If you do what is right, won’t you be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

So the servant placed his hand under his master Abraham’s thigh and swore an oath to him concerning this matter.

The servant took 10 of his master’s camels and departed with all kinds of his master’s goods in hand. Then he set out for Nahor’s town Aram-naharaim.

“Lord, God of my master Abraham,” he prayed, “give me success today, and show kindness to my master Abraham.

Let the girl to whom I say, ‘Please lower your water jug so that I may drink,’ and who responds, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels also’—let her be the one You have appointed for Your servant Isaac. By this I will know that You have shown kindness to my master.”

and said, “Praise the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not withheld His kindness and faithfulness from my master. As for me, the Lord has led me on the journey to the house of my master’s relatives.”

“The Lord has greatly blessed my master, and he has become rich. He has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, male and female slaves, and camels and donkeys.

Sarah, my master’s wife, bore a son to my master in her old age, and he has given him everything he owns.

My master put me under this oath: ‘You will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites in whose land I live

But I said to my master, ‘Suppose the woman will not come back with me?’

“Today when I came to the spring, I prayed: Lord, God of my master Abraham, if only You will make my journey successful!

and who responds to me, ‘Drink, and I’ll draw water for your camels also’—let her be the woman the Lord has appointed for my master’s son.

Then I bowed down, worshiped the Lord, and praised the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who guided me on the right way to take the granddaughter of my master’s brother for his son.

Now, if you are going to show kindness and faithfulness to my master, tell me; if not, tell me, and I will go elsewhere.”

Rebekah is here in front of you. Take her and go, and let her be a wife for your master’s son, just as the Lord has spoken.”

Then he and the men with him ate and drank and spent the night.

When they got up in the morning, he said, “Send me to my master.”

But he responded to them, “Do not delay me, since the Lord has made my journey a success. Send me away so that I may go to my master.”

and asked the servant, “Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?”

The servant answered, “It is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself.

May peoples serve you
and nations bow down to you.
Be master over your brothers;
may your mother’s sons bow down to you.
Those who curse you will be cursed,
and those who bless you will be blessed.

But Isaac answered Esau: “Look, I have made him a master over you, have given him all of his relatives as his servants, and have sustained him with grain and new wine. What then can I do for you, my son?”

The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, serving in the household of his Egyptian master.

When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he did successful,

Joseph found favor in his master’s sight and became his personal attendant. Potiphar also put him in charge of his household and placed all that he owned under his authority.

After some time his master’s wife looked longingly at Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.”

But he refused. “Look,” he said to his master’s wife, “with me here my master does not concern himself with anything in his house, and he has put all that he owns under my authority.

She put Joseph’s garment beside her until his master came home.

When his master heard the story his wife told him—“These are the things your slave did to me”—he was furious

After this, the Egyptian king’s cupbearer and baker offended their master, the king of Egypt.

So he asked Pharaoh’s officers who were in custody with him in his master’s house, “Why do you look so sad today?”

Isn’t this the cup that my master drinks from and uses for divination? What you have done is wrong!’”

We even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the money we found at the top of our bags. How could we steal gold and silver from your master’s house?

If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children belong to her master, and the man must leave alone.

“But if the slave declares: ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I do not want to leave as a free man,’

his master is to bring him to the judges and then bring him to the door or doorpost. His master must pierce his ear with an awl, and he will serve his master for life.

If she is displeasing to her master, who chose her for himself, then he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners because he has acted treacherously toward her.

If the ox gores a male or female slave, he must give 30 shekels of silver to the slave’s master, and the ox must be stoned.

“Do not return a slave to his master when he has escaped from his master to you.

When they were near Jebus and the day was almost gone, the servant said to his master, “Please, why not let us stop at this Jebusite city and spend the night here?”

But his master replied to him, “We will not stop at a foreign city where there are no Israelites. Let’s move on to Gibeah.”

Early that morning, the woman made her way back, and as it was getting light, she collapsed at the doorway of the man’s house where her master was.

When her master got up in the morning, opened the doors of the house, and went out to leave on his journey, there was the woman, his concubine, collapsed near the doorway of the house with her hands on the threshold.

Then Jonathan called to him, “Hurry up and don’t stop!” Jonathan’s young man picked up the arrow and returned to his master.

One of Nabal’s young men informed Abigail, Nabal’s wife: “Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he yelled at them.

Now consider carefully what you must do, because there is certain to be trouble for our master and his entire family. He is such a worthless fool nobody can talk to him!”

The Philistine commanders, however, were enraged with Achish and told him, “Send that man back and let him return to the place you assigned him. He must not go down with us into battle only to become our adversary during the battle. What better way could he regain his master’s favor than with the heads of our men?

Then David said to him, “Who do you belong to? Where are you from?”

“I’m an Egyptian, the slave of an Amalekite man,” he said. “My master abandoned me when I got sick three days ago.

David then asked him, “Will you lead me to these raiders?”

He said, “Swear to me by God that you won’t kill me or turn me over to my master, and I will lead you to them.”

Then the king summoned Saul’s attendant Ziba and said to him, “I have given to your master’s grandson all that belonged to Saul and his family.

You, your sons, and your servants are to work the ground for him, and you are to bring in the crops so your master’s grandson will have food to eat. But Mephibosheth, your master’s grandson, is always to eat at my table.” Now Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants.

But Uriah slept at the door of the palace with all his master’s servants; he did not go down to his house.

Uriah answered David, “The ark, Israel, and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my master Joab and his soldiers are camping in the open field. How can I enter my house to eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As surely as you live and by your life, I will not do this!”

Then David invited Uriah to eat and drink with him, and David got him drunk. He went out in the evening to lie down on his cot with his master’s servants, but he did not go home.

I gave your master’s house to you and your master’s wives into your arms, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah, and if that was not enough, I would have given you even more.

“Where is your master’s grandson?” the king asked.

“Why, he’s staying in Jerusalem,” Ziba replied to the king, “for he said, ‘Today, the house of Israel will restore my grandfather’s kingdom to me.’”

God raised up Rezon son of Eliada as an enemy against Solomon. Rezon had fled from his master Hadadezer king of Zobah

So Micaiah said:

I saw all Israel scattered on the hills
like sheep without a shepherd.
And the Lord said,
“They have no master;
let everyone return home in peace.”

Then the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elisha and said, “Do you know that the Lord will take your master away from you today?”

He said, “Yes, I know. Be quiet.”

Then the sons of the prophets who were in Jericho came up to Elisha and said, “Do you know that the Lord will take your master away from you today?”

He said, “Yes, I know. Be quiet.”

Then the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “Since there are 50 strong men here with your servants, please let them go and search for your master. Maybe the Spirit of the Lord has carried him away and put him on one of the mountains or into one of the valleys.”

He answered, “Don’t send them.”

Naaman, commander of the army for the king of Aram, was a great man in his master’s sight and highly regarded because through him, the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man was a brave warrior, but he had a skin disease.

She said to her mistress, “If only my master would go to the prophet who is in Samaria, he would cure him of his skin disease.”

So Naaman went and told his master what the girl from the land of Israel had said.

However, in a particular matter may the Lord pardon your servant: When my master, the king of Aram, goes into the temple of Rimmon to worship and I, as his right-hand man, bow in the temple of Rimmon—when I bow in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord pardon your servant in this matter.”

Gehazi, the attendant of Elisha the man of God, thought: My master has let this Aramean Naaman off lightly by not accepting from him what he brought. As the Lord lives, I will run after him and get something from him.

Gehazi said, “It’s all right. My master has sent me to say, ‘I have just now discovered that two young men from the sons of the prophets have come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them 75 pounds of silver and two changes of clothes.’”

Gehazi came and stood by his master. “Where did you go, Gehazi?” Elisha asked him.

“Your servant didn’t go anywhere,” he replied.

As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron ax head fell into the water, and he cried out, “Oh, my master, it was borrowed!”

When the servant of the man of God got up early and went out, he discovered an army with horses and chariots surrounding the city. So he asked Elisha, “Oh, my master, what are we to do?”

Elisha replied, “Don’t kill them. Do you kill those you have captured with your sword or your bow? Set food and water in front of them so they can eat and drink and go to their master.”

So he prepared a great feast for them. When they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. The Aramean raiders did not come into Israel’s land again.

Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a man ahead of him, but before the messenger got to him, Elisha said to the elders, “Do you see how this murderer has sent someone to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door to keep him out. Isn’t the sound of his master’s feet behind him?”

Hazael left Elisha and went to his master, who asked him, “What did Elisha say to you?”

He responded, “He told me you are sure to recover.”

You are to strike down the house of your master Ahab so that I may avenge the blood shed by the hand of Jezebel—the blood of My servants the prophets and of all the servants of the Lord.

When Jehu came out to his master’s servants, they asked, “Is everything all right? Why did this crazy person come to you?”

Then he said to them, “You know the sort and their ranting.”

As Jehu entered the gate, she said, “Do you come in peace, Zimri, killer of your master?”

When this letter arrives, since your master’s sons are with you and you have chariots, horses, a fortified city, and weaponry,

select the most qualified of your master’s sons, set him on his father’s throne, and fight for your master’s house.

Then Jehu wrote them a second letter, saying:

If you are on my side, and if you will obey me, bring me the heads of your master’s sons at this time tomorrow at Jezreel.

All 70 of the king’s sons were being cared for by the city’s prominent men.

The next morning when he went out and stood at the gate, he said to all the people, “You are innocent. It was I who conspired against my master and killed him. But who struck down all these?

“So now make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria. I’ll give you 2,000 horses if you’re able to supply riders for them!

How then can you drive back a single officer among the least of my master’s servants and trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

But the Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words? Hasn’t he also sent me to the men who sit on the wall, destined with you to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”

Perhaps Yahweh your God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke him for the words that Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the surviving remnant.’”

who said to them, “Tell your master this, ‘The Lord says: Don’t be afraid because of the words you have heard, that the king of Assyria’s attendants have blasphemed Me with.

Some Manassites defected to David when he went with the Philistines to fight against Saul. However, they did not help the Philistines because the Philistine rulers sent David away after a discussion. They said, “It will be our heads if he defects to his master Saul.”

So Micaiah said:

I saw all Israel scattered on the hills
like sheep without a shepherd.
And the Lord said,
“They have no master;
let each return home in peace.”

He sent letters to all the royal provinces, to each province in its own script and to each ethnic group in its own language, that every man should be master of his own house and speak in the language of his own people.

Both small and great are there,
and the slave is set free from his master.

They say, “Through our tongues we have power;
our lips are our own—who can be our master?”

He made him master of his household,
ruler over all his possessions—

Like a servant’s eyes on his master’s hand,
like a servant girl’s eyes on her mistress’s hand,
so our eyes are on the Lord our God
until He shows us favor.

Whoever tends a fig tree will eat its fruit,
and whoever looks after his master will be honored.

Don’t slander a servant to his master
or he will curse you, and you will become guilty.

How beautiful are your sandaled feet, princess!
The curves of your thighs are like jewelry,
the handiwork of a master.

The ox knows its owner,
and the donkey its master’s feeding trough,
but Israel does not know;
My people do not understand.”

people and priest alike,
servant and master,
female servant and mistress,
buyer and seller,
lender and borrower,
creditor and debtor.

Now make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria. I’ll give you 2,000 horses if you’re able to supply riders for them!

How then can you drive back a single officer among the weakest of my master’s officers and trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

But the Rabshakeh replied, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men who are sitting on the wall, who are destined with you to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”

Perhaps Yahweh your God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke him for the words that Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore offer a prayer for the surviving remnant.’”