The Ark Returned to Israel

6 Now the ark of the Lord had been in the ^[a]country of the Philistines seven months. ² And ^(A)the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, “What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us ^[b]how we shall send it to its place.” ³ They said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, ^(B)do not send it empty; but you shall surely ^(C)return to Him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed and it will be known to you why His hand is not removed from you.” ⁴ Then they said, “What shall be the guilt offering which we shall return to Him?” And they said, “Five golden ^(D)tumors and five golden mice ^(E)according to the number of the lords of the Philistines, for one plague was on all of ^[c]you and on your lords. ⁵ So you shall make likenesses of your tumors and likenesses of your mice that ravage the land, and ^(F)you shall give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps ^(G)He will ease His hand from you, ^(H)your gods, and your land. ⁶ Why then do you harden your hearts ^(I)as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When He had severely dealt with them, ^(J)did they not allow ^[d]the people to go, and they departed? ⁷ Now therefore, take and ^(K)prepare a new cart and two milch cows on which there ^(L)has never been a yoke; and hitch the cows to the cart and take their calves home, away from them. ⁸ Take the ark of the Lord and place it on the cart; and put ^(M)the articles of gold which you return to Him as ^(N)a guilt offering in a box by its side. Then send it away that it may go. ⁹ Watch, if it goes up by the way of its own territory to ^(O)Beth-shemesh, then He has done us this great evil. But if not, then ^(P)we will know that it was not His hand that struck us; it happened to us by chance.”

¹⁰ Then the men did so, and took two milch cows and hitched them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home. ¹¹ They put the ark of the Lord on the cart, and the box with the golden mice and the likenesses of their tumors. ¹² And the cows took the straight way in the ^[e]direction of ^(Q)Beth-shemesh; they went along ^(R)the highway, lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right or to the left. And the lords of the Philistines followed them to the border of Beth-shemesh.

¹³ Now the people of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley, and they raised their eyes and saw the ark and were glad to see it. ¹⁴ The cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite and stood there where there was a large stone; and they split the wood of the cart and ^(S)offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. ^15 (T)The Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the box that was with it, in which were the articles of gold, and put them on the large stone; and the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices that day to the Lord. ¹⁶ When the ^(U)five lords of the Philistines saw it, they returned to Ekron that day.

^17 (V)These are the golden tumors which the Philistines returned for a guilt offering to the Lord: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron; ¹⁸ and the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, ^(W)both of fortified cities and of country villages. ^(X)The large ^[f]stone on which they set the ark of the Lord is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite.

^19 (Y)He struck down some of the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the Lord. He struck down of all the people, 50,070 men, and the people mourned because the Lord had struck the people with a great slaughter. ²⁰ The men of Beth-shemesh said, “^(Z)Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? And to whom shall He go up from us?” ²¹ So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of ^(AA)Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have brought back the ark of the Lord; come down and take it up to you.”

Deliverance from the Philistines

7 And the men of Kiriath-jearim came and took the ark of the Lord and ^(AB)brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill, and consecrated Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the Lord. ² From the day that the ark remained at Kiriath-jearim, the time was long, for it was twenty years; and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.

³ Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “^(AC)If you return to the Lord with all your heart, ^(AD)remove the foreign gods and the ^(AE)Ashtaroth from among you and ^(AF)direct your hearts to the Lord and ^(AG)serve Him alone; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.” ⁴ So the sons of Israel removed the Baals and the Ashtaroth and served the Lord alone.

⁵ Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to ^(AH)Mizpah and ^(AI)I will pray to the Lord for you.” ⁶ They gathered to Mizpah, and drew water and ^(AJ)poured it out before the Lord, and ^(AK)fasted on that day and said there, “^(AL)We have sinned against the Lord.” And Samuel judged the sons of Israel at Mizpah.

⁷ Now when the Philistines heard that the sons of Israel had gathered to Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the sons of Israel heard it, ^(AM)they were afraid of the Philistines. ⁸ Then the sons of Israel said to Samuel, “^(AN)Do not cease to cry to the Lord our God for us, that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines.” ⁹ Samuel took ^(AO)a suckling lamb and offered it for a whole burnt offering to the Lord; and Samuel cried to the Lord for Israel and ^(AP)the Lord answered him. ¹⁰ Now Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, and the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But ^(AQ)the Lord thundered with a great ^[g]thunder on that day against the Philistines and ^(AR)confused them, so that they were ^[h]routed before Israel. ¹¹ The men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, and struck them down as far as below Beth-car.

¹² Then Samuel ^(AS)took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and named it ^[i]Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” ^13 (AT)So the Philistines were subdued and ^(AU)they did not come anymore within the border of Israel. And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. ¹⁴ The cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron even to Gath; and Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. So there was peace between Israel and ^(AV)the Amorites.

Samuel’s Ministry

¹⁵ Now Samuel ^(AW)judged Israel all the days of his life. ¹⁶ He used to go annually on circuit to ^(AX)Bethel and ^(AY)Gilgal and ^(AZ)Mizpah, and he judged Israel in all these places. ¹⁷ Then his return was to ^(BA)Ramah, for his house was there, and there he judged Israel; and he ^(BB)built there an altar to the Lord.

Israel Demands a King

8 And it came about when Samuel was old that ^(BC)he appointed his sons judges over Israel. ² Now the name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judging in ^(BD)Beersheba. ³ His sons, however, did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after dishonest gain and ^(BE)took bribes and perverted justice.

⁴ Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at ^(BF)Ramah; ⁵ and they said to him, “Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now ^(BG)appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.” ⁶ But the thing was ^[j](BH)displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And ^(BI)Samuel prayed to the Lord. ⁷ The Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for ^(BJ)they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them. ⁸ Like all the deeds which they have done since the day that I brought them up from Egypt even to this day—in that they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also. ⁹ Now then, listen to their voice; ^(BK)however, you shall solemnly ^[k]warn them and tell them of ^(BL)the ^[l]procedure of the king who will reign over them.”

Warning concerning a King

¹⁰ So Samuel spoke all the words of the Lord to ^(BM)the people who had asked of him a king. ¹¹ He said, “^(BN)This will be the ^[m]procedure of the king who will reign over you: ^(BO)he will take your sons and place them for himself in his chariots and among his horsemen and ^(BP)they will run before his chariots. ^12 (BQ)He will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and of fifties, and some to ^[n]do his plowing and to reap his harvest and to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. ¹³ He will also take your daughters for perfumers and cooks and bakers. ^14 (BR)He will take the best of your fields and your vineyards and your olive groves and give them to his servants. ¹⁵ He will take a tenth of your seed and of your vineyards and give to his officers and to his servants. ¹⁶ He will also take your male servants and your female servants and your best young men and your donkeys and ^[o]use them for his work. ¹⁷ He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his servants. ¹⁸ Then ^(BS)you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but ^(BT)the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

¹⁹ Nevertheless, the people ^(BU)refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, “No, but there shall be a king over us, ^20 (BV)that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” ²¹ Now after Samuel had heard all the words of the people, ^(BW)he repeated them in the Lord’s hearing. ²² The Lord said to Samuel, “^(BX)Listen to their voice and ^[p]appoint them a king.” So Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Go every man to his city.”

Stephen’s Defense

7 The high priest said, “Are these things so?”

² And he said, “Hear me, ^(A)brethren and fathers! ^(B)The God of glory ^(C)appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in ^[a]Haran, ³ and said to him, ‘^(D)Leave your country and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.’ ^4 (E)Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in ^[b]Haran. ^(F)From there, after his father died, God had him move to this country in which you are now living. ⁵ But He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, and yet, even when he had no child, ^(G)He promised that He would give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him. ⁶ But ^(H)God spoke to this effect, that his descendants would be aliens in a foreign land, and that they would ^[c]be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. ⁷ ‘And whatever nation to which they will be in bondage I Myself will judge,’ said God, ‘and ^(I)after that they will come out and ^[d]serve Me in this place.’ ⁸ And He ^(J)gave him ^[e]the covenant of circumcision; and so ^(K)Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and ^(L)Isaac became the father of Jacob, and ^(M)Jacob of the twelve ^(N)patriarchs.

⁹ “The patriarchs ^(O)became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with him, ¹⁰ and rescued him from all his afflictions, and ^(P)granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he made him governor over Egypt and all his household.

¹¹ “Now ^(Q)a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction with it, and our fathers ^[f]could find no food. ¹² But ^(R)when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time. ¹³ On the second visit ^(S)Joseph ^[g]made himself known to his brothers, and ^(T)Joseph’s family was disclosed to Pharaoh. ¹⁴ Then ^(U)Joseph sent word and invited Jacob his father and all his relatives to come to him, ^(V)seventy-five ^[h](W)persons in all. ¹⁵ And ^(X)Jacob went down to Egypt and there he and our fathers died. ¹⁶ From there they were removed to ^[i](Y)Shechem and laid in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of ^[j]Hamor in ^[k]Shechem.

¹⁷ “But as the ^(Z)time of the promise was approaching which God had assured to Abraham, ^(AA)the people increased and multiplied in Egypt, ¹⁸ until ^(AB)there arose another king over Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph. ¹⁹ It was he who took ^(AC)shrewd advantage of our race and mistreated our fathers so that they would ^[l](AD)expose their infants and they would not survive. ²⁰ It was at this time that ^(AE)Moses was born; and he was lovely ^[m]in the sight of God, and he was nurtured three months in his father’s home. ²¹ And after he had been set outside, ^(AF)Pharaoh’s daughter ^[n]took him away and nurtured him as her own son. ²² Moses was educated in all ^(AG)the learning of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and deeds. ²³ But when he was approaching the age of forty, ^(AH)it entered his ^[o]mind to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel. ²⁴ And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended him and took vengeance for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian. ²⁵ And he supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them ^[p]deliverance ^[q]through him, but they did not understand. ^26 (AI)On the following day he appeared to them as they were fighting together, and he tried to reconcile them in peace, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren, why do you injure one another?’ ²⁷ But the one who was injuring his neighbor pushed him away, saying, ‘^(AJ)Who made you a ruler and judge over us? ^28 (AK)You do not mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday, do you?’ ²⁹ At this remark, ^(AL)Moses fled and became an alien in the land of ^[r]Midian, where he ^(AM)became the father of two sons.

³⁰ “After forty years had passed, ^(AN)an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning thorn bush. ³¹ When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight; and as he approached to look more closely, there came the voice of the Lord: ³² ‘^(AO)I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses shook with fear and would not venture to look. ^33 (AP)But the Lord said to him, ‘^(AQ)Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. ^34 (AR)I have certainly seen the oppression of My people in Egypt and have heard their groans, and I have come down to rescue them; ^[s](AS)come now, and I will send you to Egypt.’

³⁵ “This Moses whom they ^(AT)disowned, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the one whom God ^[t]sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer with the ^[u]help of the angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush. ^36 (AU)This man led them out, performing ^(AV)wonders and ^[v]signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the ^(AW)wilderness for forty years. ³⁷ This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, ‘^(AX)God will raise up for you a prophet ^[w]like me from your brethren.’ ³⁸ This is the one who was in ^(AY)the ^[x]congregation in the wilderness together with ^(AZ)the angel who was speaking to him on Mount Sinai, and who was with our fathers; and he received ^(BA)living ^(BB)oracles to pass on to you. ³⁹ Our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him, but ^(BC)repudiated him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt, ^40 (BD)saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us; for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt—we do not know what happened to him.’ ^41 [y]At that time ^(BE)they made a ^[z]calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and were rejoicing in ^(BF)the works of their hands. ⁴² But God ^(BG)turned away and delivered them up to ^[aa]serve the ^[ab]host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, ‘^(BH)It was not to Me that you offered victims and sacrifices ^(BI)forty years in the wilderness, was it, O house of Israel? ^43 (BJ)You also took along the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of the god ^[ac]Rompha, the images which you made to worship. I also will remove you beyond Babylon.’

⁴⁴ “Our fathers had ^(BK)the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, just as He who spoke to Moses directed him to make it ^(BL)according to the pattern which he had seen. ⁴⁵ And having received it in their turn, our fathers ^(BM)brought it in with ^[ad]Joshua upon dispossessing the ^[ae]nations whom God drove out before our fathers, until the time of David. ^46 (BN)David found favor in God’s sight, and ^(BO)asked that he might find a dwelling place for the ^[af]God of Jacob. ⁴⁷ But it was ^(BP)Solomon who built a house for Him. ⁴⁸ However, ^(BQ)the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet says:

⁵¹ “You men who are ^(BT)stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did. ^52 (BU)Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of ^(BV)the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers ^(BW)you have now become; ⁵³ you who received the law as ^(BX)ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.”

Stephen Put to Death

⁵⁴ Now when they heard this, they were ^(BY)cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him. ⁵⁵ But being ^(BZ)full of the Holy Spirit, he ^(CA)gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing ^(CB)at the right hand of God; ⁵⁶ and he said, “Behold, I see the ^(CC)heavens opened up and ^(CD)the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” ⁵⁷ But they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse. ⁵⁸ When they had ^(CE)driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and ^(CF)the witnesses ^(CG)laid aside their robes at the feet of ^(CH)a young man named Saul. ⁵⁹ They went on stoning Stephen as he ^(CI)called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” ⁶⁰ Then ^(CJ)falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, ^(CK)do not hold this sin against them!” Having said this, he ^[ag](CL)fell asleep.