At Thy Word With Reverend Matthew Watley

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The Listener’s Bible®: NIV Edition

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Holy Bible, New International Version™ (Anglicised), South Asian Audio Edition

<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bk2SA">
 <div class="chapter ch24" data-usfm="2SA.24">
 <div class="label">24</div><div class="s1">David Enrolls the Fighting Men</div><div class="p"> 1Again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, &#8220;Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 2So the king said to Joab and the army commanders#24:2 Septuagint (see also verse 4 and 1 Chron. 21:2); Hebrew Joab the army commander with him, &#8220;Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enroll the fighting men, so that I may know how many there are.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 3But Joab replied to the king, &#8220;May the Lord your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 4The king&#8217;s word, however, overruled Joab and the army commanders; so they left the presence of the king to enroll the fighting men of Israel.</div><div class="p"> 5After crossing the Jordan, they camped near Aroer, south of the town in the gorge, and then went through Gad and on to Jazer. 6They went to Gilead and the region of Tahtim Hodshi, and on to Dan Jaan and around toward Sidon. 7Then they went toward the fortress of Tyre and all the towns of the Hivites and Canaanites. Finally, they went on to Beersheba in the Negev of Judah.</div><div class="p"> 8After they had gone through the entire land, they came back to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.</div><div class="p"> 9Joab reported the number of the fighting men to the king: In Israel there were eight hundred thousand able-bodied men who could handle a sword, and in Judah five hundred thousand.</div><div class="p"> 10David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the Lord, &#8220;I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, Lord, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 11Before David got up the next morning, the word of the Lord had come to Gad the prophet, David&#8217;s seer: 12&#8220;Go and tell David, &#8216;This is what the Lord says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 13So Gad went to David and said to him, &#8220;Shall there come on you three#24:13 Septuagint (see also 1 Chron. 21:12); Hebrew seven years of famine in your land? Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? Or three days of plague in your land? Now then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 14David said to Gad, &#8220;I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into human hands.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 15So the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. 16When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, &#8220;Enough! Withdraw your hand.&#8221; The angel of the Lord was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.</div><div class="p"> 17When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to the Lord, &#8220;I have sinned; I, the shepherd,#24:17 Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuagint; Masoretic Text does not have the shepherd. have done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Let your hand fall on me and my family.&#8221;</div><div class="s1">David Builds an Altar</div><div class="p"> 18On that day Gad went to David and said to him, &#8220;Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.&#8221; 19So David went up, as the Lord had commanded through Gad. 20When Araunah looked and saw the king and his officials coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground.</div><div class="p"> 21Araunah said, &#8220;Why has my lord the king come to his servant?&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;To buy your threshing floor,&#8221; David answered, &#8220;so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 22Araunah said to David, &#8220;Let my lord the king take whatever he wishes and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. 23Your Majesty, Araunah#24:23 Some Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint; most Hebrew manuscripts King Araunah gives all this to the king.&#8221; Araunah also said to him, &#8220;May the Lord your God accept you.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 24But the king replied to Araunah, &#8220;No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.&#8221;</div><div class="p">So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels#24:24 That is, about 1 1/4 pounds or about 575 grams of silver for them. 25David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the Lord answered his prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkGAL">
 <div class="chapter ch4" data-usfm="GAL.4">
 <div class="label">4</div><div class="p"> 1What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces#4:3 Or under the basic principles of the world. 4But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.#4:5 The Greek word for adoption to sonship is a legal term referring to the full legal standing of an adopted male heir in Roman culture. 6Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, &#8220;Abba,#4:6 Aramaic for Father Father.&#8221; 7So you are no longer a slave, but God&#8217;s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.</div><div class="s1">Paul&#8217;s Concern for the Galatians</div><div class="p"> 8Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. 9But now that you know God&#8212;or rather are known by God&#8212;how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces#4:9 Or principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? 10You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! 11I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.</div><div class="p"> 12I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you. You did me no wrong. 13As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you, 14and even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself. 15Where, then, is your blessing of me now? I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. 16Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?</div><div class="p"> 17Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may have zeal for them. 18It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always, not just when I am with you. 19My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, 20how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!</div><div class="s1">Hagar and Sarah</div><div class="p"> 21Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? 22For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. 23His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.</div><div class="p"> 24These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. 25Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. 26But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. 27For it is written:</div><div class="q1">&#8220;Be glad, barren woman,</div><div class="q2">you who never bore a child;</div><div class="q1">shout for joy and cry aloud,</div><div class="q2">you who were never in labor;</div><div class="q1">because more are the children of the desolate woman</div><div class="q2">than of her who has a husband.&#8221;#4:27 Isaiah 54:1</div><div class="p"> 28Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. 30But what does Scripture say? &#8220;Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman&#8217;s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman&#8217;s son.&#8221;#4:30 Gen. 21:10 31Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkEZK">
 <div class="chapter ch31" data-usfm="EZK.31">
 <div class="label">31</div><div class="s2">Pharaoh as a Felled Cedar of Lebanon</div><div class="p"> 1In the eleventh year, in the third month on the first day, the word of the Lord came to me: 2&#8220;Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his hordes:</div><div class="q1">&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;Who can be compared with you in majesty?</div><div class="q1"> 3Consider Assyria, once a cedar in Lebanon,</div><div class="q2">with beautiful branches overshadowing the forest;</div><div class="q1">it towered on high,</div><div class="q2">its top above the thick foliage.</div><div class="q1"> 4The waters nourished it,</div><div class="q2">deep springs made it grow tall;</div><div class="q1">their streams flowed</div><div class="q2">all around its base</div><div class="q1">and sent their channels</div><div class="q2">to all the trees of the field.</div><div class="q1"> 5So it towered higher</div><div class="q2">than all the trees of the field;</div><div class="q1">its boughs increased</div><div class="q2">and its branches grew long,</div><div class="q2">spreading because of abundant waters.</div><div class="q1"> 6All the birds of the sky</div><div class="q2">nested in its boughs,</div><div class="q1">all the animals of the wild</div><div class="q2">gave birth under its branches;</div><div class="q1">all the great nations</div><div class="q2">lived in its shade.</div><div class="q1"> 7It was majestic in beauty,</div><div class="q2">with its spreading boughs,</div><div class="q1">for its roots went down</div><div class="q2">to abundant waters.</div><div class="q1"> 8The cedars in the garden of God</div><div class="q2">could not rival it,</div><div class="q1">nor could the junipers</div><div class="q2">equal its boughs,</div><div class="q1">nor could the plane trees</div><div class="q2">compare with its branches&#8212;</div><div class="q1">no tree in the garden of God</div><div class="q2">could match its beauty.</div><div class="q1"> 9I made it beautiful</div><div class="q2">with abundant branches,</div><div class="q1">the envy of all the trees of Eden</div><div class="q2">in the garden of God.</div><div class="p"> 10&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because the great cedar towered over the thick foliage, and because it was proud of its height, 11I gave it into the hands of the ruler of the nations, for him to deal with according to its wickedness. I cast it aside, 12and the most ruthless of foreign nations cut it down and left it. Its boughs fell on the mountains and in all the valleys; its branches lay broken in all the ravines of the land. All the nations of the earth came out from under its shade and left it. 13All the birds settled on the fallen tree, and all the wild animals lived among its branches. 14Therefore no other trees by the waters are ever to tower proudly on high, lifting their tops above the thick foliage. No other trees so well-watered are ever to reach such a height; they are all destined for death, for the earth below, among mortals who go down to the realm of the dead.</div><div class="p"> 15&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;This is what the Sovereign Lord says: On the day it was brought down to the realm of the dead I covered the deep springs with mourning for it; I held back its streams, and its abundant waters were restrained. Because of it I clothed Lebanon with gloom, and all the trees of the field withered away. 16I made the nations tremble at the sound of its fall when I brought it down to the realm of the dead to be with those who go down to the pit. Then all the trees of Eden, the choicest and best of Lebanon, the well-watered trees, were consoled in the earth below. 17They too, like the great cedar, had gone down to the realm of the dead, to those killed by the sword, along with the armed men who lived in its shade among the nations.</div><div class="p"> 18&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;Which of the trees of Eden can be compared with you in splendor and majesty? Yet you, too, will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the earth below; you will lie among the uncircumcised, with those killed by the sword.</div><div class="p">&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;This is Pharaoh and all his hordes, declares the Sovereign Lord.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div>
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