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1 Samuel 15:22
[Bible Verses]1 Samuel 15:22 records Samuel's rebuke of Saul: "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." It is a key verse for the principle that obedience to God's word takes precedence over ritual worship. It also raises questions about application, particularly about whom one is to obey.
Job 1:21
[Bible Verses]Job 1:21 records the words Job spoke after losing his possessions and his children in a single day: "The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." It is regarded as a classic confession of faith in the midst of suffering and is frequently read at funeral services. Interpreters differ over whether the cause of suffering may rightly be attributed to God.
Psalm 23:1–6
[Bible Verses]A psalm of David that begins, "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want." Portraying God as a shepherd and as the host of a banquet, it confesses His lifelong care and is among the most widely known and beloved psalms in the Bible.
Psalm 51:10
[Bible Verses]David's prayer, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." Offered after his confession of sin, it asks God to create the heart anew. It is a classic verse of penitential prayer and is widely used in worship songs and prayer.
Psalm 119:105
[Bible Verses]Psalm 119:105 is a verse of confession: "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." It expresses the conviction that God's word illuminates the course of one's life. It is a representative text on the authority of Scripture and on meditation on the word, and it is widely used in worship songs and as a motto.
Psalm 121:1–2
[Bible Verses]Psalm 121 opens with the psalmist lifting his eyes to the hills and asking where his help will come from, followed by the answer, "My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth." The psalm celebrates God's protection along the road of travel and pilgrimage, and interpreters differ over what the "hills" signify.
Adam
[People]Adam is the first human being in the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament. According to the biblical account, God formed him from the dust of the ground, and he was expelled from the Garden of Eden after he and his wife Eve ate the forbidden fruit.
Enoch
[People]Enoch is an antediluvian figure who appears in the genealogy of Genesis 5. The seventh generation from Adam and the father of Methuselah, he is recorded as having walked with God and as having been taken by God without seeing death.
Jacob
[People]Jacob is a patriarch of the Israelite people in the Book of Genesis, the son of Isaac and the younger twin brother of Esau. God gave him the new name "Israel," and his twelve sons became the ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Job
[People]Job is the central figure of the Book of Job, a righteous man who lived in the land of Uz. Amid suffering that cost him his possessions, his children, and his health, he lamented and protested before God; after encountering God, he was restored. The New Testament cites him as an example of patience.
Jonah (Prophet)
[People]Jonah was an Israelite prophet and the central figure of the Old Testament Book of Jonah. He is known for fleeing from God's command, spending three days in the belly of a great fish, and then going to Nineveh to call its people to repentance.
Thomas
[People]Thomas was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. He declared that he would not believe until he had seen the risen Jesus for himself, and he then confessed, "My Lord and my God."
Psalm 44:22
[Bible Verses]A verse from Psalm 44, a communal lament, in which Israel protests to God that its people are being killed not because of their sin but "for thy sake." Because Paul quotes it in Romans 8:36, it is frequently cited in discussions of suffering and faith.
Romans 11:2
[Bible Verses]A verse in which Paul declares that, despite the unbelief of most of Israel, God has not cast away "his people which he foreknew," and then appeals to the example of Elijah. It is frequently cited in discussions of the meaning of God's foreknowledge and of the future of Israel.
1 Corinthians 12:3
[Bible Verses]1 Corinthians 12:3 is the criterion Paul establishes at the outset of his teaching on spiritual gifts to the church at Corinth. He declares that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and that no one can say that Jesus is the Lord except by the Holy Spirit. The verse is frequently cited in discussions of the relationship between the confession of faith and the Holy Spirit and of the criteria for discerning spirits.
Deuteronomy 30:11–14
[Bible Verses]A passage in which Moses, on the plains of Moab, declares that God's commandment is not far off but is "in thy mouth, and in thy heart." Because Paul quotes it in Romans 10 to explain the word of faith, it is frequently discussed in connection with the relationship between law and gospel.
John 20:31
[Bible Verses]A verse in which the author of the Gospel of John states the purpose of the book: that readers might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing they might have life through his name. It is frequently cited as a key to reading the Gospel of John as a whole.
Romans 6:13
[Bible Verses]Romans 6:13 is the verse in which Paul urges the believers in the church at Rome not to yield the members of their bodies to sin as "instruments of unrighteousness," but to yield them to God as "instruments of righteousness." It is frequently cited in discussions of the holy life of those justified by grace, that is, of sanctification and consecration.
1 Peter 2:5
[Bible Verses]A verse stating that believers, as "lively stones," are built up into a spiritual house and become a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ. Together with 1 Peter 2:9, it is frequently cited as a principal basis for the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers.
Ephesians 5:5
[Bible Verses]A verse warning that no whoremonger, unclean person, or covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. It is frequently cited in discussions of the believer's holy life, the danger of covetousness, and the assurance of salvation.