Showing results by narrator "David McNeill" in All Categories

While we do not know when the Book of Esther written, or who wrote it, the events that unfold in it suggest that it was written approximately 100 years after the exile of Jews from Jerusalem. In this Book, there is no mention of God, and it is believed that that is done because the author wanted to make God present and active through His work. Around 484 BC, King Ahasuerus ordered a 180-day celebration as a show of his wealth and power. On the last day of the celebration, he ordered his wife, Queen Vashti, to appear and demonstrate her beauty, but she refused.

Stories tucked away on every floor. No. 10 Luckenbooth Close is an archetypal Edinburgh tenement. The devil’s daughter rows to the shores of Leith in a coffin. The year is 1910, and she has been sent to a tenement building in Edinburgh by her recently deceased father to bear a child for a wealthy man and his fiancée. The harrowing events that follow lead to a curse on the building and its residents - a curse that will last for the rest of the century.

The Book of Daniel is a series of stories and visions. It is divided into three sections. It begins with an overview followed by stories about Daniel and his three friends who belong to the royal family of David. After being captured by the Babylonians, they are chosen to serve in their royal court, where they are instructed to adapt to their culture and food. They refuse to violate God’s law and are ordered to be burned alive in a furnace. The fire does not kill them.

The Book of Psalms is a collection of 150 poems that were written by various sages, kings, and prophets throughout Jewish history. The book was compiled after the exiled Jews returned from Babylon to Jerusalem. About half of them, 73 to be exact, are attributed to King David. Each of these poems is expertly and strategically placed in the book and go as far back as the creation of man.

We do not know when this book was written or who wrote it. We do know that King Solomon is mentioned in this book. This book is a collection of love poems celebrating the love between a couple. The main voice in these poems is that of a woman, while we also have a voice that seems to belong to a man who is not Solomon. The woman seems to be engaged to the man, who is a shepherd. It is virtually impossible to analyze this book as a single poem because it does follow a structure and is quite disjointed. However, we can understand it using key themes.

The Book of Judges is the seventh book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. In the narrative of the Hebrew Bible, it covers the time between the conquest described in the Book of Joshua and the establishment of a kingdom in the Books of Samuel, during which Biblical judges served as temporary leaders. The stories follow a consistent pattern: the people are unfaithful to Yahweh and he therefore delivers them into the hands of their enemies; the people repent and entreat Yahweh for mercy.

Unrest simmers within the once magical realm of Lurinlia. A broken king sits on the ivory throne, corrupted by his own paranoia. His vengeful royal seer condemns to death all who stand in her path. Under binding rituals, they swore oaths to the gods to rule and wield their powers with benevolence. But now, their vows are broken, and the once great nation of wizards and sorcery stands on the brink of war.

Lily, the peculiar youngest daughter of an earl, would rather spend her life as a spinster, tending to her garden - alone. But when her father falls critically ill, she suddenly faces the possibility of becoming a penniless relation living on the charity of her sisters. Henry, the war-wounded second son of an earl, needs to have a son to secure his family's future. But worried about his condition worsening and leaving him crippled, he fears turning any future wife into a mere companion and nursemaid. Can these two lost causes see past their own limitations and let love in?

The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament, and is the first book of the Deuteronomistic history, the story of Israel from the conquest of Canaan to the Babylonian exile. It tells of the campaigns of the Israelites in central, southern and northern Canaan, the destruction of their enemies, and the division of the land among the Twelve Tribes, framed by two set-piece speeches, the first by God commanding the conquest of the land, and, at the end, the last by Joshua warning of the need for faithful observance of the Law (torah) revealed to Moses.

It is unclear when this book was written or who wrote it. However, there is speculation to conclude that it might have been written by King Solomon or another descendant within the lines of King David or a figure of authority in his times. There are two distinct voices at play in this book. One belongs to The Teacher, while the other is that of the author of the book. At the beginning of the book, the author begins with repeating the word “hevel,” which roughly translates to mean "meaningless."

The Book of Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Jewish Torah, where it is called Devarim, "the words of Moses". Chapters 1 - 30 of the book consist of three sermons or speeches delivered to the Israelites by Moses on the plains of Moab, shortly before they enter the Promised Land. The first sermon recounts the forty years of wilderness wanderings which had led to that moment, and ends with an exhortation to observe the law, later referred to as the Law of Moses.

The Book of Ruth‎, Megilath Ruth, "the Scroll of Ruth" is included in the third division, or the Writings, of the Hebrew Bible; in most Christian canons it is treated as a history book and placed between Judges and Samuel. The book tells of Ruth accepting the god of the Israelites as her god and the Israelite people as her own. In Ruth 1:16 -17, Ruth tells Naomi, her Israelite mother-in-law, "Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried.

In this audio compilation of the Book of Jeremiah, the narrator tells the story of the prophet Jeremiah. These chapters of the Bible are broken into biographical, prose, and poetic strands - and have a heavy focus on the events leading up to the fall of Jerusalem during a forty-year period. Here we focus on Jeremiah as the prophet who, from his young age to his grown years, delivers the word of God to the people of Israel at the most volatile and troubling times of their lives.

The Book of Isaiah was written by Isaiah (the son of Amoz), who served as prophet between 740 - 701 BC. This was a critical period in the history of Israel when corruption was rampant. The Jews were breaking God’s covenant and engaging in idolatry. Isaiah mentions Israel as falling to corruption. He says that there is hope for the people of Israel if they repent and mend their ways. In his dream, Isaiah saw God, who told him to preach to the people to remember and obey Him. He foretells of the fall of Israel and the exile of the Jews if they persist in their corrupt ways.

The Book of Ezekiel narrates the story of Ezekiel, who was a priest in Israel after the Babylonian capture of the land. At about the time when he would have been appointed as a prophet, he has a vision of God's manifestation. He is instructed to warn the Israelites to follow their covenant with God. The Israelites by this time had begun to worship other gods and idols. This had spawned social ills of all kinds. So Ezekiel begins to spread the word that unless the Israelites repent and obey God, another attack would follow on Israel and the temple would be destroyed.

The Book of Leviticus s the third book of the Torah and of the Old Testament; scholars generally agree that it developed over a long period of time, reaching its present form during the Persian Period between 538-332 BCE. Most of its chapters consist of God's speeches to Moses, which God commands Moses to repeat to the Israelites.

The two Books of Kings, originally a single book, is the tenth of the Hebrew Bible or the eleventh and twelfth books of the Christian Old Testament. It concludes the Deuteronomistic history, a history of Israel also comprising the books of Joshua and Judges and the Book of Samuel, which biblical commentators believe was written to provide a theological explanation for the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah by Babylon in c. 586 BCE and a foundation for a return from exile.

The Book of Exodus is the second book of the Bible and describes the Exodus, which includes the Israelites' deliverance from slavery in Egypt through the hand of Yahweh, the revelations at biblical Mount Sinai, and the subsequent "divine indwelling" of God with Israel.

In, The War Against the Virus: The Ultimate Collection of Tips and Tricks to Help You Thrive During COVID-19 Pandemic, author Dr. Rich Murphy takes us on a detailed journey to understanding our new normal with COVID-19. As a long time survivalist, he brings over forty-five years of experience as an Army Officer and Engineer to his own war - a war against a virus. Reviewing the historical connections to similar mass epidemics, we learn how a virus is able to be spread so rapidly around the world, starting with its origin.

The Book of Numbers is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible, and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah. The book has a long and complex history, but its final form is probably due to a Priestly redaction of a Yahwistic source made some time in the early Persian period (5th century BCE). The name of the book comes from the two censuses taken of the Israelites.