101 Prayers for Military Wives

Anticipating Heaven

The Unseen God — Part One

Government of Peace

Titus

Book of Daniel

Dealing With Disappointment

Building a Life That Matters for Good -  Buckle Up: Accepting the Free Gift of God’s Grace

God Has Not Forgotten You: When Life Is Turned Upside Down

Authentic Manhood

The Listener’s Bible®: NIV Edition

New International Version™  (Anglicised), Audio Edition

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

<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
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 <div class="label">4</div><div class="p"> 1And Samuel&#8217;s word came to all Israel.</div><div class="s1">The Philistines Capture the Ark</div><div class="p">Now the Israelites went out to fight against the Philistines. The Israelites camped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines at Aphek. 2The Philistines deployed their forces to meet Israel, and as the battle spread, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand of them on the battlefield. 3When the soldiers returned to camp, the elders of Israel asked, &#8220;Why did the Lord bring defeat on us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the Lord&#8217;s covenant from Shiloh, so that he may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 4So the people sent men to Shiloh, and they brought back the ark of the covenant of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim. And Eli&#8217;s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.</div><div class="p"> 5When the ark of the Lord&#8217;s covenant came into the camp, all Israel raised such a great shout that the ground shook. 6Hearing the uproar, the Philistines asked, &#8220;What&#8217;s all this shouting in the Hebrew camp?&#8221;</div><div class="p">When they learned that the ark of the Lord had come into the camp, 7the Philistines were afraid. &#8220;A god has#4:7 Or &#8220;Gods have (see Septuagint) come into the camp,&#8221; they said. &#8220;Oh no! Nothing like this has happened before. 8We&#8217;re doomed! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? They are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness. 9Be strong, Philistines! Be men, or you will be subject to the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Be men, and fight!&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 10So the Philistines fought, and the Israelites were defeated and every man fled to his tent. The slaughter was very great; Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers. 11The ark of God was captured, and Eli&#8217;s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died.</div><div class="s1">Death of Eli</div><div class="p"> 12That same day a Benjamite ran from the battle line and went to Shiloh with his clothes torn and dust on his head. 13When he arrived, there was Eli sitting on his chair by the side of the road, watching, because his heart feared for the ark of God. When the man entered the town and told what had happened, the whole town sent up a cry.</div><div class="p"> 14Eli heard the outcry and asked, &#8220;What is the meaning of this uproar?&#8221;</div><div class="p">The man hurried over to Eli, 15who was ninety-eight years old and whose eyes had failed so that he could not see. 16He told Eli, &#8220;I have just come from the battle line; I fled from it this very day.&#8221;</div><div class="p">Eli asked, &#8220;What happened, my son?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 17The man who brought the news replied, &#8220;Israel fled before the Philistines, and the army has suffered heavy losses. Also your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 18When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell backward off his chair by the side of the gate. His neck was broken and he died, for he was an old man, and he was heavy. He had led#4:18 Traditionally judged Israel forty years.</div><div class="p"> 19His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and near the time of delivery. When she heard the news that the ark of God had been captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she went into labor and gave birth, but was overcome by her labor pains. 20As she was dying, the women attending her said, &#8220;Don&#8217;t despair; you have given birth to a son.&#8221; But she did not respond or pay any attention.</div><div class="p"> 21She named the boy Ichabod,#4:21 Ichabod means no glory. saying, &#8220;The Glory has departed from Israel&#8221;&#8212;because of the capture of the ark of God and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband. 22She said, &#8220;The Glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.&#8221;</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
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 <div class="label">5</div><div class="s1">The Ark in Ashdod and Ekron</div><div class="p"> 1After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 2Then they carried the ark into Dagon&#8217;s temple and set it beside Dagon. 3When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! They took Dagon and put him back in his place. 4But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained. 5That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor any others who enter Dagon&#8217;s temple at Ashdod step on the threshold.</div><div class="p"> 6The Lord&#8217;s hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity; he brought devastation on them and afflicted them with tumors.#5:6 Hebrew; Septuagint and Vulgate tumors. And rats appeared in their land, and there was death and destruction throughout the city 7When the people of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, &#8220;The ark of the god of Israel must not stay here with us, because his hand is heavy on us and on Dagon our god.&#8221; 8So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and asked them, &#8220;What shall we do with the ark of the god of Israel?&#8221;</div><div class="p">They answered, &#8220;Have the ark of the god of Israel moved to Gath.&#8221; So they moved the ark of the God of Israel.</div><div class="p"> 9But after they had moved it, the Lord&#8217;s hand was against that city, throwing it into a great panic. He afflicted the people of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumors.#5:9 Or with tumors in the groin (see Septuagint) 10So they sent the ark of God to Ekron.</div><div class="p">As the ark of God was entering Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, &#8220;They have brought the ark of the god of Israel around to us to kill us and our people.&#8221; 11So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, &#8220;Send the ark of the god of Israel away; let it go back to its own place, or it#5:11 Or he will kill us and our people.&#8221; For death had filled the city with panic; God&#8217;s hand was very heavy on it. 12Those who did not die were afflicted with tumors, and the outcry of the city went up to heaven.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
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 <div class="chapter ch6" data-usfm="1SA.6">
 <div class="label">6</div><div class="s1">The Ark Returned to Israel</div><div class="p"> 1When the ark of the Lord had been in Philistine territory seven months, 2the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, &#8220;What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we should send it back to its place.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 3They answered, &#8220;If you return the ark of the god of Israel, do not send it back to him without a gift; by all means send a guilt offering to him. Then you will be healed, and you will know why his hand has not been lifted from you.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 4The Philistines asked, &#8220;What guilt offering should we send to him?&#8221;</div><div class="p">They replied, &#8220;Five gold tumors and five gold rats, according to the number of the Philistine rulers, because the same plague has struck both you and your rulers. 5Make models of the tumors and of the rats that are destroying the country, and give glory to Israel&#8217;s god. Perhaps he will lift his hand from you and your gods and your land. 6Why do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh did? When Israel&#8217;s god dealt harshly with them, did they not send the Israelites out so they could go on their way?</div><div class="p"> 7&#8220;Now then, get a new cart ready, with two cows that have calved and have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up. 8Take the ark of the Lord and put it on the cart, and in a chest beside it put the gold objects you are sending back to him as a guilt offering. Send it on its way, 9but keep watching it. If it goes up to its own territory, toward Beth Shemesh, then the Lord has brought this great disaster on us. But if it does not, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us but that it happened to us by chance.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 10So they did this. They took two such cows and hitched them to the cart and penned up their calves. 11They placed the ark of the Lord on the cart and along with it the chest containing the gold rats and the models of the tumors. 12Then the cows went straight up toward Beth Shemesh, keeping on the road and lowing all the way; they did not turn to the right or to the left. The rulers of the Philistines followed them as far as the border of Beth Shemesh.</div><div class="p"> 13Now the people of Beth Shemesh were harvesting their wheat in the valley, and when they looked up and saw the ark, they rejoiced at the sight. 14The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and there it stopped beside a large rock. The people chopped up the wood of the cart and sacrificed the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. 15The Levites took down the ark of the Lord, together with the chest containing the gold objects, and placed them on the large rock. On that day the people of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the Lord. 16The five rulers of the Philistines saw all this and then returned that same day to Ekron.</div><div class="p"> 17These are the gold tumors the Philistines sent as a guilt offering to the Lord&#8212;one each for Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron. 18And the number of the gold rats was according to the number of Philistine towns belonging to the five rulers&#8212;the fortified towns with their country villages. The large rock on which the Levites set the ark of the Lord is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh.</div><div class="p"> 19But God struck down some of the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, putting seventy#6:19 A few Hebrew manuscripts; most Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint 50,070 of them to death because they looked into the ark of the Lord. The people mourned because of the heavy blow the Lord had dealt them. 20And the people of Beth Shemesh asked, &#8220;Who can stand in the presence of the Lord, this holy God? To whom will the ark go up from here?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 21Then they sent messengers to the people of Kiriath Jearim, saying, &#8220;The Philistines have returned the ark of the Lord. Come down and take it up to your town.&#8221;</div>
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New International Version

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 <div class="p">35 &#8220;Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. 39But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 41Peter asked, &#8220;Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 42The Lord answered, &#8220;Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? 43It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. 44Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 45But suppose the servant says to himself, &#8216;My master is taking a long time in coming,&#8217; and he then begins to beat the other servants, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk. 46The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.</div><div class="p"> 47 &#8220;The servant who knows the master&#8217;s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. 48But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.</div><div class="s1">Not Peace but Division</div><div class="p"> 49 &#8220;I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! 51Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. 52From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. 53They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.&#8221;</div><div class="s1">Interpreting the Times</div><div class="p"> 54He said to the crowd: &#8220;When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, &#8216;It&#8217;s going to rain,&#8217; and it does. 55And when the south wind blows, you say, &#8216;It&#8217;s going to be hot,&#8217; and it is. 56Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don&#8217;t know how to interpret this present time?</div><div class="p"> 57 &#8220;Why don&#8217;t you judge for yourselves what is right? 58As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled on the way, or your adversary may drag you off to the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. 59I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.&#8221;</div>
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