"therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you.

I was angry with My people; I have profaned My inheritance, And given them into your hand. You showed them no mercy; On the elderly you laid your yoke very heavily.

" [Is] this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke?

"But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet.

"For My yoke [is] easy and My burden is light."

"Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?

Were you called [while] a slave? Do not be concerned about it; but if you can be made free, rather use [it.]

For he who is called in the Lord [while] a slave is the Lord's freedman. Likewise he who is called [while] free is Christ's slave.

Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

The Angel of the LORD said to her, "Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand."

So Abraham said to the oldest servant of his house, who ruled over all that he had, "Please, put your hand under my thigh,

Then he said, "O LORD God of my master Abraham, please give me success this day, and show kindness to my master Abraham.

And he said, "Blessed [be] the LORD God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His mercy and His truth toward my master. As for me, being on the way, the LORD led me to the house of my master's brethren."

"The LORD has blessed my master greatly, and he has become great; and He has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male and female servants, and camels and donkeys.

"Now my master made me swear, saying, 'You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I dwell;

"And I said to my master, 'Perhaps the woman will not follow me.'

'You will be clear from this oath when you arrive among my family; for if they will not give [her] to you, then you will be released from my oath.'

'behold, I stand by the well of water; and it shall come to pass that when the virgin comes out to draw [water,] and I say to her, "Please give me a little water from your pitcher to drink,"

" But before I had finished speaking in my heart, there was Rebekah, coming out with her pitcher on her shoulder; and she went down to the well and drew [water.] And I said to her, 'Please let me drink.'

"Then I asked her, and said, 'Whose daughter [are] you?' And she said, 'The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor's son, whom Milcah bore to him.' So I put the nose ring on her nose and the bracelets on her wrists.

"Now if you will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me. And if not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand or to the left."

"Here [is] Rebekah before you; take [her] and go, and let her be your master's son's wife, as the LORD has spoken."

Then the servant brought out jewelry of silver, jewelry of gold, and clothing, and gave [them] to Rebekah. He also gave precious things to her brother and to her mother.

But her brother and her mother said, "Let the young woman stay with us [a few] days, at least ten; after that she may go."

So they said, "We will call the young woman and ask her personally."

So they sent away Rebekah their sister and her nurse, and Abraham's servant and his men.

Then Rebekah and her maids arose, and they rode on the camels and followed the man. So the servant took Rebekah and departed.

And Isaac went out to meditate in the field in the evening; and he lifted his eyes and looked, and there, the camels [were] coming.

for she had said to the servant, "Who [is] this man walking in the field to meet us?" The servant said, "It [is] my master." So she took a veil and covered herself.

Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent; and he took Rebekah and she became his wife, and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother's [death.]

And the Syrians had gone out on raids, and had brought back captive a young girl from the land of Israel. She waited on Naaman's wife.

Then she said to her mistress, "If only my master [were] with the prophet who [is] in Samaria! For he would heal him of his leprosy."

And his servants came near and spoke to him, and said, "My father, [if] the prophet had told you [to do] something great, would you not have done [it?] How much more then, when he says to you, 'Wash, and be clean'?"

" A son honors [his] father, And a servant [his] master. If then I am the Father, Where [is] My honor? And if I [am] a Master, Where [is] My reverence? Says the LORD of hosts To you priests who despise My name. Yet you say, 'In what way have we despised Your name?'

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

And they said, "Cornelius [the] centurion, a just man, one who fears God and has a good reputation among all the nation of the Jews, was divinely instructed by a holy angel to summon you to his house, and to hear words from you."

Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ;

with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men,

Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God.

knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.

[Exhort] bondservants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all [things,] not answering back,

Honor all [people.] Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.

For this [is] commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully.

Therefore I desire that [the] younger [widows] marry, bear children, manage the house, give no opportunity to the adversary to speak reproachfully.

And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock. The Canaanites and the Perizzites then dwelt in the land.

So Abram said to Lot, "Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we [are] brethren.

"However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also [who is] born to you shall surely die."

And the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, [and] Pethahiah, said: "Stand up [and] bless the LORD your God Forever and ever! "Blessed be Your glorious name, Which is exalted above all blessing and praise!

Now therefore, what have I here," says the LORD, "That My people are taken away for nothing? Those who rule over them Make them wail," says the LORD, "And My name [is] blasphemed continually every day.

"When they came to the nations, wherever they went, they profaned My holy name -- when they said of them, 'These [are] the people of the LORD, [and] yet they have gone out of His land.'

"And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I [am] the LORD," says the Lord GOD, "when I am hallowed in you before their eyes.

Then He said to the disciples, "It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe [to him] through whom they do come!

For "the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you," as it is written.

Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God,

to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.

sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you.

not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.

having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by [your] good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.

having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.