I will make you and the woman hate each other; her offspring and yours will always be enemies. Her offspring will crush your head, and you will bite her offspring's heel."

Then the LORD said, "I will not allow people to live forever; they are mortal. From now on they will live no longer than 120 years."

God said to Noah, "I have decided to put an end to all people. I will destroy them completely, because the world is full of their violent deeds.

Make it 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.

I am going to send a flood on the earth to destroy every living being. Everything on the earth will die,

Take into the boat with you a male and a female of every kind of animal and of every kind of bird, in order to keep them alive.

Take along all kinds of food for you and for them."

God said to Noah,

Take all the birds and animals out with you, so that they may reproduce and spread over all the earth."

All the animals and birds went out of the boat in groups of their own kind.

God blessed Noah and his sons and said, "Have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth.

Now you can eat them, as well as green plants; I give them all to you for food.

If anyone takes human life, he will be punished. I will punish with death any animal that takes a human life.

"You must have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth."

"I am now making my covenant with you and with your descendants,

With these words I make my covenant with you: I promise that never again will all living beings be destroyed by a flood; never again will a flood destroy the earth.

I am putting my bow in the clouds. It will be the sign of my covenant with the world.

I will remember my promise to you and to all the animals that a flood will never again destroy all living beings.

That is the sign of the promise which I am making to all living beings."

The LORD said to Abram, "Leave your country, your relatives, and your father's home, and go to a land that I am going to show you.

I will bless those who bless you, But I will curse those who curse you. And through you I will bless all the nations."

The LORD had appeared to Isaac and had said, "Do not go to Egypt; stay in this land, where I tell you to stay.

I will give you as many descendants as there are stars in the sky, and I will give them all this territory. All the nations will ask me to bless them as I have blessed your descendants.

He dreamed that he saw a stairway reaching from earth to heaven, with angels going up and coming down on it.

They will be as numerous as the specks of dust on the earth. They will extend their territory in all directions, and through you and your descendants I will bless all the nations.

but he stayed behind, alone. Then a man came and wrestled with him until just before daybreak.

The man said, "Let me go; daylight is coming." "I won't, unless you bless me," Jacob answered.

The man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob. You have struggled with God and with men, and you have won; so your name will be Israel."

Jacob said, "I have seen God face-to-face, and I am still alive"; so he named the place Peniel.

God spoke to him in a vision at night and called, "Jacob, Jacob!" "Yes, here I am," he answered.

I will go with you to Egypt, and I will bring your descendants back to this land. Joseph will be with you when you die."

One day while Moses was taking care of the sheep and goats of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, he led the flock across the desert and came to Sinai, the holy mountain.

"This is strange," he thought. "Why isn't the bush burning up? I will go closer and see."

God said, "Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, because you are standing on holy ground.

Then the LORD said, "I have seen how cruelly my people are being treated in Egypt; I have heard them cry out to be rescued from their slave drivers. I know all about their sufferings,

I have indeed heard the cry of my people, and I see how the Egyptians are oppressing them.

But Moses said to God, "I am nobody. How can I go to the king and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

But Moses replied, "When I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your ancestors sent me to you,' they will ask me, 'What is his name?' So what can I tell them?"

Tell the Israelites that I, the LORD, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, have sent you to them. This is my name forever; this is what all future generations are to call me.

I have decided that I will bring them out of Egypt, where they are being treated cruelly, and will take them to a rich and fertile land---the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless he is forced to do so.

"I will make the Egyptians respect you so that when my people leave, they will not go empty-handed.

And Jesus explained to them what was said about himself in all the Scriptures, beginning with the books of Moses and the writings of all the prophets.

Then he said to them, "These are the very things I told you about while I was still with you: everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the writings of the prophets, and the Psalms had to come true."

So they set a date with Paul, and a large number of them came that day to the place where Paul was staying. From morning till night he explained to them his message about the Kingdom of God, and he tried to convince them about Jesus by quoting from the Law of Moses and the writings of the prophets.

It was concerning this salvation that the prophets made careful search and investigation, and they prophesied about this gift which God would give you.

God revealed to these prophets that their work was not for their own benefit, but for yours, as they spoke about those things which you have now heard from the messengers who announced the Good News by the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. These are things which even the angels would like to understand.

Above all else, however, remember that none of us can explain by ourselves a prophecy in the Scriptures.

For no prophetic message ever came just from the human will, but people were under the control of the Holy Spirit as they spoke the message that came from God.

and the LORD said, "Now hear what I have to say! When there are prophets among you, I reveal myself to them in visions and speak to them in dreams.

So I speak to him face-to-face, clearly and not in riddles; he has even seen my form! How dare you speak against my servant Moses?"

"Afterward I will pour out my Spirit on everyone: your sons and daughters will proclaim my message; your old people will have dreams, and your young people will see visions.

He has remembered to show mercy to Abraham and to all his descendants forever!"

He said he would show mercy to our ancestors and remember his sacred covenant.

Moses ordered you to circumcise your sons (although it was not Moses but your ancestors who started it), and so you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath.

And we are here to bring the Good News to you: what God promised our ancestors he would do, he has now done for us, who are their descendants, by raising Jesus to life. As it is written in the second Psalm, 'You are my Son; today I have become your Father.'