# verse

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 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you. 


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 In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned; so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. 


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 Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I exposed you before kings, to feast their eyes on you. 


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 By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade you profaned your sanctuaries; so I brought fire out from your midst; it consumed you, and I turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all who saw you. 


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 All who know you among the peoples are appalled at you; you have come to a dreadful end and shall be no more forever.&amp;quot; 


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 and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: &amp;quot;Behold, I am against you, O Sidon, and I will manifest my glory in your midst. And they shall know that I am the LORD when I execute judgments in her and manifest my holiness in her; 


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 for I will send pestilence into her, and blood into her streets; and the slain shall fall in her midst, by the sword that is against her on every side. Then they will know that I am the LORD. 


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 &amp;quot;And for the house of Israel there shall be no more a brier to prick or a thorn to hurt them among all their neighbors who have treated them with contempt. Then they will know that I am the Lord GOD. 


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 &amp;quot;Thus says the Lord GOD: When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and manifest my holiness in them in the sight of the nations, then they shall dwell in their own land that I gave to my servant Jacob. 


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 And they shall dwell securely in it, and they shall build houses and plant vineyards. They shall dwell securely, when I execute judgments upon all their neighbors who have treated them with contempt. Then they will know that I am the LORD their God.&amp;quot; 


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 In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: 


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 &amp;quot;Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt; 


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 speak, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: &amp;quot;Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lies in the midst of his streams, that says, &amp;apos;My Nile is my own; I made it for myself.&amp;apos; 


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 I will put hooks in your jaws, and make the fish of your streams stick to your scales; and I will draw you up out of the midst of your streams, with all the fish of your streams that stick to your scales. 


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 And I will cast you out into the wilderness, you and all the fish of your streams; you shall fall on the open field, and not be brought together or gathered. To the beasts of the earth and to the birds of the heavens I give you as food. 


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 Then all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the LORD. &amp;quot;Because you have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel, 


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 when they grasped you with the hand, you broke and tore all their shoulders; and when they leaned on you, you broke and made all their loins to shake. 


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 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will bring a sword upon you, and will cut off from you man and beast, 


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 and the land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste. Then they will know that I am the LORD. &amp;quot;Because you said, &amp;apos;The Nile is mine, and I made it,&amp;apos; 


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 therefore, behold, I am against you and against your streams, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from Migdol to Syene, as far as the border of Cush. 


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 No foot of man shall pass through it, and no foot of beast shall pass through it; it shall be uninhabited forty years. 


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 And I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of desolated countries, and her cities shall be a desolation forty years among cities that are laid waste. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them through the countries. 


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 &amp;quot;For thus says the Lord GOD: At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples among whom they were scattered, 


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 and I will restore the fortunes of Egypt and bring them back to the land of Pathros, the land of their origin, and there they shall be a lowly kingdom. 


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 It shall be the most lowly of the kingdoms, and never again exalt itself above the nations. And I will make them so small that they will never again rule over the nations. 


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 And it shall never again be the reliance of the house of Israel, recalling their iniquity, when they turn to them for aid. Then they will know that I am the Lord GOD.&amp;quot; 


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 In the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: 


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 &amp;quot;Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre. Every head was made bald, and every shoulder was rubbed bare, yet neither he nor his army got anything from Tyre to pay for the labor that he had performed against her. 


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 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and he shall carry off its wealth and despoil it and plunder it; and it shall be the wages for his army. 


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 I have given him the land of Egypt as his payment for which he labored, because they worked for me, declares the Lord GOD. 


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 &amp;quot;On that day I will cause a horn to spring up for the house of Israel, and I will open your lips among them. Then they will know that I am the LORD.&amp;quot; 


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 &amp;quot;Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: &amp;quot;Wail, &amp;apos;Alas for the day!&amp;apos; 


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 For the day is near, the day of the LORD is near; it will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations. 


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 A sword shall come upon Egypt, and anguish shall be in Cush, when the slain fall in Egypt, and her wealth is carried away, and her foundations are torn down. 


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 Cush, and Put, and Lud, and all Arabia, and Libya, and the people of the land that is in league, shall fall with them by the sword. 


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 &amp;quot;Thus says the LORD: Those who support Egypt shall fall, and her proud might shall come down; from Migdol to Syene they shall fall within her by the sword, declares the Lord GOD. 


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 And they shall be desolated in the midst of desolated countries, and their cities shall be in the midst of cities that are laid waste. 


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 Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I have set fire to Egypt, and all her helpers are broken. 


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 &amp;quot;On that day messengers shall go out from me in ships to terrify the unsuspecting people of Cush, and anguish shall come upon them on the day of Egypt&amp;apos;s doom; for, behold, it comes! 


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 &amp;quot;Thus says the Lord GOD: &amp;quot;I will put an end to the wealth of Egypt, by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. 


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 He and his people with him, the most ruthless of nations, shall be brought in to destroy the land, and they shall draw their swords against Egypt and fill the land with the slain. 


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 And I will dry up the Nile and will sell the land into the hand of evildoers; I will bring desolation upon the land and everything in it, by the hand of foreigners; I am the LORD; I have spoken. 


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 &amp;quot;Thus says the Lord GOD: &amp;quot;I will destroy the idols and put an end to the images in Memphis; there shall no longer be a prince from the land of Egypt; so I will put fear in the land of Egypt. 


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 And I will pour out my wrath on Pelusium, the stronghold of Egypt, and cut off the multitude of Thebes. 


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 And I will set fire to Egypt; Pelusium shall be in great agony; Thebes shall be breached, and Memphis shall face enemies by day. 


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 The young men of On and of Pi-beseth shall fall by the sword, and the women shall go into captivity. 


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 At Tehaphnehes the day shall be dark, when I break there the yoke bars of Egypt, and her proud might shall come to an end in her; she shall be covered by a cloud, and her daughters shall go into captivity. 


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 In the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: 


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 &amp;quot;Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and behold, it has not been bound up, to heal it by binding it with a bandage, so that it may become strong to wield the sword. 


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 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt and will break his arms, both the strong arm and the one that was broken, and I will make the sword fall from his hand. 


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 And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and put my sword in his hand, but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he will groan before him like a man mortally wounded. 


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 I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, but the arms of Pharaoh shall fall. Then they shall know that I am the LORD, when I put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon and he stretches it out against the land of Egypt. 


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 And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries. Then they will know that I am the LORD.&amp;quot; 


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 In the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: 


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 &amp;quot;Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude: &amp;quot;Whom are you like in your greatness? 


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 Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches and forest shade, and of towering height, its top among the clouds. 


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 The waters nourished it; the deep made it grow tall, making its rivers flow around the place of its planting, sending forth its streams to all the trees of the field. 


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 So it towered high above all the trees of the field; its boughs grew large and its branches long from abundant water in its shoots. 


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 All the birds of the heavens made their nests in its boughs; under its branches all the beasts of the field gave birth to their young, and under its shadow lived all great nations. 


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 It was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches; for its roots went down to abundant waters. 


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 The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it, nor the fir trees equal its boughs; neither were the plane trees like its branches; no tree in the garden of God was its equal in beauty. 


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 I made it beautiful in the mass of its branches, and all the trees of Eden envied it, that were in the garden of God. 


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 &amp;quot;Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because it towered high and set its top among the clouds, and its heart was proud of its height, 


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 I will give it into the hand of a mighty one of the nations. He shall surely deal with it as its wickedness deserves. I have cast it out. 


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 Foreigners, the most ruthless of nations, have cut it down and left it. On the mountains and in all the valleys its branches have fallen, and its boughs have been broken in all the ravines of the land, and all the peoples of the earth have gone away from its shadow and left it. 


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 On its fallen trunk dwell all the birds of the heavens, and on its branches are all the beasts of the field. 


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 All this is in order that no trees by the waters may grow to towering height or set their tops among the clouds, and that no trees that drink water may reach up to them in height. For they are all given over to death, to the world below, among the children of man, with those who go down to the pit. 


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 &amp;quot;Thus says the Lord GOD: On the day the cedar went down to Sheol I caused mourning; I closed the deep over it, and restrained its rivers, and many waters were stopped. I clothed Lebanon in gloom for it, and all the trees of the field fainted because of it. 


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 I made the nations quake at the sound of its fall, when I cast it down to Sheol with those who go down to the pit. And all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the world below. 


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 They also went down to Sheol with it, to those who are slain by the sword; yes, those who were its arm, who lived under its shadow among the nations. 


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 &amp;quot;Whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? You shall be brought down with the trees of Eden to the world below. You shall lie among the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword. &amp;quot;This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord GOD.&amp;quot; 


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 In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: 


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 &amp;quot;Son of man, raise a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him: &amp;quot;You consider yourself a lion of the nations, but you are like a dragon in the seas; you burst forth in your rivers, trouble the waters with your feet, and foul their rivers. 


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 Thus says the Lord GOD: I will throw my net over you with a host of many peoples, and they will haul you up in my dragnet. 


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 And I will cast you on the ground; on the open field I will fling you, and will cause all the birds of the heavens to settle on you, and I will gorge the beasts of the whole earth with you. 


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 I will drench the land even to the mountains with your flowing blood, and the ravines will be full of you. 


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 When I blot you out, I will cover the heavens and make their stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light. 


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 All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over you, and put darkness on your land, declares the Lord GOD. 


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 &amp;quot;I will trouble the hearts of many peoples, when I bring your destruction among the nations, into the countries that you have not known. 


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 I will make many peoples appalled at you, and the hair of their kings shall bristle with horror because of you, when I brandish my sword before them. They shall tremble every moment, every one for his own life, on the day of your downfall. 


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 I will cause your multitude to fall by the swords of mighty ones, all of them most ruthless of nations. &amp;quot;They shall bring to ruin the pride of Egypt, and all its multitude shall perish. 


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 I will destroy all its beasts from beside many waters; and no foot of man shall trouble them anymore, nor shall the hoofs of beasts trouble them. 


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 Then I will make their waters clear, and cause their rivers to run like oil, declares the Lord GOD. 


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 When I make the land of Egypt desolate, and when the land is desolate of all that fills it, when I strike down all who dwell in it, then they will know that I am the LORD. 


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 This is a lamentation that shall be chanted; the daughters of the nations shall chant it; over Egypt, and over all her multitude, shall they chant it, declares the Lord GOD.&amp;quot; 


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 In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: 


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 &amp;quot;Son of man, wail over the multitude of Egypt, and send them down, her and the daughters of majestic nations, to the world below, to those who have gone down to the pit: 


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 &amp;apos;Whom do you surpass in beauty? Go down and be laid to rest with the uncircumcised.&amp;apos; 


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 They shall fall amid those who are slain by the sword. Egypt is delivered to the sword; drag her away, and all her multitudes. 


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 The mighty chiefs shall speak of them, with their helpers, out of the midst of Sheol: &amp;apos;They have come down, they lie still, the uncircumcised, slain by the sword.&amp;apos; 


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 &amp;quot;Assyria is there, and all her company, its graves all around it, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, 


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 whose graves are set in the uttermost parts of the pit; and her company is all around her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who spread terror in the land of the living. 


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 &amp;quot;Elam is there, and all her multitude around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who went down uncircumcised into the world below, who spread their terror in the land of the living; and they bear their shame with those who go down to the pit. 


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 They have made her a bed among the slain with all her multitude, her graves all around it, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for terror of them was spread in the land of the living, and they bear their shame with those who go down to the pit; they are placed among the slain. 


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 &amp;quot;Meshech-Tubal is there, and all her multitude, her graves all around it, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for they spread their terror in the land of the living. 


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 And they do not lie with the mighty, the fallen from among the uncircumcised, who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, whose swords were laid under their heads, and whose iniquities are upon their bones; for the terror of the mighty men was in the land of the living. 


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 But as for you, you shall be broken and lie among the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword. 


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 &amp;quot;Edom is there, her kings and all her princes, who for all their might are laid with those who are killed by the sword; they lie with the uncircumcised, with those who go down to the pit. 


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 &amp;quot;The princes of the north are there, all of them, and all the Sidonians, who have gone down in shame with the slain, for all the terror that they caused by their might; they lie uncircumcised with those who are slain by the sword, and bear their shame with those who go down to the pit. 


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 &amp;quot;When Pharaoh sees them, he will be comforted for all his multitude, Pharaoh and all his army, slain by the sword, declares the Lord GOD. 


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 For I spread terror in the land of the living; and he shall be laid to rest among the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword, Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord GOD.&amp;quot; 


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 &amp;quot;Son of man, speak to your people and say to them, If I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and make him their watchman, 


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 then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. 


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 He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life. 


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 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman&amp;apos;s hand. 


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 &amp;quot;So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. 


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 If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. 


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 But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul. 


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 &amp;quot;And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, Thus have you said: &amp;apos;Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we rot away because of them. How then can we live?&amp;apos; 


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 Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel? 


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 &amp;quot;And you, son of man, say to your people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him when he transgresses, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall by it when he turns from his wickedness, and the righteous shall not be able to live by his righteousness when he sins. 


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 Though I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, yet if he trusts in his righteousness and does injustice, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered, but in his injustice that he has done he shall die. 


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 Again, though I say to the wicked, &amp;apos;You shall surely die,&amp;apos; yet if he turns from his sin and does what is just and right, 


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 if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has taken by robbery, and walks in the statutes of life, not doing injustice, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 


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 None of the sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he shall surely live. 


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 &amp;quot;Yet your people say, &amp;apos;The way of the Lord is not just,&amp;apos; when it is their own way that is not just. 


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 And when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he shall live by this. 


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 Yet you say, &amp;apos;The way of the Lord is not just.&amp;apos; O house of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his ways.&amp;quot; 


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 In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month, a fugitive from Jerusalem came to me and said, &amp;quot;The city has been struck down.&amp;quot; 


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 Now the hand of the LORD had been upon me the evening before the fugitive came; and he had opened my mouth by the time the man came to me in the morning, so my mouth was opened, and I was no longer mute. 


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 &amp;quot;Son of man, the inhabitants of these waste places in the land of Israel keep saying, &amp;apos;Abraham was only one man, yet he got possession of the land; but we are many; the land is surely given us to possess.&amp;apos; 


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 Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: You eat flesh with the blood and lift up your eyes to your idols and shed blood; shall you then possess the land? 


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 You rely on the sword, you commit abominations, and each of you defiles his neighbor&amp;apos;s wife; shall you then possess the land? 


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 Say this to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: As I live, surely those who are in the waste places shall fall by the sword, and whoever is in the open field I will give to the beasts to be devoured, and those who are in strongholds and in caves shall die by pestilence. 


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 And I will make the land a desolation and a waste, and her proud might shall come to an end, and the mountains of Israel shall be so desolate that none will pass through. 


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 Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I have made the land a desolation and a waste because of all their abominations that they have committed. 


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 &amp;quot;As for you, son of man, your people who talk together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, say to one another, each to his brother, &amp;apos;Come, and hear what the word is that comes from the LORD.&amp;apos; 


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 And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it; for with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is set on their gain. 


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 And behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they will not do it. 


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 When this comes--and come it will!--then they will know that a prophet has been among them.&amp;quot; 


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 &amp;quot;Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord GOD: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? 


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 You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. 


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 The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. 


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 So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. 


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 My sheep were scattered; they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them. 


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 As I live, declares the Lord GOD, surely because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep, 


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 Thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them. 


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 &amp;quot;For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. 


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 As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 


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 And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. 


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 I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. 


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 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD. 


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 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice. 


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 &amp;quot;As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats. 


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 Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture; and to drink of clear water, that you must muddy the rest of the water with your feet? 


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 And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you have muddied with your feet? 


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 &amp;quot;Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD to them: Behold, I, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 


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 Because you push with side and shoulder, and thrust at all the weak with your horns, till you have scattered them abroad, 


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 And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. 


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 And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the LORD; I have spoken. 


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 &amp;quot;I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild beasts from the land, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. 


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 And I will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing, and I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing. 


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 And the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase, and they shall be secure in their land. And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I break the bars of their yoke, and deliver them from the hand of those who enslaved them. 


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 They shall no more be a prey to the nations, nor shall the beasts of the land devour them. They shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid. 


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 And I will provide for them renowned plantations so that they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land, and no longer suffer the reproach of the nations. 


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 And they shall know that I am the LORD their God with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Lord GOD. 


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 And you are my sheep, human sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Lord GOD.&amp;quot; 


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 and say to it, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand against you, and I will make you a desolation and a waste. 


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 I will lay your cities waste, and you shall become a desolation, and you shall know that I am the LORD. 


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 Because you cherished perpetual enmity and gave over the people of Israel to the power of the sword at the time of their calamity, at the time of their final punishment, 


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 therefore, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, I will prepare you for blood, and blood shall pursue you; because you did not hate bloodshed, therefore blood shall pursue you. 


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 And I will fill its mountains with the slain. On your hills and in your valleys and in all your ravines those slain with the sword shall fall. 


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 I will make you a perpetual desolation, and your cities shall not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am the LORD. 


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 &amp;quot;Because you said, &amp;apos;These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will take possession of them&amp;apos;--although the LORD was there-- 


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 therefore, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, I will deal with you according to the anger and envy that you showed because of your hatred against them. And I will make myself known among them, when I judge you. 


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 And you shall know that I am the LORD. &amp;quot;I have heard all the revilings that you uttered against the mountains of Israel, saying, &amp;apos;They are laid desolate; they are given us to devour.&amp;apos; 


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 And you magnified yourselves against me with your mouth, and multiplied your words against me; I heard it. 


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 As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so I will deal with you; you shall be desolate, Mount Seir, and all Edom, all of it. Then they will know that I am the LORD. 


text:
 &amp;quot;And you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD. 


text:
 Thus says the Lord GOD: Because the enemy said of you, &amp;apos;Aha!&amp;apos; and, &amp;apos;The ancient heights have become our possession,&amp;apos; 


text:
 therefore prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: Precisely because they made you desolate and crushed you from all sides, so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations, and you became the talk and evil gossip of the people, 


text:
 therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD: Thus says the Lord GOD to the mountains and the hills, the ravines and the valleys, the desolate wastes and the deserted cities, which have become a prey and derision to the rest of the nations all around, 


text:
 therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Surely I have spoken in my hot jealousy against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, who gave my land to themselves as a possession with wholehearted joy and utter contempt, that they might make its pasturelands a prey. 


text:
 Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and say to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I have spoken in my jealous wrath, because you have suffered the reproach of the nations. 


text:
 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: I swear that the nations that are all around you shall themselves suffer reproach. 


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 &amp;quot;But you, O mountains of Israel, shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to my people Israel, for they will soon come home. 


text:
 And I will multiply people on you, the whole house of Israel, all of it. The cities shall be inhabited and the waste places rebuilt. 


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 And I will multiply on you man and beast, and they shall multiply and be fruitful. And I will cause you to be inhabited as in your former times, and will do more good to you than ever before. Then you will know that I am the LORD. 


text:
 I will let people walk on you, even my people Israel. And they shall possess you, and you shall be their inheritance, and you shall no longer bereave them of children. 


text:
 Thus says the Lord GOD: Because they say to you, &amp;apos;You devour people, and you bereave your nation of children,&amp;apos; 


text:
 therefore you shall no longer devour people and no longer bereave your nation of children, declares the Lord GOD. 


text:
 And I will not let you hear anymore the reproach of the nations, and you shall no longer bear the disgrace of the peoples and no longer cause your nation to stumble, declares the Lord GOD.&amp;quot; 


text:
 &amp;quot;Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds. Their ways before me were like the uncleanness of a woman in her menstrual impurity. 


text:
 So I poured out my wrath upon them for the blood that they had shed in the land, for the idols with which they had defiled it. 


text:
 I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries. In accordance with their ways and their deeds I judged them. 


text:
 But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned my holy name, in that people said of them, &amp;apos;These are the people of the LORD, and yet they had to go out of his land.&amp;apos; 


text:
 But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. 


text:
 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. 


text:
 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. 


text:
 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 


text:
 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 


text:
 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. 


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 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. 


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 And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. 


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 I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. 


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 Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations. 


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 It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord GOD; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Thus says the Lord GOD: On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be rebuilt. 


text:
 And the land that was desolate shall be tilled, instead of being the desolation that it was in the sight of all who passed by. 


text:
 And they will say, &amp;apos;This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden, and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited.&amp;apos; 


text:
 Then the nations that are left all around you shall know that I am the LORD; I have rebuilt the ruined places and replanted that which was desolate. I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Thus says the Lord GOD: This also I will let the house of Israel ask me to do for them: to increase their people like a flock. 


text:
 Like the flock for sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the LORD.&amp;quot; 


text:
 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. 


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 And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. 


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 And he said to me, &amp;quot;Son of man, can these bones live?&amp;quot; And I answered, &amp;quot;O Lord GOD, you know.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then he said to me, &amp;quot;Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. 


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 Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 


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 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the LORD.&amp;quot; 


text:
 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 


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 And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. 


text:
 Then he said to me, &amp;quot;Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.&amp;quot; 


text:
 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. 


text:
 Then he said to me, &amp;quot;Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, &amp;apos;Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.&amp;apos; 


text:
 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. 


text:
 And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. 


text:
 And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD.&amp;quot; 


text:
 &amp;quot;Son of man, take a stick and write on it, &amp;apos;For Judah, and the people of Israel associated with him&amp;apos;; then take another stick and write on it, &amp;apos;For Joseph (the stick of Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with him.&amp;apos; 


text:
 say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am about to take the stick of Joseph (that is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with him. And I will join with it the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, that they may be one in my hand. 


text:
 then say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land. 


text:
 And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms. 


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 They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. 


text:
 &amp;quot;My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. 


text:
 They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children&amp;apos;s children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever. 


text:
 I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. 


text:
 Then the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.&amp;quot; 


text:
 &amp;quot;Son of man, set your face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him 


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 and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. 


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 And I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great host, all of them with buckler and shield, wielding swords. 


text:
 Gomer and all his hordes; Beth-togarmah from the uttermost parts of the north with all his hordes--many peoples are with you. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Be ready and keep ready, you and all your hosts that are assembled about you, and be a guard for them. 


text:
 After many days you will be mustered. In the latter years you will go against the land that is restored from war, the land whose people were gathered from many peoples upon the mountains of Israel, which had been a continual waste. Its people were brought out from the peoples and now dwell securely, all of them. 


text:
 You will advance, coming on like a storm. You will be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your hordes, and many peoples with you. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Thus says the Lord GOD: On that day, thoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil scheme 


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 and say, &amp;apos;I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will fall upon the quiet people who dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having no bars or gates,&amp;apos; 


text:
 to seize spoil and carry off plunder, to turn your hand against the waste places that are now inhabited, and the people who were gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell at the center of the earth. 


text:
 Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all its leaders will say to you, &amp;apos;Have you come to seize spoil? Have you assembled your hosts to carry off plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to seize great spoil?&amp;apos; 


text:
 &amp;quot;Therefore, son of man, prophesy, and say to Gog, Thus says the Lord GOD: On that day when my people Israel are dwelling securely, will you not know it? 


text:
 You will come from your place out of the uttermost parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great host, a mighty army. 


text:
 You will come up against my people Israel, like a cloud covering the land. In the latter days I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me, when through you, O Gog, I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. 


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 &amp;quot;Thus says the Lord GOD: Are you he of whom I spoke in former days by my servants the prophets of Israel, who in those days prophesied for years that I would bring you against them? 


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 But on that day, the day that Gog shall come against the land of Israel, declares the Lord GOD, my wrath will be roused in my anger. 


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 For in my jealousy and in my blazing wrath I declare, On that day there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. 


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 The fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep on the ground, and all the people who are on the face of the earth, shall quake at my presence. And the mountains shall be thrown down, and the cliffs shall fall, and every wall shall tumble to the ground. 


text:
 I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Lord GOD. Every man&amp;apos;s sword will be against his brother. 


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 With pestilence and bloodshed I will enter into judgment with him, and I will rain upon him and his hordes and the many peoples who are with him torrential rains and hailstones, fire and sulfur. 


text:
 So I will show my greatness and my holiness and make myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD. 


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 &amp;quot;And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. 


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 And I will turn you about and drive you forward, and bring you up from the uttermost parts of the north, and lead you against the mountains of Israel. 


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 Then I will strike your bow from your left hand, and will make your arrows drop out of your right hand. 


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 You shall fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your hordes and the peoples who are with you. I will give you to birds of prey of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. 


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 I will send fire on Magog and on those who dwell securely in the coastlands, and they shall know that I am the LORD. 


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 &amp;quot;And my holy name I will make known in the midst of my people Israel, and I will not let my holy name be profaned anymore. And the nations shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel. 


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 Behold, it is coming and it will be brought about, declares the Lord GOD. That is the day of which I have spoken. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and make fires of the weapons and burn them, shields and bucklers, bow and arrows, clubs and spears; and they will make fires of them for seven years, 


text:
 so that they will not need to take wood out of the field or cut down any out of the forests, for they will make their fires of the weapons. They will seize the spoil of those who despoiled them, and plunder those who plundered them, declares the Lord GOD. 


text:
 &amp;quot;On that day I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the Valley of the Travelers, east of the sea. It will block the travelers, for there Gog and all his multitude will be buried. It will be called the Valley of Hamon-gog. 


text:
 All the people of the land will bury them, and it will bring them renown on the day that I show my glory, declares the Lord GOD. 


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 They will set apart men to travel through the land regularly and bury those travelers remaining on the face of the land, so as to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make their search. 


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 And when these travel through the land and anyone sees a human bone, then he shall set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-gog. 


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 &amp;quot;As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD: Speak to the birds of every sort and to all beasts of the field, &amp;apos;Assemble and come, gather from all around to the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, a great sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel, and you shall eat flesh and drink blood. 


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 You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth--of rams, of lambs, and of he-goats, of bulls, all of them fat beasts of Bashan. 


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 And you shall eat fat till you are filled, and drink blood till you are drunk, at the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you. 


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 And you shall be filled at my table with horses and charioteers, with mighty men and all kinds of warriors,&amp;apos; declares the Lord GOD. 


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 &amp;quot;And I will set my glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid on them. 


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 And the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they dealt so treacherously with me that I hid my face from them and gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and they all fell by the sword. 


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 I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their transgressions, and hid my face from them. 


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 &amp;quot;Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for my holy name. 


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 They shall forget their shame and all the treachery they have practiced against me, when they dwell securely in their land with none to make them afraid, 


text:
 when I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from their enemies&amp;apos; lands, and through them have vindicated my holiness in the sight of many nations. 


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 Then they shall know that I am the LORD their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations and then assembled them into their own land. I will leave none of them remaining among the nations anymore. 


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 And I will not hide my face anymore from them, when I pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, declares the Lord GOD.&amp;quot; 


text:
 In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was struck down, on that very day, the hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me to the city. 


text:
 In visions of God he brought me to the land of Israel, and set me down on a very high mountain, on which was a structure like a city to the south. 


text:
 When he brought me there, behold, there was a man whose appearance was like bronze, with a linen cord and a measuring reed in his hand. And he was standing in the gateway. 


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 And the man said to me, &amp;quot;Son of man, look with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and set your heart upon all that I shall show you, for you were brought here in order that I might show it to you. Declare all that you see to the house of Israel.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And behold, there was a wall all around the outside of the temple area, and the length of the measuring reed in the man&amp;apos;s hand was six long cubits, each being a cubit and a handbreadth in length. So he measured the thickness of the wall, one reed; and the height, one reed. 


text:
 Then he went into the gateway facing east, going up its steps, and measured the threshold of the gate, one reed deep. 


text:
 And the side rooms, one reed long and one reed broad; and the space between the side rooms, five cubits; and the threshold of the gate by the vestibule of the gate at the inner end, one reed. 


text:
 Then he measured the vestibule of the gateway, eight cubits; and its jambs, two cubits; and the vestibule of the gate was at the inner end. 


text:
 And there were three side rooms on either side of the east gate. The three were of the same size, and the jambs on either side were of the same size. 


text:
 Then he measured the width of the opening of the gateway, ten cubits; and the length of the gateway, thirteen cubits. 


text:
 There was a barrier before the side rooms, one cubit on either side. And the side rooms were six cubits on either side. 


text:
 Then he measured the gate from the ceiling of the one side room to the ceiling of the other, a breadth of twenty-five cubits; the openings faced each other. 


text:
 He measured also the vestibule, twenty cubits. And around the vestibule of the gateway was the court. 


text:
 From the front of the gate at the entrance to the front of the inner vestibule of the gate was fifty cubits. 


text:
 And the gateway had windows all around, narrowing inwards toward the side rooms and toward their jambs, and likewise the vestibule had windows all around inside, and on the jambs were palm trees. 


text:
 Then he brought me into the outer court. And behold, there were chambers and a pavement, all around the court. Thirty chambers faced the pavement. 


text:
 And the pavement ran along the side of the gates, corresponding to the length of the gates. This was the lower pavement. 


text:
 Then he measured the distance from the inner front of the lower gate to the outer front of the inner court, a hundred cubits on the east side and on the north side. 


text:
 As for the gate that faced toward the north, belonging to the outer court, he measured its length and its breadth. 


text:
 Its side rooms, three on either side, and its jambs and its vestibule were of the same size as those of the first gate. Its length was fifty cubits, and its breadth twenty-five cubits. 


text:
 And its windows, its vestibule, and its palm trees were of the same size as those of the gate that faced toward the east. And by seven steps people would go up to it, and find its vestibule before them. 


text:
 And opposite the gate on the north, as on the east, was a gate to the inner court. And he measured from gate to gate, a hundred cubits. 


text:
 And he led me toward the south, and behold, there was a gate on the south. And he measured its jambs and its vestibule; they had the same size as the others. 


text:
 Both it and its vestibule had windows all around, like the windows of the others. Its length was fifty cubits, and its breadth twenty-five cubits. 


text:
 And there were seven steps leading up to it, and its vestibule was before them, and it had palm trees on its jambs, one on either side. 


text:
 And there was a gate on the south of the inner court. And he measured from gate to gate toward the south, a hundred cubits. 


text:
 Then he brought me to the inner court through the south gate, and he measured the south gate. It was of the same size as the others. 


text:
 Its side rooms, its jambs, and its vestibule were of the same size as the others, and both it and its vestibule had windows all around. Its length was fifty cubits, and its breadth twenty-five cubits. 


text:
 Its vestibule faced the outer court, and palm trees were on its jambs, and its stairway had eight steps. 


text:
 Then he brought me to the inner court on the east side, and he measured the gate. It was of the same size as the others. 


text:
 Its vestibule faced the outer court, and it had palm trees on its jambs, on either side, and its stairway had eight steps. 


text:
 Its side rooms, its jambs, and its vestibule were of the same size as the others, and it had windows all around. Its length was fifty cubits, and its breadth twenty-five cubits. 


text:
 There was a chamber with its door in the vestibule of the gate, where the burnt offering was to be washed. 


text:
 And in the vestibule of the gate were two tables on either side, on which the burnt offering and the sin offering and the guilt offering were to be slaughtered. 


text:
 And off to the side, on the outside as one goes up to the entrance of the north gate, were two tables; and off to the other side of the vestibule of the gate were two tables. 


text:
 And there were four tables of hewn stone for the burnt offering, a cubit and a half long, and a cubit and a half broad, and one cubit high, on which the instruments were to be laid with which the burnt offerings and the sacrifices were slaughtered. 


text:
 And hooks, a handbreadth long, were fastened all around within. And on the tables the flesh of the offering was to be laid. 


text:
 On the outside of the inner gateway there were two chambers in the inner court, one at the side of the north gate facing south, the other at the side of the south gate facing north. 


text:
 And he said to me, This chamber that faces south is for the priests who have charge of the temple, 


text:
 and the chamber that faces north is for the priests who have charge of the altar. These are the sons of Zadok, who alone among the sons of Levi may come near to the LORD to minister to him. 


text:
 And he measured the court, a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits broad, a square. And the altar was in front of the temple. 


text:
 Then he brought me to the vestibule of the temple and measured the jambs of the vestibule, five cubits on either side. And the breadth of the gate was fourteen cubits, and the sidewalls of the gate were three cubits on either side. 


text:
 The length of the vestibule was twenty cubits, and the breadth twelve cubits, and people would go up to it by ten steps. And there were pillars beside the jambs, one on either side. 


text:
 Then he brought me to the nave and measured the jambs. On each side six cubits was the breadth of the jambs. 


text:
 And the breadth of the entrance was ten cubits, and the sidewalls of the entrance were five cubits on either side. And he measured the length of the nave, forty cubits, and its breadth, twenty cubits. 


text:
 Then he went into the inner room and measured the jambs of the entrance, two cubits; and the entrance, six cubits; and the sidewalls on either side of the entrance, seven cubits. 


text:
 And he measured the length of the room, twenty cubits, and its breadth, twenty cubits, across the nave. And he said to me, &amp;quot;This is the Most Holy Place.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then he measured the wall of the temple, six cubits thick, and the breadth of the side chambers, four cubits, all around the temple. 


text:
 And the side chambers were in three stories, one over another, thirty in each story. There were offsets all around the wall of the temple to serve as supports for the side chambers, so that they should not be supported by the wall of the temple. 


text:
 And it became broader as it wound upward to the side chambers, because the temple was enclosed upward all around the temple. Thus the temple had a broad area upward, and so one went up from the lowest story to the top story through the middle story. 


text:
 I saw also that the temple had a raised platform all around; the foundations of the side chambers measured a full reed of six long cubits. 


text:
 The thickness of the outer wall of the side chambers was five cubits. The free space between the side chambers of the temple and the 


text:
 And the doors of the side chambers opened on the free space, one door toward the north, and another door toward the south. And the breadth of the free space was five cubits all around. 


text:
 The building that was facing the separate yard on the west side was seventy cubits broad, and the wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, and its length ninety cubits. 


text:
 Then he measured the temple, a hundred cubits long; and the yard and the building with its walls, a hundred cubits long; 


text:
 Then he measured the length of the building facing the yard that was at the back and its galleries on either side, a hundred cubits. The inside of the nave and the vestibules of the court, 


text:
 the thresholds and the narrow windows and the galleries all around the three of them, opposite the threshold, were paneled with wood all around, from the floor up to the windows (now the windows were covered), 


text:
 to the space above the door, even to the inner room, and on the outside. And on all the walls all around, inside and outside, was a measured pattern. 


text:
 It was carved of cherubim and palm trees, a palm tree between cherub and cherub. Every cherub had two faces: 


text:
 a human face toward the palm tree on the one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other side. They were carved on the whole temple all around. 


text:
 From the floor to above the door, cherubim and palm trees were carved; similarly the wall of the nave. 


text:
 an altar of wood, three cubits high, two cubits long, and two cubits broad. Its corners, its base, and its walls were of wood. He said to me, &amp;quot;This is the table that is before the LORD.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And on the doors of the nave were carved cherubim and palm trees, such as were carved on the walls. And there was a canopy of wood in front of the vestibule outside. 


text:
 And there were narrow windows and palm trees on either side, on the sidewalls of the vestibule, the side chambers of the temple, and the canopies. 


text:
 Then he led me out into the outer court, toward the north, and he brought me to the chambers that were opposite the separate yard and opposite the building on the north. 


text:
 The length of the building whose door faced north was a hundred cubits, and the breadth fifty cubits. 


text:
 Facing the twenty cubits that belonged to the inner court, and facing the pavement that belonged to the outer court, was gallery against gallery in three stories. 


text:
 And before the chambers was a passage inward, ten cubits wide and a hundred cubits long, and their doors were on the north. 


text:
 Now the upper chambers were narrower, for the galleries took more away from them than from the lower and middle chambers of the building. 


text:
 For they were in three stories, and they had no pillars like the pillars of the courts. Thus the upper chambers were set back from the ground more than the lower and the middle ones. 


text:
 And there was a wall outside parallel to the chambers, toward the outer court, opposite the chambers, fifty cubits long. 


text:
 For the chambers on the outer court were fifty cubits long, while those opposite the nave were a hundred cubits long. 


text:
 In the thickness of the wall of the court, on the south also, opposite the yard and opposite the building, there were chambers 


text:
 with a passage in front of them. They were similar to the chambers on the north, of the same length and breadth, with the same exits and arrangements and doors, 


text:
 as were the entrances of the chambers on the south. There was an entrance at the beginning of the passage, the passage before the corresponding wall on the east as one enters them. 


text:
 Then he said to me, &amp;quot;The north chambers and the south chambers opposite the yard are the holy chambers, where the priests who approach the LORD shall eat the most holy offerings. There they shall put the most holy offerings--the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering--for the place is holy. 


text:
 When the priests enter the Holy Place, they shall not go out of it into the outer court without laying there the garments in which they minister, for these are holy. They shall put on other garments before they go near to that which is for the people.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Now when he had finished measuring the interior of the temple area, he led me out by the gate that faced east, and measured the temple area all around. 


text:
 He measured it on the four sides. It had a wall around it, 500 cubits long and 500 cubits broad, to make a separation between the holy and the common. 


text:
 And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east. And the sound of his coming was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory. 


text:
 And the vision I saw was just like the vision that I had seen when he came to destroy the city, and just like the vision that I had seen by the Chebar canal. And I fell on my face. 


text:
 the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the temple. 


text:
 and he said to me, &amp;quot;Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever. And the house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoring and by the dead bodies of their kings at their high places, 


text:
 by setting their threshold by my threshold and their doorposts beside my doorposts, with only a wall between me and them. They have defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed, so I have consumed them in my anger. 


text:
 Now let them put away their whoring and the dead bodies of their kings far from me, and I will dwell in their midst forever. 


text:
 &amp;quot;As for you, son of man, describe to the house of Israel the temple, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and they shall measure the plan. 


text:
 And if they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the temple, its arrangement, its exits and its entrances, that is, its whole design; and make known to them as well all its statutes and its whole design and all its laws, and write it down in their sight, so that they may observe all its laws and all its statutes and carry them out. 


text:
 This is the law of the temple: the whole territory on the top of the mountain all around shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the temple. 


text:
 &amp;quot;These are the measurements of the altar by cubits (the cubit being a cubit and a handbreadth): its base shall be one cubit high and one cubit broad, with a rim of one span around its edge. And this shall be the height of the altar: 


text:
 from the base on the ground to the lower ledge, two cubits, with a breadth of one cubit; and from the smaller ledge to the larger ledge, four cubits, with a breadth of one cubit; 


text:
 The ledge also shall be square, fourteen cubits long by fourteen broad, with a rim around it half a cubit broad, and its base one cubit all around. The steps of the altar shall face east.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And he said to me, &amp;quot;Son of man, thus says the Lord GOD: These are the ordinances for the altar: On the day when it is erected for offering burnt offerings upon it and for throwing blood against it, 


text:
 you shall give to the Levitical priests of the family of Zadok, who draw near to me to minister to me, declares the Lord GOD, a bull from the herd for a sin offering. 


text:
 And you shall take some of its blood and put it on the four horns of the altar and on the four corners of the ledge and upon the rim all around. Thus you shall purify the altar and make atonement for it. 


text:
 You shall also take the bull of the sin offering, and it shall be burned in the appointed place belonging to the temple, outside the sacred area. 


text:
 And on the second day you shall offer a male goat without blemish for a sin offering; and the altar shall be purified, as it was purified with the bull. 


text:
 When you have finished purifying it, you shall offer a bull from the herd without blemish and a ram from the flock without blemish. 


text:
 You shall present them before the LORD, and the priests shall sprinkle salt on them and offer them up as a burnt offering to the LORD. 


text:
 For seven days you shall provide daily a male goat for a sin offering; also, a bull from the herd and a ram from the flock, without blemish, shall be provided. 


text:
 And when they have completed these days, then from the eighth day onward the priests shall offer on the altar your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, and I will accept you, declares the Lord GOD.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And the LORD said to me, &amp;quot;This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered by it. Therefore it shall remain shut. 


text:
 Only the prince may sit in it to eat bread before the LORD. He shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gate, and shall go out by the same way.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then he brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple, and I looked, and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the temple of the LORD. And I fell on my face. 


text:
 And the LORD said to me, &amp;quot;Son of man, mark well, see with your eyes, and hear with your ears all that I shall tell you concerning all the statutes of the temple of the LORD and all its laws. And mark well the entrance to the temple and all the exits from the sanctuary. 


text:
 And say to the rebellious house, to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: O house of Israel, enough of all your abominations, 


text:
 in admitting foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, to be in my sanctuary, profaning my temple, when you offer to me my food, the fat and the blood. You have broken my covenant, in addition to all your abominations. 


text:
 And you have not kept charge of my holy things, but you have set others to keep my charge for you in my sanctuary. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Thus says the Lord GOD: No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the people of Israel, shall enter my sanctuary. 


text:
 But the Levites who went far from me, going astray from me after their idols when Israel went astray, shall bear their punishment. 


text:
 They shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the temple and ministering in the temple. They shall slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before the people, to minister to them. 


text:
 Because they ministered to them before their idols and became a stumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel, therefore I have sworn concerning them, declares the Lord GOD, and they shall bear their punishment. 


text:
 They shall not come near to me, to serve me as priest, nor come near any of my holy things and the things that are most holy, but they shall bear their shame and the abominations that they have committed. 


text:
 Yet I will appoint them to keep charge of the temple, to do all its service and all that is to be done in it. 


text:
 &amp;quot;But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who kept the charge of my sanctuary when the people of Israel went astray from me, shall come near to me to minister to me. And they shall stand before me to offer me the fat and the blood, declares the Lord GOD. 


text:
 They shall enter my sanctuary, and they shall approach my table, to minister to me, and they shall keep my charge. 


text:
 When they enter the gates of the inner court, they shall wear linen garments. They shall have nothing of wool on them, while they minister at the gates of the inner court, and within. 


text:
 They shall have linen turbans on their heads, and linen undergarments around their waists. They shall not bind themselves with anything that causes sweat. 


text:
 And when they go out into the outer court to the people, they shall put off the garments in which they have been ministering and lay them in the holy chambers. And they shall put on other garments, lest they transmit holiness to the people with their garments. 


text:
 They shall not shave their heads or let their locks grow long; they shall surely trim the hair of their heads. 


text:
 They shall not marry a widow or a divorced woman, but only virgins of the offspring of the house of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest. 


text:
 They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and show them how to distinguish between the unclean and the clean. 


text:
 In a dispute, they shall act as judges, and they shall judge it according to my judgments. They shall keep my laws and my statutes in all my appointed feasts, and they shall keep my Sabbaths holy. 


text:
 They shall not defile themselves by going near to a dead person. However, for father or mother, for son or daughter, for brother or unmarried sister they may defile themselves. 


text:
 And on the day that he goes into the Holy Place, into the inner court, to minister in the Holy Place, he shall offer his sin offering, declares the Lord GOD. 


text:
 &amp;quot;This shall be their inheritance: I am their inheritance: and you shall give them no possession in Israel; I am their possession. 


text:
 They shall eat the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering, and every devoted thing in Israel shall be theirs. 


text:
 And the first of all the firstfruits of all kinds, and every offering of all kinds from all your offerings, shall belong to the priests. You shall also give to the priests the first of your dough, that a blessing may rest on your house. 


text:
 The priests shall not eat of anything, whether bird or beast, that has died of itself or is torn by wild animals. 


text:
 &amp;quot;When you allot the land as an inheritance, you shall set apart for the LORD a portion of the land as a holy district, 25,000 cubits long and 20,000 cubits broad. It shall be holy throughout its whole extent. 


text:
 Of this a square plot of 500 by 500 cubits shall be for the sanctuary, with fifty cubits for an open space around it. 


text:
 And from this measured district you shall measure off a section 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 broad, in which shall be the sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. 


text:
 It shall be the holy portion of the land. It shall be for the priests, who minister in the sanctuary and approach the LORD to minister to him, and it shall be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary. 


text:
 Another section, 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 cubits broad, shall be for the Levites who minister at the temple, as their possession for cities to live in. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Alongside the portion set apart as the holy district you shall assign for the property of the city an area 5,000 cubits broad and 25,000 cubits long. It shall belong to the whole house of Israel. 


text:
 &amp;quot;And to the prince shall belong the land on both sides of the holy district and the property of the city, alongside the holy district and the property of the city, on the west and on the east, corresponding in length to one of the tribal portions, and extending from the western to the eastern boundary 


text:
 of the land. It is to be his property in Israel. And my princes shall no more oppress my people, but they shall let the house of Israel have the land according to their tribes. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Thus says the Lord GOD: Enough, O princes of Israel! Put away violence and oppression, and execute justice and righteousness. Cease your evictions of my people, declares the Lord GOD. 


text:
 The ephah and the bath shall be of the same measure, the bath containing one tenth of a homer, and the ephah one tenth of a homer; the homer shall be the standard measure. 


text:
 The shekel shall be twenty gerahs; twenty shekels plus twenty-five shekels plus fifteen shekels shall be your mina. 


text:
 &amp;quot;This is the offering that you shall make: one sixth of an ephah from each homer of wheat, and one sixth of an ephah from each homer of barley, 


text:
 and as the fixed portion of oil, measured in baths, one tenth of a bath from each cor (the cor, like the homer, contains ten baths). 


text:
 And one sheep from every flock of two hundred, from the watering places of Israel for grain offering, burnt offering, and peace offerings, to make atonement for them, declares the Lord GOD. 


text:
 It shall be the prince&amp;apos;s duty to furnish the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings, at the feasts, the new moons, and the Sabbaths, all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel: he shall provide the sin offerings, grain offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings, to make atonement on behalf of the house of Israel. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Thus says the Lord GOD: In the first month, on the first day of the month, you shall take a bull from the herd without blemish, and purify the sanctuary. 


text:
 The priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the temple, the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and the posts of the gate of the inner court. 


text:
 You shall do the same on the seventh day of the month for anyone who has sinned through error or ignorance; so you shall make atonement for the temple. 


text:
 &amp;quot;In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall celebrate the Feast of the Passover, and for seven days unleavened bread shall be eaten. 


text:
 On that day the prince shall provide for himself and all the people of the land a young bull for a sin offering. 


text:
 And on the seven days of the festival he shall provide as a burnt offering to the LORD seven young bulls and seven rams without blemish, on each of the seven days; and a male goat daily for a sin offering. 


text:
 And he shall provide as a grain offering an ephah for each bull, an ephah for each ram, and a hin of oil to each ephah. 


text:
 In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month and for the seven days of the feast, he shall make the same provision for sin offerings, burnt offerings, and grain offerings, and for the oil. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Thus says the Lord GOD: The gate of the inner court that faces east shall be shut on the six working days, but on the Sabbath day it shall be opened, and on the day of the new moon it shall be opened. 


text:
 The prince shall enter by the vestibule of the gate from outside, and shall take his stand by the post of the gate. The priests shall offer his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate. Then he shall go out, but the gate shall not be shut until evening. 


text:
 The people of the land shall bow down at the entrance of that gate before the LORD on the Sabbaths and on the new moons. 


text:
 The burnt offering that the prince offers to the LORD on the Sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish and a ram without blemish. 


text:
 And the grain offering with the ram shall be an ephah, and the grain offering with the lambs shall be as much as he is able, together with a hin of oil to each ephah. 


text:
 On the day of the new moon he shall offer a bull from the herd without blemish, and six lambs and a ram, which shall be without blemish. 


text:
 As a grain offering he shall provide an ephah with the bull and an ephah with the ram, and with the lambs as much as he is able, together with a hin of oil to each ephah. 


text:
 When the prince enters, he shall enter by the vestibule of the gate, and he shall go out by the same way. 


text:
 &amp;quot;When the people of the land come before the LORD at the appointed feasts, he who enters by the north gate to worship shall go out by the south gate, and he who enters by the south gate shall go out by the north gate: no one shall return by way of the gate by which he entered, but each shall go out straight ahead. 


text:
 &amp;quot;At the feasts and the appointed festivals, the grain offering with a young bull shall be an ephah, and with a ram an ephah, and with the lambs as much as one is able to give, together with a hin of oil to an ephah. 


text:
 When the prince provides a freewill offering, either a burnt offering or peace offerings as a freewill offering to the LORD, the gate facing east shall be opened for him. And he shall offer his burnt offering or his peace offerings as he does on the Sabbath day. Then he shall go out, and after he has gone out the gate shall be shut. 


text:
 &amp;quot;You shall provide a lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering to the LORD daily; morning by morning you shall provide it. 


text:
 And you shall provide a grain offering with it morning by morning, one sixth of an ephah, and one third of a hin of oil to moisten the flour, as a grain offering to the LORD. This is a perpetual statute. 


text:
 Thus the lamb and the meal offering and the oil shall be provided, morning by morning, for a regular burnt offering. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Thus says the Lord GOD: If the prince makes a gift to any of his sons as his inheritance, it shall belong to his sons. It is their property by inheritance. 


text:
 But if he makes a gift out of his inheritance to one of his servants, it shall be his to the year of liberty. Then it shall revert to the prince; surely it is his inheritance--it shall belong to his sons. 


text:
 The prince shall not take any of the inheritance of the people, thrusting them out of their property. He shall give his sons their inheritance out of his own property, so that none of my people shall be scattered from his property.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then he brought me through the entrance, which was at the side of the gate, to the north row of the holy chambers for the priests, and behold, a place was there at the extreme western end of them. 


text:
 And he said to me, &amp;quot;This is the place where the priests shall boil the guilt offering and the sin offering, and where they shall bake the grain offering, in order not to bring them out into the outer court and so transmit holiness to the people.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then he brought me out to the outer court and led me around to the four corners of the court. And behold, in each corner of the court there was another court-- 


text:
 in the four corners of the court were small courts, forty cubits long and thirty broad; the four were of the same size. 


text:
 On the inside, around each of the four courts was a row of masonry, with hearths made at the bottom of the rows all around. 


text:
 Then he said to me, &amp;quot;These are the kitchens where those who minister at the temple shall boil the sacrifices of the people.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then he brought me back to the door of the temple, and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. 


text:
 Then he brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around on the outside to the outer gate that faces toward the east; and behold, the water was trickling out on the south side. 


text:
 Going on eastward with a measuring line in his hand, the man measured a thousand cubits, and then led me through the water, and it was ankle-deep. 


text:
 Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was knee-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was waist-deep. 


text:
 Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen. It was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be passed through. 


text:
 And he said to me, &amp;quot;Son of man, have you seen this?&amp;quot; Then he led me back to the bank of the river. 


text:
 And he said to me, &amp;quot;This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, and enters the sea; when the water flows into the sea, the water will become fresh. 


text:
 And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes. 


text:
 Fishermen will stand beside the sea. From Engedi to Eneglaim it will be a place for the spreading of nets. Its fish will be of very many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea. 


text:
 And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Thus says the Lord GOD: &amp;quot;This is the boundary by which you shall divide the land for inheritance among the twelve tribes of Israel. Joseph shall have two portions. 


text:
 And you shall divide equally what I swore to give to your fathers. This land shall fall to you as your inheritance. 


text:
 &amp;quot;This shall be the boundary of the land: On the north side, from the Great Sea by way of Hethlon to Lebo-hamath, and on to Zedad, 


text:
 Berothah, Sibraim (which lies on the border between Damascus and Hamath), as far as Hazer-hatticon, which is on the border of Hauran. 


text:
 So the boundary shall run from the sea to Hazar-enan, which is on the northern border of Damascus, with the border of Hamath to the north. This shall be the north side. 


text:
 &amp;quot;On the east side, the boundary shall run between Hauran and Damascus; along the Jordan between Gilead and the land of Israel; to the eastern sea and as far as Tamar. This shall be the east side. 


text:
 &amp;quot;On the south side, it shall run from Tamar as far as the waters of Meribah-kadesh, from there along the Brook of Egypt to the Great Sea. This shall be the south side. 


text:
 &amp;quot;On the west side, the Great Sea shall be the boundary to a point opposite Lebo-hamath. This shall be the west side. 


text:
 You shall allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the sojourners who reside among you and have had children among you. They shall be to you as native-born children of Israel. With you they shall be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. 


text:
 In whatever tribe the sojourner resides, there you shall assign him his inheritance, declares the Lord GOD. 


text:
 &amp;quot;These are the names of the tribes: Beginning at the northern extreme, beside the way of Hethlon to Lebo-hamath, as far as Hazar-enan (which is on the northern border of Damascus over against Hamath), and extending from the east side to the west, Dan, one portion. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Adjoining the territory of Judah, from the east side to the west, shall be the portion which you shall set apart, 25,000 cubits in breadth, and in length equal to one of the tribal portions, from the east side to the west, with the sanctuary in the midst of it. 


text:
 The portion that you shall set apart for the LORD shall be 25,000 cubits in length, and 20,000 in breadth. 


text:
 These shall be the allotments of the holy portion: the priests shall have an allotment measuring 25,000 cubits on the northern side, 10,000 cubits in breadth on the western side, 10,000 in breadth on the eastern side, and 25,000 in length on the southern side, with the sanctuary of the LORD in the midst of it. 


text:
 This shall be for the consecrated priests, the sons of Zadok, who kept my charge, who did not go astray when the people of Israel went astray, as the Levites did. 


text:
 And it shall belong to them as a special portion from the holy portion of the land, a most holy place, adjoining the territory of the Levites. 


text:
 And alongside the territory of the priests, the Levites shall have an allotment 25,000 cubits in length and 10,000 in breadth. The whole length shall be 25,000 cubits and the breadth 20,000. 


text:
 They shall not sell or exchange any of it. They shall not alienate this choice portion of the land, for it is holy to the LORD. 


text:
 &amp;quot;The remainder, 5,000 cubits in breadth and 25,000 in length, shall be for common use for the city, for dwellings and for open country. In the midst of it shall be the city, 


text:
 and these shall be its measurements: the north side 4,500 cubits, the south side 4,500, the east side 4,500, and the west side 4,500. 


text:
 And the city shall have open land: on the north 250 cubits, on the south 250, on the east 250, and on the west 250. 


text:
 The remainder of the length alongside the holy portion shall be 10,000 cubits to the east, and 10,000 to the west, and it shall be alongside the holy portion. Its produce shall be food for the workers of the city. 


text:
 The whole portion that you shall set apart shall be 25,000 cubits square, that is, the holy portion together with the property of the city. 


text:
 &amp;quot;What remains on both sides of the holy portion and of the property of the city shall belong to the prince. Extending from the 25,000 cubits of the holy portion to the east border, and westward from the 25,000 cubits to the west border, parallel to the tribal portions, it shall belong to the prince. The holy portion with the sanctuary of the temple shall be in its midst. 


text:
 It shall be separate from the property of the Levites and the property of the city, which are in the midst of that which belongs to the prince. The portion of the prince shall lie between the territory of Judah and the territory of Benjamin. 


text:
 And adjoining the territory of Gad to the south, the boundary shall run from Tamar to the waters of Meribah-kadesh, from there along the Brook of Egypt to the Great Sea. 


text:
 This is the land that you shall allot as an inheritance among the tribes of Israel, and these are their portions, declares the Lord GOD. 


text:
 &amp;quot;These shall be the exits of the city: On the north side, which is to be 4,500 cubits by measure, 


text:
 three gates, the gate of Reuben, the gate of Judah, and the gate of Levi, the gates of the city being named after the tribes of Israel. 


text:
 On the east side, which is to be 4,500 cubits, three gates, the gate of Joseph, the gate of Benjamin, and the gate of Dan. 


text:
 On the south side, which is to be 4,500 cubits by measure, three gates, the gate of Simeon, the gate of Issachar, and the gate of Zebulun. 


text:
 On the west side, which is to be 4,500 cubits, three gates, the gate of Gad, the gate of Asher, and the gate of Naphtali. 


text:
 The circumference of the city shall be 18,000 cubits. And the name of the city from that time on shall be, The LORD Is There.&amp;quot; 


text:
 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. 


text:
 And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his god. 


text:
 Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, 


text:
 youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king&amp;apos;s palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. 


text:
 The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate, and of the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for three years, and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king. 


text:
 And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names: Daniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego. 


text:
 But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king&amp;apos;s food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. 


text:
 and the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, &amp;quot;I fear my lord the king, who assigned your food and your drink; for why should he see that you were in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, 


text:
 Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king&amp;apos;s food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see.&amp;quot; 


text:
 At the end of ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king&amp;apos;s food. 


text:
 As for these four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. 


text:
 At the end of the time, when the king had commanded that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. 


text:
 And the king spoke with them, and among all of them none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore they stood before the king. 


text:
 And in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom. 


text:
 In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him. 


text:
 Then the king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans be summoned to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king. 


text:
 And the king said to them, &amp;quot;I had a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic, &amp;quot;O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.&amp;quot; 


text:
 The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, &amp;quot;The word from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins. 


text:
 But if you show the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. Therefore show me the dream and its interpretation.&amp;quot; 


text:
 They answered a second time and said, &amp;quot;Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show its interpretation.&amp;quot; 


text:
 The king answered and said, &amp;quot;I know with certainty that you are trying to gain time, because you see that the word from me is firm-- 


text:
 if you do not make the dream known to me, there is but one sentence for you. You have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me till the times change. Therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can show me its interpretation.&amp;quot; 


text:
 The Chaldeans answered the king and said, &amp;quot;There is not a man on earth who can meet the king&amp;apos;s demand, for no great and powerful king has asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean. 


text:
 The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Because of this the king was angry and very furious, and commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be destroyed. 


text:
 So the decree went out, and the wise men were about to be killed; and they sought Daniel and his companions, to kill them. 


text:
 Then Daniel replied with prudence and discretion to Arioch, the captain of the king&amp;apos;s guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon. 


text:
 He declared to Arioch, the king&amp;apos;s captain, &amp;quot;Why is the decree of the king so urgent?&amp;quot; Then Arioch made the matter known to Daniel. 


text:
 And Daniel went in and requested the king to appoint him a time, that he might show the interpretation to the king. 


text:
 Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, 


text:
 and told them to seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his companions might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. 


text:
 Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. 


text:
 Daniel answered and said: &amp;quot;Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. 


text:
 He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; 


text:
 he reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him. 


text:
 To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for you have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of you, for you have made known to us the king&amp;apos;s matter.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Therefore Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to him: &amp;quot;Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon; bring me in before the king, and I will show the king the interpretation.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste and said thus to him: &amp;quot;I have found among the exiles from Judah a man who will make known to the king the interpretation.&amp;quot; 


text:
 The king declared to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, &amp;quot;Are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen and its interpretation?&amp;quot; 


text:
 Daniel answered the king and said, &amp;quot;No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked, 


text:
 but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream and the visions of your head as you lay in bed are these: 


text:
 To you, O king, as you lay in bed came thoughts of what would be after this, and he who reveals mysteries made known to you what is to be. 


text:
 But as for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because of any wisdom that I have more than all the living, but in order that the interpretation may be made known to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your mind. 


text:
 &amp;quot;You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. 


text:
 The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, 


text:
 As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. 


text:
 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. 


text:
 You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, 


text:
 and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all--you are the head of gold. 


text:
 Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. 


text:
 And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these. 


text:
 And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter&amp;apos;s clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay. 


text:
 And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. 


text:
 As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. 


text:
 And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, 


text:
 just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and paid homage to Daniel, and commanded that an offering and incense be offered up to him. 


text:
 The king answered and said to Daniel, &amp;quot;Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then the king gave Daniel high honors and many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. 


text:
 Daniel made a request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel remained at the king&amp;apos;s court. 


text:
 King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits and its breadth six cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. 


text:
 Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent to gather the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. 


text:
 Then the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces gathered for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. 


text:
 that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. 


text:
 And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Therefore, as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, all the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worshiped the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. 


text:
 You, O king, have made a decree, that every man who hears the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, shall fall down and worship the golden image. 


text:
 There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, pay no attention to you; they do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then Nebuchadnezzar in furious rage commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought. So they brought these men before the king. 


text:
 Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them, &amp;quot;Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? 


text:
 Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?&amp;quot; 


text:
 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, &amp;quot;O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 


text:
 If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. 


text:
 But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury, and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated. 


text:
 And he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. 


text:
 Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace. 


text:
 Because the king&amp;apos;s order was urgent and the furnace overheated, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. 


text:
 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, &amp;quot;Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?&amp;quot; They answered and said to the king, &amp;quot;True, O king.&amp;quot; 


text:
 He answered and said, &amp;quot;But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace; he declared, &amp;quot;Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here!&amp;quot; Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire. 


text:
 And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king&amp;apos;s counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men. The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them. 


text:
 Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, &amp;quot;Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king&amp;apos;s command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God. 


text:
 Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.&amp;quot; 


text:
 King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you! 


text:
 How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation. 


text:
 I saw a dream that made me afraid. As I lay in bed the fancies and the visions of my head alarmed me. 


text:
 So I made a decree that all the wise men of Babylon should be brought before me, that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream. 


text:
 Then the magicians, the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers came in, and I told them the dream, but they could not make known to me its interpretation. 


text:
 At last Daniel came in before me--he who was named Belteshazzar after the name of my god, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods--and I told him the dream, saying, 


text:
 &amp;quot;O Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you and that no mystery is too difficult for you, tell me the visions of my dream that I saw and their interpretation. 


text:
 The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these: I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great. 


text:
 The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth. 


text:
 Its leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the heavens lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it. 


text:
 &amp;quot;I saw in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven. 


text:
 He proclaimed aloud and said thus: &amp;apos;Chop down the tree and lop off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches. 


text:
 But leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, amid the tender grass of the field. Let him be wet with the dew of heaven. Let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth. 


text:
 Let his mind be changed from a man&amp;apos;s, and let a beast&amp;apos;s mind be given to him; and let seven periods of time pass over him. 


text:
 The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.&amp;apos; 


text:
 This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw. And you, O Belteshazzar, tell me the interpretation, because all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation, but you are able, for the spirit of the holy gods is in you.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was dismayed for a while, and his thoughts alarmed him. The king answered and said, &amp;quot;Belteshazzar, let not the dream or the interpretation alarm you.&amp;quot; Belteshazzar answered and said, &amp;quot;My lord, may the dream be for those who hate you and its interpretation for your enemies! 


text:
 The tree you saw, which grew and became strong, so that its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth, 


text:
 whose leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in which was food for all, under which beasts of the field found shade, and in whose branches the birds of the heavens lived-- 


text:
 it is you, O king, who have grown and become strong. Your greatness has grown and reaches to heaven, and your dominion to the ends of the earth. 


text:
 And because the king saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, &amp;apos;Chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, in the tender grass of the field, and let him be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven periods of time pass over him,&amp;apos; 


text:
 this is the interpretation, O king: It is a decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord the king, 


text:
 that you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. You shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and you shall be wet with the dew of heaven, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, till you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will. 


text:
 And as it was commanded to leave the stump of the roots of the tree, your kingdom shall be confirmed for you from the time that you know that Heaven rules. 


text:
 Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you: break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity.&amp;quot; 


text:
 and the king answered and said, &amp;quot;Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?&amp;quot; 


text:
 While the words were still in the king&amp;apos;s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, &amp;quot;O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, 


text:
 and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles&amp;apos; feathers, and his nails were like birds&amp;apos; claws. 


text:
 At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; 


text:
 all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, &amp;quot;What have you done?&amp;quot; 


text:
 At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me. My counselors and my lords sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me. 


text:
 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble. 


text:
 King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand. 


text:
 Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. 


text:
 Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. 


text:
 Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king&amp;apos;s palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote. 


text:
 Then the king&amp;apos;s color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together. 


text:
 The king called loudly to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers. The king declared to the wise men of Babylon, &amp;quot;Whoever reads this writing, and shows me its interpretation, shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then all the king&amp;apos;s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or make known to the king the interpretation. 


text:
 The queen, because of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banqueting hall, and the queen declared, &amp;quot;O king, live forever! Let not your thoughts alarm you or your color change. 


text:
 There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods were found in him, and King Nebuchadnezzar, your father--your father the king--made him chief of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans, and astrologers, 


text:
 because an excellent spirit, knowledge, and understanding to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then Daniel was brought in before the king. The king answered and said to Daniel, &amp;quot;You are that Daniel, one of the exiles of Judah, whom the king my father brought from Judah. 


text:
 I have heard of you that the spirit of the gods is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you. 


text:
 Now the wise men, the enchanters, have been brought in before me to read this writing and make known to me its interpretation, but they could not show the interpretation of the matter. 


text:
 But I have heard that you can give interpretations and solve problems. Now if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around your neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then Daniel answered and said before the king, &amp;quot;Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another. Nevertheless, I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation. 


text:
 O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father kingship and greatness and glory and majesty. 


text:
 And because of the greatness that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whom he would, he killed, and whom he would, he kept alive; whom he would, he raised up, and whom he would, he humbled. 


text:
 But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was brought down from his kingly throne, and his glory was taken from him. 


text:
 He was driven from among the children of mankind, and his mind was made like that of a beast, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. He was fed grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until he knew that the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will. 


text:
 but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. And the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored. 


text:
 This is the interpretation of the matter: MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; 


text:
 Then Belshazzar gave the command, and Daniel was clothed with purple, a chain of gold was put around his neck, and a proclamation was made about him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom. 


text:
 and over them three presidents, of whom Daniel was one, to whom these satraps should give account, so that the king might suffer no loss. 


text:
 Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other presidents and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him. And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. 


text:
 Then the presidents and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault, because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him. 


text:
 Then these men said, &amp;quot;We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then these presidents and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, &amp;quot;O King Darius, live forever! 


text:
 All the presidents of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction, that whoever makes petition to any god or man for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. 


text:
 Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.&amp;quot; 


text:
 When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously. 


text:
 Then they came near and said before the king, concerning the injunction, &amp;quot;O king! Did you not sign an injunction, that anyone who makes petition to any god or man within thirty days except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions?&amp;quot; The king answered and said, &amp;quot;The thing stands fast, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be revoked.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then they answered and said before the king, &amp;quot;Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or the injunction you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then the king, when he heard these words, was much distressed and set his mind to deliver Daniel. And he labored till the sun went down to rescue him. 


text:
 Then these men came by agreement to the king and said to the king, &amp;quot;Know, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then the king commanded, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. The king declared to Daniel, &amp;quot;May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!&amp;quot; 


text:
 And a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lords, that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel. 


text:
 Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting; no diversions were brought to him, and sleep fled from him. 


text:
 As he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, &amp;quot;O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?&amp;quot; 


text:
 My God sent his angel and shut the lions&amp;apos; mouths, and they have not harmed me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then the king was exceedingly glad, and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God. 


text:
 And the king commanded, and those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought and cast into the den of lions--they, their children, and their wives. And before they reached the bottom of the den, the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces. 


text:
 Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: &amp;quot;Peace be multiplied to you. 


text:
 I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God, enduring forever; his kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end. 


text:
 He delivers and rescues; he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, he who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions.&amp;quot; 


text:
 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed. Then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter. 


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 Daniel declared, &amp;quot;I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. 


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 The first was like a lion and had eagles&amp;apos; wings. Then as I looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, and the mind of a man was given to it. 


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 And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear. It was raised up on one side. It had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and it was told, &amp;apos;Arise, devour much flesh.&amp;apos; 


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 After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it. 


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 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. 


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 I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. 


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 &amp;quot;As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire. 


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 A stream of fire issued and came out from before him; a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened. 


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 &amp;quot;I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. 


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 As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. 


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 &amp;quot;I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 


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 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. 


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 &amp;quot;As for me, Daniel, my spirit within me was anxious, and the visions of my head alarmed me. 


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 I approached one of those who stood there and asked him the truth concerning all this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of the things. 


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 But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever.&amp;apos; 


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 &amp;quot;Then I desired to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all the rest, exceedingly terrifying, with its teeth of iron and claws of bronze, and which devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet, 


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 and about the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn that came up and before which three of them fell, the horn that had eyes and a mouth that spoke great things, and that seemed greater than its companions. 


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 until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High, and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom. 


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 &amp;quot;Thus he said: &amp;apos;As for the fourth beast, there shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all the kingdoms, and it shall devour the whole earth, and trample it down, and break it to pieces. 


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 As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise, and another shall arise after them; he shall be different from the former ones, and shall put down three kings. 


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 He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time. 


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 But the court shall sit in judgment, and his dominion shall be taken away, to be consumed and destroyed to the end. 


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 And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; their kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey them.&amp;apos; 


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 &amp;quot;Here is the end of the matter. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts greatly alarmed me, and my color changed, but I kept the matter in my heart.&amp;quot; 


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 In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the first. 


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 And I saw in the vision; and when I saw, I was in Susa the capital, which is in the province of Elam. And I saw in the vision, and I was at the Ulai canal. 


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 I raised my eyes and saw, and behold, a ram standing on the bank of the canal. It had two horns, and both horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last. 


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 I saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward. No beast could stand before him, and there was no one who could rescue from his power. He did as he pleased and became great. 


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 As I was considering, behold, a male goat came from the west across the face of the whole earth, without touching the ground. And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. 


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 He came to the ram with the two horns, which I had seen standing on the bank of the canal, and he ran at him in his powerful wrath. 


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 I saw him come close to the ram, and he was enraged against him and struck the ram and broke his two horns. And the ram had no power to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled on him. And there was no one who could rescue the ram from his power. 


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 Then the goat became exceedingly great, but when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and instead of it there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven. 


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 Out of one of them came a little horn, which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land. 


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 It grew great, even to the host of heaven. And some of the host and some of the stars it threw down to the ground and trampled on them. 


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 It became great, even as great as the Prince of the host. And the regular burnt offering was taken away from him, and the place of his sanctuary was overthrown. 


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 And a host will be given over to it together with the regular burnt offering because of transgression, and it will throw truth to the ground, and it will act and prosper. 


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 Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the one who spoke, &amp;quot;For how long is the vision concerning the regular burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and host to be trampled underfoot?&amp;quot; 


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 And he said to me, &amp;quot;For 2,300 evenings and mornings. Then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state.&amp;quot; 


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 When I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it. And behold, there stood before me one having the appearance of a man. 


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 And I heard a man&amp;apos;s voice between the banks of the Ulai, and it called, &amp;quot;Gabriel, make this man understand the vision.&amp;quot; 


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 So he came near where I stood. And when he came, I was frightened and fell on my face. But he said to me, &amp;quot;Understand, O son of man, that the vision is for the time of the end.&amp;quot; 


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 And when he had spoken to me, I fell into a deep sleep with my face to the ground. But he touched me and made me stand up. 


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 He said, &amp;quot;Behold, I will make known to you what shall be at the latter end of the indignation, for it refers to the appointed time of the end. 


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 As for the horn that was broken, in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with his power. 


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 And at the latter end of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their limit, a king of bold face, one who understands riddles, shall arise. 


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 His power shall be great--but not by his own power; and he shall cause fearful destruction and shall succeed in what he does, and destroy mighty men and the people who are the saints. 


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 By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall become great. Without warning he shall destroy many. And he shall even rise up against the Prince of princes, and he shall be broken--but by no human hand. 


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 The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been told is true, but seal up the vision, for it refers to many days from now.&amp;quot; 


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 And I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for some days. Then I rose and went about the king&amp;apos;s business, but I was appalled by the vision and did not understand it. 


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 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans-- 


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 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. 


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 Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. 


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 I prayed to the LORD my God and made confession, saying, &amp;quot;O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 


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 we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. 


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 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. 


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 To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you. 


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 To us, O LORD, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. 


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 and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. 


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 All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice. And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him. 


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 He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity. For under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what has been done against Jerusalem. 


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 As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not entreated the favor of the LORD our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth. 


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 Therefore the LORD has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in all the works that he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice. 


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 And now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have made a name for yourself, as at this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly. 


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 &amp;quot;O Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy hill, because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a byword among all who are around us. 


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 Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate. 


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 O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. 


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 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.&amp;quot; 


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 While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the LORD my God for the holy hill of my God, 


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 while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice. 


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 He made me understand, speaking with me and saying, &amp;quot;O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding. 


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 At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved. Therefore consider the word and understand the vision. 


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 &amp;quot;Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. 


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 Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. 


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 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. 


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 And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.&amp;quot; 


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 In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a word was revealed to Daniel, who was named Belteshazzar. And the word was true, and it was a great conflict. And he understood the word and had understanding of the vision. 


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 I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, for the full three weeks. 


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 On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river (that is, the Tigris) 


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 I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, a man clothed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. 


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 His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude. 


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 And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me did not see the vision, but a great trembling fell upon them, and they fled to hide themselves. 


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 So I was left alone and saw this great vision, and no strength was left in me. My radiant appearance was fearfully changed, and I retained no strength. 


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 Then I heard the sound of his words, and as I heard the sound of his words, I fell on my face in deep sleep with my face to the ground. 


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 And he said to me, &amp;quot;O Daniel, man greatly loved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for now I have been sent to you.&amp;quot; And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling. 


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 Then he said to me, &amp;quot;Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. 


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 The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia, 


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 and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days. For the vision is for days yet to come.&amp;quot; 


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 When he had spoken to me according to these words, I turned my face toward the ground and was mute. 


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 And behold, one in the likeness of the children of man touched my lips. Then I opened my mouth and spoke. I said to him who stood before me, &amp;quot;O my lord, by reason of the vision pains have come upon me, and I retain no strength. 


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 How can my lord&amp;apos;s servant talk with my lord? For now no strength remains in me, and no breath is left in me.&amp;quot; 


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 And he said, &amp;quot;O man greatly loved, fear not, peace be with you; be strong and of good courage.&amp;quot; And as he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, &amp;quot;Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.&amp;quot; 


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 Then he said, &amp;quot;Do you know why I have come to you? But now I will return to fight against the prince of Persia; and when I go out, behold, the prince of Greece will come. 


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 But I will tell you what is inscribed in the book of truth: there is none who contends by my side against these except Michael, your prince. 


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 &amp;quot;And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him. 


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 &amp;quot;And now I will show you the truth. Behold, three more kings shall arise in Persia, and a fourth shall be far richer than all of them. And when he has become strong through his riches, he shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece. 


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 And as soon as he has arisen, his kingdom shall be broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not to his posterity, nor according to the authority with which he ruled, for his kingdom shall be plucked up and go to others besides these. 


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 &amp;quot;Then the king of the south shall be strong, but one of his princes shall be stronger than he and shall rule, and his authority shall be a great authority. 


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 After some years they shall make an alliance, and the daughter of the king of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement. But she shall not retain the strength of her arm, and he and his arm shall not endure, but she shall be given up, and her attendants, he who fathered her, and he who supported her in those times. 


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 &amp;quot;And from a branch from her roots one shall arise in his place. He shall come against the army and enter the fortress of the king of the north, and he shall deal with them and shall prevail. 


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 He shall also carry off to Egypt their gods with their metal images and their precious vessels of silver and gold, and for some years he shall refrain from attacking the king of the north. 


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 Then the latter shall come into the realm of the king of the south but shall return to his own land. 


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 &amp;quot;His sons shall wage war and assemble a multitude of great forces, which shall keep coming and overflow and pass through, and again shall carry the war as far as his fortress. 


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 Then the king of the south, moved with rage, shall come out and fight against the king of the north. And he shall raise a great multitude, but it shall be given into his hand. 


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 And when the multitude is taken away, his heart shall be exalted, and he shall cast down tens of thousands, but he shall not prevail. 


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 For the king of the north shall again raise a multitude, greater than the first. And after some years he shall come on with a great army and abundant supplies. 


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 &amp;quot;In those times many shall rise against the king of the south, and the violent among your own people shall lift themselves up in order to fulfill the vision, but they shall fail. 


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 Then the king of the north shall come and throw up siegeworks and take a well-fortified city. And the forces of the south shall not stand, or even his best troops, for there shall be no strength to stand. 


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 But he who comes against him shall do as he wills, and none shall stand before him. And he shall stand in the glorious land, with destruction in his hand. 


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 He shall set his face to come with the strength of his whole kingdom, and he shall bring terms of an agreement and perform them. He shall give him the daughter of women to destroy the kingdom, but it shall not stand or be to his advantage. 


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 Afterward he shall turn his face to the coastlands and shall capture many of them, but a commander shall put an end to his insolence. Indeed, he shall turn his insolence back upon him. 


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 Then he shall turn his face back toward the fortresses of his own land, but he shall stumble and fall, and shall not be found. 


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 &amp;quot;Then shall arise in his place one who shall send an exactor of tribute for the glory of the kingdom. But within a few days he shall be broken, neither in anger nor in battle. 


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 In his place shall arise a contemptible person to whom royal majesty has not been given. He shall come in without warning and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. 


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 And from the time that an alliance is made with him he shall act deceitfully, and he shall become strong with a small people. 


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 Without warning he shall come into the richest parts of the province, and he shall do what neither his fathers nor his fathers&amp;apos; fathers have done, scattering among them plunder, spoil, and goods. He shall devise plans against strongholds, but only for a time. 


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 And he shall stir up his power and his heart against the king of the south with a great army. And the king of the south shall wage war with an exceedingly great and mighty army, but he shall not stand, for plots shall be devised against him. 


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 Even those who eat his food shall break him. His army shall be swept away, and many shall fall down slain. 


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 And as for the two kings, their hearts shall be bent on doing evil. They shall speak lies at the same table, but to no avail, for the end is yet to be at the time appointed. 


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 And he shall return to his land with great wealth, but his heart shall be set against the holy covenant. And he shall work his will and return to his own land. 


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 &amp;quot;At the time appointed he shall return and come into the south, but it shall not be this time as it was before. 


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 For ships of Kittim shall come against him, and he shall be afraid and withdraw, and shall turn back and be enraged and take action against the holy covenant. He shall turn back and pay attention to those who forsake the holy covenant. 


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 Forces from him shall appear and profane the temple and fortress, and shall take away the regular burnt offering. And they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate. 


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 He shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant, but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. 


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 And the wise among the people shall make many understand, though for some days they shall stumble by sword and flame, by captivity and plunder. 


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 When they stumble, they shall receive a little help. And many shall join themselves to them with flattery, 


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 and some of the wise shall stumble, so that they may be refined, purified, and made white, until the time of the end, for it still awaits the appointed time. 


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 &amp;quot;And the king shall do as he wills. He shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak astonishing things against the God of gods. He shall prosper till the indignation is accomplished; for what is decreed shall be done. 


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 He shall pay no attention to the gods of his fathers, or to the one beloved by women. He shall not pay attention to any other god, for he shall magnify himself above all. 


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 He shall honor the god of fortresses instead of these. A god whom his fathers did not know he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and costly gifts. 


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 He shall deal with the strongest fortresses with the help of a foreign god. Those who acknowledge him he shall load with honor. He shall make them rulers over many and shall divide the land for a price. 


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 &amp;quot;At the time of the end, the king of the south shall attack him, but the king of the north shall rush upon him like a whirlwind, with chariots and horsemen, and with many ships. And he shall come into countries and shall overflow and pass through. 


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 He shall come into the glorious land. And tens of thousands shall fall, but these shall be delivered out of his hand: Edom and Moab and the main part of the Ammonites. 


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 He shall become ruler of the treasures of gold and of silver, and all the precious things of Egypt, and the Libyans and the Cushites shall follow in his train. 


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 But news from the east and the north shall alarm him, and he shall go out with great fury to destroy and devote many to destruction. 


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 And he shall pitch his palatial tents between the sea and the glorious holy mountain. Yet he shall come to his end, with none to help him. 


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 &amp;quot;At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. 


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 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 


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 And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. 


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 But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.&amp;quot; 


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 Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold, two others stood, one on this bank of the stream and one on that bank of the stream. 


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 And someone said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream, &amp;quot;How long shall it be till the end of these wonders?&amp;quot; 


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 And I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream; he raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven and swore by him who lives forever that it would be for a time, times, and half a time, and that when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end all these things would be finished. 


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 I heard, but I did not understand. Then I said, &amp;quot;O my lord, what shall be the outcome of these things?&amp;quot; 


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 He said, &amp;quot;Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end. 


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 Many shall purify themselves and make themselves white and be refined, but the wicked shall act wickedly. And none of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand. 


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 And from the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be 1,290 days. 


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 But go your way till the end. And you shall rest and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days.&amp;quot; 


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 The word of the LORD that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. 


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 When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, &amp;quot;Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.&amp;quot; 


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 And the LORD said to him, &amp;quot;Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. 


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 She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the LORD said to him, &amp;quot;Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. 


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 But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the LORD their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.&amp;quot; 


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 And the LORD said, &amp;quot;Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.&amp;quot; 


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 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, &amp;quot;You are not my people,&amp;quot; it shall be said to them, &amp;quot;Children of the living God.&amp;quot; 


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 And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head. And they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel. 


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 Say to your brothers, &amp;quot;You are my people,&amp;quot; and to your sisters, &amp;quot;You have received mercy.&amp;quot; 


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 &amp;quot;Plead with your mother, plead-- for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband-- that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts; 


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 lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst. 


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 For their mother has played the whore; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, &amp;apos;I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.&amp;apos; 


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 Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths. 


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 She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and she shall seek them but shall not find them. Then she shall say, &amp;apos;I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now.&amp;apos; 


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 And she did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal. 


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 Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will take away my wool and my flax, which were to cover her nakedness. 


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 Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her out of my hand. 


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 And I will put an end to all her mirth, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her appointed feasts. 


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 And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, &amp;apos;These are my wages, which my lovers have given me.&amp;apos; I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour them. 


text:
 And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals when she burned offerings to them and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry, and went after her lovers and forgot me, declares the LORD. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. 


text:
 And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. 


text:
 &amp;quot;And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me &amp;apos;My Husband,&amp;apos; and no longer will you call me &amp;apos;My Baal.&amp;apos; 


text:
 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 


text:
 And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 


text:
 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 


text:
 &amp;quot;And in that day I will answer, declares the LORD, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth, 


text:
 and I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, &amp;apos;You are my people&amp;apos;; and he shall say, &amp;apos;You are my God.&amp;apos;&amp;quot; 


text:
 And the LORD said to me, &amp;quot;Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And I said to her, &amp;quot;You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.&amp;quot; 


text:
 For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. 


text:
 Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the LORD and to his goodness in the latter days. 


text:
 Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land; 


text:
 there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. 


text:
 Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away. 


text:
 You shall stumble by day; the prophet also shall stumble with you by night; and I will destroy your mother. 


text:
 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. 


text:
 And it shall be like people, like priest; I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds. 


text:
 They shall eat, but not be satisfied; they shall play the whore, but not multiply, because they have forsaken the LORD to cherish 


text:
 My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore. 


text:
 They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the whore, and your brides commit adultery. 


text:
 I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore, nor your brides when they commit adultery; for the men themselves go aside with prostitutes and sacrifice with cult prostitutes, and a people without understanding shall come to ruin. 


text:
 Though you play the whore, O Israel, let not Judah become guilty. Enter not into Gilgal, nor go up to Beth-aven, and swear not, &amp;quot;As the LORD lives.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn; can the LORD now feed them like a lamb in a broad pasture? 


text:
 Hear this, O priests! Pay attention, O house of Israel! Give ear, O house of the king! For the judgment is for you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah and a net spread upon Tabor. 


text:
 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore; Israel is defiled. 


text:
 Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. For the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they know not the LORD. 


text:
 The pride of Israel testifies to his face; Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in his guilt; Judah also shall stumble with them. 


text:
 With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the LORD, but they will not find him; he has withdrawn from them. 


text:
 They have dealt faithlessly with the LORD; for they have borne alien children. Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields. 


text:
 Blow the horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah. Sound the alarm at Beth-aven; we follow you, O Benjamin! 


text:
 Ephraim shall become a desolation in the day of punishment; among the tribes of Israel I make known what is sure. 


text:
 The princes of Judah have become like those who move the landmark; upon them I will pour out my wrath like water. 


text:
 When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to the great king. But he is not able to cure you or heal your wound. 


text:
 For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear and go away; I will carry off, and no one shall rescue. 


text:
 I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. 


text:
 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. 


text:
 Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.&amp;quot; 


text:
 What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. 


text:
 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. 


text:
 As robbers lie in wait for a man, so the priests band together; they murder on the way to Shechem; they commit villainy. 


text:
 In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing; Ephraim&amp;apos;s whoredom is there; Israel is defiled. 


text:
 When I would heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed, and the evil deeds of Samaria; for they deal falsely; the thief breaks in, and the bandits raid outside. 


text:
 But they do not consider that I remember all their evil. Now their deeds surround them; they are before my face. 


text:
 They are all adulterers; they are like a heated oven whose baker ceases to stir the fire, from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened. 


text:
 On the day of our king, the princes became sick with the heat of wine; he stretched out his hand with mockers. 


text:
 For with hearts like an oven they approach their intrigue; all night their anger smolders; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire. 


text:
 All of them are hot as an oven, and they devour their rulers. All their kings have fallen, and none of them calls upon me. 


text:
 Strangers devour his strength, and he knows it not; gray hairs are sprinkled upon him, and he knows it not. 


text:
 The pride of Israel testifies to his face; yet they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him, for all this. 


text:
 As they go, I will spread over them my net; I will bring them down like birds of the heavens; I will discipline them according to the report made to their congregation. 


text:
 Woe to them, for they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me! I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me. 


text:
 They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds; for grain and wine they gash themselves; they rebel against me. 


text:
 They return, but not upward; they are like a treacherous bow; their princes shall fall by the sword because of the insolence of their tongue. This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt. 


text:
 Set the trumpet to your lips! One like a vulture is over the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant and rebelled against my law. 


text:
 They made kings, but not through me. They set up princes, but I knew it not. With their silver and gold they made idols for their own destruction. 


text:
 I have spurned your calf, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence? 


text:
 For it is from Israel; a craftsman made it; it is not God. The calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces. 


text:
 For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads; it shall yield no flour; if it were to yield, strangers would devour it. 


text:
 Though they hire allies among the nations, I will soon gather them up. And the king and princes shall soon writhe because of the tribute. 


text:
 As for my sacrificial offerings, they sacrifice meat and eat it, but the LORD does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins; they shall return to Egypt. 


text:
 For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces, and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; so I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour her strongholds. 


text:
 Rejoice not, O Israel! Exult not like the peoples; for you have played the whore, forsaking your God. You have loved a prostitute&amp;apos;s wages on all threshing floors. 


text:
 They shall not remain in the land of the LORD, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria. 


text:
 They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the LORD, and their sacrifices shall not please him. It shall be like mourners&amp;apos; bread to them; all who eat of it shall be defiled; for their bread shall be for their hunger only; it shall not come to the house of the LORD. 


text:
 For behold, they are going away from destruction; but Egypt shall gather them; Memphis shall bury them. Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver; thorns shall be in their tents. 


text:
 The days of punishment have come; the days of recompense have come; Israel shall know it. The prophet is a fool; the man of the spirit is mad, because of your great iniquity and great hatred. 


text:
 The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God; yet a fowler&amp;apos;s snare is on all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God. 


text:
 They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah: he will remember their iniquity; he will punish their sins. 


text:
 Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season, I saw your fathers. But they came to Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame, and became detestable like the thing they loved. 


text:
 Even if they bring up children, I will bereave them till none is left. Woe to them when I depart from them! 


text:
 Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm planted in a meadow; but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter. 


text:
 Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal; there I began to hate them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more; all their princes are rebels. 


text:
 Ephraim is stricken; their root is dried up; they shall bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, I will put their beloved children to death. 


text:
 My God will reject them because they have not listened to him; they shall be wanderers among the nations. 


text:
 Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit. The more his fruit increased, the more altars he built; as his country improved, he improved his pillars. 


text:
 Their heart is false; now they must bear their guilt. The LORD will break down their altars and destroy their pillars. 


text:
 For now they will say: &amp;quot;We have no king, for we do not fear the LORD; and a king--what could he do for us?&amp;quot; 


text:
 They utter mere words; with empty oaths they make covenants; so judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field. 


text:
 The inhabitants of Samaria tremble for the calf of Beth-aven. Its people mourn for it, and so do its idolatrous priests-- those who rejoiced over it and over its glory-- for it has departed from them. 


text:
 The thing itself shall be carried to Assyria as tribute to the great king. Ephraim shall be put to shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol. 


text:
 The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed. Thorn and thistle shall grow up on their altars, and they shall say to the mountains, &amp;quot;Cover us,&amp;quot; and to the hills, &amp;quot;Fall on us.&amp;quot; 


text:
 From the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, O Israel; there they have continued. Shall not the war against the unjust overtake them in Gibeah? 


text:
 When I please, I will discipline them, and nations shall be gathered against them when they are bound up for their double iniquity. 


text:
 Ephraim was a trained calf that loved to thresh, and I spared her fair neck; but I will put Ephraim to the yoke; Judah must plow; Jacob must harrow for himself. 


text:
 Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you. 


text:
 You have plowed iniquity; you have reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your own way and in the multitude of your warriors, 


text:
 therefore the tumult of war shall arise among your people, and all your fortresses shall be destroyed, as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle; mothers were dashed in pieces with their children. 


text:
 Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel, because of your great evil. At dawn the king of Israel shall be utterly cut off. 


text:
 The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols. 


text:
 Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. 


text:
 I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them. 


text:
 They shall not return to the land of Egypt, but Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to return to me. 


text:
 The sword shall rage against their cities, consume the bars of their gates, and devour them because of their own counsels. 


text:
 My people are bent on turning away from me, and though they call out to the Most High, he shall not raise them up at all. 


text:
 How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. 


text:
 I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. 


text:
 They shall go after the LORD; he will roar like a lion; when he roars, his children shall come trembling from the west; 


text:
 they shall come trembling like birds from Egypt, and like doves from the land of Assyria, and I will return them to their homes, declares the LORD. 


text:
 Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit, but Judah still walks with God and is faithful to the Holy One. 


text:
 Ephraim feeds on the wind and pursues the east wind all day long; they multiply falsehood and violence; they make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried to Egypt. 


text:
 The LORD has an indictment against Judah and will punish Jacob according to his ways; he will repay him according to his deeds. 


text:
 He strove with the angel and prevailed; he wept and sought his favor. He met God at Bethel, and there God spoke with us-- 


text:
 &amp;quot;So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Ephraim has said, &amp;quot;Ah, but I am rich; I have found wealth for myself; in all my labors they cannot find in me iniquity or sin.&amp;quot; 


text:
 I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt; I will again make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the appointed feast. 


text:
 If there is iniquity in Gilead, they shall surely come to nothing: in Gilgal they sacrifice bulls; their altars also are like stone heaps on the furrows of the field. 


text:
 Ephraim has given bitter provocation; so his Lord will leave his bloodguilt on him and will repay him for his disgraceful deeds. 


text:
 When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling; he was exalted in Israel, but he incurred guilt through Baal and died. 


text:
 And now they sin more and more, and make for themselves metal images, idols skillfully made of their silver, all of them the work of craftsmen. It is said of them, &amp;quot;Those who offer human sacrifice kiss calves!&amp;quot; 


text:
 Therefore they shall be like the morning mist or like the dew that goes early away, like the chaff that swirls from the threshing floor or like smoke from a window. 


text:
 But I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no savior. 


text:
 but when they had grazed, they became full, they were filled, and their heart was lifted up; therefore they forgot me. 


text:
 I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs; I will tear open their breast, and there I will devour them like a lion, as a wild beast would rip them open. 


text:
 Where now is your king, to save you in all your cities? Where are all your rulers-- those of whom you said, &amp;quot;Give me a king and princes&amp;quot;? 


text:
 The pangs of childbirth come for him, but he is an unwise son, for at the right time he does not present himself at the opening of the womb. 


text:
 Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from Death? O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion is hidden from my eyes. 


text:
 Though he may flourish among his brothers, the east wind, the wind of the LORD, shall come, rising from the wilderness, and his fountain shall dry up; his spring shall be parched; it shall strip his treasury of every precious thing. 


text:
 Samaria shall bear her guilt, because she has rebelled against her God; they shall fall by the sword; their little ones shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open. 


text:
 Take with you words and return to the LORD; say to him, &amp;quot;Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips. 


text:
 Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses; and we will say no more, &amp;apos;Our God,&amp;apos; to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy.&amp;quot; 


text:
 I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily; he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon; 


text:
 They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow; they shall flourish like the grain; they shall blossom like the vine; their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon. 


text:
 O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like an evergreen cypress; from me comes your fruit. 


text:
 Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of the LORD are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them. 


text:
 Hear this, you elders; give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers? 


text:
 Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation. 


text:
 What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten. 


text:
 Awake, you drunkards, and weep, and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth. 


text:
 For a nation has come up against my land, powerful and beyond number; its teeth are lions&amp;apos; teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness. 


text:
 It has laid waste my vine and splintered my fig tree; it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down; their branches are made white. 


text:
 The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the LORD. The priests mourn, the ministers of the LORD. 


text:
 The fields are destroyed, the ground mourns, because the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil languishes. 


text:
 Be ashamed, O tillers of the soil; wail, O vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished. 


text:
 The vine dries up; the fig tree languishes. Pomegranate, palm, and apple, all the trees of the field are dried up, and gladness dries up from the children of man. 


text:
 Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! Because grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God. 


text:
 Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD. 


text:
 The seed shrivels under the clods; the storehouses are desolate; the granaries are torn down because the grain has dried up. 


text:
 How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed because there is no pasture for them; even the flocks of sheep suffer. 


text:
 To you, O LORD, I call. For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flame has burned all the trees of the field. 


text:
 Even the beasts of the field pant for you because the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness. 


text:
 Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming; it is near, 


text:
 a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people; their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations. 


text:
 Fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns. The land is like the garden of Eden before them, but behind them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them. 


text:
 As with the rumbling of chariots, they leap on the tops of the mountains, like the crackling of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, like a powerful army drawn up for battle. 


text:
 Like warriors they charge; like soldiers they scale the wall. They march each on his way; they do not swerve from their paths. 


text:
 They do not jostle one another; each marches in his path; they burst through the weapons and are not halted. 


text:
 They leap upon the city, they run upon the walls, they climb up into the houses, they enter through the windows like a thief. 


text:
 The earth quakes before them; the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. 


text:
 The LORD utters his voice before his army, for his camp is exceedingly great; he who executes his word is powerful. For the day of the LORD is great and very awesome; who can endure it? 


text:
 &amp;quot;Yet even now,&amp;quot; declares the LORD, &amp;quot;return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 


text:
 and rend your hearts and not your garments.&amp;quot; Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. 


text:
 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD your God? 


text:
 gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. 


text:
 Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep and say, &amp;quot;Spare your people, O LORD, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, &amp;apos;Where is their God?&amp;apos;&amp;quot; 


text:
 The LORD answered and said to his people, &amp;quot;Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations. 


text:
 &amp;quot;I will remove the northerner far from you, and drive him into a parched and desolate land, his vanguard into the eastern sea, and his rear guard into the western sea; the stench and foul smell of him will rise, for he has done great things. 


text:
 Fear not, you beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green; the tree bears its fruit; the fig tree and vine give their full yield. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before. 


text:
 I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you. 


text:
 &amp;quot;You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. 


text:
 You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God and there is none else. And my people shall never again be put to shame. 


text:
 &amp;quot;And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. 


text:
 &amp;quot;And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. 


text:
 The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. 


text:
 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls. 


text:
 &amp;quot;For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, 


text:
 I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land, 


text:
 and have cast lots for my people, and have traded a boy for a prostitute, and have sold a girl for wine and have drunk it. 


text:
 &amp;quot;What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will return your payment on your own head swiftly and speedily. 


text:
 You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their own border. 


text:
 Behold, I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and I will return your payment on your own head. 


text:
 I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away, for the LORD has spoken.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Proclaim this among the nations: Consecrate for war; stir up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near; let them come up. 


text:
 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, &amp;quot;I am a warrior.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves there. Bring down your warriors, O LORD. 


text:
 Let the nations stir themselves up and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. 


text:
 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great. 


text:
 Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. 


text:
 The LORD roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake. But the LORD is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel. 


text:
 &amp;quot;So you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain. And Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it. 


text:
 &amp;quot;And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the LORD and water the Valley of Shittim. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Egypt shall become a desolation and Edom a desolate wilderness, for the violence done to the people of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. 


text:
 The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. 


text:
 And he said: &amp;quot;The LORD roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the top of Carmel withers.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Thus says the LORD: &amp;quot;For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron. 


text:
 I will break the gate-bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitants from the Valley of Aven, and him who holds the scepter from Beth-eden; and the people of Syria shall go into exile to Kir,&amp;quot; says the LORD. 


text:
 Thus says the LORD: &amp;quot;For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they carried into exile a whole people to deliver them up to Edom. 


text:
 I will cut off the inhabitants from Ashdod, and him who holds the scepter from Ashkelon; I will turn my hand against Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish,&amp;quot; says the Lord GOD. 


text:
 Thus says the LORD: &amp;quot;For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they delivered up a whole people to Edom, and did not remember the covenant of brotherhood. 


text:
 Thus says the LORD: &amp;quot;For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because he pursued his brother with the sword and cast off all pity, and his anger tore perpetually, and he kept his wrath forever. 


text:
 Thus says the LORD: &amp;quot;For three transgressions of the Ammonites, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead, that they might enlarge their border. 


text:
 So I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour her strongholds, with shouting on the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind; 


text:
 Thus says the LORD: &amp;quot;For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because he burned to lime the bones of the king of Edom. 


text:
 So I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the strongholds of Kerioth, and Moab shall die amid uproar, amid shouting and the sound of the trumpet; 


text:
 I will cut off the ruler from its midst, and will kill all its princes with him,&amp;quot; says the LORD. 


text:
 Thus says the LORD: &amp;quot;For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have rejected the law of the LORD, and have not kept his statutes, but their lies have led them astray, those after which their fathers walked. 


text:
 Thus says the LORD: &amp;quot;For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals-- 


text:
 those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted; a man and his father go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned; 


text:
 they lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge, and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars and who was as strong as the oaks; I destroyed his fruit above and his roots beneath. 


text:
 Also it was I who brought you up out of the land of Egypt and led you forty years in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. 


text:
 And I raised up some of your sons for prophets, and some of your young men for Nazirites. Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel?&amp;quot; declares the LORD. 


text:
 &amp;quot;But you made the Nazirites drink wine, and commanded the prophets, saying, &amp;apos;You shall not prophesy.&amp;apos; 


text:
 Flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not retain his strength, nor shall the mighty save his life; 


text:
 he who handles the bow shall not stand, and he who is swift of foot shall not save himself, nor shall he who rides the horse save his life; 


text:
 and he who is stout of heart among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day,&amp;quot; declares the LORD. 


text:
 Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt: 


text:
 &amp;quot;You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. 


text:
 Does a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey? Does a young lion cry out from his den, if he has taken nothing? 


text:
 Does a bird fall in a snare on the earth, when there is no trap for it? Does a snare spring up from the ground, when it has taken nothing? 


text:
 Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the LORD has done it? 


text:
 &amp;quot;For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. 


text:
 Proclaim to the strongholds in Ashdod and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt, and say, &amp;quot;Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria, and see the great tumults within her, and the oppressed in her midst.&amp;quot; 


text:
 &amp;quot;They do not know how to do right,&amp;quot; declares the LORD, &amp;quot;those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: &amp;quot;An adversary shall surround the land and bring down your defenses from you, and your strongholds shall be plundered.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Thus says the LORD: &amp;quot;As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the people of Israel who dwell in Samaria be rescued, with the corner of a couch and part of a bed. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Hear, and testify against the house of Jacob,&amp;quot; declares the Lord GOD, the God of hosts, 


text:
 &amp;quot;that on the day I punish Israel for his transgressions, I will punish the altars of Bethel, and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground. 


text:
 I will strike the winter house along with the summer house, and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall come to an end,&amp;quot; declares the LORD. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, &amp;apos;Bring, that we may drink!&amp;apos; 


text:
 The Lord GOD has sworn by his holiness that, behold, the days are coming upon you, when they shall take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fishhooks. 


text:
 And you shall go out through the breaches, each one straight ahead; and you shall be cast out into Harmon,&amp;quot; declares the LORD. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Come to Bethel, and transgress; to Gilgal, and multiply transgression; bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days; 


text:
 offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do, O people of Israel!&amp;quot; declares the Lord GOD. 


text:
 &amp;quot;I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me,&amp;quot; declares the LORD. 


text:
 &amp;quot;I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither; 


text:
 so two or three cities would wander to another city to drink water, and would not be satisfied; yet you did not return to me,&amp;quot; declares the LORD. 


text:
 &amp;quot;I struck you with blight and mildew; your many gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured; yet you did not return to me,&amp;quot; declares the LORD. 


text:
 &amp;quot;I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, and carried away your horses, and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me,&amp;quot; declares the LORD. 


text:
 &amp;quot;I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me,&amp;quot; declares the LORD. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!&amp;quot; 


text:
 For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth-- the LORD, the God of hosts, is his name! 


text:
 &amp;quot;Fallen, no more to rise, is the virgin Israel; forsaken on her land, with none to raise her up.&amp;quot; 


text:
 For thus says the Lord GOD: &amp;quot;The city that went out a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went out a hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel.&amp;quot; 


text:
 but do not seek Bethel, and do not enter into Gilgal or cross over to Beersheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into exile, and Bethel shall come to nothing.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Seek the LORD and live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel, 


text:
 He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the LORD is his name; 


text:
 who makes destruction flash forth against the strong, so that destruction comes upon the fortress. 


text:
 Therefore because you trample on the poor and you exact taxes of grain from him, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. 


text:
 For I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins-- you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate. 


text:
 Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the LORD, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said. 


text:
 Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. 


text:
 Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord: &amp;quot;In all the squares there shall be wailing, and in all the streets they shall say, &amp;apos;Alas! Alas!&amp;apos; They shall call the farmers to mourning and to wailing those who are skilled in lamentation, 


text:
 and in all vineyards there shall be wailing, for I will pass through your midst,&amp;quot; says the LORD. 


text:
 Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! Why would you have the day of the LORD? It is darkness, and not light, 


text:
 as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him. 


text:
 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? 


text:
 You shall take up Sikkuth your king, and Kiyyun your star-god--your images that you made for yourselves, 


text:
 and I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,&amp;quot; says the LORD, whose name is the God of hosts. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the first of the nations, to whom the house of Israel comes! 


text:
 Pass over to Calneh, and see, and from there go to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms? Or is their territory greater than your territory, 


text:
 &amp;quot;Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory and stretch themselves out on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall, 


text:
 who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp and like David invent for themselves instruments of music, 


text:
 who drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph! 


text:
 Therefore they shall now be the first of those who go into exile, and the revelry of those who stretch themselves out shall pass away.&amp;quot; 


text:
 The Lord GOD has sworn by himself, declares the LORD, the God of hosts: &amp;quot;I abhor the pride of Jacob and hate his strongholds, and I will deliver up the city and all that is in it.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And when one&amp;apos;s relative, the one who anoints him for burial, shall take him up to bring the bones out of the house, and shall say to him who is in the innermost parts of the house, &amp;quot;Is there still anyone with you?&amp;quot; he shall say, &amp;quot;No&amp;quot;; and he shall say, &amp;quot;Silence! We must not mention the name of the LORD.&amp;quot; 


text:
 For behold, the LORD commands, and the great house shall be struck down into fragments, and the little house into bits. 


text:
 Do horses run on rocks? Does one plow there with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood-- 


text:
 you who rejoice in Lo-debar, who say, &amp;quot;Have we not by our own strength captured Karnaim for ourselves?&amp;quot; 


text:
 &amp;quot;For behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel,&amp;quot; declares the LORD, the God of hosts; &amp;quot;and they shall oppress you from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of the Arabah.&amp;quot; 


text:
 This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, he was forming locusts when the latter growth was just beginning to sprout, and behold, it was the latter growth after the king&amp;apos;s mowings. 


text:
 When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said, &amp;quot;O Lord GOD, please forgive! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!&amp;quot; 


text:
 This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, the Lord GOD was calling for a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. 


text:
 This is what he showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. 


text:
 And the LORD said to me, &amp;quot;Amos, what do you see?&amp;quot; And I said, &amp;quot;A plumb line.&amp;quot; Then the Lord said, &amp;quot;Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass by them; 


text:
 the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, &amp;quot;Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. 


text:
 For thus Amos has said, &amp;quot;&amp;apos;Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.&amp;apos;&amp;quot; 


text:
 And Amaziah said to Amos, &amp;quot;O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, 


text:
 but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king&amp;apos;s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, &amp;quot;I was no prophet, nor a prophet&amp;apos;s son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. 


text:
 But the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, &amp;apos;Go, prophesy to my people Israel.&amp;apos; 


text:
 Now therefore hear the word of the LORD. &amp;quot;You say, &amp;apos;Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac.&amp;apos; 


text:
 Therefore thus says the LORD: &amp;quot;&amp;apos;Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided up with a measuring line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.&amp;apos;&amp;quot; 


text:
 And he said, &amp;quot;Amos, what do you see?&amp;quot; And I said, &amp;quot;A basket of summer fruit.&amp;quot; Then the LORD said to me, &amp;quot;The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass by them. 


text:
 The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,&amp;quot; declares the Lord GOD. &amp;quot;So many dead bodies!&amp;quot; &amp;quot;They are thrown everywhere!&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Silence!&amp;quot; 


text:
 saying, &amp;quot;When will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may offer wheat for sale, that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great and deal deceitfully with false balances, 


text:
 that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals and sell the chaff of the wheat?&amp;quot; 


text:
 The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: &amp;quot;Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. 


text:
 Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who dwells in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?&amp;quot; 


text:
 &amp;quot;And on that day,&amp;quot; declares the Lord GOD, &amp;quot;I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. 


text:
 I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Behold, the days are coming,&amp;quot; declares the Lord GOD, &amp;quot;when I will send a famine on the land-- not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. 


text:
 They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it. 


text:
 Those who swear by the Guilt of Samaria, and say, &amp;apos;As your god lives, O Dan,&amp;apos; and, &amp;apos;As the Way of Beersheba lives,&amp;apos; they shall fall, and never rise again.&amp;quot; 


text:
 I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said: &amp;quot;Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake, and shatter them on the heads of all the people; and those who are left of them I will kill with the sword; not one of them shall flee away; not one of them shall escape. 


text:
 &amp;quot;If they dig into Sheol, from there shall my hand take them; if they climb up to heaven, from there I will bring them down. 


text:
 If they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, from there I will search them out and take them; and if they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them. 


text:
 And if they go into captivity before their enemies, there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them; and I will fix my eyes upon them for evil and not for good.&amp;quot; 


text:
 The Lord GOD of hosts, he who touches the earth and it melts, and all who dwell in it mourn, and all of it rises like the Nile, and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt; 


text:
 who builds his upper chambers in the heavens and founds his vault upon the earth; who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the surface of the earth-- the LORD is his name. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Are you not like the Cushites to me, O people of Israel?&amp;quot; declares the LORD. &amp;quot;Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir? 


text:
 Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground, except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,&amp;quot; declares the LORD. 


text:
 &amp;quot;For behold, I will command, and shake the house of Israel among all the nations as one shakes with a sieve, but no pebble shall fall to the earth. 


text:
 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, &amp;apos;Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.&amp;apos; 


text:
 &amp;quot;In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, 


text:
 that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name,&amp;quot; declares the LORD who does this. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Behold, the days are coming,&amp;quot; declares the LORD, &amp;quot;when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. 


text:
 I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. 


text:
 I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them,&amp;quot; says the LORD your God. 


text:
 The vision of Obadiah. Thus says the Lord GOD concerning Edom: We have heard a report from the LORD, and a messenger has been sent among the nations: &amp;quot;Rise up! Let us rise against her for battle!&amp;quot; 


text:
 The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rock, in your lofty dwelling, who say in your heart, &amp;quot;Who will bring me down to the ground?&amp;quot; 


text:
 Though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, from there I will bring you down, declares the LORD. 


text:
 If thieves came to you, if plunderers came by night-- how you have been destroyed!-- would they not steal only enough for themselves? If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave gleanings? 


text:
 All your allies have driven you to your border; those at peace with you have deceived you; they have prevailed against you; those who eat your bread have set a trap beneath you-- you have no understanding. 


text:
 Will I not on that day, declares the LORD, destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of Mount Esau? 


text:
 And your mighty men shall be dismayed, O Teman, so that every man from Mount Esau will be cut off by slaughter. 


text:
 Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever. 


text:
 On the day that you stood aloof, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them. 


text:
 But do not gloat over the day of your brother in the day of his misfortune; do not rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their ruin; do not boast in the day of distress. 


text:
 Do not enter the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; do not gloat over his disaster in the day of his calamity; do not loot his wealth in the day of his calamity. 


text:
 Do not stand at the crossroads to cut off his fugitives; do not hand over his survivors in the day of distress. 


text:
 For the day of the LORD is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head. 


text:
 For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so all the nations shall drink continually; they shall drink and swallow, and shall be as though they had never been. 


text:
 But in Mount Zion there shall be those who escape, and it shall be holy, and the house of Jacob shall possess their own possessions. 


text:
 The house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble; they shall burn them and consume them, and there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau, for the LORD has spoken. 


text:
 Those of the Negeb shall possess Mount Esau, and those of the Shephelah shall possess the land of the Philistines; they shall possess the land of Ephraim and the land of Samaria, and Benjamin shall possess Gilead. 


text:
 The exiles of this host of the people of Israel shall possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath, and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad shall possess the cities of the Negeb. 


text:
 Saviors shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau, and the kingdom shall be the LORD&amp;apos;s. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.&amp;quot; 


text:
 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD. 


text:
 But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. 


text:
 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. 


text:
 So the captain came and said to him, &amp;quot;What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And they said to one another, &amp;quot;Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.&amp;quot; So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 


text:
 Then they said to him, &amp;quot;Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?&amp;quot; 


text:
 And he said to them, &amp;quot;I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, &amp;quot;What is this that you have done!&amp;quot; For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them. 


text:
 Then they said to him, &amp;quot;What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?&amp;quot; For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. 


text:
 He said to them, &amp;quot;Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. 


text:
 Therefore they called out to the LORD, &amp;quot;O LORD, let us not perish for this man&amp;apos;s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. 


text:
 saying, &amp;quot;I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. 


text:
 For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. 


text:
 Then I said, &amp;apos;I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.&amp;apos; 


text:
 The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head 


text:
 at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God. 


text:
 When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. 


text:
 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!&amp;quot; 


text:
 &amp;quot;Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.&amp;quot; 


text:
 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days&amp;apos; journey in breadth. 


text:
 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day&amp;apos;s journey. And he called out, &amp;quot;Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!&amp;quot; 


text:
 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. 


text:
 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 


text:
 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, &amp;quot;By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 


text:
 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 


text:
 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.&amp;quot; 


text:
 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. 


text:
 And he prayed to the LORD and said, &amp;quot;O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. 


text:
 Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. 


text:
 Now the LORD God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. 


text:
 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. 


text:
 When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, &amp;quot;It is better for me to die than to live.&amp;quot; 


text:
 But God said to Jonah, &amp;quot;Do you do well to be angry for the plant?&amp;quot; And he said, &amp;quot;Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And the LORD said, &amp;quot;You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 


text:
 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?&amp;quot; 


text:
 The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. 


text:
 Hear, you peoples, all of you; pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it, and let the Lord GOD be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. 


text:
 For behold, the LORD is coming out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. 


text:
 And the mountains will melt under him, and the valleys will split open, like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place. 


text:
 All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? 


text:
 Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country, a place for planting vineyards, and I will pour down her stones into the valley and uncover her foundations. 


text:
 All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, all her wages shall be burned with fire, and all her idols I will lay waste, for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them, and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return. 


text:
 For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will make lamentation like the jackals, and mourning like the ostriches. 


text:
 For her wound is incurable, and it has come to Judah; it has reached to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem. 


text:
 Pass on your way, inhabitants of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame; the inhabitants of Zaanan do not come out; the lamentation of Beth-ezel shall take away from you its standing place. 


text:
 For the inhabitants of Maroth wait anxiously for good, because disaster has come down from the LORD to the gate of Jerusalem. 


text:
 Harness the steeds to the chariots, inhabitants of Lachish; it was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion, for in you were found the transgressions of Israel. 


text:
 Therefore you shall give parting gifts to Moresheth-gath; the houses of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing to the kings of Israel. 


text:
 I will again bring a conqueror to you, inhabitants of Mareshah; the glory of Israel shall come to Adullam. 


text:
 Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair, for the children of your delight; make yourselves as bald as the eagle, for they shall go from you into exile. 


text:
 Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil on their beds! When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in the power of their hand. 


text:
 They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance. 


text:
 Therefore thus says the LORD: behold, against this family I am devising disaster, from which you cannot remove your necks, and you shall not walk haughtily, for it will be a time of disaster. 


text:
 In that day they shall take up a taunt song against you and moan bitterly, and say, &amp;quot;We are utterly ruined; he changes the portion of my people; how he removes it from me! To an apostate he allots our fields.&amp;quot; 


text:
 &amp;quot;Do not preach&amp;quot;--thus they preach-- &amp;quot;one should not preach of such things; disgrace will not overtake us.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Should this be said, O house of Jacob? Has the LORD grown impatient? Are these his deeds? Do not my words do good to him who walks uprightly? 


text:
 But lately my people have risen up as an enemy; you strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly with no thought of war. 


text:
 The women of my people you drive out from their delightful houses; from their young children you take away my splendor forever. 


text:
 Arise and go, for this is no place to rest, because of uncleanness that destroys with a grievous destruction. 


text:
 If a man should go about and utter wind and lies, saying, &amp;quot;I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,&amp;quot; he would be the preacher for this people! 


text:
 I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob; I will gather the remnant of Israel; I will set them together like sheep in a fold, like a flock in its pasture, a noisy multitude of men. 


text:
 He who opens the breach goes up before them; they break through and pass the gate, going out by it. Their king passes on before them, the LORD at their head. 


text:
 And I said: Hear, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Is it not for you to know justice?-- 


text:
 you who hate the good and love the evil, who tear the skin from off my people and their flesh from off their bones, 


text:
 who eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones in pieces and chop them up like meat in a pot, like flesh in a cauldron. 


text:
 Then they will cry to the LORD, but he will not answer them; he will hide his face from them at that time, because they have made their deeds evil. 


text:
 Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who cry &amp;quot;Peace&amp;quot; when they have something to eat, but declare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths. 


text:
 Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision, and darkness to you, without divination. The sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be black over them; 


text:
 the seers shall be disgraced, and the diviners put to shame; they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God. 


text:
 But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. 


text:
 Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight, 


text:
 Its heads give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money; yet they lean on the LORD and say, &amp;quot;Is not the LORD in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height. 


text:
 It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it, 


text:
 and many nations shall come, and say: &amp;quot;Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.&amp;quot; For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 


text:
 He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide for strong nations far away; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore; 


text:
 but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken. 


text:
 For all the peoples walk each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever. 


text:
 In that day, declares the LORD, I will assemble the lame and gather those who have been driven away and those whom I have afflicted; 


text:
 and the lame I will make the remnant, and those who were cast off, a strong nation; and the LORD will reign over them in Mount Zion from this time forth and forevermore. 


text:
 And you, O tower of the flock, hill of the daughter of Zion, to you shall it come, the former dominion shall come, kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem. 


text:
 Now why do you cry aloud? Is there no king in you? Has your counselor perished, that pain seized you like a woman in labor? 


text:
 Writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor, for now you shall go out from the city and dwell in the open country; you shall go to Babylon. There you shall be rescued; there the LORD will redeem you from the hand of your enemies. 


text:
 Now many nations are assembled against you, saying, &amp;quot;Let her be defiled, and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.&amp;quot; 


text:
 But they do not know the thoughts of the LORD; they do not understand his plan, that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor. 


text:
 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs bronze; you shall beat in pieces many peoples; and shall devote their gain to the LORD, their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth. 


text:
 Now muster your troops, O daughter of troops; siege is laid against us; with a rod they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek. 


text:
 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. 


text:
 Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. 


text:
 And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. 


text:
 And he shall be their peace. When the Assyrian comes into our land and treads in our palaces, then we will raise against him seven shepherds and eight princes of men; 


text:
 they shall shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod at its entrances; and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian when he comes into our land and treads within our border. 


text:
 Then the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples like dew from the LORD, like showers on the grass, which delay not for a man nor wait for the children of man. 


text:
 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep, which, when it goes through, treads down and tears in pieces, and there is none to deliver. 


text:
 And in that day, declares the LORD, I will cut off your horses from among you and will destroy your chariots; 


text:
 and I will cut off your carved images and your pillars from among you, and you shall bow down no more to the work of your hands; 


text:
 Hear what the LORD says: Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. 


text:
 Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the LORD, and you enduring foundations of the earth, for the LORD has an indictment against his people, and he will contend with Israel. 


text:
 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. 


text:
 O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the saving acts of the LORD.&amp;quot; 


text:
 &amp;quot;With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 


text:
 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?&amp;quot; 


text:
 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? 


text:
 The voice of the LORD cries to the city-- and it is sound wisdom to fear your name: &amp;quot;Hear of the rod and of him who appointed it! 


text:
 Can I forget any longer the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is accursed? 


text:
 Your rich men are full of violence; your inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. 


text:
 You shall eat, but not be satisfied, and there shall be hunger within you; you shall put away, but not preserve, and what you preserve I will give to the sword. 


text:
 You shall sow, but not reap; you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil; you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine. 


text:
 For you have kept the statutes of Omri, and all the works of the house of Ahab; and you have walked in their counsels, that I may make you a desolation, and your inhabitants a hissing; so you shall bear the scorn of my people.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Woe is me! For I have become as when the summer fruit has been gathered, as when the grapes have been gleaned: there is no cluster to eat, no first-ripe fig that my soul desires. 


text:
 The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind; they all lie in wait for blood, and each hunts the other with a net. 


text:
 Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well; the prince and the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul; thus they weave it together. 


text:
 The best of them is like a brier, the most upright of them a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen, of your punishment, has come; now their confusion is at hand. 


text:
 Put no trust in a neighbor; have no confidence in a friend; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms; 


text:
 for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man&amp;apos;s enemies are the men of his own house. 


text:
 But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me. 


text:
 Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me. 


text:
 I will bear the indignation of the LORD because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication. 


text:
 Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, &amp;quot;Where is the LORD your God?&amp;quot; My eyes will look upon her; now she will be trampled down like the mire of the streets. 


text:
 In that day they will come to you, from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, and from Egypt to the River, from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain. 


text:
 Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, who dwell alone in a forest in the midst of a garden land; let them graze in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old. 


text:
 The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might; they shall lay their hands on their mouths; their ears shall be deaf; 


text:
 they shall lick the dust like a serpent, like the crawling things of the earth; they shall come trembling out of their strongholds; they shall turn in dread to the LORD our God, and they shall be in fear of you. 


text:
 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. 


text:
 He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. 


text:
 You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old. 


text:
 The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. 


text:
 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. 


text:
 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither; the bloom of Lebanon withers. 


text:
 The mountains quake before him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it. 


text:
 Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him. 


text:
 But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness. 


text:
 What do you plot against the LORD? He will make a complete end; trouble will not rise up a second time. 


text:
 For they are like entangled thorns, like drunkards as they drink; they are consumed like stubble fully dried. 


text:
 Thus says the LORD, &amp;quot;Though they are at full strength and many, they will be cut down and pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more. 


text:
 The LORD has given commandment about you: &amp;quot;No more shall your name be perpetuated; from the house of your gods I will cut off the carved image and the metal image. I will make your grave, for you are vile.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace! Keep your feasts, O Judah; fulfill your vows, for never again shall the worthless pass through you; he is utterly cut off. 


text:
 The scatterer has come up against you. Man the ramparts; watch the road; dress for battle; collect all your strength. 


text:
 For the LORD is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel, for plunderers have plundered them and ruined their branches. 


text:
 The shield of his mighty men is red; his soldiers are clothed in scarlet. The chariots come with flashing metal on the day he musters them; the cypress spears are brandished. 


text:
 The chariots race madly through the streets; they rush to and fro through the squares; they gleam like torches; they dart like lightning. 


text:
 He remembers his officers; they stumble as they go, they hasten to the wall; the siege tower is set up. 


text:
 its mistress is stripped; she is carried off, her slave girls lamenting, moaning like doves and beating their breasts. 


text:
 Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away. &amp;quot;Halt! Halt!&amp;quot; they cry, but none turns back. 


text:
 Plunder the silver, plunder the gold! There is no end of the treasure or of the wealth of all precious things. 


text:
 Desolate! Desolation and ruin! Hearts melt and knees tremble; anguish is in all loins; all faces grow pale! 


text:
 Where is the lions&amp;apos; den, the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion and lioness went, where his cubs were, with none to disturb? 


text:
 The lion tore enough for his cubs and strangled prey for his lionesses; he filled his caves with prey and his dens with torn flesh. 


text:
 Behold, I am against you, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard. 


text:
 Horsemen charging, flashing sword and glittering spear, hosts of slain, heaps of corpses, dead bodies without end-- they stumble over the bodies! 


text:
 And all for the countless whorings of the prostitute, graceful and of deadly charms, who betrays nations with her whorings, and peoples with her charms. 


text:
 Behold, I am against you, declares the LORD of hosts, and will lift up your skirts over your face; and I will make nations look at your nakedness and kingdoms at your shame. 


text:
 And all who look at you will shrink from you and say, Wasted is Nineveh; who will grieve for her? Where shall I seek comforters for you? 


text:
 Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile, with water around her, her rampart a sea, and water her wall? 


text:
 Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity; her infants were dashed in pieces at the head of every street; for her honored men lots were cast, and all her great men were bound in chains. 


text:
 All your fortresses are like fig trees with first-ripe figs-- if shaken they fall into the mouth of the eater. 


text:
 Behold, your troops are women in your midst. The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire has devoured your bars. 


text:
 Draw water for the siege; strengthen your forts; go into the clay; tread the mortar; take hold of the brick mold! 


text:
 There will the fire devour you; the sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the locust. Multiply yourselves like the locust; multiply like the grasshopper! 


text:
 You increased your merchants more than the stars of the heavens. The locust spreads its wings and flies away. 


text:
 Your princes are like grasshoppers, your scribes like clouds of locusts settling on the fences in a day of cold-- when the sun rises, they fly away; no one knows where they are. 


text:
 Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria; your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the mountains with none to gather them. 


text:
 There is no easing your hurt; your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil? 


text:
 O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you &amp;quot;Violence!&amp;quot; and you will not save? 


text:
 Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. 


text:
 So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. 


text:
 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own. 


text:
 Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour. 


text:
 At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it. 


text:
 Are you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof. 


text:
 You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he? 


text:
 He brings all of them up with a hook; he drags them out with his net; he gathers them in his dragnet; so he rejoices and is glad. 


text:
 Therefore he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his dragnet; for by them he lives in luxury, and his food is rich. 


text:
 I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint. 


text:
 And the LORD answered me: &amp;quot;Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. 


text:
 For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end--it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Moreover, wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest. His greed is as wide as Sheol; like death he has never enough. He gathers for himself all nations and collects as his own all peoples.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say, &amp;quot;Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own-- for how long?-- and loads himself with pledges!&amp;quot; 


text:
 Will not your debtors suddenly arise, and those awake who will make you tremble? Then you will be spoil for them. 


text:
 Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high, to be safe from the reach of harm! 


text:
 Behold, is it not from the LORD of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire, and nations weary themselves for nothing? 


text:
 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink-- you pour out your wrath and make them drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness! 


text:
 You will have your fill of shame instead of glory. Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision! The cup in the LORD&amp;apos;s right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory! 


text:
 The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them. 


text:
 &amp;quot;What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols! 


text:
 Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it. 


text:
 O LORD, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O LORD, do I fear. In the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy. 


text:
 God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. His splendor covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. Selah 


text:
 He stood and measured the earth; he looked and shook the nations; then the eternal mountains were scattered; the everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways. 


text:
 Was your wrath against the rivers, O LORD? Was your anger against the rivers, or your indignation against the sea, when you rode on your horses, on your chariot of salvation? 


text:
 You stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows. Selah You split the earth with rivers. 


text:
 The mountains saw you and writhed; the raging waters swept on; the deep gave forth its voice; it lifted its hands on high. 


text:
 The sun and moon stood still in their place at the light of your arrows as they sped, at the flash of your glittering spear. 


text:
 You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck. Selah 


text:
 You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors, who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret. 


text:
 I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. 


text:
 Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, 


text:
 GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer&amp;apos;s; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. 


text:
 The word of the LORD that came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah. 


text:
 &amp;quot;I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth,&amp;quot; declares the LORD. 


text:
 &amp;quot;I will sweep away man and beast; I will sweep away the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, and the rubble with the wicked. I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth,&amp;quot; declares the LORD. 


text:
 &amp;quot;I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal and the name of the idolatrous priests along with the priests, 


text:
 those who bow down on the roofs to the host of the heavens, those who bow down and swear to the LORD and yet swear by Milcom, 


text:
 those who have turned back from following the LORD, who do not seek the LORD or inquire of him.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Be silent before the Lord GOD! For the day of the LORD is near; the LORD has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests. 


text:
 And on the day of the LORD&amp;apos;s sacrifice-- &amp;quot;I will punish the officials and the king&amp;apos;s sons and all who array themselves in foreign attire. 


text:
 On that day I will punish everyone who leaps over the threshold, and those who fill their master&amp;apos;s house with violence and fraud. 


text:
 &amp;quot;On that day,&amp;quot; declares the LORD, &amp;quot;a cry will be heard from the Fish Gate, a wail from the Second Quarter, a loud crash from the hills. 


text:
 Wail, O inhabitants of the Mortar! For all the traders are no more; all who weigh out silver are cut off. 


text:
 At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are complacent, those who say in their hearts, &amp;apos;The LORD will not do good, nor will he do ill.&amp;apos; 


text:
 Their goods shall be plundered, and their houses laid waste. Though they build houses, they shall not inhabit them; though they plant vineyards, they shall not drink wine from them.&amp;quot; 


text:
 The great day of the LORD is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of the LORD is bitter; the mighty man cries aloud there. 


text:
 A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, 


text:
 a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements. 


text:
 I will bring distress on mankind, so that they shall walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the LORD; their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung. 


text:
 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the LORD. In the fire of his jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed; for a full and sudden end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth. 


text:
 before the decree takes effect --before the day passes away like chaff-- before there comes upon you the burning anger of the LORD, before there comes upon you the day of the anger of the LORD. 


text:
 Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the LORD. 


text:
 For Gaza shall be deserted, and Ashkelon shall become a desolation; Ashdod&amp;apos;s people shall be driven out at noon, and Ekron shall be uprooted. 


text:
 Woe to you inhabitants of the seacoast, you nation of the Cherethites! The word of the LORD is against you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines; and I will destroy you until no inhabitant is left. 


text:
 The seacoast shall become the possession of the remnant of the house of Judah, on which they shall graze, and in the houses of Ashkelon they shall lie down at evening. For the LORD their God will be mindful of them and restore their fortunes. 


text:
 &amp;quot;I have heard the taunts of Moab and the revilings of the Ammonites, how they have taunted my people and made boasts against their territory. 


text:
 Therefore, as I live,&amp;quot; declares the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, &amp;quot;Moab shall become like Sodom, and the Ammonites like Gomorrah, a land possessed by nettles and salt pits, and a waste forever. The remnant of my people shall plunder them, and the survivors of my nation shall possess them.&amp;quot; 


text:
 This shall be their lot in return for their pride, because they taunted and boasted against the people of the LORD of hosts. 


text:
 The LORD will be awesome against them; for he will famish all the gods of the earth, and to him shall bow down, each in its place, all the lands of the nations. 


text:
 And he will stretch out his hand against the north and destroy Assyria, and he will make Nineveh a desolation, a dry waste like the desert. 


text:
 Herds shall lie down in her midst, all kinds of beasts; even the owl and the hedgehog shall lodge in her capitals; a voice shall hoot in the window; devastation will be on the threshold; for her cedar work will be laid bare. 


text:
 This is the exultant city that lived securely, that said in her heart, &amp;quot;I am, and there is no one else.&amp;quot; What a desolation she has become, a lair for wild beasts! Everyone who passes by her hisses and shakes his fist. 


text:
 She listens to no voice; she accepts no correction. She does not trust in the LORD; she does not draw near to her God. 


text:
 Her officials within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves that leave nothing till the morning. 


text:
 Her prophets are fickle, treacherous men; her priests profane what is holy; they do violence to the law. 


text:
 The LORD within her is righteous; he does no injustice; every morning he shows forth his justice; each dawn he does not fail; but the unjust knows no shame. 


text:
 &amp;quot;I have cut off nations; their battlements are in ruins; I have laid waste their streets so that no one walks in them; their cities have been made desolate, without a man, without an inhabitant. 


text:
 I said, &amp;apos;Surely you will fear me; you will accept correction. Then your dwelling would not be cut off according to all that I have appointed against you.&amp;apos; But all the more they were eager to make all their deeds corrupt. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Therefore wait for me,&amp;quot; declares the LORD, &amp;quot;for the day when I rise up to seize the prey. For my decision is to gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, to pour out upon them my indignation, all my burning anger; for in the fire of my jealousy all the earth shall be consumed. 


text:
 &amp;quot;For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of them may call upon the name of the LORD and serve him with one accord. 


text:
 From beyond the rivers of Cush my worshipers, the daughter of my dispersed ones, shall bring my offering. 


text:
 &amp;quot;On that day you shall not be put to shame because of the deeds by which you have rebelled against me; for then I will remove from your midst your proudly exultant ones, and you shall no longer be haughty in my holy mountain. 


text:
 But I will leave in your midst a people humble and lowly. They shall seek refuge in the name of the LORD, 


text:
 those who are left in Israel; they shall do no injustice and speak no lies, nor shall there be found in their mouth a deceitful tongue. For they shall graze and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! 


text:
 The LORD has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil. 


text:
 On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: &amp;quot;Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak. 


text:
 The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. 


text:
 I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival, so that you will no longer suffer reproach. 


text:
 Behold, at that time I will deal with all your oppressors. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth. 


text:
 At that time I will bring you in, at the time when I gather you together; for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes,&amp;quot; says the LORD. 


text:
 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: 


text:
 &amp;quot;Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.&amp;quot; 


text:
 &amp;quot;Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? 


text:
 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. 


text:
 Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the LORD. 


text:
 You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. 


text:
 And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD. 


text:
 Then Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, spoke to the people with the LORD&amp;apos;s message, &amp;quot;I am with you, declares the LORD.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the LORD of hosts, their God, 


text:
 In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, 


text:
 &amp;quot;Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say, 


text:
 &amp;apos;Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? 


text:
 Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the LORD. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the LORD. Work, for I am with you, declares the LORD of hosts, 


text:
 according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. 


text:
 For thus says the LORD of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. 


text:
 And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts. 


text:
 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the LORD of hosts.&amp;apos;&amp;quot; 


text:
 On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, 


text:
 &amp;apos;If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?&amp;apos;&amp;quot; The priests answered and said, &amp;quot;No.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then Haggai said, &amp;quot;If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?&amp;quot; The priests answered and said, &amp;quot;It does become unclean.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then Haggai answered and said, &amp;quot;So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, declares the LORD, and so with every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean. 


text:
 Now then, consider from this day onward. Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the LORD, 


text:
 how did you fare? When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty. 


text:
 I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, yet you did not turn to me, declares the LORD. 


text:
 Consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day that the foundation of the LORD&amp;apos;s temple was laid, consider: 


text:
 Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on I will bless you.&amp;quot; 


text:
 &amp;quot;Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, 


text:
 and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders. And the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother. 


text:
 On that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the LORD, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the LORD of hosts.&amp;quot; 


text:
 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying, 


text:
 Therefore say to them, Thus declares the LORD of hosts: Return to me, says the LORD of hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. 


text:
 Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried out, &amp;apos;Thus says the LORD of hosts, Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.&amp;apos; But they did not hear or pay attention to me, declares the LORD. 


text:
 But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? So they repented and said, As the LORD of hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so has he dealt with us.&amp;quot; 


text:
 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying, 


text:
 &amp;quot;I saw in the night, and behold, a man riding on a red horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen, and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses. 


text:
 Then I said, &amp;apos;What are these, my lord?&amp;apos; The angel who talked with me said to me, &amp;apos;I will show you what they are.&amp;apos; 


text:
 So the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, &amp;apos;These are they whom the LORD has sent to patrol the earth.&amp;apos; 


text:
 And they answered the angel of the LORD who was standing among the myrtle trees, and said, &amp;apos;We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth remains at rest.&amp;apos; 


text:
 Then the angel of the LORD said, &amp;apos;O LORD of hosts, how long will you have no mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which you have been angry these seventy years?&amp;apos; 


text:
 So the angel who talked with me said to me, &amp;apos;Cry out, Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. 


text:
 And I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease; for while I was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster. 


text:
 Therefore, thus says the LORD, I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; my house shall be built in it, declares the LORD of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. 


text:
 Cry out again, Thus says the LORD of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.&amp;apos;&amp;quot; 


text:
 And I said to the angel who talked with me, &amp;quot;What are these?&amp;quot; And he said to me, &amp;quot;These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And I said, &amp;quot;What are these coming to do?&amp;quot; He said, &amp;quot;These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no one raised his head. And these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then I said, &amp;quot;Where are you going?&amp;quot; And he said to me, &amp;quot;To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.&amp;quot; 


text:
 and said to him, &amp;quot;Run, say to that young man, &amp;apos;Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of people and livestock in it. 


text:
 And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the LORD, and I will be the glory in her midst.&amp;apos;&amp;quot; 


text:
 Up! Up! Flee from the land of the north, declares the LORD. For I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heavens, declares the LORD. 


text:
 For thus said the LORD of hosts, after his glory sent me to the nations who plundered you, for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye: 


text:
 &amp;quot;Behold, I will shake my hand over them, and they shall become plunder for those who served them. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me. 


text:
 Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the LORD. 


text:
 And many nations shall join themselves to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people. And I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. 


text:
 And the LORD will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. 


text:
 And the LORD said to Satan, &amp;quot;The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?&amp;quot; 


text:
 And the angel said to those who were standing before him, &amp;quot;Remove the filthy garments from him.&amp;quot; And to him he said, &amp;quot;Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And I said, &amp;quot;Let them put a clean turban on his head.&amp;quot; So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD was standing by. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Thus says the LORD of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. 


text:
 Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch. 


text:
 For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. 


text:
 In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And the angel who talked with me came again and woke me, like a man who is awakened out of his sleep. 


text:
 And he said to me, &amp;quot;What do you see?&amp;quot; I said, &amp;quot;I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it. 


text:
 And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, &amp;quot;Do you not know what these are?&amp;quot; I said, &amp;quot;No, my lord.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then he said to me, &amp;quot;This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts. 


text:
 Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of &amp;apos;Grace, grace to it!&amp;apos;&amp;quot; 


text:
 &amp;quot;The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. 


text:
 For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. &amp;quot;These seven are the eyes of the LORD, which range through the whole earth.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then I said to him, &amp;quot;What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?&amp;quot; 


text:
 And a second time I answered and said to him, &amp;quot;What are these two branches of the olive trees, which are beside the two golden pipes from which the golden oil is poured out?&amp;quot; 


text:
 He said to me, &amp;quot;Do you not know what these are?&amp;quot; I said, &amp;quot;No, my lord.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then he said, &amp;quot;These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And he said to me, &amp;quot;What do you see?&amp;quot; I answered, &amp;quot;I see a flying scroll. Its length is twenty cubits, and its width ten cubits.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then he said to me, &amp;quot;This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land. For everyone who steals shall be cleaned out according to what is on one side, and everyone who swears falsely shall be cleaned out according to what is on the other side. 


text:
 I will send it out, declares the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter the house of the thief, and the house of him who swears falsely by my name. And it shall remain in his house and consume it, both timber and stones.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then the angel who talked with me came forward and said to me, &amp;quot;Lift your eyes and see what this is that is going out.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And I said, &amp;quot;What is it?&amp;quot; He said, &amp;quot;This is the basket that is going out.&amp;quot; And he said, &amp;quot;This is their iniquity in all the land.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And he said, &amp;quot;This is Wickedness.&amp;quot; And he thrust her back into the basket, and thrust down the leaden weight on its opening. 


text:
 Then I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, two women coming forward! The wind was in their wings. They had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven. 


text:
 Then I said to the angel who talked with me, &amp;quot;Where are they taking the basket?&amp;quot; 


text:
 He said to me, &amp;quot;To the land of Shinar, to build a house for it. And when this is prepared, they will set the basket down there on its base.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Again I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four chariots came out from between two mountains. And the mountains were mountains of bronze. 


text:
 Then I answered and said to the angel who talked with me, &amp;quot;What are these, my lord?&amp;quot; 


text:
 And the angel answered and said to me, &amp;quot;These are going out to the four winds of heaven, after presenting themselves before the LORD of all the earth. 


text:
 The chariot with the black horses goes toward the north country, the white ones go after them, and the dappled ones go toward the south country.&amp;quot; 


text:
 When the strong horses came out, they were impatient to go and patrol the earth. And he said, &amp;quot;Go, patrol the earth.&amp;quot; So they patrolled the earth. 


text:
 Then he cried to me, &amp;quot;Behold, those who go toward the north country have set my Spirit at rest in the north country.&amp;quot; 


text:
 &amp;quot;Take from the exiles Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, who have arrived from Babylon, and go the same day to the house of Josiah, the son of Zephaniah. 


text:
 Take from them silver and gold, and make a crown, and set it on the head of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. 


text:
 And say to him, &amp;apos;Thus says the LORD of hosts, &amp;quot;Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: for he shall branch out from his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD. 


text:
 It is he who shall build the temple of the LORD and shall bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule on his throne. And there shall be a priest on his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.&amp;quot;&amp;apos; 


text:
 And the crown shall be in the temple of the LORD as a reminder to Helem, Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Hen the son of Zephaniah. 


text:
 &amp;quot;And those who are far off shall come and help to build the temple of the LORD. And you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. And this shall come to pass, if you will diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God.&amp;quot; 


text:
 In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev. 


text:
 Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men to entreat the favor of the LORD, 


text:
 saying to the priests of the house of the LORD of hosts and the prophets, &amp;quot;Should I weep and abstain in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?&amp;quot; 


text:
 &amp;quot;Say to all the people of the land and the priests, When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted? 


text:
 Were not these the words that the LORD proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous, with her cities around her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited?&amp;quot; 


text:
 &amp;quot;Thus says the LORD of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, 


text:
 do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.&amp;quot; 


text:
 But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear. 


text:
 They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of hosts. 


text:
 &amp;quot;As I called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear,&amp;quot; says the LORD of hosts, 


text:
 &amp;quot;and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and the pleasant land was made desolate.&amp;quot; 


text:
 &amp;quot;Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath. 


text:
 Thus says the LORD: I have returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts, the holy mountain. 


text:
 Thus says the LORD of hosts: Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of great age. 


text:
 Thus says the LORD of hosts: If it is marvelous in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvelous in my sight, declares the LORD of hosts? 


text:
 Thus says the LORD of hosts: behold, I will save my people from the east country and from the west country, 


text:
 and I will bring them to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in faithfulness and in righteousness.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Thus says the LORD of hosts: &amp;quot;Let your hands be strong, you who in these days have been hearing these words from the mouth of the prophets who were present on the day that the foundation of the house of the LORD of hosts was laid, that the temple might be built. 


text:
 For before those days there was no wage for man or any wage for beast, neither was there any safety from the foe for him who went out or came in, for I set every man against his neighbor. 


text:
 But now I will not deal with the remnant of this people as in the former days, declares the LORD of hosts. 


text:
 For there shall be a sowing of peace. The vine shall give its fruit, and the ground shall give its produce, and the heavens shall give their dew. And I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things. 


text:
 And as you have been a byword of cursing among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and you shall be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands be strong.&amp;quot; 


text:
 For thus says the LORD of hosts: &amp;quot;As I purposed to bring disaster to you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, and I did not relent, says the LORD of hosts, 


text:
 so again have I purposed in these days to bring good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah; fear not. 


text:
 These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace; 


text:
 do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the LORD.&amp;quot; 


text:
 &amp;quot;Thus says the LORD of hosts: The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah seasons of joy and gladness and cheerful feasts. Therefore love truth and peace. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Thus says the LORD of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, even the inhabitants of many cities. 


text:
 The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, &amp;apos;Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the LORD and to seek the LORD of hosts; I myself am going.&amp;apos; 


text:
 Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the LORD. 


text:
 Thus says the LORD of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, &amp;apos;Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.&amp;apos;&amp;quot; 


text:
 The burden of the word of the LORD is against the land of Hadrach and Damascus is its resting place. For the LORD has an eye on mankind and on all the tribes of Israel, 


text:
 Tyre has built herself a rampart and heaped up silver like dust, and fine gold like the mud of the streets. 


text:
 But behold, the Lord will strip her of her possessions and strike down her power on the sea, and she shall be devoured by fire. 


text:
 Ashkelon shall see it, and be afraid; Gaza too, and shall writhe in anguish; Ekron also, because its hopes are confounded. The king shall perish from Gaza; Ashkelon shall be uninhabited; 


text:
 I will take away its blood from its mouth, and its abominations from between its teeth; it too shall be a remnant for our God; it shall be like a clan in Judah, and Ekron shall be like the Jebusites. 


text:
 Then I will encamp at my house as a guard, so that none shall march to and fro; no oppressor shall again march over them, for now I see with my own eyes. 


text:
 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. 


text:
 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. 


text:
 As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. 


text:
 Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double. 


text:
 For I have bent Judah as my bow; I have made Ephraim its arrow. I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and wield you like a warrior&amp;apos;s sword. 


text:
 Then the LORD will appear over them, and his arrow will go forth like lightning; the Lord GOD will sound the trumpet and will march forth in the whirlwinds of the south. 


text:
 The LORD of hosts will protect them, and they shall devour, and tread down the sling stones, and they shall drink and roar as if drunk with wine, and be full like a bowl, drenched like the corners of the altar. 


text:
 On that day the LORD their God will save them, as the flock of his people; for like the jewels of a crown they shall shine on his land. 


text:
 For how great is his goodness, and how great his beauty! Grain shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the young women. 


text:
 Ask rain from the LORD in the season of the spring rain, from the LORD who makes the storm clouds, and he will give them showers of rain, to everyone the vegetation in the field. 


text:
 For the household gods utter nonsense, and the diviners see lies; they tell false dreams and give empty consolation. Therefore the people wander like sheep; they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd. 


text:
 &amp;quot;My anger is hot against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders; for the LORD of hosts cares for his flock, the house of Judah, and will make them like his majestic steed in battle. 


text:
 From him shall come the cornerstone, from him the tent peg, from him the battle bow, from him every ruler--all of them together. 


text:
 They shall be like mighty men in battle, trampling the foe in the mud of the streets; they shall fight because the LORD is with them, and they shall put to shame the riders on horses. 


text:
 &amp;quot;I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back because I have compassion on them, and they shall be as though I had not rejected them, for I am the LORD their God and I will answer them. 


text:
 Then Ephraim shall become like a mighty warrior, and their hearts shall be glad as with wine. Their children shall see it and be glad; their hearts shall rejoice in the LORD. 


text:
 &amp;quot;I will whistle for them and gather them in, for I have redeemed them, and they shall be as many as they were before. 


text:
 Though I scattered them among the nations, yet in far countries they shall remember me, and with their children they shall live and return. 


text:
 I will bring them home from the land of Egypt, and gather them from Assyria, and I will bring them to the land of Gilead and to Lebanon, till there is no room for them. 


text:
 He shall pass through the sea of troubles and strike down the waves of the sea, and all the depths of the Nile shall be dried up. The pride of Assyria shall be laid low, and the scepter of Egypt shall depart. 


text:
 I will make them strong in the LORD, and they shall walk in his name,&amp;quot; declares the LORD. 


text:
 Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen, for the glorious trees are ruined! Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has been felled! 


text:
 The sound of the wail of the shepherds, for their glory is ruined! The sound of the roar of the lions, for the thicket of the Jordan is ruined! 


text:
 Those who buy them slaughter them and go unpunished, and those who sell them say, &amp;apos;Blessed be the LORD, I have become rich,&amp;apos; and their own shepherds have no pity on them. 


text:
 For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land, declares the LORD. Behold, I will cause each of them to fall into the hand of his neighbor, and each into the hand of his king, and they shall crush the land, and I will deliver none from their hand.&amp;quot; 


text:
 So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders. And I took two staffs, one I named Favor, the other I named Union. And I tended the sheep. 


text:
 In one month I destroyed the three shepherds. But I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. 


text:
 So I said, &amp;quot;I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die. What is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed. And let those who are left devour the flesh of one another.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And I took my staff Favor, and I broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples. 


text:
 So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep traders, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the LORD. 


text:
 Then I said to them, &amp;quot;If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.&amp;quot; And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. 


text:
 Then the LORD said to me, &amp;quot;Throw it to the potter&amp;quot;--the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD, to the potter. 


text:
 For behold, I am raising up in the land a shepherd who does not care for those being destroyed, or seek the young or heal the maimed or nourish the healthy, but devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Woe to my worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye! Let his arm be wholly withered, his right eye utterly blinded!&amp;quot; 


text:
 The burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel: Thus declares the LORD, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him: 


text:
 &amp;quot;Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem will also be against Judah. 


text:
 On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth will gather against it. 


text:
 On that day, declares the LORD, I will strike every horse with panic, and its rider with madness. But for the sake of the house of Judah I will keep my eyes open, when I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. 


text:
 Then the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, &amp;apos;The inhabitants of Jerusalem have strength through the LORD of hosts, their God.&amp;apos; 


text:
 &amp;quot;On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a blazing pot in the midst of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves. And they shall devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, while Jerusalem shall again be inhabited in its place, in Jerusalem. 


text:
 &amp;quot;And the LORD will give salvation to the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not surpass that of Judah. 


text:
 On that day the LORD will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the LORD, going before them. 


text:
 &amp;quot;And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. 


text:
 On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 


text:
 The land shall mourn, each family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; 


text:
 the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves; 


text:
 &amp;quot;On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness. 


text:
 &amp;quot;And on that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that they shall be remembered no more. And also I will remove from the land the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness. 


text:
 And if anyone again prophesies, his father and mother who bore him will say to him, &amp;apos;You shall not live, for you speak lies in the name of the LORD.&amp;apos; And his father and mother who bore him shall pierce him through when he prophesies. 


text:
 &amp;quot;On that day every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies. He will not put on a hairy cloak in order to deceive, 


text:
 but he will say, &amp;apos;I am no prophet, I am a worker of the soil, for a man sold me in my youth.&amp;apos; 


text:
 And if one asks him, &amp;apos;What are these wounds on your back?&amp;apos; he will say, &amp;apos;The wounds I received in the house of my friends.&amp;apos; 


text:
 &amp;quot;Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me,&amp;quot; declares the LORD of hosts. &amp;quot;Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones. 


text:
 In the whole land, declares the LORD, two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive. 


text:
 And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, &amp;apos;They are my people&amp;apos;; and they will say, &amp;apos;The LORD is my God.&amp;apos;&amp;quot; 


text:
 Behold, a day is coming for the LORD, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst. 


text:
 For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. 


text:
 On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward. 


text:
 And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal. And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him. 


text:
 And there shall be a unique day, which is known to the LORD, neither day nor night, but at evening time there shall be light. 


text:
 On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea. It shall continue in summer as in winter. 


text:
 The whole land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. But Jerusalem shall remain aloft on its site from the Gate of Benjamin to the place of the former gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king&amp;apos;s winepresses. 


text:
 And it shall be inhabited, for there shall never again be a decree of utter destruction. Jerusalem shall dwell in security. 


text:
 And this shall be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. 


text:
 And on that day a great panic from the LORD shall fall on them, so that each will seize the hand of another, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of the other. 


text:
 Even Judah will fight at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be collected, gold, silver, and garments in great abundance. 


text:
 And a plague like this plague shall fall on the horses, the mules, the camels, the donkeys, and whatever beasts may be in those camps. 


text:
 Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths. 


text:
 And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain on them. 


text:
 And if the family of Egypt does not go up and present themselves, then on them there shall be no rain; there shall be the plague with which the LORD afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths. 


text:
 This shall be the punishment to Egypt and the punishment to all the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths. 


text:
 And on that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, &amp;quot;Holy to the LORD.&amp;quot; And the pots in the house of the LORD shall be as the bowls before the altar. 


text:
 And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to the LORD of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the meat of the sacrifice in them. And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day. 


text:
 &amp;quot;I have loved you,&amp;quot; says the LORD. But you say, &amp;quot;How have you loved us?&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Is not Esau Jacob&amp;apos;s brother?&amp;quot; declares the LORD. &amp;quot;Yet I have loved Jacob 


text:
 but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.&amp;quot; 


text:
 If Edom says, &amp;quot;We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,&amp;quot; the LORD of hosts says, &amp;quot;They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called &amp;apos;the wicked country,&amp;apos; and &amp;apos;the people with whom the LORD is angry forever.&amp;apos;&amp;quot; 


text:
 Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, &amp;quot;Great is the LORD beyond the border of Israel!&amp;quot; 


text:
 &amp;quot;A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, &amp;apos;How have we despised your name?&amp;apos; 


text:
 By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, &amp;apos;How have we polluted you?&amp;apos; By saying that the LORD&amp;apos;s table may be despised. 


text:
 When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the LORD of hosts. 


text:
 And now entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. With such a gift from your hand, will he show favor to any of you? says the LORD of hosts. 


text:
 Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand. 


text:
 For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts. 


text:
 But you profane it when you say that the Lord&amp;apos;s table is polluted, and its fruit, that is, its food may be despised. 


text:
 But you say, &amp;apos;What a weariness this is,&amp;apos; and you snort at it, says the LORD of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the LORD. 


text:
 Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great King, says the LORD of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations. 


text:
 If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the LORD of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart. 


text:
 Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it. 


text:
 So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the LORD of hosts. 


text:
 My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. 


text:
 True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. 


text:
 For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. 


text:
 But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the LORD of hosts, 


text:
 and so I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you do not keep my ways but show partiality in your instruction.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers? 


text:
 Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the LORD, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. 


text:
 May the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob any descendant of the man who does this, who brings an offering to the LORD of hosts! 


text:
 And this second thing you do. You cover the LORD&amp;apos;s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. 


text:
 But you say, &amp;quot;Why does he not?&amp;quot; Because the LORD was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 


text:
 Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. 


text:
 &amp;quot;For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.&amp;quot; 


text:
 You have wearied the LORD with your words. But you say, &amp;quot;How have we wearied him?&amp;quot; By saying, &amp;quot;Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them.&amp;quot; Or by asking, &amp;quot;Where is the God of justice?&amp;quot; 


text:
 &amp;quot;Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. 


text:
 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner&amp;apos;s fire and like fullers&amp;apos; soap. 


text:
 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD. 


text:
 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts. 


text:
 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, &amp;apos;How shall we return?&amp;apos; 


text:
 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, &amp;apos;How have we robbed you?&amp;apos; In your tithes and contributions. 


text:
 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. 


text:
 I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the LORD of hosts. 


text:
 Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the LORD of hosts. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Your words have been hard against me, says the LORD. But you say, &amp;apos;How have we spoken against you?&amp;apos; 


text:
 You have said, &amp;apos;It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the LORD of hosts? 


text:
 And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape.&amp;apos;&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name. 


text:
 &amp;quot;They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. 


text:
 Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him. 


text:
 &amp;quot;For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 


text:
 But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. 


text:
 And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. 


text:
 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 


text:
 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, 


text:
 and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 


text:
 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 


text:
 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, 


text:
 and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 


text:
 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, 


text:
 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 


text:
 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 


text:
 and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 


text:
 So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations. 


text:
 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 


text:
 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 


text:
 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, &amp;quot;Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 


text:
 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.&amp;quot; 


text:
 &amp;quot;Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel&amp;quot; (which means, God with us). 


text:
 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, 


text:
 saying, &amp;quot;Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.&amp;quot; 


text:
 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 


text:
 &amp;quot;&amp;apos;And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.&amp;apos;&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. 


text:
 And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, &amp;quot;Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.&amp;quot; 


text:
 After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. 


text:
 And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. 


text:
 And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. 


text:
 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, &amp;quot;Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.&amp;quot; 


text:
 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, &amp;quot;Out of Egypt I called my son.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. 


text:
 &amp;quot;A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.&amp;quot; 


text:
 saying, &amp;quot;Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child&amp;apos;s life are dead.&amp;quot; 


text:
 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. 


text:
 And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled: &amp;quot;He shall be called a Nazarene.&amp;quot; 


text:
 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, &amp;quot;The voice of one crying in the wilderness: &amp;apos;Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.&amp;apos;&amp;quot; 


text:
 Now John wore a garment of camel&amp;apos;s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 


text:
 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, &amp;quot;You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 


text:
 And do not presume to say to yourselves, &amp;apos;We have Abraham as our father,&amp;apos; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 


text:
 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 


text:
 &amp;quot;I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 


text:
 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.&amp;quot; 


text:
 John would have prevented him, saying, &amp;quot;I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?&amp;quot; 


text:
 But Jesus answered him, &amp;quot;Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.&amp;quot; Then he consented. 


text:
 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 


text:
 and behold, a voice from heaven said, &amp;quot;This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And the tempter came and said to him, &amp;quot;If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.&amp;quot; 


text:
 But he answered, &amp;quot;It is written, &amp;quot;&amp;apos;Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.&amp;apos;&amp;quot; 


text:
 and said to him, &amp;quot;If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, &amp;quot;&amp;apos;He will command his angels concerning you,&amp;apos; and &amp;quot;&amp;apos;On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.&amp;apos;&amp;quot; 


text:
 Jesus said to him, &amp;quot;Again it is written, &amp;apos;You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.&amp;apos;&amp;quot; 


text:
 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 


text:
 And he said to him, &amp;quot;All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then Jesus said to him, &amp;quot;Be gone, Satan! For it is written, &amp;quot;&amp;apos;You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.&amp;apos;&amp;quot; 


text:
 And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 


text:
 &amp;quot;The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles-- 


text:
 the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.&amp;quot; 


text:
 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, &amp;quot;Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.&amp;quot; 


text:
 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 


text:
 And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. 


text:
 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. 


text:
 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them. 


text:
 And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness&amp;apos; sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 


text:
 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. 


text:
 &amp;quot;You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people&amp;apos;s feet. 


text:
 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 


text:
 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 


text:
 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 


text:
 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 


text:
 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 


text:
 &amp;quot;You have heard that it was said to those of old, &amp;apos;You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.&amp;apos; 


text:
 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, &amp;apos;You fool!&amp;apos; will be liable to the hell of fire. 


text:
 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 


text:
 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 


text:
 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 


text:
 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 


text:
 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 


text:
 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. 


text:
 &amp;quot;It was also said, &amp;apos;Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.&amp;apos; 


text:
 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, &amp;apos;You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.&amp;apos; 


text:
 Let what you say be simply &amp;apos;Yes&amp;apos; or &amp;apos;No&amp;apos;; anything more than this comes from evil. 


text:
 &amp;quot;You have heard that it was said, &amp;apos;An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.&amp;apos; 


text:
 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 


text:
 &amp;quot;You have heard that it was said, &amp;apos;You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.&amp;apos; 


text:
 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 


text:
 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 


text:
 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 


text:
 &amp;quot;Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 


text:
 &amp;quot;And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 


text:
 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 


text:
 &amp;quot;And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 


text:
 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. 


text:
 &amp;quot;And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 


text:
 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 


text:
 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 


text:
 &amp;quot;The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 


text:
 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 


text:
 &amp;quot;No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 


text:
 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 


text:
 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 


text:
 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 


text:
 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, &amp;apos;What shall we eat?&amp;apos; or &amp;apos;What shall we drink?&amp;apos; or &amp;apos;What shall we wear?&amp;apos; 


text:
 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 


text:
 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. 


text:
 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 


text:
 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother&amp;apos;s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 


text:
 Or how can you say to your brother, &amp;apos;Let me take the speck out of your eye,&amp;apos; when there is the log in your own eye? 


text:
 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother&amp;apos;s eye. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 


text:
 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 


text:
 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! 


text:
 &amp;quot;So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep&amp;apos;s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 


text:
 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 


text:
 &amp;quot;Not everyone who says to me, &amp;apos;Lord, Lord,&amp;apos; will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 


text:
 On that day many will say to me, &amp;apos;Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?&amp;apos; 


text:
 And then will I declare to them, &amp;apos;I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.&amp;apos; 


text:
 &amp;quot;Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 


text:
 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 


text:
 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 


text:
 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, &amp;quot;Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, &amp;quot;I will; be clean.&amp;quot; And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 


text:
 And Jesus said to him, &amp;quot;See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.&amp;quot; 


text:
 But the centurion replied, &amp;quot;Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. 


text:
 For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, &amp;apos;Go,&amp;apos; and he goes, and to another, &amp;apos;Come,&amp;apos; and he comes, and to my servant, &amp;apos;Do this,&amp;apos; and he does it.&amp;quot; 


text:
 When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, &amp;quot;Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. 


text:
 I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 


text:
 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And to the centurion Jesus said, &amp;quot;Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.&amp;quot; And the servant was healed at that very moment. 


text:
 That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. 


text:
 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: &amp;quot;He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And a scribe came up and said to him, &amp;quot;Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And Jesus said to him, &amp;quot;Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Another of the disciples said to him, &amp;quot;Lord, let me first go and bury my father.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. 


text:
 And he said to them, &amp;quot;Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?&amp;quot; Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 


text:
 And the men marveled, saying, &amp;quot;What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?&amp;quot; 


text:
 And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. 


text:
 And behold, they cried out, &amp;quot;What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?&amp;quot; 


text:
 And the demons begged him, saying, &amp;quot;If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And he said to them, &amp;quot;Go.&amp;quot; So they came out and went into the pigs, and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters. 


text:
 The herdsmen fled, and going into the city they told everything, especially what had happened to the demon-possessed men. 


text:
 And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region. 


text:
 And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, &amp;quot;Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.&amp;quot; 


text:
 For which is easier, to say, &amp;apos;Your sins are forgiven,&amp;apos; or to say, &amp;apos;Rise and walk&amp;apos;? 


text:
 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins&amp;quot;--he then said to the paralytic--&amp;quot;Rise, pick up your bed and go home.&amp;quot; 


text:
 When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men. 


text:
 As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, &amp;quot;Follow me.&amp;quot; And he rose and followed him. 


text:
 And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. 


text:
 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, &amp;quot;Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?&amp;quot; 


text:
 But when he heard it, he said, &amp;quot;Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 


text:
 Go and learn what this means, &amp;apos;I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.&amp;apos; For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, &amp;quot;Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?&amp;quot; 


text:
 And Jesus said to them, &amp;quot;Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. 


text:
 No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. 


text:
 Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.&amp;quot; 


text:
 While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, &amp;quot;My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, 


text:
 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, &amp;quot;Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.&amp;quot; And instantly the woman was made well. 


text:
 And when Jesus came to the ruler&amp;apos;s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, 


text:
 he said, &amp;quot;Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.&amp;quot; And they laughed at him. 


text:
 And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, &amp;quot;Have mercy on us, Son of David.&amp;quot; 


text:
 When he entered the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said to them, &amp;quot;Do you believe that I am able to do this?&amp;quot; They said to him, &amp;quot;Yes, Lord.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then he touched their eyes, saying, &amp;quot;According to your faith be it done to you.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, &amp;quot;See that no one knows about it.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke. And the crowds marveled, saying, &amp;quot;Never was anything like this seen in Israel.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 


text:
 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 


text:
 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. 


text:
 The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; 


text:
 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 


text:
 These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, &amp;quot;Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, 


text:
 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay. 


text:
 no bag for your journey, nor two tunics nor sandals nor a staff, for the laborer deserves his food. 


text:
 And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. 


text:
 And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 


text:
 And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. 


text:
 Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 


text:
 and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. 


text:
 When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. 


text:
 Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, 


text:
 and you will be hated by all for my name&amp;apos;s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 


text:
 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. 


text:
 It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household. 


text:
 &amp;quot;So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. 


text:
 What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. 


text:
 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 


text:
 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 


text:
 So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, 


text:
 &amp;quot;Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 


text:
 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 


text:
 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 


text:
 The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet&amp;apos;s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person&amp;apos;s reward. 


text:
 And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.&amp;quot; 


text:
 When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities. 


text:
 and said to him, &amp;quot;Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?&amp;quot; 


text:
 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. 


text:
 As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: &amp;quot;What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 


text:
 What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings&amp;apos; houses. 


text:
 This is he of whom it is written, &amp;quot;&amp;apos;Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.&amp;apos; 


text:
 Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 


text:
 From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. 


text:
 &amp;quot;But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, 


text:
 &amp;quot;&amp;apos;We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.&amp;apos; 


text:
 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, &amp;apos;Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!&amp;apos; Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 


text:
 And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. 


text:
 But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.&amp;quot; 


text:
 At that time Jesus declared, &amp;quot;I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; 


text:
 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 


text:
 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 


text:
 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 


text:
 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, &amp;quot;Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.&amp;quot; 


text:
 He said to them, &amp;quot;Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: 


text:
 how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 


text:
 Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? 


text:
 And if you had known what this means, &amp;apos;I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,&amp;apos; you would not have condemned the guiltless. 


text:
 And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, &amp;quot;Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?&amp;quot;--so that they might accuse him. 


text:
 He said to them, &amp;quot;Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? 


text:
 Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then he said to the man, &amp;quot;Stretch out your hand.&amp;quot; And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. 


text:
 a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory; 


text:
 Then a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him, and he healed him, so that the man spoke and saw. 


text:
 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, &amp;quot;It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, &amp;quot;Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. 


text:
 And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 


text:
 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 


text:
 Or how can someone enter a strong man&amp;apos;s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house. 


text:
 Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 


text:
 And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. 


text:
 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 


text:
 The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. 


text:
 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, &amp;quot;Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.&amp;quot; 


text:
 But he answered them, &amp;quot;An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 


text:
 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 


text:
 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. 


text:
 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. 


text:
 &amp;quot;When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. 


text:
 Then it says, &amp;apos;I will return to my house from which I came.&amp;apos; And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. 


text:
 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.&amp;quot; 


text:
 While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. 


text:
 [Someone told him, &amp;quot;Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak to you.&amp;quot;] 


text:
 But he replied to the man who told him, &amp;quot;Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?&amp;quot; 


text:
 And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, &amp;quot;Here are my mother and my brothers! 


text:
 And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. 


text:
 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 


text:
 Then the disciples came and said to him, &amp;quot;Why do you speak to them in parables?&amp;quot; 


text:
 And he answered them, &amp;quot;To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 


text:
 For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 


text:
 This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 


text:
 Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: &amp;quot;&amp;apos;You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. 


text:
 For this people&amp;apos;s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.&amp;apos; 


text:
 For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. 


text:
 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. 


text:
 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, 


text:
 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. 


text:
 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 


text:
 As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.&amp;quot; 


text:
 He put another parable before them, saying, &amp;quot;The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 


text:
 And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, &amp;apos;Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?&amp;apos; 


text:
 He said to them, &amp;apos;An enemy has done this.&amp;apos; So the servants said to him, &amp;apos;Then do you want us to go and gather them?&amp;apos; 


text:
 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.&amp;apos;&amp;quot; 


text:
 He put another parable before them, saying, &amp;quot;The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. 


text:
 It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.&amp;quot; 


text:
 He told them another parable. &amp;quot;The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.&amp;quot; 


text:
 All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. 


text:
 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet: &amp;quot;I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, &amp;quot;Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.&amp;quot; 


text:
 The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 


text:
 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. 


text:
 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, 


text:
 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. 


text:
 &amp;quot;The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. 


text:
 When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. 


text:
 So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous 


text:
 &amp;quot;Have you understood all these things?&amp;quot; They said to him, &amp;quot;Yes.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And he said to them, &amp;quot;Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.&amp;quot; 


text:
 and coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, &amp;quot;Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? 


text:
 Is not this the carpenter&amp;apos;s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? 


text:
 And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, &amp;quot;A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.&amp;quot; 


text:
 and he said to his servants, &amp;quot;This is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead; that is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.&amp;quot; 


text:
 For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip&amp;apos;s wife, 


text:
 And though he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people, because they held him to be a prophet. 


text:
 But when Herod&amp;apos;s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod, 


text:
 Prompted by her mother, she said, &amp;quot;Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 


text:
 Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, &amp;quot;This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 


text:
 And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. 


text:
 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 


text:
 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 


text:
 but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. 


text:
 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, &amp;quot;It is a ghost!&amp;quot; and they cried out in fear. 


text:
 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, &amp;quot;Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And Peter answered him, &amp;quot;Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.&amp;quot; 


text:
 He said, &amp;quot;Come.&amp;quot; So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. 


text:
 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, &amp;quot;Lord, save me.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, &amp;quot;O you of little faith, why did you doubt?&amp;quot; 


text:
 And when the men of that place recognized him, they sent around to all that region and brought to him all who were sick 


text:
 and implored him that they might only touch the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.&amp;quot; 


text:
 He answered them, &amp;quot;And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 


text:
 For God commanded, &amp;apos;Honor your father and your mother,&amp;apos; and, &amp;apos;Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.&amp;apos; 


text:
 But you say, &amp;apos;If anyone tells his father or his mother, &amp;quot;What you would have gained from me is given to God,&amp;quot; 


text:
 he need not honor his father.&amp;apos; So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. 


text:
 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then the disciples came and said to him, &amp;quot;Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?&amp;quot; 


text:
 Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.&amp;quot; 


text:
 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 


text:
 And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, &amp;quot;Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.&amp;quot; 


text:
 But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, &amp;quot;Send her away, for she is crying out after us.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And he answered, &amp;quot;It is not right to take the children&amp;apos;s bread and throw it to the dogs.&amp;quot; 


text:
 She said, &amp;quot;Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters&amp;apos; table.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then Jesus answered her, &amp;quot;O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.&amp;quot; And her daughter was healed instantly. 


text:
 Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and sat down there. 


text:
 And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, 


text:
 so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel. 


text:
 Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, &amp;quot;I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And the disciples said to him, &amp;quot;Where are we to get enough bread in such a desolate place to feed so great a crowd?&amp;quot; 


text:
 And Jesus said to them, &amp;quot;How many loaves do you have?&amp;quot; They said, &amp;quot;Seven, and a few small fish.&amp;quot; 


text:
 he took the seven loaves and the fish, and having given thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 


text:
 And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up seven baskets full of the broken pieces left over. 


text:
 And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. 


text:
 He answered them, &amp;quot;When it is evening, you say, &amp;apos;It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.&amp;apos; 


text:
 And in the morning, &amp;apos;It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.&amp;apos; You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. 


text:
 An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.&amp;quot; So he left them and departed. 


text:
 Jesus said to them, &amp;quot;Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.&amp;quot; 


text:
 But Jesus, aware of this, said, &amp;quot;O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? 


text:
 Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 


text:
 How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. 


text:
 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, &amp;quot;Who do people say that the Son of Man is?&amp;quot; 


text:
 And they said, &amp;quot;Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And Jesus answered him, &amp;quot;Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 


text:
 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 


text:
 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.&amp;quot; 


text:
 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 


text:
 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, &amp;quot;Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.&amp;quot; 


text:
 But he turned and said to Peter, &amp;quot;Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then Jesus told his disciples, &amp;quot;If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 


text:
 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 


text:
 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 


text:
 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. 


text:
 Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 


text:
 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. 


text:
 And Peter said to Jesus, &amp;quot;Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.&amp;quot; 


text:
 He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, &amp;quot;This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, &amp;quot;Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And the disciples asked him, &amp;quot;Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?&amp;quot; 


text:
 But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.&amp;quot; 


text:
 said, &amp;quot;Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. 


text:
 And Jesus answered, &amp;quot;O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, &amp;quot;Why could we not cast it out?&amp;quot; 


text:
 He said to them, &amp;quot;Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, &amp;apos;Move from here to there,&amp;apos; and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.&amp;quot; 


text:
 As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, &amp;quot;The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, 


text:
 and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.&amp;quot; And they were greatly distressed. 


text:
 When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax went up to Peter and said, &amp;quot;Does your teacher not pay the tax?&amp;quot; 


text:
 He said, &amp;quot;Yes.&amp;quot; And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, &amp;quot;What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?&amp;quot; 


text:
 And when he said, &amp;quot;From others,&amp;quot; Jesus said to him, &amp;quot;Then the sons are free. 


text:
 However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.&amp;quot; 


text:
 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, &amp;quot;Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?&amp;quot; 


text:
 and said, &amp;quot;Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 


text:
 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! 


text:
 And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. 


text:
 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire. 


text:
 &amp;quot;See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. 


text:
 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? 


text:
 And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. 


text:
 &amp;quot;If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 


text:
 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 


text:
 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 


text:
 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 


text:
 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 


text:
 Then Peter came up and said to him, &amp;quot;Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?&amp;quot; 


text:
 &amp;quot;Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. 


text:
 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. 


text:
 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, &amp;apos;Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.&amp;apos; 


text:
 But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, &amp;apos;Pay what you owe.&amp;apos; 


text:
 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, &amp;apos;Have patience with me, and I will pay you.&amp;apos; 


text:
 When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. 


text:
 Then his master summoned him and said to him, &amp;apos;You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 


text:
 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. 


text:
 And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, &amp;quot;Is it lawful to divorce one&amp;apos;s wife for any cause?&amp;quot; 


text:
 He answered, &amp;quot;Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 


text:
 and said, &amp;apos;Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh&amp;apos;? 


text:
 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.&amp;quot; 


text:
 They said to him, &amp;quot;Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?&amp;quot; 


text:
 He said to them, &amp;quot;Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 


text:
 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.&amp;quot; 


text:
 The disciples said to him, &amp;quot;If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.&amp;quot; 


text:
 But he said to them, &amp;quot;Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. 


text:
 For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, 


text:
 but Jesus said, &amp;quot;Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And behold, a man came up to him, saying, &amp;quot;Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?&amp;quot; 


text:
 And he said to him, &amp;quot;Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.&amp;quot; 


text:
 He said to him, &amp;quot;Which ones?&amp;quot; And Jesus said, &amp;quot;You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, 


text:
 Jesus said to him, &amp;quot;If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And Jesus said to his disciples, &amp;quot;Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. 


text:
 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.&amp;quot; 


text:
 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, &amp;quot;Who then can be saved?&amp;quot; 


text:
 But Jesus looked at them and said, &amp;quot;With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then Peter said in reply, &amp;quot;See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?&amp;quot; 


text:
 Jesus said to them, &amp;quot;Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 


text:
 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name&amp;apos;s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. 


text:
 &amp;quot;For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 


text:
 and to them he said, &amp;apos;You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.&amp;apos; 


text:
 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, &amp;apos;Why do you stand here idle all day?&amp;apos; 


text:
 They said to him, &amp;apos;Because no one has hired us.&amp;apos; He said to them, &amp;apos;You go into the vineyard too.&amp;apos; 


text:
 And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, &amp;apos;Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.&amp;apos; 


text:
 Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. 


text:
 saying, &amp;apos;These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.&amp;apos; 


text:
 But he replied to one of them, &amp;apos;Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 


text:
 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?&amp;apos; 


text:
 And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, 


text:
 &amp;quot;See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death 


text:
 and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. 


text:
 And he said to her, &amp;quot;What do you want?&amp;quot; She said to him, &amp;quot;Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Jesus answered, &amp;quot;You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?&amp;quot; They said to him, &amp;quot;We are able.&amp;quot; 


text:
 He said to them, &amp;quot;You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.&amp;quot; 


text:
 But Jesus called them to him and said, &amp;quot;You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 


text:
 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, &amp;quot;Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!&amp;quot; 


text:
 The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent, but they cried out all the more, &amp;quot;Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!&amp;quot; 


text:
 And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him. 


text:
 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 


text:
 saying to them, &amp;quot;Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 


text:
 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, &amp;apos;The Lord needs them,&amp;apos; and he will send them at once.&amp;quot; 


text:
 &amp;quot;Say to the daughter of Zion, &amp;apos;Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.&amp;apos;&amp;quot; 


text:
 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 


text:
 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, &amp;quot;Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!&amp;quot; 


text:
 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, &amp;quot;Who is this?&amp;quot; 


text:
 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 


text:
 He said to them, &amp;quot;It is written, &amp;apos;My house shall be called a house of prayer,&amp;apos; but you make it a den of robbers.&amp;quot; 


text:
 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, &amp;quot;Hosanna to the Son of David!&amp;quot; they were indignant, 


text:
 and they said to him, &amp;quot;Do you hear what these are saying?&amp;quot; And Jesus said to them, &amp;quot;Yes; have you never read, &amp;quot;&amp;apos;Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise&amp;apos;?&amp;quot; 


text:
 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, &amp;quot;May no fruit ever come from you again!&amp;quot; And the fig tree withered at once. 


text:
 When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, &amp;quot;How did the fig tree wither at once?&amp;quot; 


text:
 And Jesus answered them, &amp;quot;Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, &amp;apos;Be taken up and thrown into the sea,&amp;apos; it will happen. 


text:
 And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, &amp;quot;By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?&amp;quot; 


text:
 Jesus answered them, &amp;quot;I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. 


text:
 The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?&amp;quot; And they discussed it among themselves, saying, &amp;quot;If we say, &amp;apos;From heaven,&amp;apos; he will say to us, &amp;apos;Why then did you not believe him?&amp;apos; 


text:
 But if we say, &amp;apos;From man,&amp;apos; we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.&amp;quot; 


text:
 So they answered Jesus, &amp;quot;We do not know.&amp;quot; And he said to them, &amp;quot;Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. 


text:
 &amp;quot;What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, &amp;apos;Son, go and work in the vineyard today.&amp;apos; 


text:
 And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, &amp;apos;I go, sir,&amp;apos; but did not go. 


text:
 Which of the two did the will of his father?&amp;quot; They said, &amp;quot;The first.&amp;quot; Jesus said to them, &amp;quot;Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. 


text:
 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. 


text:
 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, &amp;apos;This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.&amp;apos; 


text:
 They said to him, &amp;quot;He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Jesus said to them, &amp;quot;Have you never read in the Scriptures: &amp;quot;&amp;apos;The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord&amp;apos;s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes&amp;apos;? 


text:
 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. 


text:
 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.&amp;quot; 


text:
 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. 


text:
 And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet. 


text:
 and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. 


text:
 Again he sent other servants, saying, &amp;apos;Tell those who are invited, See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.&amp;apos; 


text:
 Then he said to his servants, &amp;apos;The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 


text:
 And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. 


text:
 &amp;quot;But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. 


text:
 And he said to him, &amp;apos;Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?&amp;apos; And he was speechless. 


text:
 Then the king said to the attendants, &amp;apos;Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.&amp;apos; 


text:
 And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, &amp;quot;Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone&amp;apos;s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. 


text:
 They said, &amp;quot;Caesar&amp;apos;s.&amp;quot; Then he said to them, &amp;quot;Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar&amp;apos;s, and to God the things that are God&amp;apos;s.&amp;quot; 


text:
 The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, 


text:
 saying, &amp;quot;Teacher, Moses said, &amp;apos;If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.&amp;apos; 


text:
 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no children left his wife to his brother. 


text:
 In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.&amp;quot; 


text:
 But Jesus answered them, &amp;quot;You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. 


text:
 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 


text:
 &amp;apos;I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob&amp;apos;? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And he said to him, &amp;quot;You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 


text:
 saying, &amp;quot;What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?&amp;quot; They said to him, &amp;quot;The son of David.&amp;quot; 


text:
 &amp;quot;&amp;apos;The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet&amp;apos;? 


text:
 And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions. 


text:
 so practice and observe whatever they tell you--but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice. 


text:
 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people&amp;apos;s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. 


text:
 They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, 


text:
 &amp;quot;But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people&amp;apos;s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. 


text:
 [Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows&amp;apos; houses and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you will receive the greater condemnation.] 


text:
 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Woe to you, blind guides, who say, &amp;apos;If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.&amp;apos; 


text:
 And you say, &amp;apos;If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.&amp;apos; 


text:
 &amp;quot;Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 


text:
 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people&amp;apos;s bones and all uncleanness. 


text:
 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, 


text:
 saying, &amp;apos;If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.&amp;apos; 


text:
 Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, 


text:
 so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. 


text:
 &amp;quot;O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! 


text:
 For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, &amp;apos;Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.&amp;apos;&amp;quot; 


text:
 Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. 


text:
 But he answered them, &amp;quot;You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.&amp;quot; 


text:
 As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, &amp;quot;Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?&amp;quot; 


text:
 For many will come in my name, saying, &amp;apos;I am the Christ,&amp;apos; and they will lead many astray. 


text:
 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. 


text:
 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name&amp;apos;s sake. 


text:
 And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. 


text:
 &amp;quot;So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), 


text:
 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. 


text:
 And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. 


text:
 Then if anyone says to you, &amp;apos;Look, here is the Christ!&amp;apos; or &amp;apos;There he is!&amp;apos; do not believe it. 


text:
 For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. 


text:
 So, if they say to you, &amp;apos;Look, he is in the wilderness,&amp;apos; do not go out. If they say, &amp;apos;Look, he is in the inner rooms,&amp;apos; do not believe it. 


text:
 For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 


text:
 Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 


text:
 And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. 


text:
 &amp;quot;From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. 


text:
 &amp;quot;But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. 


text:
 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, 


text:
 and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 


text:
 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? 


text:
 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know 


text:
 and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 


text:
 &amp;quot;Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 


text:
 But at midnight there was a cry, &amp;apos;Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.&amp;apos; 


text:
 And the foolish said to the wise, &amp;apos;Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.&amp;apos; 


text:
 But the wise answered, saying, &amp;apos;Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.&amp;apos; 


text:
 And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. 


text:
 &amp;quot;For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. 


text:
 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 


text:
 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 


text:
 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master&amp;apos;s money. 


text:
 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, &amp;apos;Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.&amp;apos; 


text:
 His master said to him, &amp;apos;Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.&amp;apos; 


text:
 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, &amp;apos;Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.&amp;apos; 


text:
 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, &amp;apos;Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 


text:
 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.&amp;apos; 


text:
 But his master answered him, &amp;apos;You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 


text:
 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 


text:
 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 


text:
 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.&amp;apos; 


text:
 &amp;quot;When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 


text:
 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 


text:
 Then the King will say to those on his right, &amp;apos;Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 


text:
 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 


text:
 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.&amp;apos; 


text:
 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, &amp;apos;Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 


text:
 And the King will answer them, &amp;apos;Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.&amp;apos; 


text:
 &amp;quot;Then he will say to those on his left, &amp;apos;Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 


text:
 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.&amp;apos; 


text:
 Then they also will answer, saying, &amp;apos;Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?&amp;apos; 


text:
 Then he will answer them, saying, &amp;apos;Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.&amp;apos; 


text:
 &amp;quot;You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, 


text:
 But they said, &amp;quot;Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.&amp;quot; 


text:
 a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. 


text:
 But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, &amp;quot;Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. 


text:
 Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.&amp;quot; 


text:
 and said, &amp;quot;What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?&amp;quot; And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. 


text:
 Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, &amp;quot;Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?&amp;quot; 


text:
 He said, &amp;quot;Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, &amp;apos;The Teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.&amp;apos;&amp;quot; 


text:
 And as they were eating, he said, &amp;quot;Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, &amp;quot;Is it I, Lord?&amp;quot; 


text:
 The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Judas, who would betray him, answered, &amp;quot;Is it I, Rabbi?&amp;quot; He said to him, &amp;quot;You have said so.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, &amp;quot;Take, eat; this is my body.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, &amp;quot;Drink of it, all of you, 


text:
 I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father&amp;apos;s kingdom.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then Jesus said to them, &amp;quot;You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, &amp;apos;I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.&amp;apos; 


text:
 Peter answered him, &amp;quot;Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Jesus said to him, &amp;quot;Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Peter said to him, &amp;quot;Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!&amp;quot; And all the disciples said the same. 


text:
 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, &amp;quot;Sit here, while I go over there and pray.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then he said to them, &amp;quot;My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, &amp;quot;My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, &amp;quot;So, could you not watch with me one hour? 


text:
 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, &amp;quot;My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then he came to the disciples and said to them, &amp;quot;Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 


text:
 While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. 


text:
 Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, &amp;quot;The one I will kiss is the man; seize him.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And he came up to Jesus at once and said, &amp;quot;Greetings, Rabbi!&amp;quot; And he kissed him. 


text:
 Jesus said to him, &amp;quot;Friend, do what you came to do.&amp;quot; Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. 


text:
 And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. 


text:
 Then Jesus said to him, &amp;quot;Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. 


text:
 Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? 


text:
 At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, &amp;quot;Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. 


text:
 But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.&amp;quot; Then all the disciples left him and fled. 


text:
 Then those who had seized Jesus led him to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered. 


text:
 And Peter was following him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and going inside he sat with the guards to see the end. 


text:
 Now the chief priests and the whole Council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, 


text:
 and said, &amp;quot;This man said, &amp;apos;I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to rebuild it in three days.&amp;apos;&amp;quot; 


text:
 And the high priest stood up and said, &amp;quot;Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?&amp;quot; 


text:
 But Jesus remained silent. And the high priest said to him, &amp;quot;I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Jesus said to him, &amp;quot;You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then the high priest tore his robes and said, &amp;quot;He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy. 


text:
 Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came up to him and said, &amp;quot;You also were with Jesus the Galilean.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, &amp;quot;This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.&amp;quot; 


text:
 After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, &amp;quot;Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, &amp;quot;I do not know the man.&amp;quot; And immediately the rooster crowed. 


text:
 And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, &amp;quot;Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.&amp;quot; And he went out and wept bitterly. 


text:
 When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. 


text:
 Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, 


text:
 saying, &amp;quot;I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.&amp;quot; They said, &amp;quot;What is that to us? See to it yourself.&amp;quot; 


text:
 And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself. 


text:
 But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, &amp;quot;It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money.&amp;quot; 


text:
 So they took counsel and bought with them the potter&amp;apos;s field as a burial place for strangers. 


text:
 Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, &amp;quot;And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, 


text:
 Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, &amp;quot;Are you the King of the Jews?&amp;quot; Jesus said, &amp;quot;You have said so.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then Pilate said to him, &amp;quot;Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?&amp;quot; 


text:
 Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted. 


text:
 So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, &amp;quot;Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?&amp;quot; 


text:
 Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, &amp;quot;Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.&amp;quot; 


text:
 The governor again said to them, &amp;quot;Which of the two do you want me to release for you?&amp;quot; And they said, &amp;quot;Barabbas.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Pilate said to them, &amp;quot;Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?&amp;quot; They all said, &amp;quot;Let him be crucified!&amp;quot; 


text:
 And he said, &amp;quot;Why, what evil has he done?&amp;quot; But they shouted all the more, &amp;quot;Let him be crucified!&amp;quot; 


text:
 So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, &amp;quot;I am innocent of this man&amp;apos;s blood; see to it yourselves.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor&amp;apos;s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. 


text:
 and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, &amp;quot;Hail, King of the Jews!&amp;quot; 


text:
 And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him. 


text:
 As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross. 


text:
 And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, &amp;quot;This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.&amp;quot; 


text:
 and saying, &amp;quot;You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.&amp;quot; 


text:
 &amp;quot;He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 


text:
 He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, &amp;apos;I am the Son of God.&amp;apos;&amp;quot; 


text:
 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, &amp;quot;Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?&amp;quot; that is, &amp;quot;My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?&amp;quot; 


text:
 And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. 


text:
 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 


text:
 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. 


text:
 When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, &amp;quot;Truly this was the Son of God!&amp;quot; 


text:
 There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, 


text:
 among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. 


text:
 When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. 


text:
 and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. 


text:
 The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate 


text:
 and said, &amp;quot;Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, &amp;apos;After three days I will rise.&amp;apos; 


text:
 Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, &amp;apos;He has risen from the dead,&amp;apos; and the last fraud will be worse than the first.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Pilate said to them, &amp;quot;You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.&amp;quot; 


text:
 Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 


text:
 And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 


text:
 But the angel said to the women, &amp;quot;Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 


text:
 Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.&amp;quot; 


