Daily Bible GNT May 19 Scroll

Paul Defends Himself before Agrippa

Acts 26 Agrippa said to Paul, "You have permission to speak on your own behalf." Paul stretched out his hand and defended himself as follows:

²"King Agrippa! I consider myself fortunate that today I am to defend myself before you from all the things these Jews accuse me of, ³particularly since you know so well all the Jewish customs and disputes. I ask you, then, to listen to me with patience.

⁴"All the Jews know how I have lived ever since I was young. They know how I have spent my whole life, at first in my own country and then in Jerusalem. ⁵They have always known, if they are willing to testify, that from the very first I have lived as a member of the strictest party of our religion, the Pharisees. ⁶And now I stand here to be tried because of the hope I have in the promise that God made to our ancestors-- ⁷the very thing that the twelve tribes of our people hope to receive, as they worship God day and night. And it is because of this hope, Your Majesty, that I am being accused by these Jews! ⁸Why do you who are here find it impossible to believe that God raises the dead?

⁹"I myself thought that I should do everything I could against the cause of Jesus of Nazareth. ¹⁰That is what I did in Jerusalem. I received authority from the chief priests and put many of God's people in prison; and when they were sentenced to death, I also voted against them. ¹¹Many times I had them punished in the synagogues and tried to make them deny their faith. I was so furious with them that I even went to foreign cities to persecute them.

Paul Tells of His Conversion
(Acts 9.1-19; 22.6-16)

¹²"It was for this purpose that I went to Damascus with authority and orders from the chief priests. ¹³It was on the road at midday, Your Majesty, that I saw a light much brighter than the sun, coming from the sky and shining around me and the men traveling with me. ¹⁴All of us fell to the ground, and I heard a voice say to me in Hebrew, 'Saul, Saul! Why are you persecuting me? You are hurting yourself by hitting back, like an ox kicking against its owner's stick.' ¹⁵'Who are you, Lord?' I asked. And the Lord answered, 'I am Jesus, whom you persecute. ¹⁶But get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant. You are to tell others what you have seen of me today and what I will show you in the future. ¹⁷I will rescue you from the people of Israel and from the Gentiles to whom I will send you. ¹⁸You are to open their eyes and turn them from the darkness to the light and from the power of Satan to God, so that through their faith in me they will have their sins forgiven and receive their place among God's chosen people.'

Ruth Finds a Husband

Ruth 3 Some time later Naomi said to Ruth, "I must find a husband for you, so that you will have a home of your own. ²Remember that this man Boaz, whose women you have been working with, is our relative. Now listen. This evening he will be threshing the barley. ³So wash yourself, put on some perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes. Then go where he is threshing, but don't let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. ⁴Be sure to notice where he lies down, and after he falls asleep, go and lift the covers and lie down at his feet. He will tell you what to do."

⁵Ruth answered, "I will do everything you say."

⁶So Ruth went to the threshing place and did just what her mother-in-law had told her. ⁷When Boaz had finished eating and drinking, he was in a good mood. He went to the pile of barley and lay down to sleep. Ruth slipped over quietly, lifted the covers and lay down at his feet. ⁸During the night he woke up suddenly, turned over, and was surprised to find a woman lying at his feet. ⁹"Who are you?" he asked.

"It's Ruth, sir," she answered. "Because you are a close relative, you are responsible for taking care of me. So please marry me."

¹⁰"The LORD bless you," he said. "You are showing even greater family loyalty in what you are doing now than in what you did for your mother-in-law. You might have gone looking for a young man, either rich or poor, but you haven't. ¹¹Now don't worry, Ruth. I will do everything you ask; as everyone in town knows, you are a fine woman. ¹²It is true that I am a close relative and am responsible for you, but there is a man who is a closer relative than I am. ¹³Stay here the rest of the night, and in the morning we will find out whether or not he will take responsibility for you. If so, well and good; if not, then I swear by the living LORD that I will take the responsibility. Now lie down and stay here till morning."

¹⁴So she lay there at his feet, but she got up before it was light enough for her to be seen, because Boaz did not want anyone to know that she had been there. ¹⁵Boaz said to her, "Take off your cloak and spread it out here." She did, and he poured out almost fifty pounds of barley and helped her lift it to her shoulder. Then she returned to town with it. ¹⁶When she arrived home, her mother-in-law asked her, "How did you get along, daughter?"

Ruth told her everything that Boaz had done for her. ¹⁷She added, "He told me I must not come back to you empty-handed, so he gave me all this barley."

¹⁸Naomi said to her, "Now be patient, Ruth, until you see how this all turns out. Boaz will not rest today until he settles the matter."

Boaz Marries Ruth

Ruth 4 Boaz went to the meeting place at the town gate and sat down there. Then Elimelech's nearest relative, the man whom Boaz had mentioned, came by, and Boaz called to him, "Come over here, my friend, and sit down." So he went over and sat down. ²Then Boaz got ten of the leaders of the town and asked them to sit down there too. When they were seated, ³he said to his relative, "Now that Naomi has come back from Moab, she wants to sell the field that belonged to our relative Elimelech, ⁴and I think you ought to know about it. Now then, if you want it, buy it in the presence of these men sitting here. But if you don't want it, say so, because the right to buy it belongs first to you and then to me."

The man said, "I will buy it."

⁵Boaz said, "Very well, if you buy the field from Naomi, then you are also buying Ruth, the Moabite widow, so that the field will stay in the dead man's family."

⁶The man answered, "In that case I will give up my right to buy the field, because it would mean that my own children would not inherit it. You buy it; I would rather not."

⁷Now in those days, to settle a sale or an exchange of property, it was the custom for the seller to take off his sandal and give it to the buyer. In this way the Israelites showed that the matter was settled.

⁸So when the man said to Boaz, "You buy it," he took off his sandal and gave it to Boaz. ⁹Then Boaz said to the leaders and all the others there, "You are all witnesses today that I have bought from Naomi everything that belonged to Elimelech and to his sons Chilion and Mahlon. ¹⁰In addition, Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon's widow, becomes my wife. This will keep the property in the dead man's family, and his family line will continue among his people and in his hometown. You are witnesses to this today."

¹¹The leaders and the others said, "Yes, we are witnesses. May the LORD make your wife become like Rachel and Leah, who bore many children to Jacob. May you become rich in the clan of Ephrath and famous in Bethlehem. ¹²May the children that the LORD will give you by this young woman make your family like the family of Perez, the son of Judah and Tamar."

Boaz and His Descendants

¹³So Boaz took Ruth home as his wife. The LORD blessed her, and she became pregnant and had a son. ¹⁴The women said to Naomi, "Praise the LORD! He has given you a grandson today to take care of you. May the boy become famous in Israel! ¹⁵Your daughter-in-law loves you, and has done more for you than seven sons. And now she has given you a grandson, who will bring new life to you and give you security in your old age." ¹⁶Naomi took the child, held him close, and took care of him.

¹⁷The women of the neighborhood named the boy Obed. They told everyone, "A son has been born to Naomi!"

Obed became the father of Jesse, who was the father of David.

^18-22This is the family line from Perez to David: Perez, Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, David.

Zion, the City of God

Psalm 48 The LORD is great and is to be highly praised

in the city of our God, on his sacred hill.

²Zion, the mountain of God, is high and beautiful;

the city of the great king brings joy to all the world.

³God has shown that there is safety with him

inside the fortresses of the city.

⁴The kings gathered together

and came to attack Mount Zion.

⁵But when they saw it, they were amazed;

they were afraid and ran away.

⁶There they were seized with fear and anguish,

like a woman about to bear a child,

⁷

like ships tossing in a furious storm.

⁸We have heard what God has done,

and now we have seen it

in the city of our God, the LORD Almighty;

he will keep the city safe forever.

⁹Inside your Temple, O God,

we think of your constant love.

¹⁰You are praised by people everywhere,

and your fame extends over all the earth.

You rule with justice;

¹¹

let the people of Zion be glad!

You give right judgments;

let there be joy in the cities of Judah!

¹²People of God, walk around Zion and count the towers;

¹³

take notice of the walls and examine the fortresses,

so that you may tell the next generation:

¹⁴

"This God is our God forever and ever;

he will lead us for all time to come."

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.