Then the LORD God asked the woman, "What did you do?" "The Shining One misled me," the woman answered, "so I ate."

If you do what is appropriate, you'll be accepted, won't you? But if you don't do what is appropriate, sin is crouching near your doorway, turning toward you. Now as for you, will you take dominion over it?"

Later, the LORD asked Cain, "Where's your brother Abel?" "I don't know," he answered. "Am I my brother's guardian?"

"What did you do?" God asked. "Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.

Now then, return the man's wife. As a matter of fact, he's a prophet and can intercede for you so you'll live. But if you don't return her, be aware that you and all who are yours will certainly die."

Therefore swear an oath here by God that you won't deal falsely with me, my sons, or my descendants. Just as I've dealt graciously with you, won't you do so with me and with the land in which you live as a foreigner?"

"I don't know who did this thing," Abimelech replied. "You didn't report this to me, and I didn't hear about it until today."

In response, Isaac told Esau, "Look! I've predicted that he's going to become your master, and I've assigned all his brothers to be his servants. What then can I do for you, my son?"

"Do you happen to know Nahor's son Laban?" he inquired. "We do," they replied.

Rachel noticed that she was not bearing children for Jacob, so because she envied her sister Leah, she told Jacob, "If you don't give me sons, I'm going to die!"

Jacob responded, "You don't have to give me anything. Just do this for me: Let me tend your flock again and watch over it. Let me walk among your flocks today and remove every speckled or spotted sheep, along with every black lamb, and let me do the same with the speckled and spotted goats. These will be my wages.

Then Laban asked Jacob, "What did you do? You deceived me, carried off my daughters like you would war captives,

But Laban answered Jacob, "These women are my daughters. These children are my children. The flocks are mine. In fact, everything that you see belongs to me. But what would I do today to my daughters and the children they have borne?

No one has more authority in this house than I do. He has withheld nothing from me, except you, and that's because you're his wife. So how can I commit such a horrible evil? How can I sin against God?"

"Feel free to put my own two sons to death," Reuben responded to his father, "if I don't bring him back to you. Trust me I'll bring him back to you."

But if you don't send him, we're not going, because the man told us, "You'll never see my face unless your brother is with you.'"

I'll even offer myself to guarantee that I'll be responsible for him. If I don't bring him back and present him to you, I'll personally bear the consequences forever.

We've also brought along some more money to buy supplies, but we don't know who put our money back into our sacks."

and Joseph asked them, "Why did you do this? Don't you know that I'm an expert at divination?"

Also, your servant pledged his own life as a guarantee of the young man's safety. I told my father, "If I don't bring him back to you, you can blame me forever.'

Pharaoh said, "Who is the LORD that I should listen to him and let Israel go? I don't know about the LORD, nor will I let Israel go!"

But if you don't let my people go, I'll send swarms of insects upon you, your servants, your people, and your households. The houses of Egypt and even the ground on which they stand will be filled with swarms of insects.

"It wouldn't be right to sacrifice in this way," Moses replied, "because if we do, we will sacrifice to the LORD our God what is offensive to the Egyptians. If we offer sacrifices that are offensive to the Egyptians in front of them, they'll stone us, won't they?

But as for you and your officials, I know that you don't yet fear the LORD God."

But among the Israelis, from people to animals, not even a dog will bark, so you may know that the LORD is distinguishing between the Egyptians and the Israelis.'

You are to redeem every firstborn donkey with a lamb, and if you don't redeem it, you are to break its neck. You are to redeem every firstborn among your sons.

If you do this, and God so commands you, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will also go to their homes in peace."

You are to set boundaries for the people all around: "Be very careful that you don't go up on the mountain or touch the side of it. Anyone who touches the mountain is certainly to be put to death.

Moses told the people, "Don't be afraid, for God has come to test you, so that you may fear him in order that you don't sin."

If you do mistreat them, they'll certainly cry out to me, and I'll immediately hear their cry.

"If you loan money to my people, to the poor among you, don't be like a creditor to them and don't impose interest on them.

When the people saw that Moses took a long time to come down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and told him, "Come here and make us a god who will go before us, because, as for this fellow Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him."

They told me, "Make a god for us who will go before us because, as for this fellow Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him.'

Now, go, and lead the people where I told you, and now my angel will go before you, but on the day when I do punish, I'll punish them for their sin."

You are to redeem the firstborn of a donkey with a sheep, and if you don't redeem it, you are to break its neck. You are to redeem every firstborn of your sons, and no one is to appear before me empty-handed.

"If, after all of this time, you don't listen to me, but instead live life contrary to me,

I'll lay your cities to waste and destroy your sanctuaries so I don't have to smell the scent of your soothing odors.

If a resident alien lives with you and wants to observe the LORD's Passover, let him observe it according to the statutes and laws of the Passover. You are to maintain the same statute for the resident alien as you do for the native of the land."

But when you blow the trumpet to assemble the whole congregation, don't use the same sound as you do for sounding an alarm.

If this is how you treat me, please kill me right now, if I've found favor in your eyes, because I don't want to keep staring at all of this misery!"

"Now, if a resident alien lives with you, or whoever else is with you throughout your generations, let him make an offering made by fire, a pleasing aroma to the LORD. Just as you do, so is he to do.

There is to be a single standard for your community, one statute for you and the resident alien who lives with you, a long lasting statute throughout your generations. Just as you do, so is the resident alien to do in the presence of the LORD.

But Edom replied, "You are not to pass through my land. If you do, I'll come out and start a war with you."

That's when the LORD enabled the donkey to speak. She asked Balaam, "What did I do to you that you would beat me in the space of only three footsteps?"

"If you do this," Moses replied to them, "that is, if you equip yourselves for war in the LORD's presence

Look! The LORD your God has given the land that lies before you. Go and possess it, just as the LORD God of your ancestors commanded you. Don't be afraid or discouraged.'

"Then I told you, "Don't be terrified or afraid of them.

Your little ones whom you said would be taken captive and your children who do not yet know right from wrong will enter the land. I will give it to them and they themselves will possess it.

Be careful! Otherwise, you will forget the covenant of the LORD your God, who established that covenant with you. Don't make carved images of any likeness in violation of everything that you were commanded by the LORD your God.

but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. You are not to do any work neither you, your son, nor your daughter, your male and female servants, your oxen and donkeys, nor any of your livestock, nor any foreigner who lives among you, so that your male and female servants may rest as you do.

You are to utterly destroy everyone whom the LORD your God will deliver to you. Don't have pity on them nor serve their gods. Otherwise, they will become a snare for you."

or a curse if you don't obey the commands of the LORD your God, by turning from the way that I'm commanding you today and following other gods whom you have not known."

so the descendants of Levi who have no tribal allotment as you do foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your cities may come, eat, and be satisfied. That way, the LORD your God shall bless you in everything you do."

"If there should be a poor man among your relatives in one of the cities of the land that the LORD your God is about to give you, don't be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your poor relative.

You must certainly give to him and not feel regret for doing so. Because of this, the LORD your God will bless all your works and everything you do.

Don't view this as a hardship for yourself when you set him free, for he will have served you for six years twice the time of a paid worker. Then the LORD will bless you in all that you do."

For seven days you are to celebrate in the presence of the LORD your God at the place where the LORD will choose; for the LORD your God will bless you in all your harvest and in everything you do, and your joy will be complete.

"When you enter the land that the LORD your God is about to give you, don't learn the detestable practices of those nations there.

"When you inherit the land that the LORD your God is about to give you, don't move your neighbor's boundary marker from where it was placed long ago."

so they won't teach you to do all the detestable things that they do for their gods. If you do what they teach you, you will sin against the LORD your God."

If your fellow countryman doesn't live near you or you don't know who he is, bring the animal to your house and let it remain with you until he claims it. Then return it to him.

Don't detest Edomites, since they are related to you. Don't detest Egyptians, either, because you were strangers in their land.

Be sure you do whatever you promise, because you have given your word voluntarily to the LORD your God.

Then the elders of the city are to summon him and speak with him. If he insists on saying, "I don't want to marry her,'

"But if you don't obey the LORD your God and faithfully carry out all his commands and statutes that I'm giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you and overwhelm you:

"A people whom you don't know will devour what your land and labor produces. You'll be only oppressed and discouraged continuously

it will be a nation whose language you don't understand, whose stern appearance neither shows regard nor extends grace to anyone whether old or young.

Therefore, keep the terms of this covenant, carrying them out so that you'll be wise in everything you do."

and the LORD your God will prosper you abundantly in all that you do, along with your children, your livestock, and the produce of your fields, because the LORD your God will again be delighted with you for good, just as he was delighted with your ancestors,

Their children who don't know will hear and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land that you are crossing the Jordan River to possess."

the one who told his mother and father, "I don't know them,' and who would neither acknowledge his brothers nor know his own children. For they kept your word and guarded your covenant.

At dusk, when it was time to close the city gates, the men left. I don't know where the men went. Go after them quickly, and you might overtake them."

So the men told her, "Our life for yours even to death if you don't betray this mission of ours. Then when the LORD gives us this land, we'll treat you graciously and faithfully."

when we invade the land, if you don't tie this rope made with red cords in the window through which you let us down, and if you don't gather your father, your mother, your brothers, and all of the rest of your father's household into your house.

The Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of this, will surround us, and eliminate us from the earth! Then what will you do about your great reputation?"

So he brought his soldiers down to the water, and the LORD told Gideon, "You are to cull out everyone who laps up water with his tongue like a dog from everyone who kneels to drink."

He instructed them, "Watch me, and do what I do. When we come to the outer perimeter of the encampment, do what I do.

Tomorrow morning when the sun is up, get up early and attack the city. When Gaal and his army come out to fight you, do whatever you can to them."

So be sure that you don't drink wine or anything intoxicating, and don't eat anything unclean

He told me, "Surprise! you're going to conceive and give birth to a son!' and as for you, "Be sure that you don't drink wine or anything intoxicating, and don't eat anything unclean,' "because the young man will be a Nazirite dedicated to God from inside the womb' until the day he dies."

But if you don't solve it, then you'll give me 30 linen garments and 30 formal garments." "Tell us your riddle and we'll solve it," they responded.

So Samson's wife cried in front of him and accused him, "You only hate me. You don't love me. You've told a riddle to my relatives, but you haven't told the solution to me." Samson responded, "Look, I haven't told my parents, either. Why should I tell you?"

Samson replied to them, "This time I'll be blameless when I do something evil to the Philistines."

Meanwhile, we also have straw and fodder for our donkeys, and bread and wine for me, for this young woman servant, and for the young man who is with your servants. We don't need anything else."

What can we do to find wives for the survivors who remain, since we've already taken an oath in the LORD's presence not to give them any of our daughters in marriage?"

So the elders of the congregation asked, "What will we do to obtain wives for the survivors, since the women of Benjamin have been devastated?"

If the man told him, "They must surely burn up the fat first, and then take for yourself whatever you desire," the servant would say, "No, give it now, and if you don't, I'll take it by force!"

Distress will settle down to live in your household, and despite all the good that I do for Israel, there will never be an old man in your family forever, and you will never again have an old man in my house.

Any of you whom I don't eliminate from serving at my altar will grow tired from weeping, and their souls will grieve. All the increase of your family will die by violence.

The Philistines summoned the priests and diviners and asked, "What should we do about the Ark of the LORD? Tell us how we should send it back to its place."

When you leave me today, you will find two men by Rachel's tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah. They'll tell you, "The donkeys you went to look for have been found. Now your father has stopped worrying about the donkeys and he's anxious about you. He's asking, "What will I do about my son?'

But if you don't obey the LORD and rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then the LORD will turn against you as he did against your ancestors.

Then all the people told Samuel, "Pray to the LORD your God for your servants, so that we don't die, because we made all our sins worse by asking for a king for ourselves."

Saul said, "May God do this to me and even more, if you don't surely die, Jonathan!"

Saul told the Kenites, "Withdraw from the Amalekites so that I don't destroy you with them, for you showed kindness to all the Israelis when they departed from Egypt." So the Kenites withdrew from the Amalekites.

The Philistine asked David, "Am I a dog that you come at me with sticks?" Then the Philistine cursed David by his own gods and

When Saul saw David going out to meet the Philistine, he asked Abner, the commander of the army, "Whose son is this young man, Abner?" Abner said, "As surely as you live, your majesty, I don't know."

He risked his life and struck down the Philistine, and the LORD brought about a spectacular deliverance for all Israel. You saw that and rejoiced, so why would you do wrong and shed innocent blood by killing David without cause?"

Saul sent messengers to David's house to watch him so they could kill him in the morning. David's wife, Michal, told him, "If you don't escape with your life tonight, tomorrow you'll be put to death."

But if my father intends to harm you, may the LORD strike me dead if I don't let you know and send you away so you may go safely. May the LORD be with you as he has been with my father.