The Sundays after Pentecost

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. ²Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two they covered their faces. With two they covered their feet. With two they flew. ³One called to another and said,

Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Armies!

The whole earth is full of his glory!

⁴The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of the one who called, and the temple was filled with smoke.

⁵Then I said, “I am doomed! I am ruined, because I am a man with unclean lips, and I dwell among a people with unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Armies!”

⁶Then one of the seraphim flew to me, carrying a glowing coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. ⁷He touched my mouth with the coal and said, “Look, this has touched your lips, so your guilt is taken away, and your sin is forgiven.”

⁸Then I heard the Lord’s voice, saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?”

Then I said, “Here I am. Send me!”

¹⁴Indeed, those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. ¹⁵For you did not receive a spirit of slavery so that you are afraid again, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we call out, “Abba, Father!” ¹⁶The Spirit himself joins our spirit in testifying that we are God’s children.

¹⁷Now if we are children, we are also heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, since we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. ²He came to Jesus at night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these miraculous signs you are doing unless God is with him.”

³Jesus replied, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless someone is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

⁴Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?”

⁵Jesus answered, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God! ⁶Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh. Whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷Do not be surprised when I tell you that you must be born from above. ⁸The wind blows where it pleases. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

⁹“How can these things be?” asked Nicodemus.

¹⁰“You are the teacher of Israel,” Jesus answered, “and you do not know these things? ¹¹Amen, Amen, I tell you: We speak what we know, and we testify about what we have seen. But you people do not accept our testimony. ¹²If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? ¹³No one has ascended into heaven, except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.

¹⁴“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵so that everyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

¹⁶“For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

David came to Ahimelek the priest at Nob. When he came to meet David, Ahimelek was trembling with fear, and he said to David, “Why are you alone? Why isn’t there anyone with you?”

²David said to Ahimelek the priest, “The king sent me on a mission and told me, ‘Don’t let anyone know anything about where I am sending you or about your orders.’ I have instructed the young men to wait for me at a certain place. ³So what do you have on hand? Please give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is available.”

⁴The priest answered David, “I do not have any ordinary bread, but there is holy bread—I can give it to you only if your young men have kept themselves away from women.”

⁵David answered the priest, “Yes indeed, women have been kept away from us just as they have been on previous occasions. Whenever I go out on a mission, the bodies of the young men are kept holy even if it is only an ordinary journey. How much more then shall their bodies be holy today?”

⁶So the priest gave him holy bread, because there was no bread there except for the Bread of the Presence which had been removed from the presence of the Lord and replaced with hot bread.

¹³Even when you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ by forgiving us all our trespasses. ¹⁴God erased the record of our debt brought against us by his legal demands. This record stood against us, but he took it away by nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵After disarming the rulers and authorities, he made a public display of them by triumphing over them in Christ.

¹⁶Therefore, do not let anyone judge you in regard to food or drink, or in regard to a festival or a New Moon or a Sabbath day. ¹⁷These are a shadow of the things that were coming, but the body belongs to Christ.

²³Once on a Sabbath day, Jesus was passing through the grain fields, and his disciples began to pick heads of grain as they walked along. ²⁴The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath day?”

²⁵He replied to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry (he and his companions)? ²⁶He entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest and ate the Bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for anyone to eat, except for the priests. He also gave some to his companions.”

²⁷Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. ²⁸So the Son of Man is the Lord even of the Sabbath.”

⁸They heard the voice of the Lord God, who was walking around in the garden during the cooler part of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

⁹The Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

¹⁰The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.”

¹¹God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?”

¹²The man said, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

¹³The Lord God said to the woman, “What have you done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

¹⁴The Lord God said to the serpent:

Because you have done this,

you are cursed more than all the livestock,

and more than every wild animal.

You shall crawl on your belly,

and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.

¹⁵I will put hostility between you and the woman,

and between your seed and her seed.

He will crush your head,

and you will crush his heel.

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven. He had the key to the abyss and a great chain in his hand. ²He seized the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, bound him for a thousand years, ³threw him into the abyss, locked it, and set a seal on it, so that he could no longer deceive the nations until the thousand years come to an end. After this he must be released for a short time.

⁴Then I saw thrones, and those who were sitting on them were given the authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshipped the beast and his image, and they did not receive his mark on their forehead and on their hand. They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. ⁵(The rest of the dead did not live until the thousand years came to an end.) This is the first resurrection.

⁶Blessed and holy is the one who has a share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them. Instead they will be priests of God and of Christ. And they will reign with him for a thousand years.

²⁰They went into a house. A crowd gathered again so that they were not even able to eat a meal. ²¹When his own people heard this, they went out to take control of him, because they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”

²²The experts in the law who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “He drives out demons by the ruler of demons.”

²³Jesus called them together and spoke to them in parables. “How can Satan drive out Satan? ²⁴If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. ²⁵And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. ²⁶And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand but is finished. ²⁷On the other hand, no one can enter a strong man’s house to steal his possessions unless he ties up the strong man first. Then he can plunder his house. ²⁸Amen I tell you: Everything will be forgiven people, their sins and whatever blasphemies they may speak. ²⁹But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.” ³⁰Jesus said this because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

³¹Then his mother and his brothers arrived. While they were standing outside, they sent word to Jesus, calling for him. ³²A crowd was sitting around him. They began to tell him, “Look, your mother and your brothers are outside looking for you.”

³³He replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” ³⁴He looked at those who sat around him in a circle and he said, “Look, my mother and my brothers! ³⁵For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: ²“Get up, go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.”

³So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh just as the word of the Lord had commanded. Now Nineveh was a great city to God. It required a three-day walk. ⁴Jonah walked through the city for a day, and he called out, “Forty more days and Nineveh is going to be overthrown!”

⁵The men of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least. ⁶When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. ⁷Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh.

By the decree of the king and his leading officials:

Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything. Do not let them eat food or drink water. ⁸Instead let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call fervently to God. Let them turn from their evil way and from the violence that is in their hands. ⁹Who knows? God may turn and relent. He may turn from his burning anger so that we will not perish.

¹⁰When God saw their actions, that they had turned from their evil way, God relented from the disaster which he said he would bring on them, and he did not carry it out.

³We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, ⁴because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints ⁵because of the hope that is stored up for you in heaven. You have already heard about this in the word of truth, the gospel ⁶that is present with you now. The gospel is bearing fruit and growing in the entire world, just as it also has been doing among you from the day you heard it and came to know the grace of God in truth. ⁷You learned this from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf. ⁸He is the one who told us about your love in the Spirit.

²⁶He said, “The kingdom of God is like this: A man scatters seed on the ground, ²⁷and while he sleeps and rises, night and day the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. ²⁸The ground produces fruit on its own: first the blade, then the head, then the full grain in the head. ²⁹When the crop is ready, he swings the sickle without delay, because the harvest has come.”

³⁰Then he said, “To what should we compare the kingdom of God? Or with what parable may we picture it? ³¹It is like a mustard seed, which when sown on the ground is one of the smallest of all the seeds planted in the ground. ³²Yet when it is planted, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches so that the birds of the sky can nest under its shade.”

³³With many similar parables he continued to speak the word to them, as much as they were able to hear. ³⁴He did not speak to them without a parable. But when he was alone with his disciples, he explained everything to them.

⁴Who has gone up to heaven and come down?

Who has gathered the wind in the palms of his hands?

Who has wrapped the water in a garment?

Who has set up all the ends of the earth?

What is his name and the name of his son?

Tell me if you know!

⁵Every word of God has been refined.

He is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

¹³When a gentle south wind began to blow, they thought they could carry out their plan. They raised the anchor and sailed close to the shore of Crete.

¹⁴But before long, a hurricane-like wind, called the “northeaster,” rushed down from the island. ¹⁵Since the ship was caught in it and could not head into the wind, we gave way to it and were driven along. ¹⁶As we sailed on the sheltered side of a small island called Cauda, we were barely able to secure the skiff. ¹⁷After hoisting it on board, the men tied ropes around the ship to reinforce it. Then, fearing that they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor and in this way were driven along. ¹⁸Because we were tossed around so violently by the storm, the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard. ¹⁹On the third day, they threw the ship’s gear overboard with their own hands. ²⁰When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the violent storm kept pressing down on us, finally all hope that we would be saved was disappearing.

²¹After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up among them and said, “Men, you should have followed my advice and not set sail from Crete and avoided this damage and loss. ²²But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because there will be no loss of life among you. Only the ship will be lost. ²³In fact, last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me ²⁴and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand before Caesar. And surely God has graciously given you all those who are sailing with you.’ ²⁵So keep up your courage, men, because I believe God that it will be exactly the way I have been told. ²⁶However, we must run aground on some island.”

³⁵On that day, when evening came, Jesus said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side.” ³⁶After leaving the crowd behind, the disciples took him along in the boat, just as he was. Other small boats also followed him. ³⁷A great windstorm arose, and the waves were splashing into the boat, so that the boat was quickly filling up. ³⁸Jesus himself was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. They woke him and said, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are about to drown?”

³⁹Then he got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” The wind stopped, and there was a great calm. ⁴⁰He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still lack faith?”

⁴¹They were filled with awe and said to one another, “Who then is this? Even the wind and the sea obey him!”

¹¹This is what the Lord says. Look! I am raising up disaster against you from your own house. Right in front of your eyes I will take your wives and give them to your neighbor, and he will lie down with your wives in the sight of the sun. ¹²Because you acted in secret, I will do this in front of all Israel in broad daylight.

¹³David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”

Nathan said to David, “The Lord himself has put away your sin. You will not die. ¹⁴Nevertheless, because by this deed you have treated the Lord with utter contempt, the child that is born to you shall surely die.” ¹⁵Then Nathan went to his house.

The Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne for David, and the child became sick. ¹⁶David sought the Lord’s mercy for the child. David fasted and spent the night lying on the ground. ¹⁷The elders of his household stood beside him to pick him up off the ground, but he was not willing, and he would not eat food with them.

¹⁸On the seventh day the child died. The servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, because they said, “Look! When the child was living, we spoke to David, but he did not listen to what we said. How will we speak to him now when the child is dead? He might do something harmful.”

¹⁹When David saw that his servants were whispering together, he understood that the child was dead. So David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” They said, “Yes, he is dead.”

²⁰Then David got up from the ground, washed, put on lotion, and changed his clothes. He went to the House of the Lord and worshipped. He then went back to his house and asked for food. So they prepared a meal for him, and he ate.

²¹His servants said to him, “What are you doing? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept. But when the child died, you got up and ate food.”

²²He said, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept because I said, ‘Who knows? Will the Lord be gracious to me and let my child live?’ ²³Now he has died. Why should I fast? Am I able to return him to life again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”

²⁴David comforted Bathsheba, his wife. He went to her and lay down with her. She gave birth to a son. David called him Solomon. The Lord loved him, ²⁵and the Lord sent a message by the hand of Nathan the prophet that he should be called Jedidiah because of the Lord.

⁸So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Instead, join with me in suffering for the gospel while relying on the power of God. ⁹He saved us and called us with a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, ¹⁰and it has now been revealed through the appearance of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. ¹¹For this gospel I was appointed a herald, apostle, and teacher of the Gentiles, ¹²and that is why I am suffering these things. But I am not ashamed, because I know the one in whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.

¹³Hold fast to the pattern of sound words that you heard from me, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. ¹⁴Through the Holy Spirit, who lives in us, guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you.

²¹When Jesus had again crossed over in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him near the sea. ²²Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet ²³and repeatedly pleaded with him, “My little daughter is near death. Please come and place your hands on her so that she may be healed and live.”

²⁴Jesus went with him.

³⁵While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue ruler’s house arrived, saying, “Your daughter is dead. Why bother the Teacher anymore?”

³⁶But when Jesus heard this report, he told the synagogue ruler, “Don’t be afraid. Only believe.” ³⁷He did not allow anyone to follow him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James. ³⁸They went into the house of the synagogue ruler, and Jesus saw a commotion with people weeping and wailing loudly. ³⁹When he entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.”

⁴⁰They laughed at him. But after he put everyone out, he took the father of the child, her mother, and those who were with him and went in where the child was. ⁴¹Grasping the hand of the child, he said to her, “Talitha, koum!” (When translated, that means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!”) ⁴²Immediately the little girl stood up and began to walk around. (She was twelve years old.) They were completely and utterly amazed. ⁴³Then he gave them strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and he told them to give her something to eat.

He said to me, “Son of man, stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you.” ²The Spirit entered into me as he spoke to me and brought me up to my feet. Then I heard him speaking to me.

³He said to me, “Son of man, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to disloyal nations, who have been disloyal to me. They and their fathers have rebelled against me to this very day. ⁴These children of mine are brazen-faced and hard-hearted. I am sending you to them, and you are to tell them that this is what the Lord God says. ⁵Then, whether they listen or do not listen—for they are a rebellious house—then they will know that a prophet has been among them. ⁶But you, son of man, do not be afraid of them, and do not be afraid of their words. Even though briers and thorns surround you and you are living with scorpions, do not be afraid of their words, and do not be intimidated by the look on their faces, for they are a rebellious house. ⁷You are to speak my words to them whether they listen or they do not, for they are rebellious. ⁸But you, son of man, listen to what I am telling you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I am giving you.”

⁹Then I looked, and I saw a hand stretched out toward me, and in it there was a rolled-up scroll. ¹⁰He unrolled it in front of me, and there was writing on both sides. Written on it was: Laments, Groaning, and Woe.

^3:1Then he said to me, “Son of man, eat what you have received. Eat this scroll, and then go, speak to the house of Israel.” ²I opened my mouth, and he fed me the scroll.

³Then he said to me, “Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your belly with this scroll that I am giving you.” I ate, and in my mouth it was sweet like honey.

⁴He then said to me, “Son of man, go now to the house of Israel and speak my words to them.”

¹⁰But you have faithfully followed my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfast endurance, ¹¹my persecutions, my sufferings—the kind that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, the kind of persecutions I endured—and the Lord rescued me from all of them. ¹²Indeed, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, ¹³while evil people and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

¹⁴As for you, continue in the things you have learned and about which you have become convinced. You know from whom you learned them ¹⁵and that from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶All Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that the man of God may be complete, well equipped for every good work.

^4:1I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom: ²Preach the word. Be ready whether it is convenient or not. Correct, rebuke, and encourage, with all patience and teaching. ³For there will come a time when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, because they have itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in line with their own desires. ⁴They will also turn their ears away from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

⁵As for you, keep a clear head in every situation. Bear hardship. Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry.

Jesus left there and went to his hometown. His disciples followed him. ²When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue. Many who heard him were amazed. They asked, “Where did this man learn these things? What is this wisdom that has been given to this man? How is it that miracles such as these are performed by his hands? ³Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

⁴Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own house.” ⁵He could not do any miracles there except to lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. ⁶He was amazed at their unbelief. Then he went around the villages teaching.

¹⁰Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel:

Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to endure all of his words. ¹¹This is what Amos says: “Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will certainly go into exile away from its own soil.”

¹²Then Amaziah said to Amos, “You seer, get out of here! Flee to the land of Judah. You may eat food and prophesy there. ¹³But you must never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the sanctuary of the king and the national temple.”

¹⁴Then Amos responded to Amaziah:

I was not a prophet, nor was I a son of a prophet. Rather, I was a sheep breeder and I took care of sycamore fig trees. ¹⁵But the Lord took me from tending flocks, and the Lord said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”

¹⁶But now, hear the word of the Lord, you who are saying, “Do not prophesy against Israel” and “Do not preach against the house of Isaac.”

¹⁷This is what the Lord says: “Your wife will be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be parceled out with a measuring line, and as for you, you will die upon unclean soil. And Israel will certainly go into exile far away from its own soil.”

This saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to become an overseer, he desires a noble task. ²It is necessary, then, for the overseer to be above reproach, the husband of only one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, ³not a drunkard, not a violent man but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. ⁴It is necessary that he manage his own household well, with all dignity making sure that his children obey him. ⁵(If a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of God’s church?) ⁶He must not be a recent convert, or he might become conceited and fall into the same condemnation as the Devil. ⁷In addition, he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he may not fall into disgrace and the Devil’s trap.

⁷Jesus called the Twelve and began to send them out two by two. He gave them authority over the unclean spirits. ⁸He instructed them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their money belts. ⁹They were to put on sandals but not to wear two coats. ¹⁰He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that area. ¹¹Any place that will not receive you or listen to you, as you leave there, shake off the dust that is under your feet as a testimony against them.”

¹²They went out and preached that people should repent. ¹³They also drove out many demons. They anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

¹²The Lord said to Moses, “Go up onto this mountain in the Abarim range and see the land which I have given to the Israelites. ¹³After you have seen it, you yourself will also be gathered to your people just as Aaron your brother was gathered. ¹⁴For when the community quarreled in the Wilderness of Zin, you both rebelled against my command to honor me as holy in their sight at the waters.” (This refers to the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin.)

¹⁵Moses spoke to the Lord, ¹⁶“May the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the community, ¹⁷who will go out before them and come in before them, who will lead them out and bring them in, so that the community of the Lord will not be like sheep without a shepherd.”

¹⁸The Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and place your hand on him. ¹⁹Have him stand in front of Eleazar the priest and the entire community. You will commission him in their sight. ²⁰You will give some of your authority to him so that the entire Israelite community will listen to him. ²¹He will stand before Eleazar the priest, who will inquire for him before the Lord with the decision of the Urim. He and all the Israelites with him, the entire community, will go out at his command and come in at his command.”

²²Moses did just as the Lord commanded him. He took Joshua and had him stand in front of Eleazar the priest and the entire community. ²³He placed his hands on him and commissioned him, just as the Lord spoke through Moses.

⁷Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Carefully consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. ⁸Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

¹⁷Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as men who will give an account. Obey them, so that they may do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no benefit to you.

¹⁸Pray for us, because we are sure that we have a good conscience, and because in everything we want to conduct ourselves in an honorable way. ¹⁹I urge you to do this even more, so that I may be restored to you quickly.

²⁰Now may the God of peace—who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, in connection with his blood, which established the eternal testament— ²¹may he equip you with every good thing to do his will, as he works in us what is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

³⁰The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all that they had done and taught. ³¹He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.” For there were so many people coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat. ³²They went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. ³³But many people saw them leave and knew where they were going. They ran there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. ³⁴When Jesus stepped out of the boat, he saw a large crowd. His heart went out to them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. He began to teach them many things.

⁴²A man came from Baal Shalishah and brought the man of God some bread from the first ripe grain, twenty loaves of barley bread, and some new grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Set it before the people so that they can eat.”

⁴³His attendant said, “How can I set this before one hundred men?” But he said, “Set it before the people so that they may eat, for this is what the Lord says: They will eat and have some left over.” ⁴⁴So he set it before them. They ate, and they had some left over, just as the Lord had said.

⁸God is able to make all grace overflow to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will overflow in every good work. ⁹As it is written:

He scattered; he gave to the poor. 

His righteousness remains forever. 

¹⁰And he who provides seed to the sower and bread for food will provide and multiply your seed for sowing, and will increase the harvest of your righteousness. ¹¹You will be made rich in every way so that you may be generous in every way, which produces thanksgiving to God through us.

After this, Jesus crossed over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias). ²A large crowd followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he was performing on those who were sick. ³Jesus went up on the hillside and sat down there with his disciples. ⁴The Jewish Passover Festival was near.

⁵When Jesus looked up and saw a huge crowd coming toward him, he asked Philip, “Where can we buy bread for these people to eat?” ⁶But Jesus was saying this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do.

⁷Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to have just a little.”

⁸One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, ⁹“There’s a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what is that for so many people?”

¹⁰Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, so they sat down. There were about five thousand men.

¹¹Then Jesus took the loaves and, after giving thanks, he distributed pieces to those who were seated. He also did the same with the fish—as much as they wanted.

¹²When the people were full, he told his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over so that nothing is wasted.” ¹³So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with pieces from the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

¹⁴When the people saw the miraculous sign Jesus did, they said, “This really is the Prophet who is coming into the world.”

¹⁵When Jesus realized that they intended to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

²The entire Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. ³The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat around pots of meat and ate as much food as we wanted, but now you have brought us out into this wilderness to have this whole community die of hunger.”

⁴Then the Lord said to Moses, “Watch what I will do. I will rain down bread from heaven for you, and the people will go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test whether they will follow my instructions or not. ⁵On the sixth day they will prepare what they bring in, and it will be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”

⁶So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “At evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, ⁷and in the morning you will see the Glory of the Lord, because he has heard your constant grumbling against the Lord. Who are we that you should grumble against us?”

⁸Moses said, “Now the Lord will give you meat to eat in the evening and as much bread as you want in the morning, because the Lord has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord.”

⁹Then Moses said to Aaron, “Tell the entire Israelite community, ‘Come before the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling.’” ¹⁰As Aaron spoke to the entire Israelite community, they turned toward the wilderness, and suddenly the Glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.

¹¹The Lord spoke to Moses: ¹²“I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Say to them, ‘At evening you will eat meat, and in the morning you will eat bread until you are full. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’”

¹³So in the evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning a layer of dew surrounded the camp. ¹⁴When the layer of dew was gone, there were thin flakes on the surface of the wilderness, thin as frost on the ground. ¹⁵When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” because they did not know what it was.

Moses said to them, “This is the bread which the Lord has given to you as food to eat. ¹⁶This is what the Lord has commanded: All of them are to gather as much of it as they need to eat. You are to take an omer per person based on the number of people each of you has in your tents.”

¹⁷The Israelites did this, and some gathered more, some less. ¹⁸When they measured it with an omer, the one who gathered more did not have too much, and the one who gathered less did not have too little. All of them gathered as much as they needed to eat. ¹⁹Moses said to them, “No one is to leave any of it until morning.” ²⁰However, they did not listen to Moses. Some of them left part of it until morning, and it became full of worms and stank. So Moses was angry with them.

For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, ²and they were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. ³They all ate the same spiritual food ⁴and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them—and that rock was Christ! ⁵Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them. He had them die in the wilderness.

¹¹All these things that were happening to them had meaning as examples, and they were written down to warn us, to whom the end of the ages has come.

¹²So let him who thinks he stands be careful that he does not fall. ¹³No testing has overtaken you except ordinary testing. But God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tested beyond your ability, but when he tests you, he will also bring about the outcome that you are able to bear it.

²⁴When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. ²⁵When they found him on the other side of the sea, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

²⁶Jesus answered them, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: You are not looking for me because you saw the miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. ²⁷Do not continue to work for the food that spoils, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”

²⁸So they said to him, “What should we do to carry out the works of God?”

²⁹Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God: that you believe in the one he sent.”

³⁰Then they asked him, “So what miraculous sign are you going to do, that we may see it and believe you? What miraculous sign are you going to perform? ³¹Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

³²Jesus said to them, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the real bread from heaven. ³³For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

³⁴“Sir,” they said to him, “give us this bread all the time!”

³⁵“I am the Bread of Life,” Jesus told them. “The one who comes to me will never be hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty.

³Elijah was afraid, and he ran for his life. He went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and he left his servant there. ⁴But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. There he sat down under a broom tree, where he prayed that he would die. He said, “I’ve had enough, Lord. Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” ⁵Then he lay down and went to sleep under the broom tree.

Suddenly an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”

⁶Then he looked around, and near his head there was a loaf of bread baking on coals and a jar of water, so he ate and drank, and then he lay down again.

⁷Then the angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, because the journey is too much for you.”

⁸So he got up and ate and drank. Then, with the strength gained from that food he walked for forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.

¹¹We have much to say about this, and it is difficult to explain, because you have become too lazy to listen. ¹²In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the beginning principles of God’s word all over again. You have become people who need milk, not solid food. ¹³For everyone who lives on milk is not acquainted with the word of righteousness, because he is still an infant. ¹⁴But solid food is for mature people, who have their senses trained by practice to distinguish between good and evil.

^6:1Therefore, leaving the beginning discussion of Christ, let us press on toward matters that require greater maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, of faith in God, ²of the teaching about baptisms, of the laying on of hands, of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. ³And we will do this, if God permits.

⁴¹So the Jews started grumbling about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” ⁴²They asked, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? So how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

⁴³Jesus answered them, “Stop grumbling among yourselves. ⁴⁴No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the Last Day. ⁴⁵It is written in the Prophets, ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. ⁴⁶I am not saying that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God. He is the one who has seen the Father. ⁴⁷Amen, Amen, I tell you: The one who believes in me has eternal life.

⁴⁸“I am the Bread of Life. ⁴⁹Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that anyone may eat it and not die. ⁵¹I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Wisdom has built her house.

She has carved out her seven pillars.

²She has prepared her meat.

She has mixed her wine.

She has already set her table.

³She has sent out her servant girls.

She calls from the highest point in the city,

⁴“Whoever is naïve, let him turn in here.”

To someone who lacks sense she says,

⁵“Come, eat my food,

and drink the wine that I have mixed.

⁶Abandon your naïve ways and live.

Travel the road to understanding.”

¹⁵Consider carefully, then, how you walk, not as unwise people, but as wise people. ¹⁶Make the most of your time, because the days are evil. ¹⁷For this reason, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. ¹⁸And do not get drunk on wine, which causes you to lose control. Instead, be filled with the Spirit ¹⁹by speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (singing and making music with your hearts to the Lord), ²⁰by always giving thanks for everything to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

⁵¹I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

⁵²At that, the Jews argued among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

⁵³So Jesus said to them, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves. ⁵⁴The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the Last Day. ⁵⁵For my flesh is real food, and my blood is real drink. ⁵⁶The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. ⁵⁷Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. ⁵⁸This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like your fathers ate and died. The one who eats this bread will live forever.”

⁸The Lord said to Moses and to Aaron, ⁹“When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Give us a warning sign,’ then you are to tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down in front of Pharaoh, and it will become a snake.’”

¹⁰Then Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh. They did just as the Lord had commanded. Aaron threw down his staff in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. ¹¹But then Pharaoh also called for his wise men and sorcerers. Those magicians of Egypt did the same thing by their occult practices. ¹²They each threw down their staffs, and those staffs became snakes. However, Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. ¹³But Pharaoh’s heart was hard, and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had said.

²⁴By faith Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter when he grew up. ²⁵He chose to be mistreated with God’s people rather than enjoy sin for a little while. ²⁶He considered disgrace for the sake of Christ as greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.

²⁷By faith he left Egypt without fearing the king’s wrath, because he persevered as one who sees him who is invisible.

²⁸By faith he celebrated the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not strike them down.

⁶⁰When they heard it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching! Who can listen to it?”

⁶¹But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, asked them, “Does this cause you to stumble in your faith? ⁶²What if you would see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? ⁶³The Spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh does not help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. ⁶⁴But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning those who would not believe and the one who would betray him. ⁶⁵He said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me, unless it is given to him by my Father.”

⁶⁶After this, many of his disciples turned back and were not walking with him anymore. ⁶⁷So Jesus asked the Twelve, “You do not want to leave too, do you?”

⁶⁸Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

So now, Israel, listen to the statutes and the ordinances that I am teaching you, and carry them out so that you may live and so that you may enter the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving to you and take possession of it. ²Do not add to the word that I am commanding you, and do not subtract from it, so that you keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you.

⁶Keep them and put them into practice, because in this way your wisdom and your understanding will be recognized by all the people who hear about all these statutes; and they will say, “This great nation is certainly a wise and understanding people,” ⁷because what other great nation is there that has a god as close to it as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call on him? ⁸What other great nation is there that has statutes and ordinances as righteous as this entire law that I am presenting to you today?

⁹But guard yourselves and guard your whole being diligently, so that you do not forget the things that your eyes have seen and so that those things do not disappear from your heart all the rest of the days of your life. Make them known to your children and to your children’s children.

¹⁷Every good act of giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the lights, who does not change or shift like a shadow. ¹⁸Just as he planned, he gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of his creations.

¹⁹Remember this, my dear brothers: Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. ²⁰Certainly, a man’s anger does not bring about what is right before God. ²¹So after getting rid of all moral filthiness and overflowing wickedness, receive with humility the word planted in you. It is able to save your souls.

²²Be people who do what the word says, not people who only hear it. Such people are deceiving themselves. ²³In fact, if anyone hears the word and does not do what it says, he is like a man who carefully looks at his own natural face in a mirror. ²⁴Indeed, he carefully looks at himself; then, he goes away and immediately forgets what he looked like. ²⁵But the one who looks carefully into the perfect law, the law of freedom, and continues to do so—since he does not hear and forget but actually does what it says—that person will be blessed in what he does.

²⁶If anyone considers himself to be religious but deceives his own heart because he does not bridle his tongue, this person’s religion is worthless. ²⁷Religion that is pure and undefiled in the sight of God the Father is this: to take care of orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

The Pharisees and some of the experts in the law came from Jerusalem and gathered around Jesus. ²They saw some of his disciples eating bread with unclean (that is, unwashed) hands. ³In fact, the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they scrub their hands with a fist, holding to the tradition of the elders. ⁴When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions they adhere to, such as the washing of cups, pitchers, kettles, and dining couches. ⁵The Pharisees and the experts in the law asked Jesus, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders? Instead they eat bread with unclean hands.”

⁶He answered them, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites. As it is written:

These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 

⁷They worship me in vain, teaching human rules as if they were doctrines. 

⁸“You abandon God’s commandment but hold to human tradition like the washing of pitchers and cups, and you do many other such things.”

¹⁴He called the crowd to him again and said, “Everyone, listen to me and understand. ¹⁵There is nothing outside of a man that can make him unclean by going into him. But the things that come out of a man are what make a man unclean.

²¹“In fact, from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual sins, theft, murder, ²²adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, unrestrained immorality, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness. ²³All these evil things proceed from within and make a person unclean.”

⁴Tell those who have a fearful heart:

Be strong.

Do not be afraid.

Look! Your God will come with vengeance.

With God’s own retribution, he will come and save you.

⁵Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,

and the ears of the deaf will be unplugged.

⁶The crippled will leap like a deer,

and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy.

Waters will flow in the wilderness,

and streams in the wasteland.

⁷The burning sand will become a pool,

and in the thirsty ground there will be springs of water.

¹Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, an hour of prayer. ²A certain man who was lame from birth was carried there every day and placed at the temple gate, which is called Beautiful, so that he could beg for donations from those entering the temple. ³When he saw Peter and John about to enter the temple, he asked them for a donation.

⁴Peter looked directly at him, as did John. Peter said, “Look at us.” ⁵So the man paid close attention to them, expecting to receive something from them.

⁶But Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I will give you. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!” ⁷Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately the man’s feet and ankles were made strong. ⁸Jumping up, he stood and began to walk. He entered the temple courts with them, walking, jumping, and praising God.

⁹All the people saw him walking and praising God. ¹⁰They recognized him as the one who used to sit begging for money at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

³¹Jesus left the region of Tyre again and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of the Decapolis.

³²They brought a man to him who was deaf and had a speech impediment. They pleaded with Jesus to place his hand on him. ³³Jesus took him aside in private, away from the crowd. He put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. ³⁴After he looked up to heaven, he sighed and said, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”) ³⁵Immediately the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was set free, and he began to speak plainly. ³⁶Jesus gave the people strict orders to tell no one, but the more he did so, the more they kept proclaiming it. ³⁷They were amazed beyond measure and said, “He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak!”

Shephatiah son of Mattah, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jehucal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malkijah heard what Jeremiah had told the people when he said, ²“This is what the Lord says. Whoever remains in this city will die by sword, famine, and plague, but whoever goes over to the Chaldeans will live. He will escape with his life, and he will live. ³This is what the Lord says. This city will surely be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.”

⁴Then the officials said to the king, “This man should be put to death because he is demoralizing the soldiers who are left in the city. He is demoralizing all the people by saying these things to them. This man is not seeking the welfare of the people. He wants to hurt them.”

⁵King Zedekiah answered, “Very well. He is in your hands. The king cannot do anything to stop you.”

⁶So they took Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern of Malkijah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They let Jeremiah down by ropes. There was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.

⁷Ebed Melek the Cushite, an official in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the cistern. While the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate, ⁸Ebed Melek left the palace and said to the king, ⁹“My lord the king, everything that these men have done to Jeremiah the prophet is evil. They have thrown him into a cistern, where he is likely to die because of the famine, for there is no more bread in the city.”

¹⁰Then the king gave orders to Ebed Melek the Cushite: “Take thirty men from here under your command and lift Jeremiah the prophet up out of the cistern before he dies.”

¹¹So Ebed Melek took command of the men and entered a room under the treasury in the palace. He took some old rags and worn-out clothing from there, and he lowered them with ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern. ¹²Ebed Melek the Cushite said to Jeremiah, “Put these rags and worn-out clothes under your arms to pad the ropes.” After Jeremiah did that, ¹³they lifted him up with the ropes and pulled him out of the cistern. After this Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.

¹²Dear friends, do not be surprised by the fiery trial that is happening among you to test you, as if something strange were happening to you. ¹³Instead rejoice whenever you are sharing in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

¹⁴If you are insulted in connection with the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. ¹⁵Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, a thief, a criminal, or as a meddler. ¹⁶But if you suffer for being a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God in connection with this name. ¹⁷For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God. Now if it begins with us, what will be the end for those who disobey the gospel of God? ¹⁸And if it is hard for the righteous to be saved, where will the ungodly sinner end up? ¹⁹So let those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to their faithful Creator while doing what is good.

²⁷Jesus went away with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”

²⁸They told him, “John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others say one of the prophets.”

²⁹“But who do you say I am?” he asked them.

Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.”

³⁰Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.

³¹Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things; be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the experts in the law; be killed; and after three days rise again. ³²He was speaking plainly to them. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ³³But after turning around and looking at his disciples, Jesus rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have your mind set on the things of God, but the things of men.”

³⁴He called the crowd and his disciples together and said to them, “If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. ³⁵For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.

Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married (for he had married a Cushite woman). ²They said, “Has the Lord really spoken only through Moses? Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” The Lord heard this.

³(Now the man Moses was very humble, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.)

⁴Right then the Lord spoke suddenly to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “You three come out to the Tent of Meeting!”

The three of them came out. ⁵The Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance to the tent. He called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward. ⁶He said, “Now listen to my words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, will make myself known to him in a vision. In a dream I will speak with him. ⁷Not so, however, with my servant Moses. He is faithful in my whole household. ⁸With him I speak face to face, clearly, and not in riddles. He sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?” ⁹The Lord’s anger burned against them, and he left.

¹⁰The cloud went up from above the tent, and immediately Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. Aaron turned to Miriam and saw that she was leprous.

¹¹Aaron said to Moses, “My lord, please do not hold this sin against us. We have acted foolishly. We have sinned. ¹²Please do not let her be like a stillborn infant that comes out of its mother’s womb with its flesh half-eaten away.”

¹³Moses cried out to the Lord, “God, please heal her, please!”

¹⁴The Lord said to Moses, “If her father had merely spit in her face, would she not be disgraced for seven days? Have her confined outside of the camp for seven days, and after that she can be brought back in.”

¹⁵Miriam was confined outside of the camp for seven days, and the people did not set out until Miriam was brought back in.

¹³Who among you is wise and intelligent? Let him by his good way of living show that he does things in wise humility. ¹⁴But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not boast and lie, contrary to the truth. ¹⁵This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but it is worldly, unspiritual, and demonic. ¹⁶In fact, where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and every bad practice. ¹⁷But the wisdom that comes from above is first pure, then also peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial, and sincere. ¹⁸And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who practice peace.

³⁰They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know this, ³¹because he was teaching his disciples. He told them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill him. But three days after he is killed, he will rise.”

³²But they did not understand the statement and were afraid to ask him about it.

³³They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” ³⁴But they remained silent, because on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. ³⁵Jesus sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he will be the last of all and the servant of all.” ³⁶Then he took a little child and placed him in their midst. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, ³⁷“Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me, welcomes not just me but also him who sent me.”

¹⁶So the Lord said to Moses, “Gather seventy men from the elders of Israel for me, men whom you know to be elders and officers for the people. Take them to the Tent of Meeting and make them stand there with you.”

²⁴Moses went out and told the people the Lord’s words. He gathered seventy men from the elders of the people and had them stand all around the tent. ²⁵The Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him. He took from the Spirit that was on Moses and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did not do it again.

²⁶Two men, however, remained in the camp. The name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other was Medad. They were listed among the elders, but they had not gone out to the tent. The Spirit rested on them, and they prophesied back in the camp. ²⁷A young man ran and reported this to Moses. He said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!”

²⁸Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide from his youth, answered, “My lord Moses, stop them!”

²⁹Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? If only all of the Lord’s people were prophets so that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”

¹²I want you to know, brothers, that the things which happened to me actually took place to advance the gospel. ¹³And so it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to all the rest, that I am in chains because of Christ. ¹⁴And, through my chains, the majority of the brothers in the Lord have become much more confident about daring to speak the word of God fearlessly. ¹⁵Some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, and others out of good will. ¹⁶The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am placed here for the defense of the gospel. ¹⁷The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking they can cause trouble for me while I am in chains. ¹⁸What does it matter? Only this, that in every way, whether for outward appearance or for the truth, Christ is being proclaimed, and in this I rejoice.

³⁸John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name. We tried to stop him, because he was not following us.”

³⁹But Jesus said, “Do not try to stop him, because no one who does a miracle in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil about me. ⁴⁰Whoever is not against us is for us. ⁴¹Amen I tell you: Whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name, because you belong to Christ, will certainly not lose his reward.

⁴²“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to fall into sin, it would be better for him if he were thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around his neck. ⁴³If your hand causes you to fall into sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed, than to have two hands and go into hell, into the unquenchable fire, ⁴⁴‘where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’ ⁴⁵If your foot causes you to fall into sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, than to have two feet and be thrown into hell, ⁴⁶‘where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’ ⁴⁷If your eye causes you to fall into sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, ⁴⁸‘where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’ ⁴⁹For everyone will be salted with fire. ⁵⁰Salt is good. But if the salt loses its flavor, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

¹⁸The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is a suitable partner for him.” ¹⁹Out of the soil the Lord God had formed every wild animal and every bird of the sky, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature, that became its name. ²⁰The man gave names to all the livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal, but for Adam no helper was found who was a suitable partner for him. ²¹The Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. As the man slept, the Lord God took a rib and closed up the flesh where it had been. ²²The Lord God built a woman from the rib that he had taken from the man and brought her to the man.

²³The man said,

Now this one is bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh.

She will be called “woman,”

because she was taken out of man.

²⁴For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother

and will remain united with his wife,

and they will become one flesh.

²¹… and by submitting to one another in reverence for Christ.

²²Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. ²³For the husband is the head of the wife, just as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he himself is the Savior. ²⁴Moreover, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their husbands in everything.

²⁵Husbands, love your wives, in the same way as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶to make her holy, by cleansing her with the washing of water in connection with the Word. ²⁷He did this so that he could present her to himself as a glorious church, having no stain or wrinkle or any such thing, but so that she would be holy and blameless. ²⁸In the same way, husbands have an obligation to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹To be sure, no one has ever hated his own body, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, ³⁰because we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones. ³¹“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will be one flesh.” ³²This is a great mystery, but I am talking about Christ and the church. ³³In any case, each one of you also is to love his wife as himself, and each wife is to respect her husband.

^6:1Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ²“Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with a promise: ³“that it may go well with you and that you may live a long life on the earth.” ⁴Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

²Some Pharisees came to test him and asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”

³He replied, “What did Moses command you?”

⁴They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”

⁵But Jesus told them, “He wrote this command for you because of your hard hearts. ⁶But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. ⁷For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, ⁸and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. ⁹Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

¹⁰In the house his disciples asked him about this again. ¹¹He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. ¹²If she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

¹³Some people began bringing little children to Jesus so that he would touch them. But the disciples rebuked them. ¹⁴When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said, “Let the little children come to me! Do not hinder them, because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁵Amen I tell you: Whoever will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” ¹⁶And he took the little children in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

¹⁴So he went down and dipped in the Jordan seven times, just as the man of God had said. Then his flesh was restored like the flesh of a small child, and he was clean. ¹⁵Then he and his whole escort went back to the man of God. He stood in front of Elisha and said, “To be sure, now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel. Now accept a gift from your servant.”

¹⁶But Elisha said, “As surely as the Lord lives, in whose presence I stand, I will not take anything.” Even though Na'aman urged him to accept something, he refused.

¹⁷Then Na'aman said, “If you do not want anything, please give me, your servant, as much dirt as two donkeys can carry, for your servant will never again burn incense or sacrifice to other gods, but only to the Lord. ¹⁸But may the Lord forgive your servant this one thing: When my master goes into the house of Rimmon to bow down there and he supports himself on my arm, then I too have to bow down in the house of Rimmon. When I bow down in the house of Rimmon, may the Lord forgive your servant this one thing.”

¹⁹Then Elisha said to him, “Go in peace.”

When Na'aman had gone some distance from him, ²⁰Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, “My master was too easy on this Aramean, Na'aman, when he did not accept anything that he brought. As surely as the Lord lives, I will run after him and get something from him.”

²¹So Gehazi chased after Na'aman. When Na'aman saw him running after him, he got down from his chariot to meet him. He said, “Is everything all right?”

²²Then Gehazi said, “Yes, everything is all right. My master sent me to say, ‘Look, just now two young men from the hill country of Ephraim, from the sons of the prophets, have come to me. Please give them a talent of silver and two sets of clothing.”

²³Na'aman said, “Certainly! Take two talents!” He urged Gehazi and tied up the two talents of silver in two bags with the two sets of clothing. Then Na'aman gave them to his two servants, and they carried them ahead of Gehazi. ²⁴When he came to the hill, he took the gifts from them. Then he hid them in the house and sent the men back, so they left. ²⁵Then he went in and attended his master.

Elisha said to him, “Where were you, Gehazi?”

Gehazi said, “Your servant didn’t go anywhere.”

²⁶Then Elisha said to him, “Didn’t my heart go along when the man got down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to take silver, or to accept clothes or olive groves or vineyards or sheep or cattle or male and female servants? ²⁷Na'aman’s leprosy will cling to you and to your descendants forever.” Then Gehazi went out from his presence, leprous like snow.

Continue to show brotherly love. ²Do not fail to show love to strangers, for by doing this some have welcomed angels without realizing it. ³Remember those in prison, as if you were fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated, as if you yourselves were also suffering bodily.

⁴Marriage is to be held in honor by all, and the marriage bed is to be kept undefiled, for God will judge sexually immoral people and adulterers. ⁵Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have. For God has said:

I will never leave you,

and I will never forsake you.

⁶So then we say with confidence:

The Lord is my helper, and I will not be afraid.

What will man do to me?

¹⁷As Jesus was setting out on a journey, one man ran up to him and knelt in front of him. He asked, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

¹⁸Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except one—God. ¹⁹You know the commandments. ‘You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony. You shall not defraud. Honor your father and mother.’”

²⁰The man replied, “Teacher, I have kept all these since I was a child.”

²¹Jesus looked at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack. Go, sell whatever you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

²²When he heard this, he looked sad and went away grieving, because he had great wealth. ²³Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!”

²⁴The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus told them again, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in their riches to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

²⁶They were even more astonished and said to one another, “Who then can be saved?”

²⁷Jesus looked at them and said, “For people, it is impossible, but not for God, because all things are possible for God.”

¹⁶But when he had grown powerful, the pride in his heart led to his destruction. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God. He entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.

¹⁷Azariah the priest went in after him. He was followed by eighty priests of the Lord, brave men. ¹⁸They confronted King Uzziah and said to him, “It is not right for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord. That is for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Get out of the sanctuary, because you have been unfaithful. This action will not result in any praise for you from the Lord God.”

¹⁹Uzziah became angry. He had a censer for burning incense in his hand. When he became angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests, beside the altar of incense in the House of the Lord. ²⁰When Azariah, the head priest, and all the other priests looked at him, they immediately realized he had leprosy on his forehead. They rushed him out of there. He himself also was in a hurry to leave because the Lord had struck him.

²¹King Uzziah remained a leper until the day of his death. He lived in a quarantined house because he was a leper. He was excluded from the House of the Lord. Jotham his son was in charge of the palace of the king and administered justice for the people of the land.

²²The rest of the acts of Uzziah, from first to last, were recorded by Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet.

²³Uzziah rested with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the burial field that belonged to the kings, because they said, “He is a leper.” His son Jotham ruled as king in his place.

⁷What soldier ever serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat some of its fruit? Or who takes care of a flock and does not drink milk from the flock? ⁸Am I saying this just from a human point of view? Doesn’t the law also say this? ⁹Yes, it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out grain.” Is God really concerned about oxen, ¹⁰or does he say this entirely for our sake? Yes, it was written for our sake, because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher ought to thresh in hope of getting a share. ¹¹If we sowed spiritual seed for your good, is it too much if we reap material benefits from you? ¹²If others have some right to make this claim on you, don’t we even more? But we did not use this right. Instead, we endure everything so as not to cause any hindrance for the gospel of Christ.

¹⁹In fact, although I am free from all, I enslaved myself to all so that I might gain many more. ²⁰To the Jews, I became like a Jew so that I might gain Jews. To those who are under the law, I became like a person under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might gain those who are under the law. ²¹To those who are without the law, I became like a person without the law (though I am not without God’s law but am within the law of Christ) so that I might gain those who are without the law. ²²To the weak, I became weak so that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all people so that I may save at least some. ²³And I do everything for the sake of the gospel so that I may share in it along with others.

³⁵James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached him and said, “Teacher, we wish that you would do for us whatever we ask.”

³⁶He said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?”

³⁷They said to him, “Promise that we may sit, one at your right and one at your left, in your glory.”

³⁸But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink or be baptized with the baptism that I am going to be baptized with?”

³⁹“We can,” they replied.

Jesus told them, “You will drink the cup that I am going to drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am going to be baptized with. ⁴⁰But to sit at my right or at my left is not for me to give; rather, these places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”

⁴¹When the ten heard this, they were angry with James and John.

⁴²Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. ⁴³But that is not the way it is to be among you. Instead, whoever wants to be great among you will be your servant, ⁴⁴and whoever wants to be first among you will be a slave of all. ⁴⁵For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

But Moses responded, “What if they do not believe me and do not listen to my voice, but instead they say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you’?”

²So the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”

He said, “A staff.”

³He said, “Throw it on the ground.”

Moses threw it on the ground, and it became a snake, so he ran away from it.

⁴The Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand and take it by the tail.”

He stretched out his hand and took hold of it, and it became a staff in his hand.

⁵The Lord said, “This sign is being given to you so that the Israelites will believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

⁶The Lord also said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, his hand was leprous, as white as snow.

⁷Then the Lord said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand inside his cloak again, and when he took it out of his cloak, it was restored like the rest of his flesh.

⁸The Lord said, “If they do not believe you or do not respond to the first sign, they might believe because of the second sign. ⁹If they do not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you are to take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry land. The water which you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry land.”

¹⁰But Moses said to the Lord, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, either in the past or more recently or even since you started speaking to your servant, for my mouth and tongue are slow and clumsy.”

¹¹So the Lord said to him, “Who made a mouth for people? Or who makes someone mute or deaf, able to see or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? ¹²Now go, and I will be with your mouth, and I will teach you what you will speak.”

¹³But he said, “Please, Lord, send someone else.”

¹⁴Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses, and the Lord said, “What about Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Look, he is already coming out to meet you. He will be very glad to see you. ¹⁵You will speak to him and put the words into his mouth. I will be with your mouth and with his, and I will teach you what you are to do. ¹⁶He will speak to the people for you so that it will be as if he were your mouth, and you were God to him.¹⁷You will also take this staff in your hand, the one with which you will perform the signs.”

²²“Men of Israel, hear these words! Jesus the Nazarene was a man recommended to you by God with miracles, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know. ²³This man, who was handed over by God’s set plan and foreknowledge, you killed by having lawless men nail him to a cross. ²⁴He is the one God raised up by freeing him from the agony of death, because death was not able to hold him in its grip.

²⁵“Indeed, David says concerning him:

I saw the Lord always before me.

Because he is at my right hand,

I will not be shaken.

²⁶Therefore my heart was glad,

and my tongue rejoiced.

My flesh also will rest in hope,

²⁷because you will not abandon my life to the grave,

nor will you let your Holy One see decay.

²⁸You have made known to me the paths of life.

You will fill me with joy in your presence.

²⁹“Gentlemen, brothers, I can speak confidently to you about the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. ³⁰Since he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath that he would seat one of his descendants on his throne, ³¹he saw what was coming and spoke about the resurrection of Christ, saying that he was neither abandoned to the grave nor did his flesh see decay.

³²“This Jesus is the one God has raised up. We are all witnesses of that.

⁴⁶They came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, a blind man, Bartimaeus the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the road begging. ⁴⁷When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” ⁴⁸Many told him to be quiet, but he kept shouting all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

⁴⁹Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”

They called the blind man, saying, “Cheer up! Get up. He is calling you!”

⁵⁰He tossed aside his outer garment, jumped up, and went to Jesus.

⁵¹“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him.

The blind man replied, “Rabboni, I want to see again.”

⁵²Jesus told him, “Go. Your faith has made you well.” Immediately he received his sight and began following Jesus on the road.

Moses spoke as follows:

Now this is the body of commands, and these are the statutes and the ordinances that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, so you may carry them out in the land to which you are crossing over to receive as a possession, ²so that you may fear the Lord your God by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I am commanding you, as well as to your children and grandchildren, all the days of your life, and so that your days may be long.

³Listen, O Israel, and be conscientious about doing those things, so it may go well for you and so you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, promised you. ⁴Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God. The Lord is one! ⁵Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶These words that I am commanding you today are to be on your heart. ⁷Teach them diligently to your children, and speak about them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸Tie them as a sign on your wrists, and they will serve as symbols on your forehead. ⁹Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

⁸And why not say (as some slanderously claim we say), “Let us do evil so that good may result.” Their condemnation is deserved.

⁹What then? Are we any better off? No, not at all! In fact, we have already made the charge that all (both Jews and Greeks) are under sin. ¹⁰Just as it is written:

There is no one who is righteous, not even one.

¹¹There is no one who understands. There is no one who searches for God.

¹²They all turned away; together they became useless.

There is no one who does what is good; there is not even one.

¹³Their throat is an open grave.

They kept deceiving with their tongues.

The poison of asps is on their lips.

¹⁴Their mouth is filled with cursing and bitterness.

²⁸One of the experts in the law approached after he heard their discussion. When he saw that Jesus had answered them well, he asked Jesus, “Which commandment is the greatest of all?”

²⁹Jesus answered, “The most important is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ ³¹The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

³²The expert in the law said to him, “Well said, teacher. You have spoken correctly on the basis of the truth that he is one, and there is no other besides him. ³³To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, is more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

³⁴When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.