2 Chronicles 10:11

“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.

For God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go. I will counsel you with my eye on you.

they will take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it will in no way hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

You will tread on the lion and cobra. You will trample the young lion and the serpent underfoot.

However he shook off the creature into the fire, and wasn’t harmed.

And the God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

he who says he remains in him ought himself also to walk just like he walked.

Yahweh says, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, ‘Where is the good way?’ and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

If anyone desires to harm them, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies. If anyone desires to harm them, he must be killed in this way.

For I have given you an example, that you should also do as I have done to you.

You, son of man, don’t be afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you, and you dwell among scorpions. Don’t be afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.

Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus,

The nursing child will play near a cobra’s hole, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.

Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”

I am very angry with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, but they added to the calamity.”

Now I Paul, myself, entreat you by the humility and gentleness of Christ, I who in your presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you.

But a prophet of Yahweh was there, whose name was Oded; and he went out to meet the army that came to Samaria, and said to them, “Behold, because Yahweh, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, he has delivered them into your hand, and you have slain them in a rage which has reached up to heaven.

When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.

The humble also will increase their joy in Yahweh, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

Then they will cry to Yahweh, but he will not answer them. Yes, he will hide his face from them at that time, because they made their deeds evil.”

Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you! He is righteous, and having salvation; lowly, and riding on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

Or else, if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country,

a nation of fierce facial expressions, that doesn’t respect the elderly, nor show favor to the young.

For they persecute him whom you have wounded. They tell of the sorrow of those whom you have hurt.

who made the world like a wilderness, and overthrew its cities, who didn’t release his prisoners to their home?”

Yahweh of Armies says: “The children of Israel and the children of Judah are oppressed together. All who took them captive hold them fast. They refuse to let them go.

“The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand. They are knit together. They have come up on my neck. He made my strength fail. The Lord has delivered me into their hands, against whom I am not able to stand.

For the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame will cover you, and you will be cut off forever.

For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so will all the nations drink continually. Yes, they will drink, swallow down, and will be as though they had not been.

“Everyone therefore who hears these words of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man, who built his house on a rock.

For I see that you are in the poison of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity.”

to speak evil of no one, not to be contentious, to be gentle, showing all humility toward all men.

Having been made perfect, he became to all of those who obey him the author of eternal salvation,

I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”

Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all the men who were on the surface of the earth.

David said to Gad, “I am in distress. Let us fall now into Yahweh’s hand; for his mercies are great. Let me not fall into man’s hand.”

Please restore to them, even today, their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the grain, the new wine, and the oil, that you are charging them.”

Then they will call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me;

They will pass through it, very distressed and hungry. It will happen that when they are hungry, they will worry, and curse by their king and by their God. They will turn their faces upward,

I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people who anger me I will give him a command to take the plunder and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

Their infants also will be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be ransacked, and their wives raped.

Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary; and I will make Jacob a curse, and Israel an insult.”

Then you will call, and Yahweh will answer. You will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you take away from among you the yoke, finger pointing, and speaking wickedly;

“Because you are glad, because you rejoice, O you who plunder my heritage, because you are wanton as a heifer that treads out the grain, and neigh as strong horses;

They take up bow and spear. They are cruel, and have no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea. They ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, daughter of Babylon.

The Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob without pity. He has thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah. He has brought them down to the ground. He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.

Princes were hanged up by their hands. The faces of elders were not honored.

‘Speak to the house of Israel, “The Lord Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul pities; and your sons and your daughters whom you have left behind will fall by the sword.

By the abundance of your commerce, your insides were filled with violence, and you have sinned. Therefore I have cast you as profane out of God’s mountain. I have destroyed you, covering cherub, from the middle of the stones of fire.

For with whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you.

“Tell the daughter of Zion, behold, your King comes to you, humble, and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

with all lowliness and humility, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

But you didn’t learn Christ that way,

So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

I know how to be humbled, and I also know how to abound. In everything and in all things I have learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in need.

in gentleness correcting those who oppose him: perhaps God may give them repentance leading to a full knowledge of the truth,

For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

For you were called to this, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps,

but in the hidden person of the heart, in the incorruptible adornment of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.

Go therefore now, and work; for no straw shall be given to you; yet you shall deliver the same number of bricks!”

You will cry out in that day because of your king whom you will have chosen for yourselves; and Yahweh will not answer you in that day.”

Now my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, but I will add to your yoke. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.’ ”

David said to Gad, “I am in distress. Let me fall, I pray, into Yahweh’s hand; for his mercies are very great. Don’t let me fall into man’s hand.”

“Your father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make the grievous service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, lighter, and we will serve you.”

Your plunder will be gathered as the caterpillar gathers. Men will leap on it as locusts leap.

I was angry with my people. I profaned my inheritance and gave them into your hand. You showed them no mercy. You laid a very heavy yoke on the aged.

“Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?

Afterward,” says Yahweh, “I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, his servants, and the people, even those who are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life. He will strike them with the edge of the sword. He will not spare them, have pity, or have mercy.” ’

All who found them have devoured them. Their adversaries said, ‘We are not guilty, because they have sinned against Yahweh, the habitation of righteousness, even Yahweh, the hope of their fathers.’

“Israel is a hunted sheep. The lions have driven him away. First, the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.”

Your guards are like the locusts, and your officials like the swarms of locusts, which settle on the walls on a cold day, but when the sun appears, they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls.

While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. Behold, a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.”

Behold, I give you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. Nothing will in any way hurt you.

This is that Moses, who said to the children of Israel, ‘The Lord our God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me.’

punishing those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus,

Then out of the smoke came locusts on the earth, and power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

They were given power, not to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a person.

They have tails like those of scorpions, and stings. In their tails they have power to harm men for five months.