One Year Bible.

The Mighty Men Join David at Ziklag

¹Now these were the men who came to David at Ziklag, while he was still banished from the presence of Saul son of Kish (they were among the mighty men who helped him in battle; ²they were archers using both the right and left hands to sling stones and shoot arrows; and they were Saul’s kinsmen from Benjamin):

³Ahiezer their chief and Joash, who were the sons of Shemaah the Gibeathite;

Jeziel and Pelet, the sons of Azmaveth;

Beracah;

Jehu the Anathothite;

⁴Ishmaiah the Gibeonite, a mighty man among the Thirty and a leader over the Thirty;

Jeremiah, Jahaziel, Johanan, and Jozabad the Gederathite;

⁵Eluzai, Jerimoth, Bealiah, Shemariah, and Shephatiah the Haruphite;

⁶Elkanah, Isshiah, Azarel, Joezer, and Jashobeam, who were Korahites;

⁷and Joelah and Zebadiah, the sons of Jeroham from Gedor.

⁸Some Gadites defected to David at his stronghold in the wilderness. They were mighty men of valor, trained for battle, experts with the shield and spear, whose faces were like the faces of lions and who were as swift as gazelles on the mountains:

⁹Ezer the chief, Obadiah the second in command, Eliab the third, ¹⁰Mishmannah the fourth, Jeremiah the fifth, ¹¹Attai the sixth, Eliel the seventh, ¹²Johanan the eighth, Elzabad the ninth, ¹³Jeremiah the tenth, and Machbanai the eleventh.

¹⁴These Gadites were army commanders, the least of whom was a match for a hundred, and the greatest for a thousand.

¹⁵These are the ones who crossed the Jordan in the first month when it was overflowing all its banks, and they put to flight all those in the valleys, both to the east and to the west.

¹⁶Other Benjamites and some men from Judah also came to David in his stronghold. ¹⁷And David went out to meet them, saying, “If you have come to me in peace to help me, my heart will be united with you; but if you have come to betray me to my enemies when my hands are free of violence, may the God of our fathers see it and judge you.”

¹⁸Then the Spirit came upon Amasai, the chief of the Thirty, and he said:

“We are yours, O David!

We are with you, O son of Jesse!

Peace, peace to you,

and peace to your helpers,

for your God helps you.”

So David received them and made them leaders of his troops.

¹⁹Some from Manasseh defected to David when he went with the Philistines to fight against Saul. (They did not help the Philistines because the Philistine rulers consulted and sent David away, saying, “It will cost us our heads if he defects to his master Saul.”) ²⁰When David went to Ziklag, these men of Manasseh defected to him:

Adnah, Jozabad, Jediael, Michael, Jozabad, Elihu, and Zillethai, chiefs of thousands in Manasseh.

²¹They helped David against the raiders, for they were all mighty men of valor and commanders in the army.

²²For at that time men came to David day after day to help him, until he had a great army, like the army of God.

David’s Army Grows at Hebron

²³Now these are the numbers of men armed for battle who came to David at Hebron to turn Saul’s kingdom over to him, in accordance with the word of the LORD:

²⁴From Judah: 6,800 armed troops bearing shields and spears.

²⁵From Simeon: 7,100 mighty men of valor, ready for battle.

²⁶From Levi: 4,600, ²⁷including Jehoiada, leader of the house of Aaron, with 3,700 men, ²⁸and Zadok, a mighty young man of valor, with 22 commanders from his own family.

²⁹From Benjamin, the kinsmen of Saul: 3,000, most of whom had remained loyal to the house of Saul up to that time.

³⁰From Ephraim: 20,800 mighty men of valor, famous among their own clans.

³¹From the half-tribe of Manasseh: 18,000 designated by name to come and make David king.

³²From Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do: 200 chiefs with all their kinsmen at their command.

³³From Zebulun: 50,000 fit for service, trained for battle with all kinds of weapons of war, who with one purpose were devoted to David.

³⁴From Naphtali: 1,000 commanders, accompanied by 37,000 men with shield and spear.

³⁵From Dan: 28,600 prepared for battle.

³⁶From Asher: 40,000 fit for service, prepared for battle.

³⁷And from east of the Jordan, from Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh there: 120,000 armed with every kind of weapon of war.

³⁸All these men of war, arrayed for battle, came to Hebron fully determined to make David king over all Israel. And all the rest of the Israelites were of one mind to make David king.

³⁹They spent three days there eating and drinking with David, for their relatives had provided for them. ⁴⁰And their neighbors from as far away as Issachar, Zebulun, and Naphtali came bringing food on donkeys, camels, mules, and oxen— abundant supplies of flour, fig cakes and raisin cakes, wine and oil, oxen and sheep. Indeed, there was joy in Israel.

The Tradition of the Elders

¹Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, ²“Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands before they eat.”

³Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? ⁴For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ ⁵But you say that if anyone says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever you would have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’ ⁶he need not honor his father or mother with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. ⁷You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you:

⁸‘These people honor Me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from Me.

⁹They worship Me in vain;

they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’”

What Defiles a Man

¹⁰Jesus called the crowd to Him and said, “Listen and understand. ¹¹A man is not defiled by what enters his mouth, but by what comes out of it.”

¹²Then the disciples came to Him and said, “Are You aware that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”

¹³But Jesus replied, “Every plant that My heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by its roots. ¹⁴Disregard them! They are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

¹⁵Peter said to Him, “Explain this parable to us.”

¹⁶“Do you still not understand?” Jesus asked. ¹⁷“Do you not yet realize that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then is eliminated? ¹⁸But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a man. ¹⁹For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander. ²⁰These are what defile a man, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile him.”

The Faith of the Canaanite Woman

²¹Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. ²²And a Canaanite woman from that region came to Him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is miserably possessed by a demon.”

²³But Jesus did not answer a word. So His disciples came and urged Him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”

²⁴He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

²⁵The woman came and knelt before Him. “Lord, help me!” she said.

²⁶But Jesus replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

²⁷“Yes, Lord,” she said, “even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

²⁸“O woman,” Jesus answered, “your faith is great! Let it be done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

The Feeding of the Four Thousand

²⁹Moving on from there, Jesus went along the Sea of Galilee. Then He went up on a mountain and sat down. ³⁰Large 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 crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.

³²Then Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, “I have compassion for this crowd, because 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 faint along the way.”

³³The disciples replied, “Where in this desolate place could we find enough bread to feed such a large crowd?”

³⁴“How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked.

“Seven,” they replied, “and a few small fish.”

³⁵And He instructed the crowd to sit down on the ground. ³⁶Taking the seven loaves and the fish, He gave thanks and broke them. Then He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.

³⁷They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. ³⁸A total of four thousand men were fed, besides women and children.

³⁹After Jesus had dismissed the crowds, He got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.

Paul’s Greeting to the Galatians

¹Paul, an apostle — sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead — ²and all the brothers with me,

To the churches of Galatia:

³Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, ⁵to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

No Other Gospel

⁶I am amazed how quickly you are deserting the One who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel — ⁷which is not even a gospel. Evidently some people are troubling you and trying to distort the gospel of Christ.

⁸But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be under a curse! ⁹As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be under a curse!

Paul Preaches the Gospel

¹⁰Am I now seeking the approval of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. ¹¹For I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached was not devised by man. ¹²I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

¹³For you have heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how severely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. ¹⁴I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

¹⁵But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace, was pleased ¹⁶to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not rush to consult with flesh and blood, ¹⁷nor did I go up to Jerusalem to the apostles who came before me, but I went into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.

¹⁸Only after three years did I go up to Jerusalem to confer with Cephas, and I stayed with him fifteen days. ¹⁹But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. ²⁰I assure you before God that what I am writing to you is no lie.

²¹Later I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. ²²I was personally unknown, however, to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. ²³They only heard the account: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” ²⁴And they glorified God because of me.

The Council at Jerusalem

¹Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, accompanied by Barnabas. I took Titus along also. ²I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I spoke privately to those recognized as leaders, for fear that I was running or had already run in vain. ³Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.

⁴This issue arose because some false brothers had come in under false pretenses to spy on our freedom in Christ Jesus, in order to enslave us. ⁵We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

⁶But as for the highly esteemed— whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism— those leaders added nothing to me. ⁷On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted to preach the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised. ⁸For the One who was at work in Peter’s apostleship to the circumcised was also at work in my apostleship to the Gentiles.

⁹And recognizing the grace that I had been given, James, Cephas, and John — those reputed to be pillars — gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, so that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. ¹⁰They only asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

Paul Confronts Cephas

¹¹When Cephas came to Antioch, however, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. ¹²For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself, for fear of those in the circumcision group. ¹³The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

¹⁴When I saw that they were not walking in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

¹⁵We who are Jews by birth and not Gentile “sinners” ¹⁶know that a man is not justified by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

¹⁷But if, while we seek to be justified in Christ, we ourselves are found to be sinners, does that make Christ a minister of sin? Certainly not! ¹⁸If I rebuild what I have already torn down, I prove myself to be a lawbreaker.

¹⁹For through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God. ²⁰I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. ²¹I do not set aside the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.