Zechariah 9:5

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

even as it is written, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense; and no one who believes in him will be disappointed.”

The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the lowland, and of the South of Judah, and had taken Beth Shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco with its villages, Timnah with its villages, and also Gimzo and its villages; and they lived there.

But an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors by night, and brought them out and said,

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Pathrusim, Casluhim (which the Philistines descended from), and Caphtorim.

So Joshua captured all that land, the hill country, all the South, all the land of Goshen, the lowland, the Arabah, the hill country of Israel, and the lowland of the same;

from the Shihor, which is before Egypt, even to the border of Ekron northward, which is counted as Canaanite; the five lords of the Philistines; the Gazites, and the Ashdodites, the Ashkelonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites; also the Avvim,

and all the mixed people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, all the kings of the Philistines, Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod;

In the day that you stood on the other side, in the day that strangers carried away his substance, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots for Jerusalem, even you were like one of them.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s love, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

whom he poured out on us richly, through Jesus Christ our Savior;

The border of the Canaanites was from Sidon—as you go toward Gerar—to Gaza—as you go toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim—to Lasha.

Goshen, Holon, and Giloh; eleven cities with their villages.

These are the golden tumors which the Philistines returned for a trespass offering to Yahweh: for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Ashkelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one;

For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?

Oh magnify Yahweh with me. Let’s exalt his name together.

Uphold me according to your word, that I may live. Let me not be ashamed of my hope.

Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of Tyre, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they delivered up the whole community to Edom, and didn’t remember the brotherly covenant;

Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of Edom, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because he pursued his brother with the sword, and cast off all pity, and his anger raged continually, and he kept his wrath forever;

Are you not like the children of the Ethiopians to me, children of Israel?” says Yahweh. “Haven’t I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?

But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I said to you.

For there stood by me this night an angel, belonging to the God whose I am and whom I serve,

For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

For if we live, we live to the Lord. Or if we die, we die to the Lord. If therefore we live or die, we are the Lord’s.

for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

For this cause I also suffer these things. Yet I am not ashamed, for I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed to him against that day.

When Yahweh sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, “Go up and possess the land which I have given you,” you rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh your God, and you didn’t believe him or listen to his voice.

For he had dominion over all on this side the River, from Tiphsah even to Gaza, over all the kings on this side the River: and he had peace on all sides around him.

My soul, wait in silence for God alone, for my expectation is from him.

I will also speak of your statutes before kings, and will not be disappointed.

Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness.

Indeed surely there is a future hope, and your hope will not be cut off.

Israel will be saved by Yahweh with an everlasting salvation. You will not be disappointed nor confounded to ages everlasting.

For the Lord Yahweh will help me. Therefore I have not been confounded. Therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I won’t be disappointed.

“Don’t be afraid, for you will not be ashamed. Don’t be confounded, for you will not be disappointed. For you will forget the shame of your youth. You will remember the reproach of your widowhood no more.

because of the day that comes to destroy all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper who remains; for Yahweh will destroy the Philistines, the remnant of the isle of Caphtor.

“ ‘ “Because you have had a perpetual hostility, and have given over the children of Israel to the power of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time of the iniquity of the end;

and have sold the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks, that you may remove them far from their border.

Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of Damascus, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron;

Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of Gaza, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they carried away captive the whole community, to deliver them up to Edom;

but I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, and it will devour its palaces.

Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this, which you now see and hear.

So the assemblies throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace, and were built up. They were multiplied, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he didn’t give God the glory. Then he was eaten by worms and died.

Besides hope, Abraham in hope believed, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So will your offspring be.”

Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body.

And because you are children, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!”

that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

Yes, and if I am poured out on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice, and rejoice with you all.

who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.

Aren’t they all serving spirits, sent out to do service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?

But if one of you suffers for being a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God in this matter.

Now, little children, remain in him, that when he appears, we may have boldness, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

We love him, because he first loved us.

He killed it; and Moses took some of its blood, and put it on the tip of Aaron’s right ear, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of his right foot.

The priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.

Your fathers did so when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land.

Then the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza: the Caphtorim, who came out of Caphtor, destroyed them and lived in their place.)

Yahweh said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to magnify you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.

Then Joshua spoke to Yahweh in the day when Yahweh delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel. He said in the sight of Israel, “Sun, stand still on Gibeon! You, moon, stop in the valley of Aijalon!”

Joshua struck them from Kadesh Barnea even to Gaza, and all the country of Goshen, even to Gibeon.

The Philistines laid hold on him and put out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with fetters of bronze; and he ground at the mill in the prison.

Mephibosheth said to the king, “Yes, let him take all, because my lord the king has come in peace to his own house.”

In Gibeon, Yahweh appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask for what I should give you.”

But Yahweh’s angel said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and tell them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel, that you go to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron?

of the gold, the silver, the bronze, and the iron, there is no number. Arise and be doing, and may Yahweh be with you.”

My God, I have trusted in you. Don’t let me be shamed. Don’t let my enemies triumph over me.

Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I don’t remember you, if I don’t prefer Jerusalem above my chief joy.

Yahweh’s word that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Philistines, before Pharaoh struck Gaza.

Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel, and delivered his servants who trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and have yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.

But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise, and go toward the south to the way that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert.”

When the angel who spoke to him had departed, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier of those who waited on him continually.

and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification.

that I should be a servant of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, serving as a priest of the Good News of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be made acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will in no way be disappointed, but with all boldness, as always, now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.

If therefore there is any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassion,

if it is so that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Good News which you heard, which is being proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which I, Paul, was made a servant.

Therefore he who rejects this doesn’t reject man, but God, who has also given his Holy Spirit to you.

May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love, and into the perseverance of Christ.

looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,

Keep yourselves in God’s love, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.