1 And the men of Kiriath-jearim came and took up the ark of the Lord and brought it to the house of ^aAbinadab on the hill. And they consecrated his son Eleazar to have charge of the ark of the Lord. 2 From the day that the ark was lodged at Kiriath-jearim, a long time passed, some twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.

Samuel Judges Israel

3 And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, ^b“If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then ^cput away the foreign gods and the ^dAshtaroth from among you and ^edirect your heart to the Lord ^fand serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” 4 So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the Lord only.

5 Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel at ^gMizpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you.” 6 So they gathered at ^gMizpah ^hand drew water and poured it out before the Lord ⁱand fasted on that day and said there, ^j“We have sinned against the Lord.” And Samuel judged the people of Israel at Mizpah. 7 Now when the Philistines heard that the people of Israel had gathered at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the people of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines. 8 And the people of Israel said to Samuel, “Do not cease to cry out to the Lord our God for us, that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines.” 9 So Samuel took a nursing lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. And ^kSamuel cried out to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him. 10 As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel. ^lBut the Lord thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel. 11 And the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and struck them, as far as below Beth-car.

12 Then Samuel ^mtook a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen¹ and called its name Ebenezer;² for he said, “Till now the Lord has helped us.” 13 ⁿSo the Philistines were subdued and did not again enter the territory of Israel. And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. 14 The cities that the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron to Gath, and Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. There was peace also between Israel and the Amorites.

15 ^oSamuel judged Israel all the days of his life. 16 And he went on a circuit year by year to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah. And he judged Israel in all these places. 17 Then he would return to ^pRamah, for his home was there, and there also he judged Israel. ^qAnd he built there an altar to the Lord.

Israel Demands a King

1 When Samuel became old, ^rhe made his sons judges over Israel. 2 The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. 3 Yet his sons did not walk in his ways ^sbut turned aside after gain. ^tThey took bribes and perverted justice.

4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at ^pRamah 5 and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. ^uNow appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” 6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, ^vfor they have not rejected you, ^wbut they have rejected me from being king over them. 8 According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. 9 Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them ^xand show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”

Samuel’s Warning Against Kings

10 So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him. 11 He said, ^y“These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: ^zhe will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. 12 And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some ^ato plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 ^bHe will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. 15 He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. 16 He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men³ and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 17 He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. 18 And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, ^cbut the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

The Lord Grants Israel’s Request

19 But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, 20 ^dthat we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” 21 And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. 22 And the Lord said to Samuel, ^e“Obey their voice and make them a king.” Samuel then said to the men of Israel, “Go every man to his city.”

Dead to Sin, Alive to God

1 What shall we say then? ^mAre we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can ⁿwe who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us ^owho have been baptized ^pinto Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were ^qburied therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as ^rChrist was raised from the dead by ^sthe glory of the Father, we too might walk in ^tnewness of life.

5 For ^uif we have been united with him in ^va death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that ^wour old self^{1 x}was crucified with him in order that ^ythe body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For ^zone who has died ^ahas been set free² from sin. 8 Now ^bif we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that ^cChrist, being raised from the dead, will never die again; ^ddeath no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, ^eonce for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves ^fdead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12 Let not ^gsin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 ^hDo not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but ⁱpresent yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For ^jsin ^kwill have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Slaves to Righteousness

15 What then? ^lAre we to sin ^mbecause we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves ⁿto anyone as obedient slaves,³ you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But ^othanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the ^pstandard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, ^qhaving been set free from sin, ^rhave become slaves of righteousness. 19 ^sI am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For ^tjust as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members ^uas slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

20 ^vFor when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 ^wBut what fruit were you getting at that time from the things ^xof which you are now ashamed? ^yFor the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you ^zhave been set free from sin and ^ahave become slaves of God, ^bthe fruit you get leads to sanctification and ^cits end, eternal life. 23 ^dFor the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Judgment for Idolatry

1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Judeans who lived in the land of Egypt, at ⁱMigdol, at ^jTahpanhes, at Memphis, and in the land of ^kPathros, 2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You have seen all the disaster that I brought upon Jerusalem and upon all the cities of Judah. Behold, this day ^lthey are a desolation, and no one dwells in them, 3 because of the evil that they committed, ^mprovoking me to anger, ⁿin that they went to make offerings ^oand serve other gods that they knew not, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers. 4 ^pYet I persistently sent to you all my servants the prophets, saying, ‘Oh, do not do this abomination that I hate!’ 5 ^qBut they did not listen ^qor incline their ear, to turn from their evil and make no offerings to other gods. 6 ^rTherefore my wrath and my anger were poured out and kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, ^sand they became a waste and a desolation, as at this day. 7 And now thus says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel: Why do you commit this great evil ^tagainst yourselves, to cut off from you ^uman and woman, ^uinfant and child, from the midst of Judah, leaving you no remnant? 8 ^mWhy do you provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, ⁿmaking offerings to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have come to live, so that you may be cut off and become ^va curse and a taunt among all the nations of the earth? 9 Have you forgotten the evil of your fathers, ^wthe evil of the kings of Judah, ^xthe evil of their¹ wives, your own evil, ^yand the evil of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 10 They have not humbled themselves even to this day, ^znor have they feared, nor walked in my law and my statutes that I set before you and before your fathers.

11 “Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^aBehold, I will set my face against you for harm, to cut off all Judah. 12 I will take the remnant of Judah who have ^bset their faces to come to the land of Egypt to live, and they shall all be consumed. ^cIn the land of Egypt they shall fall; by the sword and by famine ^cthey shall be consumed. ^dFrom the least to the greatest, they shall die by the sword and by famine, ^eand they shall become an oath, a horror, ^va curse, and a taunt. 13 ^fI will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, 14 ^gso that none of the remnant of Judah who have come to live in the land of Egypt shall escape or survive ^hor return to the land of Judah, to which they desire to return to dwell there. For they shall not return, ⁱexcept some fugitives.”

15 Then all the men who knew that ^jtheir wives had made offerings to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, all the people who lived in ^kPathros in the land of Egypt, answered Jeremiah: 16 “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, ^lwe will not listen to you. 17 ^mBut we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to ⁿthe queen of heaven ^oand pour out drink offerings to her, ^pas we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster. 18 But since we left off making offerings to ⁿthe queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything ^qand have been consumed by the sword and by famine.” 19 And the women said,² “When we made offerings to the queen of heaven ^rand poured out drink offerings to her, was it ^swithout our husbands’ approval that we made cakes for her bearing her image and poured out drink offerings to her?”

20 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, ^tmen and women, all the people who had given him this answer: 21 ^u“As for the offerings that you offered in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your officials, and the people of the land, ^vdid not the Lord remember them? Did it not come into his mind? 22 ^wThe Lord could no longer bear your evil deeds and ^xthe abominations that you committed. ^yTherefore your land has become ^za desolation and a waste and a curse, ^awithout inhabitant, as it is this day. 23 It is because you made offerings ^band because you sinned against the Lord and did not obey the voice of the Lord or walk in his law and in his statutes and in his testimonies ^cthat this disaster has happened to you, as at this day.”

24 Jeremiah said to all the people and all the women, “Hear the word of the Lord, ^dall you of Judah who are in the land of Egypt. 25 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^eYou and your wives have declared with your mouths, and have fulfilled it with your hands, saying, ‘We will surely perform our vows that we have made, ^fto make offerings to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her.’ Then confirm your vows and perform your vows! 26 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, ^dall you of Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt: ^gBehold, I have sworn by my great name, says the Lord, ^hthat my name shall no more be invoked by the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, ⁱsaying, ‘As the Lord God lives.’ 27 ^jBehold, I am watching over them for disaster and not for good. ^kAll the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, until there is an end of them. 28 ^lAnd those who escape the sword shall return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah, ^mfew in number; and all the remnant of Judah, who came to the land of Egypt to live, ⁿshall know whose word will stand, mine or theirs. 29 This shall be the sign to you, declares the Lord, that I will punish you in this place, in order that you may know that ^omy words will surely stand against you for harm: 30 Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will give ^pPharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies ^qand into the hand of those who seek his life, as I gave ^rZedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who was his enemy and sought his life.”

Trust in the Name of the Lord Our God

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

The King Rejoices in the Lord’s Strength

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.