Scripture gives people a real place of authority and work within creation. It also shows that our authority remains under God: he made the world, sustains its life, and calls us to answer to him for our conduct. Its teaching joins useful work and material provision with mercy, restraint, rest, and hope.
Care for what belongs to God
Begin with the conviction that the earth belongs to the Lord. Psalm 24:1–2 says that the world, its fullness, and its inhabitants are his because he founded it. The rest of the psalm calls worshippers to approach this King with clean hands and a pure heart. Receiving something as your possession therefore does not remove it from God’s authority. Use what is entrusted to you with the honesty, gratitude, and care appropriate to serving its Creator.
Genesis 1:20–31 describes a world that God values. He calls the sea creatures, birds, and land animals good; he blesses the sea creatures and birds to multiply. He then creates human beings in his image, male and female, and gives them dominion over living creatures. The word “dominion” means rule, and the command to subdue the earth gives humanity an active task. Yet the people who receive this authority are themselves creatures, ruling within a world God calls very good. Exercise that responsibility with regard for the life he has made and the purposes he has given it.
Psalm 8:3–9 gives authority the right posture. Looking at the heavens, the psalmist wonders why God attends to frail humanity, then praises him for crowning people with honor and placing sheep, oxen, wild animals, birds, and fish under their rule. The poem begins and ends with the excellence of the Lord’s name. Human importance is received from him. Let that honor lead you to responsible service and humility before the God whose works you handle.
Let appreciation of creation become gratitude to its Maker. In Psalm 50:7–15, God tells Israel that the forest animals, mountain birds, and cattle already belong to him; sacrifices do not supply a need he cannot meet. He calls for thanksgiving, fulfilled vows, and dependence on him. Romans 1:18–25 likewise connects failure to thank God with exchanging his glory for images of people and animals. Value living things as his works, and give worship to the Creator from whom their life and yours come.
Further study: NET Bible translators and editors · Pat Bennett and Richard Bauckham
Notice the creatures God sustains
Attend to the variety of life God provides for. Psalm 104:10–18 describes springs that water wild animals, branches where birds live, grass for cattle, plants and bread for people, and mountain refuges for other creatures. Human nourishment and the animals’ places to live belong in the same account of God’s generosity. Learning what a creature needs, and giving thought to the places that sustain its life, accords with the care the psalm celebrates.
The psalm also describes lions seeking prey, people going out to work, and life filling the sea (Psalm 104:19–30). All depend on God for food and breath. It speaks honestly of death and continuing renewal while praising his wisdom. Its picture is larger than the animals people keep or find useful. Psalm 104:31–35 leads the worshipper into praise and gladness in the Lord, whose works give him delight. Receive this world with attention and thankfulness.
Humility grows as you recognize the limits of human control. In Job 38:25–41, God asks who sends rain where no person lives and who feeds lions and ravens. Job 39:1–12 continues with the births of wild creatures and the freedom of the wild ass, whose home God has made in the wilderness. Within the larger dispute about God’s wisdom, these questions direct Job’s attention beyond the world people manage. God sustains creatures whose lives and needs exceed Job’s knowledge. Give wild creatures due regard as creatures of God, including when their lives do not serve your immediate purposes.
The flood narrative shows both judgment and preservation. Genesis 6:9–22 describes an earth corrupted by violence, God’s announced judgment, and his command that Noah bring animals into the ark to keep them alive. Noah must gather food for them as well as for his household. Afterward, God directs their release and fruitfulness and establishes his covenant with Noah’s descendants and every living creature (Genesis 8:15–9:17). Within this particular judgment and rescue, Noah obeys by providing for the creatures entrusted to him. Preserving creaturely life belongs within God’s purposes and can involve careful human work.
God’s concern also corrects a narrow heart. In Jonah 4:1–11, Jonah resents mercy for Nineveh but grieves over the loss of a plant that shaded him. God asks why Jonah pities a plant he did not cultivate while objecting to God’s pity for a great city, its many people, and its cattle. The animals are included in the final question; the people’s need remains central. Learn to welcome the breadth of God’s compassion. Psalm 148:1–14 gathers animals, trees, rulers, and ordinary people into one summons to praise the Lord. Your care belongs within that grateful acknowledgment of him.
Further study: Pat Bennett and Richard Bauckham
Give animals attentive and merciful care
Take an animal’s actual needs seriously. Proverbs 12:10 says, “A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast” and contrasts that regard with the cruelty of the wicked. The saying makes treatment of an animal part of a person’s moral conduct. Regard for its life means more than enjoying its usefulness or appearance: give attention to its condition and respond to its need. Food, water, rest, and help in distress receive concrete expression in the passages that follow.
Make this attention dependable. Proverbs 27:23–27 urges the hearer to know the condition of the flocks and look carefully to the herds. It explains why: wealth does not last indefinitely, while tending the animals and their provision supplies clothing, food, and support for the household and its servants. This is agricultural wisdom about sustained care and provision, not a command for everyone to own livestock or a guarantee of profit. Where living creatures depend on your work, know their condition and carry the responsibility faithfully.
Help a creature in distress even when another person owns it. Exodus 23:4–5 directs Israel to return an enemy’s wandering ox or ass and help an ass lying under its burden. Personal hostility is not a reason to withhold help. Deuteronomy 22:1–4 requires finding, keeping, and restoring a neighbor’s lost animal and helping a fallen animal up. These laws serve the neighbor and his property while requiring real care for the creature. Their instruction makes mercy active: notice the need, give appropriate help, and take responsibility for restoring what has been lost.
Work should include provision for the animal doing it. Deuteronomy 25:4 prohibits muzzling an ox while it threshes grain, allowing it to eat as it works. Paul quotes this command in 1 Corinthians 9:7–14 while defending the right of gospel workers to material support. His question about God’s care for oxen leads to his claim that the law speaks for human workers too: the ploughman and thresher should work in hope of sharing the crop. The precise way Paul applies the law is debated, but his argument does not give an owner permission to starve an animal. It presses the obligation of fair provision into human service as well.
Let patience and attention govern your handling of an animal. Numbers 22:21–35 records Balaam striking his ass three times as she turns aside from the angel he cannot see. When God opens Balaam’s eyes, the angel asks why he struck her and explains that her turning aside preserved his life. The story exposes the prophet’s blindness and his perverse way before God; it is more than a lesson in animal handling. Within that purpose, the unjust beating is expressly challenged. Authority calls for attentive judgment, including willingness to recognize when anger has blinded you to what is happening.
Responsible care also protects other lives from preventable harm. Exodus 21:28–36 distinguishes an unexpected goring from an owner’s failure to restrain an ox already known to be dangerous. It also assigns responsibility when an uncovered pit causes an animal’s death. These are Israel’s civil laws, including penalties that are not instructions for a reader to administer. Their distinctions nevertheless make negligence intelligible: knowledge of danger creates a responsibility to act. Caring for an animal includes managing it with due regard for people and other animals.
Further study: NET Bible translators and editors · Jan L. Verbruggen
Work the land with care, restraint, and room for rest
Receive useful work as a responsibility before God. Genesis 2:4–17 describes the man formed from the ground and placed in a garden with trees pleasant to see and good for food. Genesis 2:15 gives him the task of dressing and keeping it: cultivating and tending what God has provided. Work is present before the disobedience that brings cursed ground, thorns, and painful toil in Genesis 3:17–24. The garden account commends purposeful cultivation under God’s command. Care can involve making the earth productive while attending to the continued good of what you cultivate.
Use the land as a gift held under God’s ownership. Leviticus 25:1–24 addresses Israel after entry into the land: six years of cultivation are followed by a year of rest, and the produce that grows is available to the household, workers, resident strangers, cattle, and wild animals. The Jubilee instructions also limit permanent alienation of family land, for the land remains God’s and the people live with him as sojourners. The passage even answers Israel’s fear about food with a specific promise of provision. These are covenant arrangements for Israel, not a promise of three years’ yield to every farmer. They reveal a use of land ordered by dependence on God and the needs of others.
Make provision for rest part of responsible work. Exodus 23:10–12 links the land’s rest with food for the poor and the beasts of the field, then names rest for the ox and ass and refreshment for servants and strangers. Deuteronomy 5:12–15 likewise includes cattle in the Sabbath command and tells Israel to remember its own deliverance from slavery. The explicit beneficiaries matter: authority over labor is accompanied by responsibility for those who bear it. Learn from that concern by allowing dependent creatures the rest they need and giving workers due care. The question of Christian Sabbath observance involves further passages; it does not erase the stated concern for refreshment here.
Exercise restraint even when you have a use for what could be taken. Deuteronomy 20:19–20 tells Israel to preserve food trees during a siege because their fruit can be eaten, while allowing other trees for siege works. The continuing provision of food matters even when an army could use the wood. Israel must distinguish between a tree whose fruit feeds people and other timber that may serve the siege. This particular wartime restriction gives a clear example of preserving a continuing source of provision instead of destroying it for an immediate purpose.
The law concerning a bird’s nest makes a similarly concrete distinction. Deuteronomy 22:6–7 permits taking the young but requires releasing the mother, called the “dam” in the KJV. It joins obedience with the promise of well-being and long life. The command places a limit on taking animals even where taking some is permitted. Compassion and continuing fruitfulness may help explain that limit, but the verses do not state one exclusive rationale. Receive the principle of restraint without turning this law into a prohibition on every use of animals.
Remember that human conduct has consequences beyond the person who acts. Hosea 4:1–3 brings the Lord’s accusation against Israel: truth, mercy, and knowledge of God are absent, while lying, killing, theft, and adultery spread. The resulting judgment includes a mourning land and suffering animals, birds, and fish. Hosea identifies this judgment as a prophet addressing that people; the passage is not a method for assigning a particular sin to every drought or animal death. Its force is that faithlessness is no private matter. Pursue truth, mercy, and responsible conduct with regard for the shared world in which others live.
Bring the distress of the land and its creatures before God. Joel 1:13–20 calls the community to gather, fast, and cry to the Lord amid devastation. Withered grain, ruined pastures, groaning cattle, and dried streams fill the lament. The prophet cries to God, and the beasts of the field are described as crying to him as well. Creaturely suffering belongs within this earnest appeal for help. Let your prayers include the needs of the land, its creatures, and the people who depend on its provision, with humility before the Lord who sustains them.
Further study: NET Bible translators and editors · NET Bible translators and editors · Pat Bennett and Richard Bauckham
Let care for animals strengthen your readiness to show mercy
Jesus treats practical care for animals as a reason to recognize the fittingness of mercy. In Matthew 12:9–14, opponents ask whether healing on the Sabbath is lawful. Jesus answers with a sheep fallen into a pit: its owner would lift it out. He then points to the greater value of a person and concludes that doing good on the Sabbath is lawful, before restoring the man’s hand. The argument holds animal rescue and human worth together. Take the need of a creature seriously, and let that readiness support an even greater willingness to help a person.
Luke 13:10–17 records a distinct healing and comparison. Jesus frees a woman who has been bent over for eighteen years. When the synagogue ruler objects, Jesus points out that people untie an ox or ass and lead it to water on the Sabbath. If that release is accepted, how fitting that a daughter of Abraham should be released from Satan’s long bondage. Watering an animal supplies the recognized act of care; the woman’s release is the central concern. Faithful compassion makes room for both, and recognizes the significance of the person Jesus restores.
You can care without imagining that all life rests on your own power. In Matthew 6:25–34, Jesus points anxious hearers to birds fed by their heavenly Father and calls them to seek his kingdom and righteousness. Matthew 10:26–31 addresses disciples facing threats: even a sparrow’s fall is not outside their Father’s regard, and they matter to him more than many sparrows. These assurances call people to trust God. They also depend on the reality of his attention to creatures that people can value very cheaply. Carry your responsibilities with the same Father’s goodness in view.
Receive food with gratitude and respect for life
Scripture permits receiving animals as food while requiring regard for life. Genesis 1:29–30 describes plants given for food to people and land creatures; the KJV word “meat” there means food. After the flood, Genesis 9:1–7 expressly permits Noah and his sons to eat living creatures, as God had given plants, while prohibiting flesh with its lifeblood. The same passage requires an account for the shedding of human blood because humanity bears God’s image. Permission to eat animals and the particular dignity of human life are both part of its teaching. Receive provision as God’s gift, under his authority.
The surrounding history also requires a careful account of animal death and use. Noah offers clean animals in Genesis 8:20–22, and the Lord receives the offering. Deuteronomy 14:1–21 distinguishes creatures Israel may eat from those it may not, grounding these distinctions in its calling as a holy people. Leviticus 17:10–14 explains the relation of blood to life and atonement and tells a hunter to pour out and cover the blood of an animal permitted for food. These passages belong to their actual covenant and worship settings. They show that the Bible values animal life while permitting killing for stated purposes and placing limits on its use. Reverence for the Giver of life governs that use.
The New Testament likewise receives food as a good gift. In Luke 24:36–43, the risen Jesus shows his hands and feet and eats the fish given to him before the disciples, assuring them that he is bodily present. His action is part of that particular demonstration; it is not an instruction that everyone must eat fish. First Timothy 4:1–5 directly rejects teachers who require abstinence from foods God created to be received with thanksgiving. The passage joins the goodness of God’s creation with his word and prayer. A thankful meal can honor him; abstaining from animal food is not made a universal condition of faithfulness.
Thankfulness belongs with obedience to the instructions actually given. Acts 15:1–29 rejects requiring Gentile believers to become circumcised to be saved and affirms salvation through the grace of Jesus Christ. Its letter nevertheless directs them to abstain from idol offerings, blood, things strangled, and sexual immorality. The food restrictions must be read alongside Paul’s teaching about food and conscience; their continuing application is a real interpretive question. The letter plainly does not ban all animal food. Honor its concern for faithful life together rather than using food freedom to disregard either its words or another believer.
Make peace and welcome part of your eating. Romans 14:1–23 addresses believers who eat freely and believers who eat herbs. Paul tells both to receive one another because God has received them; each lives to the Lord and will answer to him. He also asks the person with freedom to forgo food that causes a brother to stumble, because Christ died for that person. The kingdom’s concerns are righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Choose with a clear conscience, respect another person’s conscience, and pursue what builds that person up.
First Corinthians 10:14–33 makes the difference between idolatry and ordinary food explicit. Paul forbids sharing in idol worship, permits food bought in the market or served in a home, and explains that the earth belongs to the Lord. When food is identified as an idol offering, consideration for the other person’s conscience calls for refraining. He concludes that eating and drinking should glorify God and seek others’ good. This permission gives a place for grateful use of creation; it does not remove the care, restraint, and mercy Scripture has already taught.
Further study: NET Bible translators and editors
Care faithfully while trusting God with creation’s future
Direct your hope toward the Lord to whom creation belongs. Colossians 1:15–23 says that all things were created through Christ and for him and continue to hold together in him. It then describes peace through the blood of his cross and the reconciliation of all things in heaven and earth, before addressing the believers he has reconciled and calling them to continue in faith. Creation’s future rests in Christ’s work. Caring for what he made belongs with honoring him, while the power to bring all things to their appointed end remains his.
Romans 8:18–25 gives hope amid present suffering. Paul describes the creation as subjected to futility and bondage to corruption, waiting for the revealing of God’s children. He then distinguishes its groaning from the believers’ own groaning as they await the redemption of their bodies. This strongly supports understanding the creation here as the nonhuman world, personified in expectation of freedom. The promise concerns liberation, not indifference to what suffers now. Recognize the world’s distress, persevere in the good entrusted to you, and wait patiently for the deliverance God promises.
Isaiah 11:1–10 pictures this hope through the righteous rule of the descendant of Jesse. He judges the poor fairly and acts with faithfulness; the vision then brings wolf and lamb, leopard and young goat, and children near formerly dangerous animals. Its stated reason for freedom from harm is the knowledge of the Lord filling the earth. Readers differ over how literally every animal detail describes the future, but the promised peace is inseparable from God’s righteous reign. Let his righteous peace shape your hopes and the way you exercise authority.
Future judgment gives present obedience weight. Second Peter 3:3–14 answers scoffers by recalling creation and the flood: God has acted in judgment before. Peter explains the apparent delay in terms of the Lord’s patience and call to repentance. Peter describes the heavens passing away and the elements melting, then asks what kind of people his hearers should be. He calls for holy conduct and godliness as they look for the promised new heavens and earth where righteousness dwells, and for diligence to be found in peace. Let that promised future strengthen your resolve to honor God in your conduct now.
Revelation 21:1–8 and 22:1–5 place the final hope in God’s dwelling with his people, the ending of death and sorrow, the river of life, the tree’s healing, and the removal of the curse. God makes all things new, and his servants serve him. These visions give confidence in his purpose without telling us every detail about individual animals or the world to come. Continue the work already made clear: attend to creatures’ needs, use God’s gifts with gratitude and restraint, show mercy, and entrust the future to him.
Further study: Douglas J. Moo · NET Bible translators and editors
Read the passages
Scripture in context
50 contextual selections for this subject, including the passages cited above and further related reading. Every selected range is reproduced in full from the KJV. Context notes identify the setting and kind of evidence.
Creation narrative and divine commission 1 selections
Genesis 1:20–2:3 KJV · In this guide
Context: The fifth and sixth days include the animals’ goodness and blessing, humanity’s creation and rule, food provision and the whole creation’s goodness; the account concludes in God’s seventh-day rest.
1:20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
1:21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
1:22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
1:23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
1:24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
1:25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
1:29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
1:30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
Creation narrative with particular command 1 selections
Genesis 2:4–17 KJV · In this guide
Context: The garden account proceeds from the formation of the man and the watering of the ground to his placement, task, food and prohibition.
2:4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,
2:5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
2:6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
2:8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
2:9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
2:10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
2:11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
2:12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
2:13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
2:14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
2:15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Judgment narrative 1 selections
Genesis 3:17–24 KJV · In this guide
Context: God addresses the man after disobedience; cursed ground, mortality, clothing and removal from the garden belong to the judgment and its aftermath.
3:17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
3:18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
3:20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
3:21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
3:23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
3:24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
Particular judgment and preservation narrative 1 selections
Genesis 6:9–22 KJV · In this guide
Context: Noah’s family, the earth’s violence, the flood announcement and the complete ark commission include preserving animals and gathering food.
6:9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
6:10 And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
6:11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
6:12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
6:13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
6:14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
6:15 And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.
6:16 A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.
6:17 And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.
6:18 But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.
6:19 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.
6:20 Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.
6:21 And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.
6:22 Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.
Narrative, divine instruction and covenant promise 1 selections
Genesis 8:15–9:17 KJV · In this guide
Context: Release from the ark, animal fruitfulness, Noah’s offering, continuing seasons, food and blood instruction, and the covenant with all flesh form the post-flood sequence.
8:15 And God spake unto Noah, saying,
8:16 Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee.
8:17 Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.
8:18 And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him:
8:19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.
8:20 And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
8:21 And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
8:22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
9:2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.
9:3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
9:4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
9:5 And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man.
9:6 Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
9:7 And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.
9:8 And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
9:9 And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;
9:10 And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.
9:11 And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.
9:12 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
9:13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.
9:14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:
9:15 And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.
9:16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
9:17 And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.
Israelite civil law 1 selections
Exodus 21:28–36 KJV · In this guide
Context: Related civil cases address an ox killing people, known danger, a fatal uncovered pit and one ox killing another, with stated penalties and compensation.
21:28 If an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die: then the ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be quit.
21:29 But if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death.
21:30 If there be laid on him a sum of money, then he shall give for the ransom of his life whatsoever is laid upon him.
21:31 Whether he have gored a son, or have gored a daughter, according to this judgment shall it be done unto him.
21:32 If the ox shall push a manservant or a maidservant; he shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.
21:33 And if a man shall open a pit, or if a man shall dig a pit, and not cover it, and an ox or an ass fall therein;
21:34 The owner of the pit shall make it good, and give money unto the owner of them; and the dead beast shall be his.
21:35 And if one man’s ox hurt another’s, that he die; then they shall sell the live ox, and divide the money of it; and the dead ox also they shall divide.
21:36 Or if it be known that the ox hath used to push in time past, and his owner hath not kept him in; he shall surely pay ox for ox; and the dead shall be his own.
Israelite covenant law 5 selections
Exodus 23:4–5 KJV · In this guide
Context: Two complete covenant case laws require help with an enemy’s wandering animal and an overloaded ass.
Exodus 23:10–13 KJV · In this guide
Context: Land rest and weekly rest name their beneficiaries, followed by a charge to heed the Lord’s words and remain faithful to him.
23:10 And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof:
23:11 But the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard.
23:12 Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.
23:13 And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth.
Deuteronomy 22:1–4 KJV · In this guide
Context: The complete lost-property and fallen-animal unit requires keeping and returning what belongs to a neighbor and active assistance.
22:1 Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ox or his sheep go astray, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother.
22:2 And if thy brother be not nigh unto thee, or if thou know him not, then thou shalt bring it unto thine own house, and it shall be with thee until thy brother seek after it, and thou shalt restore it to him again.
22:3 In like manner shalt thou do with his ass; and so shalt thou do with his raiment; and with all lost thing of thy brother’s, which he hath lost, and thou hast found, shalt thou do likewise: thou mayest not hide thyself.
22:4 Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ass or his ox fall down by the way, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt surely help him to lift them up again.
Deuteronomy 22:6–7 KJV · In this guide
Context: The complete nest statute permits taking young birds but commands release of the mother and states a promise of well-being and long life.
22:6 If a bird’s nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young ones, or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young:
22:7 But thou shalt in any wise let the dam go, and take the young to thee; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days.
Deuteronomy 25:4 KJV · In this guide
Context: A complete one-sentence statute among Israel’s civil laws; Paul explicitly cites it in his argument about workers’ support.
25:4 Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.
Israelite holiness and worship law 1 selections
Leviticus 17:10–16 KJV · In this guide
Context: The blood prohibition explains life and atonement, gives hunting instructions and continues with impurity from carcasses.
17:10 And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood; I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people.
17:11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.
17:12 Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood.
17:13 And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, which hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten; he shall even pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust.
17:14 For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off.
17:15 And every soul that eateth that which died of itself, or that which was torn with beasts, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger, he shall both wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even: then shall he be clean.
17:16 But if he wash them not, nor bathe his flesh; then he shall bear his iniquity.
Israelite land and covenant law 1 selections
Leviticus 25:1–24 KJV · In this guide
Context: Sinai instruction for Israel’s life in the land includes seventh-year rest, Jubilee, fair valuation, promised provision and God’s continuing ownership.
25:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying,
25:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD.
25:3 Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;
25:4 But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.
25:5 That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land.
25:6 And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee,
25:7 And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.
25:8 And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.
25:9 Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.
25:10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
25:11 A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed.
25:12 For it is the jubile; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.
25:13 In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession.
25:14 And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour’s hand, ye shall not oppress one another:
25:15 According to the number of years after the jubile thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee:
25:16 According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee.
25:17 Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the LORD your God.
25:18 Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety.
25:19 And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.
25:20 And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase:
25:21 Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.
25:22 And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store.
25:23 The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.
25:24 And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.
Particular prophetic narrative with divine rebuke 1 selections
Numbers 22:21–35 KJV · In this guide
Context: The full road encounter includes the ass’s three evasions, Balaam’s blows, God’s opening of mouth and eyes, the angel’s explanation and the restricted permission to proceed.
22:21 And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab.
22:22 And God’s anger was kindled because he went: and the angel of the LORD stood in the way for an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants were with him.
22:23 And the ass saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field: and Balaam smote the ass, to turn her into the way.
22:24 But the angel of the LORD stood in a path of the vineyards, a wall being on this side, and a wall on that side.
22:25 And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she thrust herself unto the wall, and crushed Balaam’s foot against the wall: and he smote her again.
22:26 And the angel of the LORD went further, and stood in a narrow place, where was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left.
22:27 And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she fell down under Balaam: and Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with a staff.
22:28 And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?
22:29 And Balaam said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me: I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee.
22:30 And the ass said unto Balaam, Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? was I ever wont to do so unto thee? And he said, Nay.
22:31 Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face.
22:32 And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? behold, I went out to withstand thee, because thy way is perverse before me:
22:33 And the ass saw me, and turned from me these three times: unless she had turned from me, surely now also I had slain thee, and saved her alive.
22:34 And Balaam said unto the angel of the LORD, I have sinned; for I knew not that thou stoodest in the way against me: now therefore, if it displease thee, I will get me back again.
22:35 And the angel of the LORD said unto Balaam, Go with the men: but only the word that I shall speak unto thee, that thou shalt speak. So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.
Israelite covenant command 1 selections
Deuteronomy 5:12–15 KJV · In this guide
Context: The whole Sabbath command in the Decalogue names household members, workers, strangers and animals and recalls release from Egyptian slavery.
5:12 Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee.
5:13 Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work:
5:14 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.
5:15 And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.
Israelite holiness and food law 1 selections
Deuteronomy 14:1–21 KJV · In this guide
Context: Israel’s identity as the Lord’s holy people frames mourning prohibitions and the detailed distinction between permitted and forbidden foods.
14:1 Ye are the children of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.
14:2 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.
14:3 Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing.
14:4 These are the beasts which ye shall eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat,
14:5 The hart, and the roebuck, and the fallow deer, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the wild ox, and the chamois.
14:6 And every beast that parteth the hoof, and cleaveth the cleft into two claws, and cheweth the cud among the beasts, that ye shall eat.
14:7 Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the cloven hoof; as the camel, and the hare, and the coney: for they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof; therefore they are unclean unto you.
14:8 And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you: ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcase.
14:9 These ye shall eat of all that are in the waters: all that have fins and scales shall ye eat:
14:10 And whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye may not eat; it is unclean unto you.
14:11 Of all clean birds ye shall eat.
14:12 But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray,
14:13 And the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after his kind,
14:14 And every raven after his kind,
14:15 And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind,
14:16 The little owl, and the great owl, and the swan,
14:17 And the pelican, and the gier eagle, and the cormorant,
14:18 And the stork, and the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.
14:19 And every creeping thing that flieth is unclean unto you: they shall not be eaten.
14:20 But of all clean fowls ye may eat.
14:21 Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself: thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto an alien: for thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.
Israelite warfare law 1 selections
Deuteronomy 20:19–20 KJV · In this guide
Context: The complete final siege regulation follows Israel’s differentiated war instructions and distinguishes food trees from trees usable for siege works.
20:19 When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them: for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man’s life) to employ them in the siege:
20:20 Only the trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down; and thou shalt build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee, until it be subdued.
Particular prophetic war narrative 1 selections
2 Kings 3:16–27 KJV
Context: Elisha announces water and victory, including damage to trees and fields; the narrative records the campaign and its disturbing final reversal.
3:16 And he said, Thus saith the LORD, Make this valley full of ditches.
3:17 For thus saith the LORD, Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, that ye may drink, both ye, and your cattle, and your beasts.
3:18 And this is but a light thing in the sight of the LORD: he will deliver the Moabites also into your hand.
3:19 And ye shall smite every fenced city, and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop all wells of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones.
3:20 And it came to pass in the morning, when the meat offering was offered, that, behold, there came water by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water.
3:21 And when all the Moabites heard that the kings were come up to fight against them, they gathered all that were able to put on armour, and upward, and stood in the border.
3:22 And they rose up early in the morning, and the sun shone upon the water, and the Moabites saw the water on the other side as red as blood:
3:23 And they said, This is blood: the kings are surely slain, and they have smitten one another: now therefore, Moab, to the spoil.
3:24 And when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and smote the Moabites, so that they fled before them: but they went forward smiting the Moabites, even in their country.
3:25 And they beat down the cities, and on every good piece of land cast every man his stone, and filled it; and they stopped all the wells of water, and felled all the good trees: only in Kir-haraseth left they the stones thereof; howbeit the slingers went about it, and smote it.
3:26 And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too sore for him, he took with him seven hundred men that drew swords, to break through even unto the king of Edom: but they could not.
3:27 Then he took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall. And there was great indignation against Israel: and they departed from him, and returned to their own land.
Divine speech in wisdom poetry 2 selections
Job 38:25–41 KJV · In this guide
Context: A continuous portion of the Lord’s answer questions Job about weather beyond inhabited places, heavenly ordering, and feeding lions and ravens.
38:25 Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder;
38:26 To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man;
38:27 To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?
38:28 Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew?
38:29 Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?
38:30 The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.
38:31 Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?
38:32 Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?
38:33 Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?
38:34 Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee?
38:35 Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are?
38:36 Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart?
38:37 Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven,
38:38 When the dust groweth into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together?
38:39 Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions,
38:40 When they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait?
38:41 Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.
Job 39:1–12 KJV · In this guide
Context: The next animal questions concern wild births, the wild ass’s freedom and an untamable strong animal; they are part of God’s answer, not Job’s job description.
39:1 Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? or canst thou mark when the hinds do calve?
39:2 Canst thou number the months that they fulfil? or knowest thou the time when they bring forth?
39:3 They bow themselves, they bring forth their young ones, they cast out their sorrows.
39:4 Their young ones are in good liking, they grow up with corn; they go forth, and return not unto them.
39:5 Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass?
39:6 Whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings.
39:7 He scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying of the driver.
39:8 The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth after every green thing.
39:9 Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?
39:10 Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?
39:11 Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him?
39:12 Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?
Praise poetry 2 selections
Psalms 8:1–9 KJV · In this guide
Context: The complete psalm moves from divine majesty and human smallness to God-given honor and rule, ending in praise.
8:1 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
8:2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
8:3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
8:4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
8:5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
8:6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
8:7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
8:8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
8:9 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
Psalms 148:1–14 KJV · In this guide
Context: The complete summons moves from the heavens through earthly creatures to rulers and ordinary people and Israel’s nearness to God.
148:1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise ye the LORD from the heavens: praise him in the heights.
148:2 Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts.
148:3 Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light.
148:4 Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens.
148:5 Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created.
148:6 He hath also stablished them for ever and ever: he hath made a decree which shall not pass.
148:7 Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:
148:8 Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word:
148:9 Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars:
148:10 Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl:
148:11 Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth:
148:12 Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children:
148:13 Let them praise the name of the LORD: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.
148:14 He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise ye the LORD.
Worship poetry 1 selections
Psalms 24:1–10 KJV · In this guide
Context: The full psalm joins the Lord’s ownership through creation to the worshipper’s integrity and the entrance of the King of glory.
24:1 The earth is the LORD’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
24:2 For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.
24:3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?
24:4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
24:5 He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
24:6 This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.
24:7 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
24:8 Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.
24:9 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
24:10 Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.
Prophetic worship poetry 1 selections
Psalms 50:7–15 KJV · In this guide
Context: Within God’s judgment of his covenant people, this complete address corrects treating sacrifice as provision for a needy deity.
50:7 Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God.
50:8 I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me.
50:9 I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds.
50:10 For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.
50:11 I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.
50:12 If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.
50:13 Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
50:14 Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:
50:15 And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
Creation praise poetry 1 selections
Psalms 104:1–35 KJV · In this guide
Context: The whole psalm praises the Lord’s ordering and sustaining of land, waters, plants, animals and human life, concluding with praise and removal of wickedness.
104:1 Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty.
104:2 Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:
104:3 Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind:
104:4 Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:
104:5 Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.
104:6 Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains.
104:7 At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away.
104:8 They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them.
104:9 Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.
104:10 He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills.
104:11 They give drink to every beast of the field: the wild asses quench their thirst.
104:12 By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, which sing among the branches.
104:13 He watereth the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works.
104:14 He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;
104:15 And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man’s heart.
104:16 The trees of the LORD are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted;
104:17 Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house.
104:18 The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; and the rocks for the conies.
104:19 He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down.
104:20 Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.
104:21 The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God.
104:22 The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens.
104:23 Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening.
104:24 O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.
104:25 So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.
104:26 There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.
104:27 These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season.
104:28 That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good.
104:29 Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.
104:30 Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.
104:31 The glory of the LORD shall endure for ever: the LORD shall rejoice in his works.
104:32 He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: he toucheth the hills, and they smoke.
104:33 I will sing unto the LORD as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
104:34 My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD.
104:35 Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the LORD, O my soul. Praise ye the LORD.
Wisdom sayings 1 selections
Proverbs 12:9–11 KJV · In this guide
Context: Three complete adjacent sayings concern real provision rather than pretension, righteous treatment of an animal, and productive work. They are distinct sayings, not a reconstructed narrative.
12:9 He that is despised, and hath a servant, is better than he that honoureth himself, and lacketh bread.
12:10 A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.
12:11 He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread: but he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding.
Extended wisdom instruction 1 selections
Proverbs 27:23–27 KJV · In this guide
Context: The complete agricultural exhortation joins knowing the flock, impermanent wealth, gathered vegetation and provision for the whole household.
27:23 Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.
27:24 For riches are not for ever: and doth the crown endure to every generation?
27:25 The hay appeareth, and the tender grass sheweth itself, and herbs of the mountains are gathered.
27:26 The lambs are for thy clothing, and the goats are the price of the field.
27:27 And thou shalt have goats’ milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance for thy maidens.
Wisdom reflection 1 selections
Ecclesiastes 3:16–22 KJV
Context: Reflection on injustice and divine judgment turns to the shared mortality of humans and beasts and the limits of human knowledge.
3:16 And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.
3:17 I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.
3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
3:19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
3:20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
3:21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?
3:22 Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?
Messianic prophetic vision 1 selections
Isaiah 11:1–10 KJV · In this guide
Context: The Spirit-endowed ruler from Jesse judges with righteousness; the vision includes peaceful creatures, safe children, knowledge of the Lord and the nations’ seeking.
11:1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:
11:2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;
11:3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:
11:4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
11:5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.
11:6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
11:7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
11:8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den.
11:9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
11:10 And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.
Prophetic restoration vision 1 selections
Isaiah 65:17–25 KJV
Context: The new heavens and earth promise depicts Jerusalem’s joy, long life, settled work and peaceful creatures.
65:17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
65:18 But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.
65:19 And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.
65:20 There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.
65:21 And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
65:22 They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
65:23 They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them.
65:24 And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
65:25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.
Prophetic covenant accusation 1 selections
Hosea 4:1–3 KJV · In this guide
Context: The opening covenant accusation names absent truth, mercy and knowledge, specific sins and the consequent suffering of land, people and creatures.
4:1 Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
4:2 By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.
4:3 Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.
Prophetic communal lament 1 selections
Joel 1:13–20 KJV · In this guide
Context: The concluding call to lament and gather before the Lord names lost offerings and food, suffering herds, ruined pastures and dried waters after the devastation described earlier in the chapter.
1:13 Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.
1:14 Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD,
1:15 Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
1:16 Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
1:17 The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.
1:18 How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.
1:19 O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.
1:20 The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
Prophetic narrative and divine correction 1 selections
Jonah 4:1–11 KJV · In this guide
Context: Jonah’s anger over Nineveh’s reprieve is confronted through the shade plant’s growth and death and God’s closing question about people and cattle.
4:1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
4:2 And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.
4:3 Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
4:4 Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?
4:5 So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.
4:6 And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.
4:7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.
4:8 And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.
4:9 And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.
4:10 Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:
4:11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?
Discipleship instruction 2 selections
Matthew 6:25–34 KJV · In this guide
Context: Jesus addresses anxiety about food and clothing through birds and lilies, the Father’s knowledge, seeking the kingdom and today’s responsibilities.
6:25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
6:26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
6:27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
6:28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
6:29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
6:30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
6:31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
6:32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
6:34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Matthew 10:26–31 KJV · In this guide
Context: Within the mission discourse, Jesus addresses fear of persecutors through final accountability, the Father’s regard for sparrows and his knowledge of the disciples.
10:26 Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.
10:27 What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.
10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.
10:30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
10:31 Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.
Gospel narrative and Jesus’ moral argument 2 selections
Matthew 12:9–14 KJV · In this guide
Context: The complete withered-hand encounter includes the accusation-seeking question, sheep-rescue comparison, healing and hostile response.
12:9 And when he was departed thence, he went into their synagogue:
12:10 And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? that they might accuse him.
12:11 And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out?
12:12 How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days.
12:13 Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other.
12:14 Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him.
Luke 13:10–17 KJV · In this guide
Context: The complete synagogue healing sets eighteen years of bondage and the woman’s release beside Sabbath watering of an animal.
13:10 And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.
13:11 And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.
13:12 And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.
13:13 And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.
13:14 And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.
13:15 The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering?
13:16 And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?
13:17 And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.
Resurrection narrative 1 selections
Luke 24:36–43 KJV · In this guide
Context: Jesus appears to frightened disciples, shows his embodied identity and eats before them.
24:36 And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
24:37 But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
24:38 And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
24:39 Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
24:40 And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.
24:41 And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?
24:42 And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.
24:43 And he took it, and did eat before them.
Apostolic deliberation and instruction 1 selections
Acts 15:1–29 KJV · In this guide
Context: The controversy over circumcision and salvation proceeds through testimony, James’s scriptural judgment and the actual letter to Gentile believers.
15:1 And certain men which came down from Judæa taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.
15:2 When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question.
15:3 And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles: and they caused great joy unto all the brethren.
15:4 And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them.
15:5 But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.
15:6 And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter.
15:7 And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.
15:8 And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us;
15:9 And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.
15:10 Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
15:11 But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.
15:12 Then all the multitude kept silence, and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them.
15:13 And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me:
15:14 Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.
15:15 And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written,
15:16 After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:
15:17 That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.
15:18 Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.
15:19 Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:
15:20 But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
15:21 For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.
15:22 Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; namely, Judas surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren:
15:23 And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia:
15:24 Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment:
15:25 It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,
15:26 Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
15:27 We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth.
15:28 For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;
15:29 That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.
Apostolic theological argument 1 selections
Romans 1:18–25 KJV · In this guide
Context: Paul describes suppression of known truth, failure to glorify and thank God, idolatrous exchange and the resulting judgment.
1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
1:19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
1:23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
1:24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
1:25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
Apostolic teaching and encouragement 1 selections
Romans 8:18–27 KJV · In this guide
Context: Present suffering is set beside future glory, creation’s groaning, bodily redemption, patient hope and the Spirit’s help.
8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
8:20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
8:21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
8:22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
8:24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
8:25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
8:27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Apostolic community instruction 2 selections
Romans 14:1–23 KJV · In this guide
Context: The whole chapter joins welcome, disputed eating and days, Christ’s lordship, accountability, peace and conscience.
14:1 Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.
14:2 For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.
14:3 Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.
14:4 Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.
14:5 One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
14:6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.
14:7 For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
14:8 For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.
14:9 For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.
14:10 But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
14:11 For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
14:12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
14:13 Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.
14:14 I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
14:15 But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.
14:16 Let not then your good be evil spoken of:
14:17 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
14:18 For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men.
14:19 Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.
14:20 For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence.
14:21 It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.
14:22 Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.
14:23 And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
1 Corinthians 10:14–33 KJV · In this guide
Context: Paul distinguishes participation in idol worship from ordinary food and then qualifies permitted eating by another’s conscience and God’s glory.
10:14 Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.
10:15 I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say.
10:16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
10:17 For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.
10:18 Behold Israel after the flesh: are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?
10:19 What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?
10:20 But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.
10:21 Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.
10:22 Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?
10:23 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.
10:24 Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth.
10:25 Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake:
10:26 For the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.
10:27 If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed to go; whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience sake.
10:28 But if any man say unto you, This is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake that shewed it, and for conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof:
10:29 Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other: for why is my liberty judged of another man’s conscience?
10:30 For if I by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks?
10:31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
10:32 Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:
10:33 Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.
Apostolic argument applying covenant law 1 selections
1 Corinthians 9:1–14 KJV · In this guide
Context: Paul defends his apostleship and support rights through ordinary labor, the ox law and temple service while explaining his own relinquishment of the right.
9:1 Am I not an apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are not ye my work in the Lord?
9:2 If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.
9:3 Mine answer to them that do examine me is this,
9:4 Have we not power to eat and to drink?
9:5 Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?
9:6 Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working?
9:7 Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?
9:8 Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also?
9:9 For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen?
9:10 Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.
9:11 If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?
9:12 If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.
9:13 Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?
9:14 Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.
Apostolic Christological teaching 1 selections
Colossians 1:15–23 KJV · In this guide
Context: The description of Christ’s supremacy in creation and reconciliation leads directly to the Colossians’ reconciliation and continuing faith.
1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
1:19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
1:20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
1:21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
1:22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
1:23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
Apostolic instruction 1 selections
1 Timothy 4:1–5 KJV · In this guide
Context: The full warning about ascetic false teaching answers marriage and food prohibitions with God’s creation, thanksgiving, word and prayer.
4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
4:2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
4:3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
4:4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:
4:5 For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
Apostolic eschatological exhortation 1 selections
2 Peter 3:1–18 KJV · In this guide
Context: The whole closing exhortation answers scoffers, recalls creation and flood, announces judgment and promised new creation, and explicitly calls for holy conduct and growth.
3:1 This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance:
3:2 That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:
3:3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
3:4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
3:5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
3:6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
3:7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
3:11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
3:12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
3:13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
3:14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
3:15 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
3:16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
3:17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.
3:18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.
Apocalyptic judgment vision 1 selections
Revelation 11:15–19 KJV
Context: The seventh trumpet celebrates God’s reign, judgment, reward and destruction of earth’s destroyers, followed by the opened heavenly temple.
11:15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
11:16 And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,
11:17 Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.
11:18 And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.
11:19 And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.
Apocalyptic vision and promise 1 selections
Revelation 21:1–8 KJV · In this guide
Context: The new creation vision includes God’s dwelling, removal of death and sorrow, promise to the thirsty and overcoming, and judgment.
21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
21:5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
21:6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
21:7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
Apocalyptic vision 1 selections
Revelation 22:1–5 KJV · In this guide
Context: The concluding city vision presents the river, tree of life, healing, removal of curse, divine presence and the servants’ reign.
22:1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
22:2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
22:3 And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:
22:4 And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.
22:5 And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
Go deeper
Sources & interpretation
The teaching starts with the cited Scripture. These consulted works inform wording, context, and interpretive questions. No qualified human review has been recorded for this guide.
What kind of rule does Genesis entrust to humanity?
Genesis 1 gives humanity actual rule and beneficial provision; Genesis 2 assigns cultivation and keeping. Psalm 104 and Job show creatures receiving God’s care beyond human control or usefulness.
- Dominion gives humanity substantial authority to develop and use the world, with the other biblical commands supplying its moral limits.
- Dominion is best understood primarily as a royal responsibility to care for fellow creatures, emphasized by Bauckham.
STRONG: Retain real human rule, productive use and responsibility under God. Care is a conclusion from the connected passages, not a claim that dominion simply means preservation. The garden’s immediate agricultural task is clear. Productive work and responsibility for its care belong together.
Further study: NET Bible translators and editors · NET Bible translators and editors · Pat Bennett and Richard Bauckham
Further examination: How do the goodness and food provision in Genesis 1, the work and prohibition in Genesis 2, and the wild creatures in Job keep both authority and its limits in view?
Does Paul’s question about oxen exclude God’s care for animals?
Deuteronomy 25:4 literally protects an ox’s access to grain. First Corinthians 9:9–10 asks whether the command concerns oxen and says it was written for human workers; the surrounding argument concerns support for Paul and Barnabas.
- Paul reasons from provision for an animal to the stronger claim of a human worker.
- Paul identifies human justice as the principal aim of the command while its literal animal requirement remains operative.
- Verbruggen proposes care of a rented animal as the original economic case, bringing Paul’s application closer to that setting.
PROBABLE: The first two approaches both preserve the animal command and Paul’s express human application. The renter proposal is possible but unstated. STRONG: No reading should turn this rhetorical argument into a universal claim that God is indifferent to animals; Exodus 23:12, Proverbs 12:10 and Jesus’ teaching give direct contrary evidence.
Further study: Jan L. Verbruggen · NET Bible translators and editors
Further examination: What right is Paul defending in 1 Corinthians 9:7–14, and how much must his question deny for that argument to work? Where does the rented-ox proposal go beyond the written command?
How do Israel’s land and animal laws guide a Christian reader?
The laws specify Israel’s land, calendar, warfare and covenant promises. They combine permitted use with particular limits. Second Kings 3:16–27 also records prophetic instruction and a campaign involving destruction of good trees and fields.
- Learn the stated concerns of care, refreshment, provision and restraint while preserving the laws’ addressed covenant setting.
- Explain particular animal commands chiefly through productive use and fair dealings among people, with animal benefit secondary in those cases; Verbruggen’s account of the ox and Sabbath rest offers this kind of reading.
STRONG: The first approach retains all the stated beneficiaries without transferring every covenant provision. Economic purposes are real, but Exodus 23:12’s expressed provision for the ox and ass makes their rest more than an incidental benefit. Deuteronomy 20:19’s KJV wording connects the tree with human life; the NET translates the difficult clause as a contrast between a tree and a human opponent. This wording question does not erase the food-tree restriction or verse 20’s permission. The relation of that law to the exceptional Moab campaign remains an interpretive limitation; neither an absolute tree-cutting ban nor a general license for devastation is taught. The nest law’s exact rationale and full Christian Sabbath practice are not settled by this article.
Further study: NET Bible translators and editors · NET Bible translators and editors · Jan L. Verbruggen
Further examination: Which reasons do these laws actually give? Which present responsibilities can you explain from those reasons, and which proposed rules depend on assumptions the text does not state?
How do food freedom and the restrictions on blood belong together?
Genesis moves from plant provision to express permission for animal food with a blood restriction. Deuteronomy 14 distinguishes permitted foods for Israel as a holy people. Acts 15 retains blood and strangled-food restrictions for Gentile believers. Paul permits ordinary market food, rejects compulsory ascetic abstinence and calls believers to respect conscience.
- The blood restriction expresses an enduring obligation reaching from Noah through the apostolic instruction.
- The apostolic food restrictions particularly serve fellowship between Jewish and Gentile believers and avoidance of idolatry; the NET notes emphasize sensitivity.
VERY_STRONG: Scripture does not impose universal abstinence from all animal food or require every believer to eat it. STRONG: Gratitude, loyalty to God, mutual welcome and respect for conscience remain express obligations. The duration and precise scope of Acts 15’s food restrictions are not settled here. The letter is not dismissed as mere etiquette, and its prohibition of sexual immorality is not made optional.
Further study: NET Bible translators and editors
Further examination: What does each passage actually permit or prohibit, to whom, and for what stated reason? How can its instruction be retained without using one text to silence another?
What does the promised new creation tell us about creatures’ future?
Romans 8 promises creation’s liberation alongside bodily redemption. Isaiah depicts peaceful creatures; Isaiah 65 also uses long-life and death language, while Revelation 21 announces no more death. Second Peter announces judgment and new creation. In 3:10, the KJV describes the earth and its works as being burned up; the NET’s rendering about their exposure before God follows different textual witnesses, explained in its note 8. The surrounding verses retain fire and dissolution. This textual question matters for interpretation, but neither reading removes Peter’s express conclusion about holy conduct.
- Radical renewal preserves meaningful continuity with the present world; Moo argues for this from Romans 8 and the judgment texts together.
- The present order is destroyed and replaced, with new heavens and earth still expressing God’s continuing purpose for embodied life.
- Isaiah’s animal imagery describes actual creaturely transformation, portrays the comprehensive peace of the righteous kingdom, or combines both; its precise fulfillment is debated.
STRONG: The hope is God’s righteous renewal and human resurrection, not permission for careless conduct. PROBABLE: Meaningful continuity best fits creation’s own liberation in Romans 8. The exact physical process, chronology of Isaiah’s visions and fate of each individual animal remain unspecified here. Ecclesiastes 3’s shared mortality and question do not establish a promised reunion with particular animals. Revelation 11:18 concerns destructive evil under divine judgment; narrowing it to a modern environmental offense would exceed the verse.
Further study: Douglas J. Moo · NET Bible translators and editors · Pat Bennett and Richard Bauckham
Further examination: What is each passage promising, and what response does it explicitly require? Which details about individual creatures or the future are you supplying beyond those promises?
- Genesis 1:28: translation and notes 1–4
NET Bible translators and editors · Biblical Studies Press, NET Bible online · Undated online notes; accessed 2026-09-25
Retains real rule and beneficial use while interpreting humanity’s responsibility as including the welfare of what is entrusted.
What was reviewed
Verse rendering and all four numbered notes, especially notes 3–4 on subduing and shared human rule. Accessed 2026-09-25.
Translator interpretation, not a lexical definition that settles every application. Cited lexicons and additional literature were not independently read.
- Rediscovering the community of creation
Pat Bennett and Richard Bauckham · Theology in Scotland 28.2, pp. 5–17; University of St Andrews · 2021-10-22
Bauckham reads dominion alongside the Pentateuch, Psalm 104 and Job, emphasizing humanity’s place among creatures; he also connects Colossians 1 with creation’s future.
What was reviewed
Complete interview, printed pp. 5–17, including notes. PDF text inspected through web and a local text extraction; journal metadata inspected. Accessed 2026-09-25.
Interview rather than a full commentary. Its modern scientific claims, historical generalizations and liturgical suggestions are not adopted. The cited 2010 book was not independently read; dominion and human distinction remain explicit here.
- Proverbs 12:10: translation and notes
NET Bible translators and editors · Biblical Studies Press, NET Bible, hosted by Bible Gateway · 1996–2017 copyright notice; online access 2026-09-25
Supports explaining regard as actual care rather than bare awareness.
What was reviewed
Verse and both footnotes, a–b, especially knowing as caring and the alternatives for the second line. Accessed 2026-09-25.
Lexicons named by the translators were not independently inspected. The saying’s moral contrast is firmer than a choice between the two second-line paraphrases.
- Of Muzzles and Oxen: Deuteronomy 25:4 and 1 Corinthians 9:9
Jan L. Verbruggen · Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 49.4, pp. 699–711 · 2006-12
Proposes an economic reading focused on a borrowed ox and surveys ways Paul applies the law to workers.
What was reviewed
Introduction p. 699; argument from civil-law context and rented oxen, pp. 702–707; concluding paragraphs of the primary-application and lesser-to-greater discussion on p. 709; concluding evaluation, pp. 710–711. Web PDF text; a direct-download attempt failed. Accessed 2026-09-25 · Read in part.
The renter is inferred, not stated in Deuteronomy 25:4. The article’s reduction of animal Sabbath rest to a by-product is qualified here by Exodus 23:12’s explicit purpose. Ancient legal collections and commentaries it cites were not independently read.
- Genesis 2:15: translation and notes 1–3
NET Bible translators and editors · Biblical Studies Press, NET Bible online · Undated online notes; accessed 2026-09-25
Clarifies the KJV’s dressing and keeping as work and maintenance.
What was reviewed
Verse rendering and all three notes, including the study-note continuation about orchard care and work after the fall. Accessed 2026-09-25.
The note’s sharp distinction between orchard maintenance and later soil cultivation is not made the article’s premise; Genesis 2:5 and 3:17–23 are kept in view. No priestly-Eden reconstruction is asserted.
- Deuteronomy 20:19–20: translation and notes
NET Bible translators and editors · Biblical Studies Press, NET Bible, hosted by Bible Gateway · 1996–2017 copyright notice; online access 2026-09-25
Documents the tree/human contrast and the retained distinction between food trees and siege timber.
What was reviewed
Both verses and all six footnotes, a–f. Compared with the pinned KJV; the classic NET verse endpoint failed. Accessed 2026-09-25.
The brief notes do not give a complete argument for the clause’s syntax or settle its relationship to 2 Kings 3. De Vaux, cited in note f, was not read.
- Acts 15:20: translation and notes 1–4
NET Bible translators and editors · Biblical Studies Press, NET Bible online · Undated online notes; accessed 2026-09-25
Argues that the restrictions foster sensitivity to Jewish believers rather than establish salvation requirements.
What was reviewed
Verse and all four notes, including the sensitivity interpretation of note 2 and the blood explanation of note 4. Accessed 2026-09-25.
The letter’s binding language is retained. The note does not by itself settle the restrictions’ duration; its treatment of all four as sensitivity is not used to relativize the sexual prohibition.
- Nature in the New Creation: New Testament Eschatology and the Environment
Douglas J. Moo · Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 49.3, pp. 449–488 · 2006-09
Argues for nonhuman creation in Romans 8 and radical renewal through judgment; distinguishes cosmic reconciliation from identical salvation of every being.
What was reviewed
Printed pp. 459–474: section II.1 on Romans 8, II.2 on new heavens and earth, and III.1 on Colossians 1:20. Web PDF text; the rest of the article was not read systematically and a direct download failed. Accessed 2026-09-25 · Read in part.
Its precise account of pre-fall mortality and tentative broader theological extensions are not adopted. Other scholars appear only through Moo’s discussion unless separately listed. Continuity remains qualified.
- 2 Peter 3:10: translation and notes 1–8
NET Bible translators and editors · Biblical Studies Press, NET Bible online · Undated online notes; accessed 2026-09-25
Documents a material textual difference behind the KJV’s burning language and the NET’s disclosure rendering.
What was reviewed
Verse comparisons and all eight notes, especially textual note 8 and its argument for disclosure before judgment. Accessed 2026-09-25.
Manuscripts, NA27, lexical works and Bauckham’s cited commentary were not independently collated. The difficult variant does not remove the surrounding fire and dissolution language.