Baramhat 17, 1740

1My son, if you receive my words, And treasure my commands within you,

2So that you incline your ear to wisdom, And apply your heart to understanding;

3Yes, if you cry out for discernment, And lift up your voice for understanding,

4If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures;

5Then you will understand the fear of the LORD, And find the knowledge of God.

6For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;

7He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk uprightly;

8He guards the paths of justice, And preserves the way of His saints.

9Then you will understand righteousness and justice, Equity and every good path.

10When wisdom enters your heart, And knowledge is pleasant to your soul,

11Discretion will preserve you; Understanding will keep you,

12To deliver you from the way of evil, From the man who speaks perverse things,

13From those who leave the paths of uprightness To walk in the ways of darkness;

14Who rejoice in doing evil, And delight in the perversity of the wicked;

15Whose ways are crooked, And who are devious in their paths;

12Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Lord has performed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, that He will say, "I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his haughty looks."

13For he says: "By the strength of my hand I have done it, And by my wisdom, for I am prudent; Also I have removed the boundaries of the people, And have robbed their treasuries; So I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man.

14My hand has found like a nest the riches of the people, And as one gathers eggs that are left, I have gathered all the earth; And there was no one who moved his wing, Nor opened his mouth with even a peep."

15Shall the ax boast itself against him who chops with it? Or shall the saw exalt itself against him who saws with it? As if a rod could wield itself against those who lift it up, Or as if a staff could lift up, as if it were not wood!

16Therefore the Lord, the Lord of hosts, Will send leanness among his fat ones; And under his glory He will kindle a burning Like the burning of a fire.

17So the Light of Israel will be for a fire, And his Holy One for a flame; It will burn and devour His thorns and his briers in one day.

18And it will consume the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field, Both soul and body; And they will be as when a sick man wastes away.

19Then the rest of the trees of his forest Will be so few in number That a child may write them.

20And it shall come to pass in that day That the remnant of Israel, And such as have escaped of the house of Jacob, Will never again depend on him who defeated them, But will depend on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

21The remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, To the Mighty God.

1But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things, for Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed things; so the anger of the LORD burned against the children of Israel.

2Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth Aven, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, "Go up and spy out the country." So the men went up and spied out Ai.

3And they returned to Joshua and said to him, "Do not let all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Do not weary all the people there, for the people of Ai are few."

4So about three thousand men went up there from the people, but they fled before the men of Ai.

5And the men of Ai struck down about thirty-six men, for they chased them from before the gate as far as Shebarim, and struck them down on the descent; therefore the hearts of the people melted and became like water.

6Then Joshua tore his clothes, and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the LORD until evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads.

7And Joshua said, "Alas, Lord GOD, why have You brought this people over the Jordan at all--to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Oh, that we had been content, and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan!

8O Lord, what shall I say when Israel turns its back before its enemies?

9For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear it, and surround us, and cut off our name from the earth. Then what will You do for Your great name?"

10So the LORD said to Joshua: "Get up! Why do you lie thus on your face?

11Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. For they have even taken some of the accursed things, and have both stolen and deceived; and they have also put it among their own stuff.

12Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they have become doomed to destruction. Neither will I be with you anymore, unless you destroy the accursed from among you.

13Get up, sanctify the people, and say, "Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, because thus says the LORD God of Israel: "There is an accursed thing in your midst, O Israel; you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you."

14In the morning therefore you shall be brought according to your tribes. And it shall be that the tribe which the LORD takes shall come according to families; and the family which the LORD takes shall come by households; and the household which the LORD takes shall come man by man.

15Then it shall be that he who is taken with the accursed thing shall be burned with fire, he and all that he has, because he has transgressed the covenant of the LORD, and because he has done a disgraceful thing in Israel."'

16So Joshua rose early in the morning and brought Israel by their tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken.

17He brought the clan of Judah, and he took the family of the Zarhites; and he brought the family of the Zarhites man by man, and Zabdi was taken.

18Then he brought his household man by man, and Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken.

19Now Joshua said to Achan, "My son, I beg you, give glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession to Him, and tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me."

20And Achan answered Joshua and said, "Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and this is what I have done:

21When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. And there they are, hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent, with the silver under it."

22So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver under it.

23And they took them from the midst of the tent, brought them to Joshua and to all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the LORD.

24Then Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the garment, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had, and they brought them to the Valley of Achor.

25And Joshua said, "Why have you troubled us? The LORD will trouble you this day." So all Israel stoned him with stones; and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones.

26Then they raised over him a great heap of stones, still there to this day. So the LORD turned from the fierceness of His anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called the Valley of Achor to this day.

10Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; But he who trusts in the LORD, mercy shall surround him.

54Then He also said to the multitudes, "Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say, "A shower is coming'; and so it is.

55And when you see the south wind blow, you say, "There will be hot weather'; and there is.

56Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time?

57"Yes, and why, even of yourselves, do you not judge what is right?

58When you go with your adversary to the magistrate, make every effort along the way to settle with him, lest he drag you to the judge, the judge deliver you to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison.

59I tell you, you shall not depart from there till you have paid the very last mite."

1What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh?

2For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

3For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness."

4Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.

5But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,

6just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:

7"Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, And whose sins are covered;

8Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin."

1My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

2And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

3Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.

4He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

5But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.

6He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

7Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning.

8Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.

9He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.

10He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.

11But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

9Now when much time had been spent, and sailing was now dangerous because the Fast was already over, Paul advised them,

10saying, "Men, I perceive that this voyage will end with disaster and much loss, not only of the cargo and ship, but also our lives."

11Nevertheless the centurion was more persuaded by the helmsman and the owner of the ship than by the things spoken by Paul.

12And because the harbor was not suitable to winter in, the majority advised to set sail from there also, if by any means they could reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete opening toward the southwest and northwest, and winter there.