Judges 18:14

By faith, Rahab the prostitute didn’t perish with those who were disobedient, having received the spies in peace.

In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works, in that she received the messengers and sent them out another way?

Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep; and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father’s.

Gideon made an ephod out of it, and put it in Ophrah, his city. Then all Israel played the prostitute with it there; and it became a snare to Gideon and to his house.

The man Micah had a house of gods, and he made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.

They were scattered, because there was no shepherd. They became food to all the animals of the field, and were scattered.

Now, you want to be gone, because you greatly longed for your father’s house, but why have you stolen my gods?”

Israel stayed in Shittim; and the people began to play the prostitute with the daughters of Moab;

who may go out before them, and who may come in before them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring them in, that the congregation of Yahweh may not be as sheep which have no shepherd.”

You shall consume all the peoples whom Yahweh your God shall deliver to you. Your eye shall not pity them. You shall not serve their gods; for that would be a snare to you.

The five men who went to spy out the land went up, and came in there, and took the engraved image, the ephod, the teraphim, and the molten image; and the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men armed with weapons of war.

He said, “You have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and have gone away! What more do I have? How can you ask me, ‘What ails you?’ ”

Thus they were defiled with their works, and prostituted themselves in their deeds.

The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from Yahweh.

For the children of Israel shall live many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without sacred stone, and without ephod or idols.

But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were harassed and scattered, like sheep without a shepherd.

They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”

“You shall make a breastplate of judgment, the work of the skillful workman; like the work of the ephod you shall make it; of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, you shall make it.

You shall clothe them with belts, Aaron and his sons, and bind headbands on them. They shall have the priesthood by a perpetual statute. You shall consecrate Aaron and his sons.

If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you, and he gives you a sign or a wonder,

Then Gideon built an altar there to Yahweh, and called it “Yahweh is Peace.” To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

As soon as Gideon was dead, the children of Israel turned again and played the prostitute following the Baals, and made Baal Berith their god.

The children of Dan sent five men of their family from their whole number, men of valor, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to search it. They said to them, “Go, explore the land!” They came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there.

The priest’s heart was glad, and he took the ephod, the teraphim, and the engraved image, and went with the people.

The children of Dan set up for themselves the engraved image; and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land.

Michal took the teraphim, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats’ hair at its head, and covered it with clothes.

Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Please inquire first for Yahweh’s word.”

Stay away from a foolish man, for you won’t find knowledge on his lips.

But they are together brutish and foolish, instructed by idols! It is just wood.

They say continually to those who despise me, ‘Yahweh has said, “You will have peace;” ’ and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, ‘No evil will come on you.’

But as for you, don’t listen to your prophets, to your diviners, to your dreams, to your soothsayers, or to your sorcerers, who speak to you, saying, “You shall not serve the king of Babylon;”

“As I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “surely because my sheep became a prey, and my sheep became food to all the animals of the field, because there was no shepherd. My shepherds didn’t search for my sheep, but the shepherds fed themselves, and didn’t feed my sheep.”

“What value does the engraved image have, that its maker has engraved it; the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he who fashions its form trusts in it, to make mute idols?

Salmon became the father of Boaz by Rahab. Boaz became the father of Obed by Ruth. Obed became the father of Jesse.

Jesus came out, saw a great multitude, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things.

He warned them, saying, “Take heed: beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.”

Brothers, if any among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back,

Jacob boiled stew. Esau came in from the field, and he was famished.

Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed about them, and said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see the nakedness of the land.”

They encamped by the Jordan, from Beth Jeshimoth even to Abel Shittim in the plains of Moab.

But to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, you shall seek his habitation, and you shall come there.

Joshua the son of Nun secretly sent two men out of Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, including Jericho.” They went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and slept there.

Joshua got up early in the morning; and they moved from Shittim and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel. They camped there before they crossed over.

The city shall be devoted, even it and all that is in it, to Yahweh. Only Rahab the prostitute shall live, she and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.

Now the cities of the tribe of the children of Benjamin according to their families were Jericho, Beth Hoglah, Emek Keziz,

The house of Joseph sent to spy out Bethel. (The name of the city before that was Luz.)

He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and also spoke it in my ears—behold, the silver is with me. I took it.” His mother said, “May Yahweh bless my son!”

He restored the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, then his mother said, “I most certainly dedicate the silver to Yahweh from my hand for my son, to make a carved image and a molten image. Now therefore I will restore it to you.”

They said to him, “Please ask counsel of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous.”

Then one of the people answered, and said, “Your father directly commanded the people with an oath, saying, ‘Cursed is the man who eats food today.’ ” So the people were faint.

When Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David to Keilah, he came down with an ephod in his hand.

Jonadab said to him, “Lay down on your bed, and pretend to be sick. When your father comes to see you, tell him, ‘Please let my sister Tamar come and give me bread to eat, and prepare the food in my sight, that I may see it, and eat it from her hand.’ ”

The king said to Ziba, “What do you mean by these?” Ziba said, “The donkeys are for the king’s household to ride on; and the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat; and the wine, that those who are faint in the wilderness may drink.”

King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, “On the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, the evening meal offering, the king’s burnt offering, his meal offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, their meal offering, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice; but the bronze altar will be for me to inquire by.”

Moreover Josiah removed those who had familiar spirits, the wizards, and the teraphim, and the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might confirm the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in Yahweh’s house.

The king answered them roughly; and king Rehoboam abandoned the counsel of the old men,

He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, as did Ahab’s house, for they were his counselors after the death of his father, to his destruction.

For, behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to you.

If you stop listening to instruction, my son, you will stray from the words of knowledge.

There is a generation that is pure in their own eyes, yet are not washed from their filthiness.

Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, and wickedness as with cart rope,

Then Yahweh said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in my name. I didn’t send them. I didn’t command them. I didn’t speak to them. They prophesy to you a lying vision, divination, and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their own heart.

Yahweh of Armies says, “Don’t listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They teach you vanity. They speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of Yahweh.

For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination. He shook the arrows back and forth. He consulted the teraphim. He looked in the liver.

Contend with your mother! Contend, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband; and let her put away her prostitution from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts;

My people consult with their wooden idol, and answer to a stick of wood. Indeed the spirit of prostitution has led them astray, and they have been unfaithful to their God.

For the teraphim have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie; and they have told false dreams. They comfort in vain. Therefore they go their way like sheep. They are oppressed, because there is no shepherd.

“Behold, I send you out as sheep among wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

The king was grieved, but for the sake of his oaths, and of those who sat at the table with him, he commanded it to be given,

But Jesus held his peace. The high priest answered him, “I adjure you by the living God, that you tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God.”

to whom they all listened, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is that great power of God.”

Know this for sure, that no sexually immoral person, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God.

Nobody takes this honor on himself, but he is called by God, just like Aaron was.

Job answered: