Acts 20:1-16; Judges 13; Job 41

Acts 20:1-16

1 After the uproar was over, Paul sent for the disciples, encouraged them, and after saying good-bye, departed to go to Macedonia.

2 And when he had passed through those areas and exhorted them at length, he came to Greece

3 and stayed three months. When he was about to set sail for Syria, a plot was devised against him by the Jews, so a decision was made to go back through Macedonia.

4 He was accompanied by Sopater, son of Pyrrhus, from Beroea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus from Asia.

5 These men went on ahead and waited for us in Troas,

6 but we sailed away from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread. In five days we reached them at Troas, where we spent seven days.

7 On the first day of the week, we assembled to break bread. Paul spoke to them, and since he was about to depart the next day, he extended his message until midnight.

8 There were many lamps in the room upstairs where we were assembled,

9 and a young man named Eutychus was sitting on a window sill and sank into a deep sleep as Paul kept on speaking. When he was overcome by sleep he fell down from the third story, and was picked up dead.

10 But Paul went down, threw himself on him, embraced him, and said, "Don't be alarmed, for his life is in him!"

11 After going upstairs, breaking the bread, and eating, he conversed a considerable time until dawn. Then he left.

12 They brought the boy home alive and were greatly comforted.

13 Then we went on ahead to the ship and sailed for Assos, from there intending to take Paul on board. For these were his instructions, since he himself was going by land.

14 When he met us at Assos, we took him on board and came to Mitylene.

15 Sailing from there, the next day we arrived off Chios. The following day we crossed over to Samos, and the day after, we came to Miletus.

16 For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so he would not have to spend time in the province of Asia, because he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem, if possible, for the day of Pentecost.

Judges 13

1 The Israelites again did what was evil in the Lord's sight, so the Lord handed them over to the Philistines 40 years.

2 There was a certain man from Zorah, from the family of Dan, whose name was Manoah; his wife was barren and had no children.

3 The Angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, "It is true that you are barren and have no children, but you will conceive and give birth to a son.

4 Now please be careful not to drink wine or other alcoholic beverages, or to eat anything unclean;

5 for indeed, you will conceive and give birth to a son. You must never cut his hair, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from birth, and he will begin to save Israel from the power of the Philistines."

6 Then the woman went and told her husband, "A man of God came to me. He looked like the awe-inspiring Angel of God. I didn't ask Him where He came from, and He didn't tell me His name.

7 He said to me, 'You will conceive and give birth to a son. Therefore, do not drink wine or other alcoholic beverages, and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from birth until the day of his death.' "

8 Manoah prayed to the Lord and said, "Please Lord, let the man of God you sent come again to us and teach us what we should do for the boy who will be born."

9 God listened to Manoah, and the Angel of God came again to the woman. She was sitting in the field, and her husband Manoah was not with her.

10 The woman ran quickly to her husband and told him, "The man who came to me today has just come back!"

11 So Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he asked, "Are You the man who spoke to my wife?" "I am," He said.

12 Then Manoah asked, "When Your words come true, what will the boy's responsibilities and mission be?"

13 The Angel of the Lord answered Manoah, "Your wife needs to do everything I told her.

14 She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine or drink wine or other alcoholic beverages. And she must not eat anything unclean. Your wife must do everything I have commanded her."

15 "Please stay here," Manoah told Him, "and we will prepare a young goat for You."

16 The Angel of the Lord said to him, "If I stay, I won't eat your food. But if you want to prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the Lord." For Manoah did not know He was the Angel of the Lord.

17 Then Manoah said to Him, "What is Your name, so that we may honor You when Your words come true?"

18 "Why do you ask My name," the Angel of the Lord asked him, "since it is wonderful."

19 Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered them on a rock to the Lord, and He did a wonderful thing while Manoah and his wife were watching.

20 When the flame went up from the altar to the sky, the Angel of the Lord went up in its flame. When Manoah and his wife saw [this], they fell facedown on the ground.

21 The Angel of the Lord did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah realized that it was the Angel of the Lord.

22 "We're going to die," he said to his wife, "because we have seen God!"

23 But his wife said to him, "If the Lord had intended to kill us, He wouldn't have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering from us, and He would not have shown us all these things or spoken to us now like this."

24 So the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The boy grew, and the Lord blessed him.

25 Then the Spirit of the Lord began to direct him in the Camp of Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Job 41

1 Can you pull in Leviathan with a hook or tie his tongue down with a rope?

2 Can you put a cord through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook?

3 Will he beg you for mercy or speak softly to you?

4 Will he make a covenant with you so that you can take him as a slave forever?

5 Can you play with him like a bird or put him on a leash for your girls?

6 Will traders bargain for him or divide him among the merchants?

7 Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?

8 Lay a hand on him. You will remember the battle and never repeat it!

9 Any hope of [capturing] him proves false. Does a person not collapse at the very sight of him?

10 No one is ferocious [enough] to rouse Leviathan; who then can stand against Me?

11 Who confronted Me, that I should repay him? Everything under heaven belongs to Me.

12 I cannot be silent about his limbs, his power, and his graceful proportions.

13 Who can strip off his outer covering? Who can penetrate his double layer of armor?

14 Who can open his jaws, surrounded by those terrifying teeth?

15 [His] pride is in [his] rows of scales, closely sealed together.

16 One scale is so close to another that no air can pass between them.

17 They are joined to one another, so closely connected they cannot be separated.

18 His snorting flashes with light, while his eyes are like the rays of dawn.

19 Flaming torches shoot from his mouth; fiery sparks fly out!

20 Smoke billows from his nostrils as from a boiling pot or [burning] reeds.

21 His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames pour out of his mouth.

22 Strength resides in his neck, and dismay dances before him.

23 The folds of his flesh are joined together, solid as metal and immovable.

24 His heart is as hard as a rock, as hard as a lower millstone!

25 When Leviathan rises, the mighty are terrified; they withdraw because of [his] thrashing.

26 The sword that reaches him will have no effect, nor will a spear, dart, or arrow.

27 He regards iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood.

28 No arrow can make him flee; slingstones become like stubble to him.

29 A club is regarded as stubble, and he laughs at the whirring of a javelin.

30 His undersides are jagged potsherds, spreading the mud like a threshing sledge.

31 He makes the depths seethe like a caldron; he makes the sea like an ointment jar.

32 He leaves a shining wake behind him; one would think the deep had white hair!

33 He has no equal on earth- a creature devoid of fear!

34 He surveys everything that is haughty; he is king over all the proud beasts.