Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.…
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Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,and before you were born I consecrated you;I appointed you a prophet to the nations.’ From Jeremiah 1:4-9, NRSV Like Moses and some of the other prophets, Jeremiah did not welcome the role to which he was called. He…
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Give heed to me, O Lord, and listen to what my adversaries say!Is evil a recompense for good? Yet they have dug a pit for my life.Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them. Jeremiah 18:18-20, NRSV Jeremiah’s heartfelt plea shows the depth of his feeling in…
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Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom!Listen to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes;cease to do evil, learn to do good;seek justice, rescue the oppressed,defend the orphan, plead for the widow. From Isaiah 1:10,16-20, NRSV The names…
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Open shame, O Lord, falls on us, our kings, our officials, and our ancestors, because we have sinned against you. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by following his laws, which he set before us by his servants the…
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He brought him outside and said, ‘Look towards heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness. From Genesis 15:5-12,17-18, NRSV This promise must have seemed incredible to Abram who was at…
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This very day the Lord your God is commanding you to observe these statutes and ordinances; so observe them diligently with all your heart and with all your soul. Today you have obtained the Lord’s agreement: to be your God; and for you to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, and his ordinances, and…
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Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is unfair.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way unfair? Is it not your ways that are unfair? When the righteous turn away from their righteousness and commit iniquity, they shall die for it; for the iniquity that they have committed they shall die. Again,…
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‘O my Lord, you only are our king; help me, who am alone and have no helper but you, for my danger is in my hand. Ever since I was born I have heard in the tribe of my family that you, O Lord, took Israel out of all the nations, and our ancestors from among…
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Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, ‘Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’ And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. From…
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