One Year Pray for the Persecuted Bible - Flipbook - Page 24
6
January 2
from the ground! 11 Now you are cursed and
banished from the ground, which has swallowed your brother’s blood. 12 No longer will
the ground yield good crops for you, no matter
how hard you work! From now on you will be
a homeless wanderer on the earth.”
13 Cain replied to the Lord, “My punishment* is too great for me to bear! 14 You have
banished me from the land and from your
presence; you have made me a homeless wanderer. Anyone who finds me will kill me!”
15 The Lord replied, “No, for I will give a
sevenfold punishment to anyone who kills
you.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain to
warn anyone who might try to kill him. 16 So
Cain left the Lord’s presence and settled in the
land of Nod,* east of Eden.
17 Cain had sexual relations with his wife,
and she became pregnant and gave birth to
Enoch. Then Cain founded a city, which he
named Enoch, after his son. 18 Enoch had a
son named Irad. Irad became the father of*
Mehujael. Mehujael became the father of Me
thushael. Methushael became the father of
Lamech.
19 La
mech married two women. The first
was named Adah, and the second was Zillah.
20 Adah gave birth to Jabal, who was the first
of those who raise livestock and live in tents.
21 His brother’s name was Jubal, the first of all
who play the harp and flute. 22 Lamech’s other
wife, Zillah, gave birth to a son named Tubal-
cain. He became an expert in forging tools
of bronze and iron. Tubal-cain had a sister
named Naamah. 23 One day Lamech said to his
wives,
24
“Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;
listen to me, you wives of Lamech.
I have killed a man who attacked me,
a young man who wounded me.
If someone who kills Cain is punished
seven times,
then the one who kills me will be
punished seventy-seven times!”
25 Adam
had sexual relations with his wife
again, and she gave birth to another son.
She named him Seth,* for she said, “God has
granted me another son in place of Abel, whom
Cain killed.” 26 When Seth grew up, he had a son
and named him Enosh. At that time people first
began to worship the Lord by name.
3:8 Or Adam, and so throughout the chapter. 3:15 Or bruise;
also in 3:15b. 3:16 Or And though you will have desire for
your husband, / he will rule over you.
3:20 Eve sounds like
a Hebrew term that means “to give life.” 3:22 Or the man;
Hebrew reads ha-adam.
4:1a Or the man; also in 4:25. 4:1b Or
I have acquired. Cain sounds like a Hebrew term that can mean
“produce” or “acquire.” 4:8 As in Samaritan Pentateuch, Greek
and S yriac versions, and Latin Vulgate; Masoretic Text lacks
“Let’s go out into the fields.”
4:13 Or My sin.
4:16 Nod means
4:18 Or the ancestor of, and so throughout the
“wandering.”
4:25 Seth probably means “granted”; the name may also
verse.
mean “appointed.”
MATTHEW 2:13–3:6
After the wise men were gone, an angel of the
Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up!
Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,”
the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the
child to kill him.”
14 That night Joseph left for Egypt with the
child and Mary, his mother, 15 and they stayed
there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what
the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “I
called my Son out of Egypt.”*
16 Herod was furious when he realized that
the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethle
hem who were two years old and under, based
on the wise men’s report of the star’s first
appearance. 17 Herod’s brutal action fulfilled
what God had spoken through the prophet
Jeremiah:
18
“A cry was heard in R
amah—
weeping and great mourning.
Rachel weeps for her children,
refusing to be comforted,
for they are dead.”*
19 When Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. 20 “Get
up!” the angel said. “Take the child and his
mother back to the land of Israel, because those
who were trying to kill the child are dead.”
21 So Joseph got up and returned to the land
of Israel with Jesus and his mother. 22 But
when he learned that the new ruler of Judea
was Herod’s son Archelaus, he was afraid to
go there. Then, after being warned in a dream,
he left for the region of Galilee. 23 So the family
went and lived in a town called Nazareth. This
fulfilled what the prophets had said: “He will
be called a Nazarene.”
3:1 In those days John the Baptist came to the
J udean wilderness and began preaching. His
message was, 2 “Repent of your sins and turn
to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.*”
3 The prophet Isaiah was speaking about John
when he said,
“He is a voice shouting in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming!
Clear the road for him!’”*
4 John’s clothes were woven from coarse
camel hair, and he wore a leather belt around
his waist. For food he ate locusts and wild
