One Year Bible.

Nations Left to Test Israel

¹These are the nations that the LORD left to test all the Israelites who had not known any of the wars in Canaan, ²if only to teach warfare to the subsequent generations of Israel, especially to those who had not known it formerly: ³the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived in the mountains of Lebanon from Mount Baal-hermon to Lebo-hamath.

⁴These nations were left to test the Israelites, to find out whether they would keep the commandments of the LORD, which He had given their fathers through Moses. ⁵Thus the Israelites continued to live among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. ⁶And they took the daughters of these people in marriage, gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.

Othniel

⁷So the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD; they forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs. ⁸Then the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim king of Aram-naharaim, and the Israelites served him eight years.

⁹But when the Israelites cried out to the LORD, He raised up Othniel son of Caleb’s younger brother Kenaz as a deliverer to save them. ¹⁰The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he became Israel’s judge and went out to war. And the LORD delivered Cushan-rishathaim king of Aram into the hand of Othniel, who prevailed against him.

¹¹So the land had rest for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died.

Ehud

¹²Once again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD. So He gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the LORD. ¹³After enlisting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join forces with him, Eglon attacked and defeated Israel, taking possession of the City of Palms.

¹⁴The Israelites served Eglon king of Moab eighteen years. ¹⁵And again they cried out to the LORD, and He raised up Ehud son of Gera, a left-handed Benjamite, as their deliverer. So they sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab.

¹⁶Now Ehud had made for himself a double-edged sword a cubit long. He strapped it to his right thigh under his cloak ¹⁷and brought the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was an obese man.

¹⁸After Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he ushered out those who had carried it. ¹⁹But upon reaching the idols near Gilgal, he himself turned back and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.”

“Silence,” said the king, and all his attendants left him.

²⁰Then Ehud approached him while he was sitting alone in the coolness of his upper room. “I have a word from God for you,” Ehud said, and the king rose from his seat.

²¹And Ehud reached with his left hand, pulled the sword from his right thigh, and plunged it into Eglon’s belly. ²²Even the handle sank in after the blade, and Eglon’s fat closed in over it, so that Ehud did not withdraw the sword from his belly. And Eglon’s bowels emptied. ²³Then Ehud went out through the porch, closing and locking the doors of the upper room behind him.

²⁴After Ehud was gone, Eglon’s servants came in and found the doors of the upper room locked. “He must be relieving himself in the cool room,” they said. ²⁵So they waited until they became worried and saw that he had still not opened the doors of the upper room. Then they took the key and opened the doors— and there was their lord lying dead on the floor.

²⁶Ehud, however, had escaped while the servants waited. He passed by the idols and escaped to Seirah.

²⁷On arriving in Seirah, he blew the ram’s horn throughout the hill country of Ephraim. The Israelites came down with him from the hills, and he became their leader. ²⁸“Follow me,” he told them, “for the LORD has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand.”

So they followed him down and seized the fords of the Jordan leading to Moab, and they did not allow anyone to cross over. ²⁹At that time they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all robust and valiant men. Not one of them escaped.

³⁰So Moab was subdued under the hand of Israel that day, and the land had rest for eighty years.

Shamgar

³¹After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath. And he too saved Israel, striking down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad.

Spiritual Gifts

¹Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. ²You know that when you were pagans, you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. ³Therefore I inform you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

⁴There are different gifts, but the same Spirit. ⁵There are different ministries, but the same Lord. ⁶There are different ways of working, but the same God works all things in all people.

⁷Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. ⁸To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by the same Spirit, ⁹to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, ¹⁰to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in various tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, who apportions them to each one as He determines.

The Body of Christ

¹²The body is a unit, though it is composed of many parts. And although its parts are many, they all form one body. So it is with Christ. ¹³For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free, and we were all given one Spirit to drink.

¹⁴For the body does not consist of one part, but of many. ¹⁵If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁶And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?

¹⁸But in fact, God has arranged the members of the body, every one of them, according to His design. ¹⁹If they were all one part, where would the body be? ²⁰As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

²¹The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you.” Nor can the head say to the feet, “I do not need you.” ²²On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³and the parts we consider less honorable, we treat with greater honor. And our unpresentable parts are treated with special modesty, ²⁴whereas our presentable parts have no such need.

But God has composed the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, ²⁵so that there should be no division in the body, but that its members should have mutual concern for one another. ²⁶If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

The Greater Gifts

²⁷Now you are the body of Christ, and each of you is a member of it. ²⁸And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, and those with gifts of healing, helping, administration, and various tongues. ²⁹Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? ³⁰Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? ³¹But eagerly desire the greater gifts.

And now I will show you the most excellent way.

Temple Rebuilding Resumes

¹Later, the prophets Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them. ²Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak rose up and began to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them, helping them.

³At that time Tattenai the governor of the region west of the Euphrates, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates went to the Jews and asked, “Who authorized you to rebuild this temple and restore this structure?”

⁴They also asked, “What are the names of the men who are constructing this building?”

⁵But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, so that they were not stopped until a report was sent to Darius and written instructions about this matter were returned.

Tattenai’s Letter to Darius

⁶This is the text of the letter that Tattenai the governor of the region west of the Euphrates, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates, the officials in the region, sent to King Darius. ⁷The report they sent him read as follows:

To King Darius:

All peace.

⁸Let it be known to the king that we went into the province of Judah, to the house of the great God. The people are rebuilding it with large stones and placing timbers in the walls. This work is being carried out diligently and is prospering in their hands.

⁹So we questioned the elders and asked, “Who authorized you to rebuild this temple and restore this structure?”

¹⁰We also asked for their names, so that we could write down the names of their leaders for your information.

¹¹And this is the answer they returned:

“We are servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the temple that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and completed. ¹²But since our fathers angered the God of heaven, He delivered them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean who destroyed this temple and carried away the people to Babylon.

¹³In the first year of his reign, however, Cyrus king of Babylon issued a decree to rebuild this house of God. ¹⁴He also removed from the temple of Babylon the gold and silver articles belonging to the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken and carried there from the temple in Jerusalem. King Cyrus gave these articles to a man named Sheshbazzar, whom he appointed governor ¹⁵and instructed, ‘Take these articles, put them in the temple in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be rebuilt on its original site.’

¹⁶So this Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundation of the house of God in Jerusalem, and from that time until now it has been under construction, but it has not yet been completed.”

¹⁷Now, therefore, if it pleases the king, let a search be made of the royal archives in Babylon to see if King Cyrus did indeed issue a decree to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. Then let the king send us his decision in this matter.

The Decree of Darius

¹Thus King Darius ordered a search of the archives stored in the treasury of Babylon. ²And a scroll was found in the fortress of Ecbatana, in the province of Media, with the following written on it:

Memorandum:

³In the first year of King Cyrus, he issued a decree concerning the house of God in Jerusalem:

Let the house be rebuilt as a place for offering sacrifices, and let its foundations be firmly laid. It is to be sixty cubits high and sixty cubits wide, ⁴with three layers of cut stones and one of timbers. The costs are to be paid from the royal treasury.

⁵Furthermore, the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and carried to Babylon, must also be returned to the temple in Jerusalem and deposited in the house of God.

⁶Therefore Darius decreed:

To Tattenai governor of the region west of the Euphrates, Shethar-bozenai, and your associates and officials in the region:

You must stay away from that place! ⁷Leave this work on the house of God alone. Let the governor and elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its original site.

⁸I hereby decree what you must do for these elders of the Jews who are rebuilding this house of God:

The cost is to be paid in full to these men from the royal treasury out of the taxes of the provinces west of the Euphrates, so that the work will not be hindered. ⁹Whatever is needed— young bulls, rams, and lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, as well as wheat, salt, wine, and oil, as requested by the priests in Jerusalem— must be given to them daily without fail. ¹⁰Then they will be able to offer sacrifices of a sweet aroma to the God of heaven and to pray for the lives of the king and his sons.

¹¹I also decree that if any man interferes with this directive, a beam is to be torn from his house and raised up, and he is to be impaled on it. And his own house shall be made a pile of rubble for this offense. ¹²May God, who has caused His Name to dwell there, overthrow any king or people who lifts a hand to alter this decree or to destroy this house of God in Jerusalem.

I, Darius, have issued the decree. Let it be carried out with diligence.

The Temple Completed

¹³In response, Tattenai the governor of the region west of the Euphrates, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates diligently carried out what King Darius had decreed. ¹⁴So the Jewish elders built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah son of Iddo.

They finished building according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia. ¹⁵And this temple was completed on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.

Dedication of the Temple

¹⁶Then the people of Israel — the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the exiles — celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy.

¹⁷For the dedication of the house of God they offered a hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and a sin offering for all Israel of twelve male goats, one for each tribe of Israel.

¹⁸They also appointed the priests by their divisions and the Levites by their groups to the service of God in Jerusalem, according to what is written in the Book of Moses.

The Returned Exiles Keep the Passover

¹⁹On the fourteenth day of the first month, the exiles kept the Passover. ²⁰All the priests and Levites had purified themselves and were ceremonially clean.

And the Levites slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the exiles, for their priestly brothers, and for themselves. ²¹The Israelites who had returned from exile ate it, together with all who had separated themselves from the uncleanness of the peoples of the land to seek the LORD, the God of Israel.

²²For seven days they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread with joy, because the LORD had made them joyful and turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them to strengthen their hands in the work on the house of the God of Israel.