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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkGEN">
 <div class="chapter ch16" data-usfm="GEN.16">
 <div class="label">16</div><div class="s1">Hagar and Ishmael</div><div class="p"> 1Now Sarai, Abram&#8217;s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; 2so she said to Abram, &#8220;The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.&#8221;</div><div class="p">Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. 4He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.</div><div class="p">When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. 5Then Sarai said to Abram, &#8220;You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 6&#8220;Your slave is in your hands,&#8221; Abram said. &#8220;Do with her whatever you think best.&#8221; Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.</div><div class="p"> 7The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 8And he said, &#8220;Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;I&#8217;m running away from my mistress Sarai,&#8221; she answered.</div><div class="p"> 9Then the angel of the Lord told her, &#8220;Go back to your mistress and submit to her.&#8221; 10The angel added, &#8220;I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 11The angel of the Lord also said to her:</div><div class="q1">&#8220;You are now pregnant</div><div class="q2">and you will give birth to a son.</div><div class="q1">You shall name him Ishmael,#16:11 Ishmael means God hears.</div><div class="q2">for the Lord has heard of your misery.</div><div class="q1"> 12He will be a wild donkey of a man;</div><div class="q2">his hand will be against everyone</div><div class="q2">and everyone&#8217;s hand against him,</div><div class="q1">and he will live in hostility</div><div class="q2">toward#16:12 Or live to the east / of all his brothers.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 13She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: &#8220;You are the God who sees me,&#8221; for she said, &#8220;I have now seen#16:13 Or seen the back of the One who sees me.&#8221; 14That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi#16:14 Beer Lahai Roi means well of the Living One who sees me.; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.</div><div class="p"> 15So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. 16Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkMAT">
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 <div class="label">15</div><div class="s1">That Which Defiles</div><div class="p"> 1Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2&#8220;Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don&#8217;t wash their hands before they eat!&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 3Jesus replied, &#8220;And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? 4For God said, &#8216;Honor your father and mother&#8217;#15:4 Exodus 20:12; Deut. 5:16 and &#8216;Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.&#8217;#15:4 Exodus 21:17; Lev. 20:9 5But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is &#8216;devoted to God,&#8217; 6they are not to &#8216;honor their father or mother&#8217; with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. 7You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:</div><div class="q1"> 8 &#8220;&#8198;&#8216;These people honor me with their lips,</div><div class="q2"> but their hearts are far from me.</div><div class="q1"> 9 They worship me in vain;</div><div class="q2"> their teachings are merely human rules.&#8217; # 15:9 
 Isaiah 29:13
 &#8221;</div><div class="p"> 10Jesus called the crowd to him and said, &#8220;Listen and understand. 11What goes into someone&#8217;s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 12Then the disciples came to him and asked, &#8220;Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 13He replied, &#8220;Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. 14Leave them; they are blind guides.#15:14 Some manuscripts blind guides of the blind If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 15Peter said, &#8220;Explain the parable to us.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 16 &#8220;Are you still so dull?&#8221; Jesus asked them. 17&#8220;Don&#8217;t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18But the things that come out of a person&#8217;s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19For out of the heart come evil thoughts&#8212;murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.&#8221;</div><div class="s1">The Faith of a Canaanite Woman</div><div class="p"> 21Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, &#8220;Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 23Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, &#8220;Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 24He answered, &#8220;I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 25The woman came and knelt before him. &#8220;Lord, help me!&#8221; she said.</div><div class="p"> 26He replied, &#8220;It is not right to take the children&#8217;s bread and toss it to the dogs.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 27&#8220;Yes it is, Lord,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master&#8217;s table.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 28Then Jesus said to her, &#8220;Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.&#8221; And her daughter was healed at that moment.</div><div class="s1">Jesus Feeds the Four Thousand</div><div class="p"> 29Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. 30Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them. 31The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.</div><div class="p"> 32Jesus called his disciples to him and said, &#8220;I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 33His disciples answered, &#8220;Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 34 &#8220;How many loaves do you have?&#8221; Jesus asked.</div><div class="p">&#8220;Seven,&#8221; they replied, &#8220;and a few small fish.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 35He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. 36Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people. 37They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 38The number of those who ate was four thousand men, besides women and children. 39After Jesus had sent the crowd away, he got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkNEH">
 <div class="chapter ch5" data-usfm="NEH.5">
 <div class="label">5</div><div class="s1">Nehemiah Helps the Poor</div><div class="p"> 1Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their fellow Jews. 2Some were saying, &#8220;We and our sons and daughters are numerous; in order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 3Others were saying, &#8220;We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain during the famine.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 4Still others were saying, &#8220;We have had to borrow money to pay the king&#8217;s tax on our fields and vineyards. 5Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our fellow Jews and though our children are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 6When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry. 7I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials. I told them, &#8220;You are charging your own people interest!&#8221; So I called together a large meeting to deal with them 8and said: &#8220;As far as possible, we have bought back our fellow Jews who were sold to the Gentiles. Now you are selling your own people, only for them to be sold back to us!&#8221; They kept quiet, because they could find nothing to say.</div><div class="p"> 9So I continued, &#8220;What you are doing is not right. Shouldn&#8217;t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies? 10I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain. But let us stop charging interest! 11Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the interest you are charging them&#8212;one percent of the money, grain, new wine and olive oil.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 12&#8220;We will give it back,&#8221; they said. &#8220;And we will not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say.&#8221;</div><div class="p">Then I summoned the priests and made the nobles and officials take an oath to do what they had promised. 13I also shook out the folds of my robe and said, &#8220;In this way may God shake out of their house and possessions anyone who does not keep this promise. So may such a person be shaken out and emptied!&#8221;</div><div class="p">At this the whole assembly said, &#8220;Amen,&#8221; and praised the Lord. And the people did as they had promised.</div><div class="p"> 14Moreover, from the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, until his thirty-second year&#8212;twelve years&#8212;neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor. 15But the earlier governors&#8212;those preceding me&#8212;placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty shekels#5:15 That is, about 1 pound or about 460 grams of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistants also lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God I did not act like that. 16Instead, I devoted myself to the work on this wall. All my men were assembled there for the work; we#5:16 Most Hebrew manuscripts; some Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint, Vulgate and Syriac I did not acquire any land.</div><div class="p"> 17Furthermore, a hundred and fifty Jews and officials ate at my table, as well as those who came to us from the surrounding nations. 18Each day one ox, six choice sheep and some poultry were prepared for me, and every ten days an abundant supply of wine of all kinds. In spite of all this, I never demanded the food allotted to the governor, because the demands were heavy on these people.</div><div class="p"> 19Remember me with favor, my God, for all I have done for these people.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkACT">
 <div class="chapter ch15" data-usfm="ACT.15">
 <div class="label">15</div><div class="s1">The Council at Jerusalem</div><div class="p"> 1Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: &#8220;Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.&#8221; 2This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. 3The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad. 4When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.</div><div class="p"> 5Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, &#8220;The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 6The apostles and elders met to consider this question. 7After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: &#8220;Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. 8God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. 10Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? 11No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 12The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. 13When they finished, James spoke up. &#8220;Brothers,&#8221; he said, &#8220;listen to me. 14Simon#15:14 Greek Simeon, a variant of Simon; that is, Peter has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles. 15The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written:</div><div class="q1"> 16&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;After this I will return</div><div class="q2">and rebuild David&#8217;s fallen tent.</div><div class="q1">Its ruins I will rebuild,</div><div class="q2">and I will restore it,</div><div class="q1"> 17that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord,</div><div class="q2">even all the Gentiles who bear my name,</div><div class="q1">says the Lord, who does these things&#8217;#15:17 Amos 9:11,12 (see Septuagint)&#8212;</div><div class="q2"> 18things known from long ago.#15:17,18 Some manuscripts things&#8217;&#8212; / 18 the Lord&#8217;s work is known to him from long ago</div><div class="p"> 19&#8220;It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. 20Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. 21For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.&#8221;</div><div class="s1">The Council&#8217;s Letter to Gentile Believers</div><div class="p"> 22Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas, men who were leaders among the believers. 23With them they sent the following letter:</div><div class="pmo">The apostles and elders, your brothers,</div><div class="b"></div><div class="pmo">To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia:</div><div class="b"></div><div class="pmo">Greetings.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="pm"> 24We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. 25So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul&#8212; 26men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. 28It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: 29You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.</div><div class="pmc">Farewell.</div><div class="p"> 30So the men were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they gathered the church together and delivered the letter. 31The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message. 32Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the believers. 33After spending some time there, they were sent off by the believers with the blessing of peace to return to those who had sent them. [34]#15:34 Some manuscripts include here But Silas decided to remain there. 35But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, where they and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord.</div><div class="s1">Disagreement Between Paul and Barnabas</div><div class="p"> 36Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, &#8220;Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.&#8221; 37Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, 38but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. 39They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, 40but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord. 41He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.</div>
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