

Do you know the time for their birth?

³Do you know when they will crouch down

and bring their young into the world?

⁴In the wilds their young grow strong;

they go away and don't come back.

⁵Who gave the wild donkeys their freedom?

Who turned them loose and let them roam?

⁶I gave them the desert to be their home,

and let them live on the salt plains.

⁷They keep far away from the noisy cities,

and no one can tame them and make them work.

⁸The mountains are the pastures where they feed,

where they search for anything green to eat.

⁹Will a wild ox work for you?

Is he willing to spend the night in your stable?

¹⁰Can you hold one with a rope and make him plow?

Or make him pull a harrow in your fields?

¹¹Can you rely on his great strength

and expect him to do your heavy work?

¹²Do you expect him to bring in your harvest

and gather the grain from your threshing place?

¹³How fast the wings of an ostrich beat!

But no ostrich can fly like a stork.

¹⁴The ostrich leaves her eggs on the ground

for the heat in the soil to warm them.

¹⁵She is unaware that a foot may crush them

or a wild animal break them.

¹⁶She acts as if the eggs were not hers,

and is unconcerned that her efforts were wasted.

¹⁷It was I who made her foolish

and did not give her wisdom.

¹⁸But when she begins to run,

she can laugh at any horse and rider.

¹⁹Was it you, Job, who made horses so strong

and gave them their flowing manes?

²⁰Did you make them leap like locusts

and frighten people with their snorting?

²¹They eagerly paw the ground in the valley;

they rush into battle with all their strength.

²²They do not know the meaning of fear,

and no sword can turn them back.

²³The weapons which their riders carry

rattle and flash in the sun.

²⁴Trembling with excitement, the horses race ahead;

when the trumpet blows, they can't stand still.

²⁵At each blast of the trumpet they snort;

they can smell a battle before they get near,

and they hear the officers shouting commands.

²⁶Does a hawk learn from you how to fly

when it spreads its wings toward the south?

²⁷Does an eagle wait for your command

to build its nest high in the mountains?

²⁸It makes its home on the highest rocks

and makes the sharp peaks its fortress.

²⁹From there it watches near and far

for something to kill and eat.

³⁰Around dead bodies the eagles gather,

and the young eagles drink the blood.

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.