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18 Now when the child was grown, one day he went out to his father among the reapers. 19 Then he said to his father, “My head, my head!” So he said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.” 20 So he picked him up and brought him to his mother. The child sat on her lap until noon, and then died. 21 She then went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door on him and went out. 22 Then she called to her husband, and said, “Please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys that I may run to the man of God and come back.”
23 But he said, “Why are you going to him today? It is neither New Moon nor Shabbat.”
But she said, “It will be well.”
24 Then she saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Move on! Don’t slow down riding unless I tell you.”
25 So she set out and came near the man of God at Mount Carmel. Upon seeing her from a distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi, “Look! There’s the Shunammite. 26 Please, run now to meet her and ask her: ‘Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the boy?’”
She answered, “It is well.” 27 But when she arrived at the mountain, up to the man of God, she caught hold of his feet.
Then Gehazi stepped forward to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone, for her soul is bitter within her, yet Adonai has hid it from me and has not told me.”
28 “Did I ask my lord for a son?” she said. “Didn’t I say, ‘Don’t deceive me’?”
29 Then he said to Gehazi, “Gird up your loins and take my staff in your hand and go. If you meet anyone, don’t greet him. Or if anyone greets you, don’t answer him; and lay my staff on the face of the child.”
30 But the mother of the child said, “As Adonai lives and as you live, I won’t leave you.” So he arose and followed her. 31 Gehazi passed on ahead of them and laid the staff on the face of the child, but there was no sound or response. So he returned to meet him and told him, saying, “The boy has not awakened.”
32 When Elisha entered the house, there was the child, dead and laying on his bed. 33 So he entered and shut the door behind the two of them and prayed to Adonai. 34 Then he got up and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth and his eyes on his eyes and his hands on his hands, and he stretched himself upon him. So the flesh of the child became warm. 35 Then he stepped down and walked in the house to and fro, and then he got up on the bed and stretched himself on him. The child sneezed seven times, then the child opened his eyes. 36 He then called Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite.”
So he called her. When she came in to him, he said, “Pick up your son.” 37 She came, fell at his feet and bowed down to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out.
Elisha Purifies Deadly Stew
38 Afterward Elisha returned to Gilgal. Now there was famine in the land. As the sons of the prophets were sitting before him, he said to his servant, “Put on the large pot and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.”
39 Then one of them went out into the field to gather herbs, found a wild vine and picked from it a lapful of wild gourds. Then he came back and sliced them into the stew pot, for they didn’t know what they were. 40 Then they served it for the men to eat. But it came to pass as they were still eating the stew, they cried out and said, “O man of God, there is death in the pot.” So they could not eat it.
41 But he said, “Bring some flour,” and he threw it into the pot and said, “Serve it to the people and let them eat.” So there was nothing bad in the pot.
42 Now a man came from Baal-shalishah, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits—20 loaves of barley bread and fresh ears of corn in his sack. Then he said, “Give them to the people that they may eat.”
43 But his attendant said, “What? Will I set this before a hundred men?” But he said, “Give them to the people that they may eat, for thus says Adonai, ‘They will eat and will have left over.’” 44 So he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of Adonai.
Naaman’s Tza’arat
5 Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man in his master’s sight and highly esteemed, because through him Adonai had given victory to Aram. Though the man was a mighty man of valor, he had tza’arat.
2 Aram had gone out in bands, and had taken captive a young girl from the land of Israel. So she served Naaman’s wife. 3 Then she said to her mistress, “If only my lord went before the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would cure him of his tza’arat.”
4 So Naaman went in and told his master, saying, “Thus and thus spoke the girl who is from the land of Israel.” 5 The king of Aram said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So he departed and took with him ten talents of silver, 6,000 pieces of gold, and ten changes of clothes.
6 He brought the letter to the king of Israel saying, “When this letter comes to you, behold, I have sent my servant Naaman to you, so you may cure him of his tza’arat.”
7 Now when the king of Israel read the letter, he ripped his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man is sending to me to cure a man of his tza’arat? But please consider, and see how he is seeking a pretext against me.”
8 Now when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, he sent word to the king saying, “Why have you rent your clothes? Please, let him come to me, and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.”
9 So Naaman came with his horses and his chariots, and stood at the doorway of the house of Elisha. 10 So Elisha sent him a messenger, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh will be restored, and you will be clean.”
11 But Naaman was angered and walked away, saying, “I thought he would surely come out to me, stand and call on the Name of Adonai his God, and wave his hand over the spot and cure the tza’arat. 12 Aren’t Amanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.
13 But his servants approached him and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he told you only to ‘Wash and be clean’?” 14 So, he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God. Then his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
15 When he returned with his entire retinue to the man of God, and came and stood before him, he said, “Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel. Now please, accept a present[a] from your servant.”
16 But Elisha said, “As Adonai before whom I stand lives, I will accept nothing.” Naaman pressed him to accept, but Elisha refused.
17 So Naaman said, “If not, then please, let your servant be given two mule loads of soil, for your servant will no longer offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any other god, except Adonai. 18 In this matter, may Adonai pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, leaning on my hand, and I prostrate myself in the house of Rimmon—when I prostrate myself in the house of Rimmon, may Adonai pardon your servant in this matter.”
19 Elisha said to him, “Go in peace.” So Naaman departed from him some distance.
20 But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, thought, “Behold, my master held back from accepting what this Naaman the Aramean brought. As Adonai lives, I will surely run after him and get something from him.”
21 So Gehazi pursued Naaman. Now when Naaman saw someone running after him, he got down from the chariot to meet him and asked, “Is everything all right?”
22 “It’s all right, he replied. “My master sent me saying: ‘Behold, two young men of the sons of the prophets have just come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothes.’”
23 Naaman said, “Please, take two talents.” He even urged him, and packed two talents of silver in two bags with two changes of clothes, and gave them to two of his servants; and they carried them ahead of him. 24 Now when he arrived at the fortified hill, he took them from their hand and deposited them in the house, and let the men go, so they departed.
25 When he entered and stood before his master, Elisha asked him, “Where have you been, Gehazi?”
So he replied, “Your servant has gone nowhere.”
26 Then Elisha said to him, “Didn’t my heart go, when the man got down from his chariot to meet you? Is it a time to accept money and accept clothes, or olive groves and vineyards, or sheep and oxen, or male and female servants? 27 Therefore, the tza’arat of Naaman will cling to you and to your offspring forever.” Then he went out from his presence with tza’arat as white as snow.
Jerusalem Council Rules on Circumcision
15 Now some men coming down from Judea were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 When Paul and Barnabas had a big argument and debate with them, the brothers appointed Paul and Barnabas with some others from among them to go up to Jerusalem to the emissaries and elders about this issue.
3 So they were sent on their way by the Antioch community. They were passing through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and they were bringing great joy to all the brothers and sisters. 4 When they arrived in Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the community and the emissaries and the elders. They reported all that God had done in helping them.
5 But some belonging to the party of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the Torah of Moses.”
6 The emissaries and elders were gathered together to examine this issue. 7 After much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God chose from among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the message of the Good News and believe. 8 And God, who knows the heart, testified to them by giving them the Ruach ha-Kodesh—just as He also did for us. 9 He made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts through faith. 10 Why then do you put God to the test by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples—which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 But instead, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Yeshua, in the same way as they are.”
12 Then the whole group became silent and were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were describing in detail all the signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. 13 After they finished speaking, Jacob answered, “Brothers, listen to me. 14 Simon has described how God first showed His concern by taking from the Gentiles a people for His Name. 15 The words of the Prophets agree, as it is written:
16 ‘After this I will return
and rebuild the fallen tabernacle of David.
I will rebuild its ruins
and I will restore it,
17 so that the rest of humanity may seek the Lord—
namely all the Gentiles who are called by My name—
says Adonai,
who makes these things [a] 18 known from of old.’[b]
19 Therefore, I judge not to trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God— 20 but to write to them to abstain from the contamination of idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what is strangled, and from blood. [c] 21 For Moses from ancient generations has had in every city those who proclaim him, since he is read in all the synagogues every Shabbat.”
Letter to Diaspora Communities
22 Then it seemed good to the emissaries and elders, with the whole community, to choose men from among themselves to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judah (also called Barsabbas) and Silas, leading men among the brethren, 23 and this letter along with them:
“The emissaries and the elders, your brothers,
To the Gentile brothers of Antioch, Syria,
and Cilicia:
Greetings!
24 Since we have heard that some from among us have troubled you with words disturbing to your souls,[d] although we gave them no such authorization, 25 it seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to select men to send to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul— 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. 27 We therefore have sent to you Judah and Silas, who themselves will report to you the same things by word of mouth. 28 It seemed good to the Ruach ha-Kodesh and to us not to place on you any greater burden than these essentials: 29 that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. By keeping away from these things, you will do well.
Shalom!”
30 So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch; and when they had gathered the whole group together, they delivered the letter. 31 The people read it and rejoiced over its encouragement. 32 Judah and Silas, prophets themselves, encouraged the brothers and sisters with a long message and strengthened them.
33 After spending some time there, they were sent off with shalom by the brothers and sisters to those who had sent them. 34 [e] 35 But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and proclaiming the word of the Lord with many others.
Evening Petition for Protection
Psalm 141
1 A psalm of David.
Adonai, I call to You—come quickly to me!
Hear my voice when I call to You.
2 May my prayer be set before You like incense.
May the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.
3 Set a guard, Adonai, over my mouth.
Keep watch over the door of my lips.
4 Let not my heart turn to any evil thing,
to practice deeds of wickedness
with men that work iniquity,
nor let me eat of their delicacies.
5 Let the righteous strike me—it is kindness.
Let him correct me—it is oil on my head
—my head will not refuse it.
Yet still my prayer is against their wickedness.
6 Their judges are thrown down from a cliff.
Then they will hear my words, since they are sweet.
7 As when one plows and breaks open the earth,
so our bones are scattered at the mouth of Sheol.
8 For my eyes are toward You, God my Lord.
In You I have taken refuge—do not expose my soul.
9 Keep me from the jaws of the trap they have laid for me,
and from the snares of the evildoers.
10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets,
while I pass by safely.
23 The wicked one receives a bribe in secret
to pervert the ways of justice.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.