8 Again, God said to Noah and his sons:

9 I am going to make a solemn promise to you and to everyone who will live after you. 10 This includes the birds and the animals that came out of the boat. 11 I promise every living creature that the earth and those living on it will never again be destroyed by a flood.

12,13 The rainbow that I have put in the sky will be my sign to you and to every living creature on earth. It will remind you that I will keep this promise forever.

11 I promise every living creature that the earth and those living on it will never again be destroyed by a flood.

12,13 The rainbow that I have put in the sky will be my sign to you and to every living creature on earth. It will remind you that I will keep this promise forever.

18 *At that time the Lord made an agreement with Abram and told him:

I will give your descendants the land east of the Shihor River* on the border of Egypt as far as the Euphrates River. 19 They will possess the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaites, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

3 Abram bowed with his face to the ground, and God said:

4,5 *I promise that you will be the father of many nations. So now I’m changing your name from Abram to Abraham.*6 I will give you a lot of descendants, and they will become great nations. Some of them will even be kings.

7 *I will always keep the promise I have made to you and your descendants, because I am your God and their God. 8 *I will give you and them the land in which you are now a foreigner. I will give the whole land of Canaan to your family forever, and I will be their God.

9 Abraham, you and all future members of your family must promise to obey me. 10,11 *As the sign that you are keeping this promise, you must circumcise every man and boy in your family.

5 A year later King Chedorlaomer and his allies attacked and defeated the Rephaites in Ashteroth-Karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, and the Emites in Shaveh-Kiriathaim.

5 **Now if you will faithfully obey me, you will be my very own people. The whole world is mine,

31 I will see that your borders reach from the Red Sea* to the Euphrates River and from the Mediterranean Sea to the desert. I will let you defeat the people who live there, and you will force them out of the land. 32 But you must not make any agreements with them or with their gods.

10 The Lord said:

I promise to perform miracles for you that have never been seen anywhere on earth. Neighboring nations will stand in fear and know that I was the one who did these marvelous things.

28 Moses stayed on the mountain with the Lord for 40 days and nights, without eating or drinking. And he wrote down the Ten Commandments, the most important part of God’s agreement with his people.

28 Moses stayed on the mountain with the Lord for 40 days and nights, without eating or drinking. And he wrote down the Ten Commandments, the most important part of God’s agreement with his people.

13 *The Lord said he was making an agreement with you, and he told you that your part of the agreement is to obey the Ten Commandments. Then the Lord wrote these Commandments on two flat stones.

9 *You know that the Lord your God is the only true God. So love him and obey his commands, and he will faithfully keep his agreement with you and your descendants for a thousand generations.

14 The Israelites packed up and left camp. The priests carrying the chest walked in front, 15 until they came to the Jordan River. The water in the river had risen over its banks, as it often does in springtime.* But as soon as the feet of the priests touched the water, 16,17 the river stopped flowing, and the water started piling up at the town of Adam near Zarethan. No water flowed toward the Dead Sea, and the priests stood in the middle of the dry riverbed near Jericho while everyone else crossed over.

17 Jehoiada the priest asked King Joash and the people to promise that they would be faithful to each other and to the Lord.

3 After Josiah had finished reading, he stood by one of the columns. He asked the people to promise in the Lord's name to faithfully obey the Lord and to follow his commands. The people agreed to do everything written in the book.

6 One day, Joram left Samaria and called together Israel’s army. 7 He sent this message to King Jehoshaphat of Judah, "The king of Moab has rebelled. Will you go with me to attack him?"

"Yes, I will," Jehoshaphat answered. "I’m on your side, and my soldiers and horses are at your command.

16 Jonathan and David made an agreement that even David’s descendants would have to keep.* Then Jonathan said, "I pray that the Lord will take revenge on your descendants if they break our promise."*

17 Jonathan thought as much of David as he did of himself, so he asked David to promise once more that he would be a loyal friend.

10 The Lord said to Moses, 11 "In my anger, I would have wiped out the Israelites if Phinehas had not been faithful to me. 12,13 But instead of punishing them, I forgave them. So because of the loyalty that Phinehas showed, I solemnly promise that he and his descendants will always be my priests."

89 Whenever Moses needed to talk with the Lord, he went into the sacred tent, where he heard the Lord's voice coming from between the two winged creatures above the lid of the sacred chest.

1 The Lord told Moses:

2,3 Call together the twelve tribes of Israel and tell the leader of each tribe to write his name on the walking stick he carries as a symbol of his authority. Make sure Aaron’s name is written on the one from the Levi tribe, then collect all the sticks.

4 Place these sticks in the tent right in front of the sacred chest where I appear to you. 5 I will then choose a man to be my priest, and his stick will sprout. After that happens, I won’t have to listen to any more complaints about you.

6 Moses told the people what the Lord had commanded, and they gave him the walking sticks from the twelve tribal leaders, including Aaron’s from the Levi tribe. 7 Moses took them and placed them in the Lord's sacred tent.

8 *The next day when Moses went into the tent, flowers and almonds were already growing on Aaron’s stick. 9 Moses brought the twelve sticks out of the tent and showed them to the people. Each of the leaders found his own and took it.

10 But the Lord told Moses, "Put Aaron’s stick back! Let it stay near the sacred chest as a warning to anyone who might think of rebelling. If these people don’t stop their grumbling about me, I will wipe them out." 11 Moses did what he was told.

12 Once more the Israelites started disobeying the Lord. So he let them be defeated by King Eglon of Moab, 13 who had joined forces with the Ammonites and the Amalekites to attack Israel. Eglon and his army captured Jericho.*

31 **The Lord said:

The time will surely come when I will make a new agreement with the people of Israel and Judah. 32 It will be different from the agreement I made with their ancestors when I led them out of Egypt. Although I was their God, they broke that agreement.

33 *Here is the new agreement that I, the Lord, will make with the people of Israel:

"I will write my laws

on their hearts and minds.

I will be their God,

and they will be my people.

34 *"No longer will they have to teach one another to obey me. I, the Lord, promise that all of them will obey me, ordinary people and rulers alike. I will forgive their sins and forget the evil things they have done."

20 I, the Lord, have an agreement with day and night, so they always come at the right time. You can’t break the agreement I made with them, 21 and you can’t break the agreements I have made with David’s family and with the priests from the Levi tribe who serve at my altar. A descendant of David will always rule as king of Israel,

15 Christ died to rescue those who had sinned and broken the old agreement. Now he brings his chosen ones a new agreement with its guarantee of God’s eternal blessings!

15 Christ died to rescue those who had sinned and broken the old agreement. Now he brings his chosen ones a new agreement with its guarantee of God’s eternal blessings!

6 Now Christ has been appointed to serve as a priest in a much better way, and he has given us much assurance of a better agreement.

20 God gives peace, and he raised our Lord Jesus Christ from death. Now Jesus is like a Great Shepherd whose blood was used to make God’s eternal agreement with his flock.*21 *I pray God will make you ready to obey him and that you will always be eager to do right. May Jesus help you do what pleases God. To Jesus Christ be glory forever and ever! Amen.

6 *He makes us worthy to be the servants of his new agreement that comes from the Holy Spirit and not from a written Law. After all, the Law brings death, but the Spirit brings life.

24 All of this has another meaning as well. Each of the two women stands for one of the agreements God made with his people. Hagar, the slave woman, stands for the agreement that was made at Mount Sinai. Everyone born into her family is a slave. 25 Hagar also stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia* and for the present city of Jerusalem. She* and her children are slaves.

26 *But our mother is the city of Jerusalem in heaven above, and she isn’t a slave.

17 The Lord is always kind

to those who worship him,

and he keeps his promises

to their descendants

18 who faithfully obey him.

21 The Lord says: "My people,

I promise to give you my Spirit

and my message.

These will be my gifts to you

and your families forever.

I, the Lord, have spoken."

25 The people of Israel are my sheep, and I solemnly promise that they will live in peace. I will chase away every wild animal from the desert and the forest, so my sheep will not be afraid.

8 *The Lord will lead you into the land. He will always be with you and help you, so don’t ever be afraid of your enemies.

27 *For one week* this foreigner* will make a firm agreement with many people, and halfway through this week,* he will end all sacrifices and offerings. Then the "Horrible Thing" that causes destruction will be put there. And it will stay there until the time God has decided to destroy this one who destroys.

5 The king of the south will grow powerful. Then one of his generals will rebel and will rule an even larger kingdom. 6 Years later the southern kingdom and the northern kingdom will make a treaty, and the daughter of the king of the south will marry the king of the north. But she will lose her power. Then she, her husband, their child,* and the servants who came with her will all be killed.

After this,

16 The king who invaded from the north will do as he pleases, and he will even capture and destroy the holy land.*17 In fact, he will decide to invade the south with his entire army. Then he will attempt to make peace by giving the king of the south a bride from the northern kingdom, but this won’t be successful.

1 I promised myself

never to stare with desire

at a young woman.

16 Wisdom will protect you

from the smooth talk

of a sinful woman,

17 who breaks her wedding vows

and leaves the man she married

when she was young.