Holy Bible - New American Bible

1In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth,

²the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters.

³Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

⁴God saw how good the light was. God then separated the light from the darkness.

⁵God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." Thus evening came, and morning followed--the first day.

⁶Then God said, "Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters, to separate one body of water from the other." And so it happened:

⁷God made the dome, and it separated the water above the dome from the water below it.

⁸God called the dome "the sky." Evening came, and morning followed--the second day.

⁹Then God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered into a single basin, so that the dry land may appear." And so it happened: the water under the sky was gathered into its basin, and the dry land appeared.

¹⁰God called the dry land "the earth," and the basin of the water he called "the sea." God saw how good it was.

¹¹Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth vegetation: every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on earth that bears fruit with its seed in it." And so it happened:

¹²the earth brought forth every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on earth that bears fruit with its seed in it. God saw how good it was.

¹³Evening came, and morning followed--the third day.

¹⁴Then God said: "Let there be lights in the dome of the sky, to separate day from night. Let them mark the fixed times, the days and the years,

¹⁵and serve as luminaries in the dome of the sky, to shed light upon the earth." And so it happened:

¹⁶God made the two great lights, the greater one to govern the day, and the lesser one to govern the night; and he made the stars.

¹⁷God set them in the dome of the sky, to shed light upon the earth,

¹⁸to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw how good it was.

¹⁹Evening came, and morning followed--the fourth day.

²⁰Then God said, "Let the water teem with an abundance of living creatures, and on the earth let birds fly beneath the dome of the sky." And so it happened:

²¹God created the great sea monsters and all kinds of swimming creatures with which the water teems, and all kinds of winged birds. God saw how good it was,

²²and God blessed them, saying, "Be fertile, multiply, and fill the water of the seas; and let the birds multiply on the earth."

²³Evening came, and morning followed--the fifth day.

²⁴Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth all kinds of living creatures: cattle, creeping things, and wild animals of all kinds." And so it happened:

²⁵God made all kinds of wild animals, all kinds of cattle, and all kinds of creeping things of the earth. God saw how good it was.

²⁶Then God said: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground."

²⁷God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them.

²⁸God blessed them, saying: "Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth."

²⁹God also said: "See, I give you every seed-bearing plant all over the earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food;

³⁰and to all the animals of the land, all the birds of the air, and all the living creatures that crawl on the ground, I give all the green plants for food." And so it happened.

³¹God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good. Evening came, and morning followed--the sixth day.

2Thus the heavens and the earth and all their array were completed.

²Since on the seventh day God was finished with the work he had been doing, he rested on the seventh day from all the work he had undertaken.

³So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work he had done in creation.

⁴Such is the story of the heavens and the earth at their creation. At the time when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens--

⁵while as yet there was no field shrub on earth and no grass of the field had sprouted, for the LORD God had sent no rain upon the earth and there was no man to till the soil,

⁶but a stream was welling up out of the earth and was watering all the surface of the ground--

⁷the LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being.

⁸Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and he placed there the man whom he had formed.

⁹Out of the ground the LORD God made various trees grow that were delightful to look at and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and bad.

¹⁰A river rises in Eden to water the garden; beyond there it divides and becomes four branches.

¹¹The name of the first is the Pishon; it is the one that winds through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.

¹²The gold of that land is excellent; bdellium and lapis lazuli are also there.

¹³The name of the second river is the Gihon; it is the one that winds all through the land of Cush.

¹⁴The name of the third river is the Tigris; it is the one that flows east of Asshur. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

¹⁵The LORD God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it.

¹⁶The LORD God gave man this order: "You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden

¹⁷except the tree of knowledge of good and bad. From that tree you shall not eat; the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die."

¹⁸The LORD God said: "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him."

¹⁹So the LORD God formed out of the ground various wild animals and various birds of the air, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them; whatever the man called each of them would be its name.

²⁰The man gave names to all the cattle, all the birds of the air, and all the wild animals; but none proved to be the suitable partner for the man.

²¹So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.

²²The LORD God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man. When he brought her to the man,

²³the man said: "This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called 'woman,' for out of 'her man' this one has been taken."

²⁴That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body.

²⁵The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame.

3Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals that the LORD God had made. The serpent asked the woman, "Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?"

²The woman answered the serpent: "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden;

³it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, 'You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.'"

⁴But the serpent said to the woman: "You certainly will not die!

⁵No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad."

⁶The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

⁷Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

⁸When they heard the sound of the LORD God moving about in the garden at the breezy time of the day, the man and his wife hid themselves from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

⁹The LORD God then called to the man and asked him, "Where are you?"

¹⁰He answered, "I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself."

¹¹Then he asked, "Who told you that you were naked? You have eaten, then, from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!"

¹²The man replied, "The woman whom you put here with me--she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it."

¹³The LORD God then asked the woman, "Why did you do such a thing?" The woman answered, "The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it."

¹⁴Then the LORD God said to the serpent: "Because you have done this, you shall be banned from all the animals and from all the wild creatures; On your belly shall you crawl, and dirt shall you eat all the days of your life.

¹⁵I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel."

¹⁶To the woman he said: "I will intensify the pangs of your childbearing; in pain shall you bring forth children. Yet your urge shall be for your husband, and he shall be your master."

¹⁷To the man he said: "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat, "Cursed be the ground because of you! In toil shall you eat its yield all the days of your life.

¹⁸Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you, as you eat of the plants of the field.

¹⁹By the sweat of your face shall you get bread to eat, Until you return to the ground, from which you were taken; For you are dirt, and to dirt you shall return."

²⁰The man called his wife Eve, because she became the mother of all the living.

²¹For the man and his wife the LORD God made leather garments, with which he clothed them.

²²Then the LORD God said: "See! The man has become like one of us, knowing what is good and what is bad! Therefore, he must not be allowed to put out his hand to take fruit from the tree of life also, and thus eat of it and live forever."

²³The LORD God therefore banished him from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he had been taken.

²⁴When he expelled the man, he settled him east of the garden of Eden; and he stationed the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword, to guard the way to the tree of life.

4The man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, "I have produced a man with the help of the LORD."

²Next she bore his brother Abel. Abel became a keeper of flocks, and Cain a tiller of the soil.

³In the course of time Cain brought an offering to the LORD from the fruit of the soil,

⁴while Abel, for his part, brought one of the best firstlings of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering,

⁵but on Cain and his offering he did not. Cain greatly resented this and was crestfallen.

⁶So the LORD said to Cain: "Why are you so resentful and crestfallen?

⁷If you do well, you can hold up your head; but if not, sin is a demon lurking at the door: his urge is toward you, yet you can be his master."

⁸Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let us go out in the field." When they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

⁹Then the LORD asked Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" He answered, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?"

¹⁰The LORD then said: "What have you done! Listen: your brother's blood cries out to me from the soil!

¹¹Therefore you shall be banned from the soil that opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

¹²If you till the soil, it shall no longer give you its produce. You shall become a restless wanderer on the earth."

¹³Cain said to the LORD: "My punishment is too great to bear.

¹⁴Since you have now banished me from the soil, and I must avoid your presence and become a restless wanderer on the earth, anyone may kill me at sight."

¹⁵Not so!" the LORD said to him. "If anyone kills Cain, Cain shall be avenged sevenfold." So the LORD put a mark on Cain, lest anyone should kill him at sight.

¹⁶Cain then left the LORD'S presence and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

¹⁷Cain had relations with his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. Cain also became the founder of a city, which he named after his son Enoch.

¹⁸To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad became the father of Mehujael; Mehujael became the father of Methusael, and Methusael became the father of Lamech.

¹⁹Lamech took two wives; the name of the first was Adah, and the name of the second Zillah.

²⁰Adah gave birth to Jabal, the ancestor of all who dwell in tents and keep cattle.

²¹His brother's name was Jubal; he was the ancestor of all who play the lyre and the pipe.

²²Zillah, on her part, gave birth to Tubalcain, the ancestor of all who forge instruments of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubalcain was Naamah.

²³Lamech said to his wives: "Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; wives of Lamech, listen to my utterance: I have killed a man for wounding me, a boy for bruising me.

²⁴If Cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold."

²⁵Adam again had relations with his wife, and she gave birth to a son whom she called Seth. "God has granted me more offspring in place of Abel," she said, "because Cain slew him."

²⁶To Seth, in turn, a son was born, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to invoke the LORD by name.

5This is the record of the descendants of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God;

²he created them male and female. When they were created, he blessed them and named them "man."

³Adam was one hundred and thirty years old when he begot a son in his likeness, after his image; and he named him Seth.

⁴Adam lived eight hundred years after the birth of Seth, and he had other sons and daughters.

⁵The whole lifetime of Adam was nine hundred and thirty years; then he died.

⁶When Seth was one hundred and five years old, he became the father of Enosh.

⁷Seth lived eight hundred and seven years after the birth of Enosh, and he had other sons and daughters.

⁸The whole lifetime of Seth was nine hundred and twelve years; then he died.

⁹When Enosh was ninety years old, he became the father of Kenan.

¹⁰Enosh lived eight hundred and fifteen years after the birth of Kenan, and he had other sons and daughters.

¹¹The whole lifetime of Enosh was nine hundred and five years; then he died.

¹²When Kenan was seventy years old, he became the father of Mahalalel.

¹³Kenan lived eight hundred and forty years after the birth of Mahalalel, and he had other sons and daughters.

¹⁴The whole lifetime of Kenan was nine hundred and ten years; then he died.

¹⁵When Mahalalel was sixty-five years old, he became the father of Jared.

¹⁶Mahalalel lived eight hundred and thirty years after the birth of Jared, and he had other sons and daughters.

¹⁷The whole lifetime of Mahalalel was eight hundred and ninety-five years; then he died.

¹⁸When Jared was one hundred and sixty-two years old, he became the father of Enoch.

¹⁹Jared lived eight hundred years after the birth of Enoch, and he had other sons and daughters.

²⁰The whole lifetime of Jared was nine hundred and sixty-two years; then he died.

²¹When Enoch was sixty-five years old, he became the father of Methuselah.

²²Enoch lived three hundred years after the birth of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters.

²³The whole lifetime of Enoch was three hundred and sixty-five years.

²⁴Then Enoch walked with God, and he was no longer here, for God took him.

²⁵When Methuselah was one hundred and eighty-seven years old, he became the father of Lamech.

²⁶Methuselah lived seven hundred and eighty-two years after the birth of Lamech, and he had other sons and daughters.

²⁷The whole lifetime of Methuselah was nine hundred and sixty-nine years; then he died.

²⁸When Lamech was one hundred and eighty-two years old, he begot a son

²⁹and named him Noah, saying, "Out of the very ground that the LORD has put under a curse, this one shall bring us relief from our work and the toil of our hands."

³⁰Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years after the birth of Noah, and he had other sons and daughters.

³¹The whole lifetime of Lamech was seven hundred and seventy-seven years; then he died.

³²When Noah was five hundred years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

6When men began to multiply on earth and daughters were born to them,

²the sons of heaven saw how beautiful the daughters of man were, and so they took for their wives as many of them as they chose.

³Then the LORD said: "My spirit shall not remain in man forever, since he is but flesh. His days shall comprise one hundred and twenty years."

⁴At that time the Nephilim appeared on earth (as well as later), after the sons of heaven had intercourse with the daughters of man, who bore them sons. They were the heroes of old, the men of renown.

⁵When the LORD saw how great was man's wickedness on earth, and how no desire that his heart conceived was ever anything but evil,

⁶he regretted that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was grieved.

⁷So the LORD said: "I will wipe out from the earth the men whom I have created, and not only the men, but also the beasts and the creeping things and the birds of the air, for I am sorry that I made them."

⁸But Noah found favor with the LORD.

⁹These are the descendants of Noah. Noah, a good man and blameless in that age,

¹⁰for he walked with God, begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

¹¹In the eyes of God the earth was corrupt and full of lawlessness.

¹²When God saw how corrupt the earth had become, since all mortals led depraved lives on earth,

¹³he said to Noah: "I have decided to put an end to all mortals on earth; the earth is full of lawlessness because of them. So I will destroy them and all life on earth.

¹⁴Make yourself an ark of gopherwood, put various compartments in it, and cover it inside and out with pitch.

¹⁵This is how you shall build it: the length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.

¹⁶Make an opening for daylight in the ark, and finish the ark a cubit above it. Put an entrance in the side of the ark, which you shall make with bottom, second and third decks.

¹⁷I, on my part, am about to bring the flood (waters) on the earth, to destroy everywhere all creatures in which there is the breath of life; everything on earth shall perish.

¹⁸But with you I will establish my covenant; you and your sons, your wife and your sons' wives, shall go into the ark.

¹⁹Of all other living creatures you shall bring two into the ark, one male and one female, that you may keep them alive with you.

²⁰Of all kinds of birds, of all kinds of beasts, and of all kinds of creeping things, two of each shall come into the ark with you, to stay alive.

²¹Moreover, you are to provide yourself with all the food that is to be eaten, and store it away, that it may serve as provisions for you and for them."

²²This Noah did; he carried out all the commands that God gave him.

7Then the LORD said to Noah: "Go into the ark, you and all your household, for you alone in this age have I found to be truly just.

²Of every clean animal, take with you seven pairs, a male and its mate; and of the unclean animals, one pair, a male and its mate;

³likewise, of every clean bird of the air, seven pairs, a male and a female, and of all the unclean birds, one pair, a male and a female. Thus you will keep their issue alive over all the earth.

⁴Seven days from now I will bring rain down on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and so I will wipe out from the surface of the earth every moving creature that I have made."

⁵Noah did just as the LORD had commanded him.

⁶Noah was six hundred years old when the flood waters came upon the earth.

⁷Together with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, Noah went into the ark because of the waters of the flood.

⁸Of the clean animals and the unclean, of the birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground,

⁹(two by two) male and female entered the ark with Noah, just as the LORD had commanded him.

¹⁰As soon as the seven days were over, the waters of the flood came upon the earth.

¹¹In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month: it was on that day that All the fountains of the great abyss burst forth, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.

¹²For forty days and forty nights heavy rain poured down on the earth.

¹³On the precise day named, Noah and his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of Noah's sons had entered the ark,

¹⁴together with every kind of wild beast, every kind of domestic animal, every kind of creeping thing of the earth, and every kind of bird.

¹⁵Pairs of all creatures in which there was the breath of life entered the ark with Noah.

¹⁶Those that entered were male and female, and of all species they came, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in.

¹⁷The flood continued upon the earth for forty days. As the waters increased, they lifted the ark, so that it rose above the earth.

¹⁸The swelling waters increased greatly, but the ark floated on the surface of the waters.

¹⁹Higher and higher above the earth rose the waters, until all the highest mountains everywhere were submerged,

²⁰the crest rising fifteen cubits higher than the submerged mountains.

²¹All creatures that stirred on earth perished: birds, cattle, wild animals, and all that swarmed on the earth, as well as all mankind.

²²Everything on dry land with the faintest breath of life in its nostrils died out.

²³The LORD wiped out every living thing on earth: man and cattle, the creeping things and the birds of the air; all were wiped out from the earth. Only Noah and those with him in the ark were left.

²⁴The waters maintained their crest over the earth for one hundred and fifty days,

8and then God remembered Noah and all the animals, wild and tame, that were with him in the ark. So God made a wind sweep over the earth, and the waters began to subside.

²The fountains of the abyss and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the downpour from the sky was held back.

³Gradually the waters receded from the earth. At the end of one hundred and fifty days, the waters had so diminished

⁴that, in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

⁵The waters continued to diminish until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains appeared.

⁶At the end of forty days Noah opened the hatch he had made in the ark,

⁷and he sent out a raven, to see if the waters had lessened on the earth. It flew back and forth until the waters dried off from the earth.

⁸Then he sent out a dove, to see if the waters had lessened on the earth.

⁹But the dove could find no place to alight and perch, and it returned to him in the ark, for there was water all over the earth. Putting out his hand, he caught the dove and drew it back to him inside the ark.

¹⁰He waited seven days more and again sent the dove out from the ark.

¹¹In the evening the dove came back to him, and there in its bill was a plucked-off olive leaf! So Noah knew that the waters had lessened on the earth.

¹²He waited still another seven days and then released the dove once more; and this time it did not come back.

¹³In the six hundred and first year of Noah's life, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the water began to dry up on the earth. Noah then removed the covering of the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was drying up.

¹⁴In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

¹⁵Then God said to Noah:

¹⁶"Go out of the ark, together with your wife and your sons and your sons' wives.

¹⁷Bring out with you every living thing that is with you--all bodily creatures, be they birds or animals or creeping things of the earth-and let them abound on the earth, breeding and multiplying on it."

¹⁸So Noah came out, together with his wife and his sons and his sons' wives;

¹⁹and all the animals, wild and tame, all the birds, and all the creeping creatures of the earth left the ark, one kind after another.

²⁰Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and choosing from every clean animal and every clean bird, he offered holocausts on the altar.

²¹When the LORD smelled the sweet odor, he said to himself: "Never again will I doom the earth because of man, since the desires of man's heart are evil from the start; nor will I ever again strike down all living beings, as I have done.

²²As long as the earth lasts, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, Summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."

9God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: "Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth.

²Dread fear of you shall come upon all the animals of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon all the creatures that move about on the ground and all the fishes of the sea; into your power they are delivered.

³Every creature that is alive shall be yours to eat; I give them all to you as I did the green plants.

⁴Only flesh with its lifeblood still in it you shall not eat.

⁵For your own lifeblood, too, I will demand an accounting: from every animal I will demand it, and from man in regard to his fellow man I will demand an accounting for human life.

⁶If anyone sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; For in the image of God has man been made.

⁷Be fertile, then, and multiply; abound on earth and subdue it."

⁸God said to Noah and to his sons with him:

⁹"See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you

¹⁰and with every living creature that was with you: all the birds, and the various tame and wild animals that were with you and came out of the ark.

¹¹I will establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood; there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth."

¹²God added: "This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come, of the covenant between me and you and every living creature with you:

¹³I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

¹⁴When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds,

¹⁵I will recall the covenant I have made between me and you and all living beings, so that the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all mortal beings.

¹⁶As the bow appears in the clouds, I will see it and recall the everlasting covenant that I have established between God and all living beings--all mortal creatures that are on earth."

¹⁷God told Noah: "This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all mortal creatures that are on earth."

¹⁸The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.)

¹⁹These three were the sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was peopled.

²⁰Now Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard.

²¹When he drank some of the wine, he became drunk and lay naked inside his tent.

²²Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness, and he told his two brothers outside about it.

²³Shem and Japheth, however, took a robe, and holding it on their backs, they walked backward and covered their father's nakedness; since their faces were turned the other way, they did not see their father's nakedness.

²⁴When Noah woke up from his drunkenness and learned what his youngest son had done to him,

²⁵he said: "Cursed be Caanan! The lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers."

²⁶He also said: "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! Let Canaan be his slave.

²⁷May God expand Japheth, so that he dwells among the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be his slave."

²⁸Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood.

²⁹The whole lifetime of Noah was nine hundred and fifty years; then he died.

10These are the descendants of Noah's sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, to whom sons were born after the flood.

²The descendants of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.

³The descendants of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.

⁴The descendants of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittim, and the Rodanim.

⁵These are the descendants of Japheth, and from them sprang the maritime nations, in their respective lands--each with its own language--by their clans within their nations.

⁶The descendants of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.

⁷The descendants of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The descendants of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan.

⁸Cush became the father of Nimrod, who was the first potentate on earth.

⁹He was a mighty hunter by the grace of the LORD; hence the saying, "Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter by the grace of the LORD."

¹⁰The chief cities of his kingdom were Babylon, Erech, and Accad, all of them in the land of Shinar.

¹¹From that land he went forth to Asshur, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, and Calah,

¹²as well as Resen, between Nineveh and Calah, the latter being the principal city.

¹³Mizraim became the father of the Ludim, the Anamim, the Lehabim, the Naphtuhim,

¹⁴the Pathrusim, the Casluhim, and the Caphtorim from whom the Philistines sprang.

¹⁵Canaan became the father of Sidon, his first-born, and of Heth;

¹⁶also of the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites,

¹⁷the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites,

¹⁸the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward, the clans of the Canaanites spread out,

¹⁹so that the Canaanite borders extended from Sidon all the way to Gerar, near Gaza, and all the way to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, near Lasha.

²⁰These are the descendants of Ham, according to their clans and languages, by their lands and nations.

²¹To Shem also, Japheth's oldest brother and the ancestor of all the children of Eber, sons were born.

²²The descendants of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram.

²³The descendants of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.

²⁴Arpachshad became the father of Shelah, and Shelah became the father of Eber.

²⁵To Eber two sons were born: the name of the first was Peleg, for in his time the world was divided; and the name of his brother was Joktan.

²⁶Joktan became the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah,

²⁷Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah,

²⁸Obal, Abimael, Sheba,

²⁹Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were descendants of Joktan.

³⁰Their settlements extended all the way to Sephar, the eastern hill country.

³¹These are the descendants of Shem, according to their clans and languages by their lands and nations.

³²These are the groupings of Noah's sons, according to their origins and by their nations. From these the other nations of the earth branched out after the flood.

11The whole world spoke the same language, using the same words.

²While men were migrating in the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.

³They said to one another, "Come, let us mold bricks and harden them with fire." They used bricks for stone, and bitumen for mortar.

⁴Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and so make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth."

⁵LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men had built.

⁶Then the LORD said: "If now, while they are one people, all speaking the same language, they have started to do this, nothing will later stop them from doing whatever they presume to do.

⁷Let us then go down and there confuse their language, so that one will not understand what another says."

⁸Thus the LORD scattered them from there all over the earth, and they stopped building the city.

⁹That is why it was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the speech of all the world. It was from that place that he scattered them all over the earth.

¹⁰This is the record of the descendants of Shem. When Shem was one hundred years old, he became the father of Arpachshad, two years after the flood.

¹¹Shem lived five hundred years after the birth of Arpachshad, and he had other sons and daughters.

¹²When Arpachshad was thirty-five years old, he became the father of Shelah.

¹³Arpachshad lived four hundred and three years after the birth of Shelah, and he had other sons and daughters.

¹⁴When Shelah was thirty years old, he became the father of Eber.

¹⁵Shelah lived four hundred and three years after the birth of Eber, and he had other sons and daughters.

¹⁶When Eber was thirty-four years old, he became the father of Peleg.

¹⁷Eber lived four hundred and thirty years after the birth of Peleg, and he had other sons and daughters.

¹⁸When Peleg was thirty years old, he became the father of Reu.

¹⁹Peleg lived two hundred and nine years after the birth of Reu, and he had other sons and daughters.

²⁰When Reu was thirty-two years old, he became the father of Serug.

²¹Reu lived two hundred and seven years after the birth of Serug, and he had other sons and daughters.

²²When Serug was thirty years old, he became the father of Nahor.

²³Serug lived two hundred years after the birth of Nahor, and he had other sons and daughters.

²⁴When Nahor was twenty-nine years old, he became the father of Terah.

²⁵Nahor lived one hundred and nineteen years after the birth of Terah, and he had other sons and daughters.

²⁶When Terah was seventy years old, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.

²⁷This is the record of the descendants of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran became the father of Lot.

²⁸Haran died before his father Terah, in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans.

²⁹Abram and Nahor took wives; the name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah, daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah.

³⁰Sarai was barren; she had no child.

³¹Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and brought them out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to go to the land of Canaan. But when they reached Haran, they settled there.

³²The lifetime of Terah was two hundred and five years; then Terah died in Haran.

12The LORD said to Abram: "Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father's house to a land that I will show you.

²"I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

³I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you."

⁴Abram went as the LORD directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.

⁵Abram took his wife Sarai, his brother's son Lot, all the possessions that they had accumulated, and the persons they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,

⁶Abram passed through the land as far as the sacred place at Shechem, by the terebinth of Moreh. (The Canaanites were then in the land.)

⁷The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." So Abram built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him.

⁸From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel, pitching his tent with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. He built an altar there to the LORD and invoked the LORD by name.

⁹Then Abram journeyed on by stages to the Negeb.

¹⁰There was famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, since the famine in the land was severe.

¹¹When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai: "I know well how beautiful a woman you are.

¹²When the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'She is his wife'; then they will kill me, but let you live.

¹³Please say, therefore, that you are my sister, so that it may go well with me on your account and my life may be spared for your sake."

¹⁴When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw how beautiful the woman was; and when Pharaoh's courtiers saw her,

¹⁵they praised her to Pharaoh. So she was taken into Pharaoh's palace.

¹⁶On her account it went very well with Abram, and he received flocks and herds, male and female slaves, male and female asses, and camels.

¹⁷But the LORD struck Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Abram's wife Sarai.

¹⁸Then Pharaoh summoned Abram and said to him: "How could you do this to me! Why didn't you tell me she was your wife?

¹⁹Why did you say, 'She is my sister,' so that I took her for my wife? Here, then, is your wife. Take her and be gone!"

²⁰Then Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and all that belonged to him.

13From Egypt Abram went up to the Negeb with his wife and all that belonged to him, and Lot accompanied him.

²Now Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold.

³From the Negeb he traveled by stages toward Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had formerly stood,

⁴the site where he had first built the altar; and there he invoked the LORD by name.

⁵Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents,

⁶so that the land could not support them if they stayed together; their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together.

⁷There were quarrels between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and those of Lot's. (At this time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were occupying the land.)

⁸So Abram said to Lot: "Let there be no strife between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are kinsmen.

⁹Is not the whole land at your disposal? Please separate from me. If you prefer the left, I will go to the right; if you prefer the right, I will go to the left."

¹⁰Lot looked about and saw how well watered the whole Jordan Plain was as far as Zoar, like the LORD'S own garden, or like Egypt. (This was before the LORD had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)

¹¹Lot, therefore, chose for himself the whole Jordan Plain and set out eastward. Thus they separated from each other;

¹²Abram stayed in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the Plain, pitching his tents near Sodom.

¹³Now the inhabitants of Sodom were very wicked in the sins they committed against the LORD.

¹⁴After Lot had left, the LORD said to Abram: "Look about you, and from where you are, gaze to the north and south, east and west;

¹⁵all the land that you see I will give to you and your descendants forever.

¹⁶I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth; if anyone could count the dust of the earth, your descendants too might be counted.

¹⁷Set forth and walk about in the land, through its length and breadth, for to you I will give it."

¹⁸Abram moved his tents and went on to settle near the terebinth of Mamre, which is at Hebron. There he built an altar to the LORD.

14In the days of. . . , Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim

²made war on Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar).

³All the latter kings joined forces in the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea).

⁴For twelve years they had been subject to Chedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled.

⁵In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings allied with him came and defeated the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim,

⁶and the Horites in the hill country of Seir, as far as Elparan, close by the wilderness.

⁷They then turned back and came to Enmishpat (that is, Kadesh), and they subdued the whole country both of the Amalekites and of the Amorites who dwelt in Hazazon-tamar.

⁸Thereupon the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) marched out, and in the Valley of Siddim they went into battle against them:

⁹against Chedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar-four kings against five.

¹⁰Now the Valley of Siddim was full of bitumen pits; and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, they fell into these, while the rest fled to the mountains.

¹¹The victors seized all the possessions and food supplies of Sodom and Gomorrah and then went their way,

¹²taking with them Abram's nephew Lot, who had been living in Sodom, as well as his possessions.

¹³A fugitive came and brought the news to Abram the Hebrew, who was camping at the terebinth of Mamre the Amorite, a kinsman of Eshcol and Aner; these were in league with Abram.

¹⁴When Abram heard that his nephew had been captured, he mustered three hundred and eighteen of his retainers, born in his house, and went in pursuit as far as Dan.

¹⁵He and his party deployed against them at night, defeated them, and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus.

¹⁶He recovered all the possessions, besides bringing back his kinsman Lot and his possessions, along with the women and the other captives.

¹⁷When Abram returned from his victory over Chedorlaomer and the kings who were allied with him, the king of Sodom went out to greet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King's Valley).

¹⁸Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine, and being a priest of God Most High, he blessed Abram with these words:

¹⁹Blessed be Abram by God Most High, the creator of heaven and earth;

²⁰And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your foes into your hand." Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

²¹The king of Sodom said to Abram, "Give me the people; the goods you may keep."

²²But Abram replied to the king of Sodom: "I have sworn to the LORD, God Most High, the creator of heaven and earth,

²³that I would not take so much as a thread or a sandal strap from anything that is yours, lest you should say, 'I made Abram rich.'

²⁴Nothing for me except what my servants have used up and the share that is due to the men who joined me--Aner, Eshcol and Mamre; let them take their share."

15Some time after these events, this word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Fear not, Abram! I am your shield; I will make your reward very great."

²But Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what good will your gifts be, if I keep on being childless and have as my heir the steward of my house, Eliezer?"

³Abram continued, "See, you have given me no offspring, and so one of my servants will be my heir."

⁴Then the word of the LORD came to him: "No, that one shall not be your heir; your own issue shall be your heir."

⁵He took him outside and said: "Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can. Just so," he added, "shall your descendants be."

⁶Abram put his faith in the LORD, who credited it to him as an act of righteousness.

⁷He then said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as a possession."

⁸"O Lord GOD," he asked, "How am I to know that I shall possess it?"

⁹He answered him, "Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon."

¹⁰He brought him all these, split them in two, and placed each half opposite the other; but the birds he did not cut up.

¹¹Birds of prey swooped down on the carcasses, but Abram stayed with them.

¹²As the sun was about to set, a trance fell upon Abram, and a deep, terrifying darkness enveloped him.

¹³Then the LORD said to Abram: "Know for certain that your descendants shall be aliens in a land not their own, where they shall be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years.

¹⁴But I will bring judgment on the nation they must serve, and in the end they will depart with great wealth.

¹⁵You, however, shall join your forefathers in peace; you shall be buried at a contented old age.

¹⁶In the fourth time-span the others shall come back here; the wickedness of the Amorites will not have reached its full measure until then."

¹⁷When the sun had set and it was dark, there appeared a smoking brazier and a flaming torch, which passed between those pieces.

¹⁸It was on that occasion that the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: "To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the Great River (the Euphrates),

¹⁹the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,

²⁰the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,

²¹the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites."

16Abram's wife Sarai had borne him no children. She had, however, an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar.

²Sarai said to Abram: "The LORD has kept me from bearing children. Have intercourse, then, with my maid; perhaps I shall have sons through her." Abram heeded Sarai's request.

³Thus, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, his wife Sarai took her maid, Hagar the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his concubine.

⁴He had intercourse with her, and she became pregnant. When she became aware of her pregnancy, she looked on her mistress with disdain.

⁵So Sarai said to Abram: "You are responsible for this outrage against me. I myself gave my maid to your embrace; but ever since she became aware of her pregnancy, she has been looking on me with disdain. May the LORD decide between you and me!"

⁶Abram told Sarai: "Your maid is in your power. Do to her whatever you please." Sarai then abused her so much that Hagar ran away from her.

⁷The LORD'S messenger found her by a spring in the wilderness, the spring on the road to Shur,

⁸and he asked, "Hagar, maid of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?" She answered, "I am running away from my mistress, Sarai."

⁹But the LORD'S messenger told her: "Go back to your mistress and submit to her abusive treatment.

¹⁰I will make your descendants so numerous," added the LORD'S messenger, "that they will be too many to count.

¹¹Besides," the LORD'S messenger said to her: "You are now pregnant and shall bear a son; you shall name him Ishmael, For the LORD has heard you, God has answered you.

¹²He shall be a wild ass of a man, his hand against everyone, and everyone's hand against him; In opposition to all his kin shall he encamp."

¹³To the LORD who spoke to her she gave a name, saying, "You are the God of Vision"; she meant, "Have I really seen God and remained alive after my vision?"

¹⁴That is why the well is called Beer-lahai-roi. It is between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram named the son whom Hagar bore him Ishmael.

¹⁶Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

17When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said: "I am God the Almighty. Walk in my presence and be blameless.

²Between you and me I will establish my covenant, and I will multiply you exceedingly."

³When Abram prostrated himself, God continued to speak to him:

⁴"My covenant with you is this: you are to become the father of a host of nations.

⁵No longer shall you be called Abram; your name shall be Abraham, for I am making you the father of a host of nations.

⁶I will render you exceedingly fertile; I will make nations of you; kings shall stem from you.

⁷I will maintain my covenant with you and your descendants after you throughout the ages as an everlasting pact, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

⁸I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land in which you are now staying, the whole land of Canaan, as a permanent possession; and I will be their God."

⁹God also said to Abraham: "On your part, you and your descendants after you must keep my covenant throughout the ages.

¹⁰This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you that you must keep: every male among you shall be circumcised.

¹¹Circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and that shall be the mark of the covenant between you and me.

¹²Throughout the ages, every male among you, when he is eight days old, shall be circumcised, including houseborn slaves and those acquired with money from any foreigner who is not of your blood.

¹³Yes, both the houseborn slaves and those acquired with money must be circumcised. Thus my covenant shall be in your flesh as an everlasting pact.

¹⁴If a male is uncircumcised, that is, if the flesh of his foreskin has not been cut away, such a one shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant."

¹⁵God further said to Abraham: "As for your wife Sarai, do not call her Sarai; her name shall be Sarah.

¹⁶I will bless her, and I will give you a son by her. Him also will I bless; he shall give rise to nations, and rulers of peoples shall issue from him."

¹⁷Abraham prostrated himself and laughed as he said to himself, "Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Or can Sarah give birth at ninety?"

¹⁸Then Abraham said to God, "Let but Ishmael live on by your favor!"

¹⁹God replied: "Nevertheless, your wife Sarah is to bear you a son, and you shall call him Isaac. I will maintain my covenant with him as an everlasting pact, to be his God and the God of his descendants after him.

²⁰As for Ishmael, I am heeding you: I hereby bless him. I will make him fertile and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall become the father of twelve chieftains, and I will make of him a great nation.

²¹But my covenant I will maintain with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you by this time next year."

²²When he had finished speaking with him, God departed from Abraham.

²³Then Abraham took his son Ishmael and all his slaves, whether born in his house or acquired with his money--every male among the members of Abraham's household--and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins on that same day, as God had told him to do.

²⁴Abraham was ninety-nine years old when the flesh of his foreskin was circumcised,

²⁵and his son Ishmael was thirteen years old when the flesh of his foreskin was circumcised.

²⁶Thus, on that same day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised;

²⁷and all the male members of his household, including the slaves born in his house or acquired with his money from foreigners, were circumcised with him.

18The LORD appeared to Abraham by the terebinth of Mamre, as he sat in the entrance of his tent, while the day was growing hot.

²Looking up, he saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of the tent to greet them; and bowing to the ground,

³he said: "Sir, if I may ask you this favor, please do not go on past your servant.

⁴Let some water be brought, that you may bathe your feet, and then rest yourselves under the tree.

⁵Now that you have come this close to your servant, let me bring you a little food, that you may refresh yourselves; and afterward you may go on your way." "Very well," they replied, "do as you have said."

⁶Abraham hastened into the tent and told Sarah, "Quick, three seahs of fine flour! Knead it and make rolls."

⁷He ran to the herd, picked out a tender, choice steer, and gave it to a servant, who quickly prepared it.

⁸Then he got some curds and milk, as well as the steer that had been prepared, and set these before them; and he waited on them under the tree while they ate.

⁹"Where is your wife Sarah?" they asked him. "There in the tent," he replied.

¹⁰One of them said, "I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah will then have a son." Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent, just behind him.

¹¹Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years, and Sarah had stopped having her womanly periods.

¹²So Sarah laughed to herself and said, "Now that I am so withered and my husband is so old, am I still to have sexual pleasure?"

¹³But the LORD said to Abraham: "Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Shall I really bear a child, old as I am?'

¹⁴Is anything too marvelous for the LORD to do? At the appointed time, about this time next year, I will return to you, and Sarah will have a son."

¹⁵Because she was afraid, Sarah dissembled, saying, "I didn't laugh." But he said, "Yes you did."

¹⁶The men set out from there and looked down toward Sodom; Abraham was walking with them, to see them on their way.

¹⁷The LORD reflected: "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do,

¹⁸now that he is to become a great and populous nation, and all the nations of the earth are to find blessing in him?

¹⁹Indeed, I have singled him out that he may direct his sons and his posterity to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD may carry into effect for Abraham the promises he made about him."

²⁰Then the LORD said: "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great, and their sin so grave,

²¹that I must go down and see whether or not their actions fully correspond to the cry against them that comes to me. I mean to find out."

²²While the two men walked on farther toward Sodom, the LORD remained standing before Abraham.

²³Then Abraham drew nearer to him and said: "Will you sweep away the innocent with the guilty?

²⁴Suppose there were fifty innocent people in the city; would you wipe out the place, rather than spare it for the sake of the fifty innocent people within it?

²⁵Far be it from you to do such a thing, to make the innocent die with the guilty, so that the innocent and the guilty would be treated alike! Should not the judge of all the world act with justice?"

²⁶The LORD replied, "If I find fifty innocent people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake."

²⁷Abraham spoke up again: "See how I am presuming to speak to my Lord, though I am but dust and ashes!

²⁸What if there are five less than fifty innocent people? Will you destroy the whole city because of those five?" "I will not destroy it," he answered, "if I find forty-five there."

²⁹But Abraham persisted, saying, "What if only forty are found there?" He replied, "I will forebear doing it for the sake of the forty."

³⁰Then he said, "Let not my Lord grow impatient if I go on. What if only thirty are found there?" He replied, "I will forebear doing it if I can find but thirty there."

³¹Still he went on, "Since I have thus dared to speak to my Lord, what if there are no more than twenty?" "I will not destroy it," he answered, "for the sake of the twenty."

³²But he still persisted: "Please, let not my Lord grow angry if I speak up this last time. What if there are at least ten there?" "For the sake of those ten," he replied, "I will not destroy it."

³³The LORD departed as soon as he had finished speaking with Abraham, and Abraham returned home.

19The two angels reached Sodom in the evening, as Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he got up to greet them; and bowing down with his face to the ground,

²he said, "Please, gentlemen, come aside into your servant's house for the night, and bathe your feet; you can get up early to continue your journey." But they replied, "No, we shall pass the night in the town square."

³He urged them so strongly, however, that they turned aside to his place and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking cakes without leaven, and they dined.

⁴Before they went to bed, all the townsmen of Sodom, both young and old--all the people to the last man--closed in on the house.

⁵They called to Lot and said to him, "Where are the men who came to your house tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have intimacies with them."

⁶Lot went out to meet them at the entrance. When he had shut the door behind him,

⁷he said, "I beg you, my brothers, not to do this wicked thing.

⁸I have two daughters who have never had intercourse with men. Let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you please. But don't do anything to these men, for you know they have come under the shelter of my roof."

⁹They replied, "Stand back! This fellow," they sneered, "came here as an immigrant, and now he dares to give orders! We'll treat you worse than them!" With that, they pressed hard against Lot, moving in closer to break down the door.

¹⁰But his guests put out their hands, pulled Lot inside with them, and closed the door;

¹¹at the same time they struck the men at the entrance of the house, one and all, with such a blinding light that they were utterly unable to reach the doorway.

¹²Then the angels said to Lot: "Who else belongs to you here? Your sons (sons-in-law) and your daughters and all who belong to you in the city--take them away from it!

¹³We are about to destroy this place, for the outcry reaching the LORD against those in the city is so great that he has sent us to destroy it."

¹⁴So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had contracted marriage with his daughters. "Get up and leave this place," he told them; "the LORD is about to destroy the city." But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

¹⁵As dawn was breaking, the angels urged Lot on, saying, "On your way! Take with you your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city."

¹⁶When he hesitated, the men, by the LORD'S mercy, seized his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters and led them to safety outside the city.

¹⁷As soon as they had been brought outside, he was told: "Flee for your life! Don't look back or stop anywhere on the Plain. Get off to the hills at once, or you will be swept away."

¹⁸"Oh, no, my lord!" replied Lot.

¹⁹"You have already thought enough of your servant to do me the great kindness of intervening to save my life. But I cannot flee to the hills to keep the disaster from overtaking me, and so I shall die.

²⁰Look, this town ahead is near enough to escape to. It's only a small place. Let me flee there--it's a small place, isn't it?--that my life may be saved."

²¹"Well, then," he replied, "I will also grant you the favor you now ask. I will not overthrow the town you speak of.

²²Hurry, escape there! I cannot do anything until you arrive there." That is why the town is called Zoar.

²³The sun was just rising over the earth as Lot arrived in Zoar;

²⁴at the same time the LORD rained down sulphurous fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah (from the LORD out of heaven).

²⁵He overthrew those cities and the whole Plain, together with the inhabitants of the cities and the produce of the soil.

²⁶But Lot's wife looked back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt.

²⁷Early the next morning Abraham went to the place where he had stood in the LORD'S presence.

²⁸As he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole region of the Plain, he saw dense smoke over the land rising like fumes from a furnace.

²⁹Thus it came to pass: when God destroyed the Cities of the Plain, he was mindful of Abraham by sending Lot away from the upheaval by which God overthrew the cities where Lot had been living.

³⁰Since Lot was afraid to stay in Zoar, he and his two daughters went up from Zoar and settled in the hill country, where he lived with his two daughters in a cave.

³¹The older one said to the younger: "Our father is getting old, and there is not a man on earth to unite with us as was the custom everywhere.

³²Come, let us ply our father with wine and then lie with him, that we may have offspring by our father."

³³So that night they plied their father with wine, and the older one went in and lay with her father; but he was not aware of her lying down or her getting up.

³⁴Next day the older one said to the younger: "Last night it was I who lay with my father. Let us ply him with wine again tonight, and then you go in and lie with him, that we may both have offspring by our father."

³⁵So that night, too, they plied their father with wine, and then the younger one went in and lay with him; but again he was not aware of her lying down or her getting up.

³⁶Thus both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father.

³⁷The older one gave birth to a son whom she named Moab, saying, "From my father." He is the ancestor of the Moabites of today.

³⁸The younger one, too, gave birth to a son, and she named him Ammon, saying, "The son of my kin." He is the ancestor of the Ammonites of today.

20Abraham journeyed on to the region of the Negeb, where he settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he stayed in Gerar,

²he said of his wife Sarah, "She is my sister." So Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent and took Sarah.

³But God came to Abimelech in a dream one night and said to him, "You are about to die because of the woman you have taken, for she has a husband."

⁴Abimelech, who had not approached her, said: "O Lord, would you slay a man even though he is innocent?

⁵He himself told me, 'She is my sister,' and she herself also stated, 'He is my brother.' I did it in good faith and with clean hands."

⁶God answered him in the dream: "Yes, I know you did it in good faith. In fact, it was I who kept you from sinning against me; that is why I did not let you touch her.

⁷Therefore, return the man's wife--as a spokesman he will intercede for you--that your life may be saved. If you do not return her, you can be sure that you and all who are yours will certainly die."

⁸Early the next morning Abimelech called all his court officials and informed them of everything that had happened, and the men were horrified.

⁹Then Abimelech summoned Abraham and said to him: "How could you do this to us! What wrong did I do to you that you should have brought such monstrous guilt on me and my kingdom? You have treated me in an intolerable way.

¹⁰What were you afraid of," he asked him, "that you should have done such a thing?"

¹¹"I was afraid," answered Abraham, "because I thought there would surely be no fear of God in this place, and so they would kill me on account of my wife.

¹²Besides, she is in truth my sister, but only my father's daughter, not my mother's; and so she became my wife.

¹³When God sent me wandering from my father's house, I asked her: 'Would you do me this favor? In whatever place we come to, say that I am your brother.'"

¹⁴Then Abimelech took flocks and herds and male and female slaves and gave them to Abraham; and after he restored his wife Sarah to him,

¹⁵he said, "Here, my land lies at your disposal; settle wherever you please."

¹⁶To Sarah he said: "See, I have given your brother a thousand shekels of silver. Let that serve you as a vindication before all who are with you; your honor has been preserved with everyone."

¹⁷Abraham then interceded with God, and God restored health to Abimelech, that is, to his wife and his maidservants, so that they could bear children;

¹⁸for God had tightly closed every womb in Abimelech's household on account of Abraham's wife Sarah.

21The LORD took note of Sarah as he had said he would; he did for her as he had promised.

²Sarah became pregnant and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time that God had stated.

³Abraham gave the name Isaac to this son of his whom Sarah bore him.

⁴When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded.

⁵Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

⁶Sarah then said, "God has given me cause to laugh, and all who hear of it will laugh with me.

⁷Who would have told Abraham," she added, "that Sarah would nurse children! Yet I have borne him a son in his old age."

⁸Isaac grew, and on the day of the child's weaning, Abraham held a great feast.

⁹Sarah noticed the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham playing with her son Isaac;

¹⁰so she demanded of Abraham: "Drive out that slave and her son! No son of that slave is going to share the inheritance with my son Isaac!"

¹¹Abraham was greatly distressed, especially on account of his son Ishmael.

¹²But God said to Abraham: "Do not be distressed about the boy or about your slave woman. Heed the demands of Sarah, no matter what she is asking of you; for it is through Isaac that descendants shall bear your name.

¹³As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a great nation of him also, since he too is your offspring."

¹⁴Early the next morning Abraham got some bread and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. Then, placing the child on her back, he sent her away. As she roamed aimlessly in the wilderness of Beer-sheba,

¹⁵the water in the skin was used up. So she put the child down under a shrub,

¹⁶and then went and sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away; for she said to herself, "Let me not watch to see the child die." As she sat opposite him, he began to cry.

¹⁷God heard the boy's cry, and God's messenger called to Hagar from heaven: "What is the matter, Hagar? Don't be afraid; God has heard the boy's cry in this plight of his.

¹⁸Arise, lift up the boy and hold him by the hand; for I will make of him a great nation."

¹⁹Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went and filled the skin with water, and then let the boy drink.

²⁰God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert bowman,

²¹with his home in the wilderness of Paran. His mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

²²About that time Abimelech, accompanied by Phicol, the commander of his army, said to Abraham: "God is with you in everything you do.

²³Therefore, swear to me by God at this place that you will not deal falsely with me or with my progeny and posterity, but will act as loyally toward me and the land in which you stay as I have acted toward you."

²⁴To this Abraham replied, "I so swear."

²⁵Abraham, however, reproached Abimelech about a well that Abimelech's men had seized by force.

²⁶"I have no idea who did that," Abimelech replied. "In fact, you never told me about it, nor did I ever hear of it until now."

²⁷Then Abraham took sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech and the two made a pact.

²⁸Abraham also set apart seven ewe lambs of the flock,

²⁹and Abimelech asked him, "What is the purpose of these seven ewe lambs that you have set apart?"

³⁰Abraham answered, "The seven ewe lambs you shall accept from me that thus I may have your acknowledgment that the well was dug by me."

³¹This is why the place is called Beer-sheba; the two took an oath there.

³²When they had thus made the pact in Beer-sheba, Abimelech, along with Phicol, the commander of his army, left and returned to the land of the Philistines.

³³Abraham planted a tamarisk at Beer-sheba, and there he invoked by name the LORD, God the Eternal.

³⁴Abraham resided in the land of the Philistines for many years.

22Some time after these events, God put Abraham to the test. He called to him, "Abraham!" "Ready!" he replied.

²Then God said: "Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him up as a holocaust on a height that I will point out to you."

³Early the next morning Abraham saddled his donkey, took with him his son Isaac, and two of his servants as well, and with the wood that he had cut for the holocaust, set out for the place of which God had told him.

⁴On the third day Abraham got sight of the place from afar.

⁵Then he said to his servants: "Both of you stay here with the donkey, while the boy and I go on over yonder. We will worship and then come back to you."

⁶Thereupon Abraham took the wood for the holocaust and laid it on his son Isaac's shoulders, while he himself carried the fire and the knife.

⁷As the two walked on together, Isaac spoke to his father Abraham. "Father!" he said. "Yes, son," he replied. Isaac continued, "Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the sheep for the holocaust?"

⁸"Son," Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the sheep for the holocaust." Then the two continued going forward.

⁹When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. Next he tied up his son Isaac, and put him on top of the wood on the altar.

¹⁰Then he reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son.

¹¹But the LORD'S messenger called to him from heaven, "Abraham, Abraham!" "Yes, Lord," he answered.

¹²"Do not lay your hand on the boy," said the messenger. "Do not do the least thing to him. I know now how devoted you are to God, since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son."

¹³As Abraham looked about, he spied a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. So he went and took the ram and offered it up as a holocaust in place of his son.

¹⁴Abraham named the site Yahweh-yireh; hence people now say, "On the mountain the LORD will see."

¹⁵Again the LORD'S messenger called to Abraham from heaven

¹⁶and said: "I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you acted as you did in not withholding from me your beloved son,

¹⁷I will bless you abundantly and make your descendants as countless as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore; your descendants shall take possession of the gates of their enemies,

¹⁸and in your descendants all the nations of the earth shall find blessing--all this because you obeyed my command.''

¹⁹Abraham then returned to his servants, and they set out together for Beer-sheba, where Abraham made his home.

²⁰Some time afterward, the news came to Abraham: "Milcah too has borne sons, to your brother Nahor:

²¹Uz, his first-born, his brother Buz, Kemuel (the father of Aram),

²²Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel."

²³Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Abraham's brother Nahor.

²⁴His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore children: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.

23The span of Sarah's life was one hundred and twenty-seven years.

²She died in Kiriatharba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham performed the customary mourning rites for her.

³Then he left the side of his dead one and addressed the Hittites:

⁴"Although I am a resident alien among you, sell me from your holdings a piece of property for a burial ground, that I may bury my dead wife."

⁵The Hittites answered Abraham: "Please, sir,

⁶listen to us! You are an elect of God among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our burial sites. None of us would deny you his burial ground for the burial of your dead."

⁷Abraham, however, began to bow low before the local citizens, the Hittites,

⁸while he appealed to them: "If you will allow me room for burial of my dead, listen to me! Intercede for me with Ephron, son of Zohar, asking him

⁹to sell me the cave of Machpelah that he owns; it is at the edge of his field. Let him sell it to me in your presence, at its full price, for a burial place."

¹⁰Now Ephron was present with the Hittites. So Ephron the Hittite replied to Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites who sat on his town council:

¹¹"Please, sir, listen to me! I give you both the field and the cave in it; in the presence of my kinsmen I make this gift. Bury your dead!"

¹²But Abraham, after bowing low before the local citizens, addressed Ephron in the hearing of these men:

¹³"Ah, if only you would please listen to me! I will pay you the price of the field. Accept it from me, that I may bury my dead there."

¹⁴Ephron replied to Abraham, "Please,

¹⁵sir, listen to me! A piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver--what is that between you and me, as long as you can bury your dead?"

¹⁶Abraham accepted Ephron's terms; he weighed out to him the silver that Ephron had stipulated in the hearing of the Hittites, four hundred shekels of silver at the current market value.

¹⁷Thus Ephron's field in Machpelah, facing Mamre, together with its cave and all the trees anywhere within its limits, was conveyed

¹⁸to Abraham by purchase in the presence of all the Hittites who sat on Ephron's town council.

¹⁹After this transaction, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field of Machpelah, facing Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan.

²⁰Thus the field with its cave was transferred from the Hittites to Abraham as a burial place.

24Abraham had now reached a ripe old age, and the LORD had blessed him in every way.

²Abraham said to the senior servant of his household, who had charge of all his possessions: "Put your hand under my thigh,

³and I will make you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not procure a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I live,

⁴but that you will go to my own land and to my kindred to get a wife for my son Isaac."

⁵The servant asked him: "What if the woman is unwilling to follow me to this land? Should I then take your son back to the land from which you migrated?"

⁶"Never take my son back there for any reason," Abraham told him.

⁷"The LORD, the God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and the land of my kin, and who confirmed by oath the promise he then made to me, 'I will give this land to your descendants'--he will send his messenger before you, and you will obtain a wife for my son there.

⁸If the woman is unwilling to follow you, you will be released from this oath. But never take my son back there!"

⁹So the servant put his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and swore to him in this undertaking.

¹⁰The servant then took ten of his master's camels, and bearing all kinds of gifts from his master, he made his way to the city of Nahor in Aram Naharaim.

¹¹Near evening, at the time when women go out to draw water, he made the camels kneel by the well outside the city.

¹²Then he prayed: "LORD, God of my master Abraham, let it turn out favorably for me today and thus deal graciously with my master Abraham.

¹³While I stand here at the spring and the daughters of the townsmen are coming out to draw water,

¹⁴if I say to a girl, 'Please lower your jug, that I may drink,' and she answers, 'Take a drink, and let me give water to your camels, too,' let her be the one whom you have decided upon for your servant Isaac. In this way I shall know that you have dealt graciously with my master."

¹⁵He had scarcely finished these words when Rebekah (who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Abraham's brother Nahor) came out with a jug on her shoulder.

¹⁶The girl was very beautiful, a virgin, untouched by man. She went down to the spring and filled her jug. As she came up,

¹⁷the servant ran toward her and said, "Please give me a sip of water from your jug."

¹⁸"Take a drink, sir," she replied, and quickly lowering the jug onto her hand, she gave him a drink.

¹⁹When she had let him drink his fill, she said, "I will draw water for your camels, too, until they have drunk their fill."

²⁰With that, she quickly emptied her jug into the drinking trough and ran back to the well to draw more water, until she had drawn enough for all the camels.

²¹The man watched her the whole time, silently waiting to learn whether or not the LORD had made his errand successful.

²²When the camels had finished drinking, the man took out a gold ring weighing half a shekel, which he fastened on her nose, and two gold bracelets weighing ten shekels, which he put on her wrists.

²³Then he asked her: "Whose daughter are you? Tell me, please. And is there room in your father's house for us to spend the night?"

²⁴She answered: "I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor.

²⁵There is plenty of straw and fodder at our place," she added, "and room to spend the night."

²⁶The man then bowed down in worship to the LORD,

²⁷saying: "Blessed be the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not let his constant kindness toward my master fail. As for myself also, the LORD has led me straight to the house of my master's brother."

²⁸Then the girl ran off and told her mother's household about it.

²⁹Now Rebekah had a brother named Laban.

³⁰As soon as he saw the ring and the bracelets on his sister Rebekah and heard her words about what the man had said to her, Laban rushed outside to the man at the spring. When he reached him, he was still standing by the camels at the spring.

³¹So he said to him: "Come, blessed of the LORD! Why are you staying outside when I have made the house ready for you, as well as a place for the camels?"

³²The man then went inside; and while the camels were being unloaded and provided with straw and fodder, water was brought to bathe his feet and the feet of the men who were with him.

³³But when the table was set for him, he said, "I will not eat until I have told my tale." "Do so," they replied.

³⁴"I am Abraham's servant," he began.

³⁵"The LORD has blessed my master so abundantly that he has become a wealthy man; he has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male and female slaves, and camels and asses.

³⁶My master's wife Sarah bore a son to my master in her old age, and he has given him everything he owns.

³⁷My master put me under oath, saying: 'You shall not procure a wife for my son among the daughters of the Canaanites in whose land I live;

³⁸instead, you shall go to my father's house, to my own relatives, to get a wife for my son.'

³⁹When I asked my master, 'What if the woman will not follow me?,'

⁴⁰he replied: 'The LORD, in whose presence I have always walked, will send his messenger with you and make your errand successful, and so you will get a wife for my son from my own kindred of my father's house.

⁴¹Then you shall be released from my ban. If you visit my kindred and they refuse you, then, too, you shall be released from my ban.'

⁴²"When I came to the spring today, I prayed: 'LORD, God of my master Abraham, may it be your will to make successful the errand I am engaged on!

⁴³While I stand here at the spring, if I say to a young woman who comes out to draw water, Please give me a little water from your jug,

⁴⁴and she answers, Not only may you have a drink, but I will give water to your camels, too--let her be the woman whom the LORD has decided upon for my master's son.'

⁴⁵"I had scarcely finished saying this prayer to myself when Rebekah came out with a jug on her shoulder. After she went down to the spring and drew water, I said to her, 'Please let me have a drink.'

⁴⁶She quickly lowered the jug she was carrying and said, 'Take a drink, and let me bring water for your camels, too.' So I drank, and she watered the camels also.

⁴⁷When I asked her, 'Whose daughter are you?' she answered, 'The daughter of Bethuel, son of Nahor, borne to Nahor by Milcah.' So I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her wrists.

⁴⁸Then I bowed down in worship to the LORD, blessing the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me on the right road to obtain the daughter of my master's kinsman for his son.

⁴⁹If, therefore, you have in mind to show true loyalty to my master, let me know; but if not, let me know that, too. I can then proceed accordingly."

⁵⁰Laban and his household said in reply: "This thing comes from the LORD; we can say nothing to you either for or against it.

⁵¹Here is Rebekah, ready for you; take her with you, that she may become the wife of your master's son, as the LORD has said."

⁵²When Abraham's servant heard their answer, he bowed to the ground before the LORD.

⁵³Then he brought out objects of silver and gold and articles of clothing and presented them to Rebekah; he also gave costly presents to her brother and mother.

⁵⁴After he and the men with him had eaten and drunk, they spent the night there. When they were up the next morning, he said, "Give me leave to return to my master."

⁵⁵Her brother and mother replied, "Let the girl stay with us a short while, say ten days; after that she may go."

⁵⁶But he said to them, "Do not detain me, now that the LORD has made my errand successful; let me go back to my master."

⁵⁷They answered, "Let us call the girl and see what she herself has to say about it."

⁵⁸So they called Rebekah and asked her, "Do you wish to go with this man?" She answered, "I do."

⁵⁹At this they allowed their sister Rebekah and her nurse to take leave, along with Abraham's servant and his men.

⁶⁰Invoking a blessing on Rebekah, they said: "Sister, may you grow into thousands of myriads; And may your descendants gain possession of the gates of their enemies!"

⁶¹Then Rebekah and her maids started out; they mounted their camels and followed the man. So the servant took Rebekah and went on his way.

⁶²Meanwhile Isaac had gone from Beer-lahai-roi and was living in the region of the Negeb.

⁶³One day toward evening he went out. . . in the field, and as he looked around, he noticed that camels were approaching.

⁶⁴Rebekah, too, was looking about, and when she saw him, she alighted from her camel

⁶⁵and asked the servant, "Who is the man out there, walking through the fields toward us?" "That is my master," replied the servant. Then she covered herself with her veil.

⁶⁶The servant recounted to Isaac all the things he had done.

⁶⁷Then Isaac took Rebekah into his tent; he married her, and thus she became his wife. In his love for her Isaac found solace after the death of his mother Sarah.

25Abraham married another wife, whose name was Keturah.

²She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.

³Jokshan became the father of Sheba and Dedan. The descendants of Dedan were the Asshurim, the Letushim, and the Leummim.

⁴The descendants of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All of these were descendants of Keturah.

⁵Abraham deeded everything that he owned to his son Isaac.

⁶To his sons by concubinage, however, he made grants while he was still living, as he sent them away eastward, to the land of Kedem, away from his son Isaac.

⁷The whole span of Abraham's life was one hundred and seventy-five years.

⁸Then he breathed his last, dying at a ripe old age, grown old after a full life; and he was taken to his kinsmen.

⁹His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, son of Zohar the Hittite, which faces Mamre,

¹⁰the field that Abraham had bought from the Hittites; there he was buried next to his wife Sarah.

¹¹After the death of Abraham, God blessed his son Isaac, who made his home near Beer-lahai-roi.

¹²These are the descendants of Abraham's son Ishmael, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's slave, bore to Abraham.

¹³These are the names of Ishmael's sons, listed in the order of their birth: Nebaioth (Ishmael's firstborn), Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,

¹⁴Mishma, Dumah, Massa,

¹⁵Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah.

¹⁶These are the sons of Ishmael, their names by their villages and encampments; twelve chieftains of as many tribal groups.

¹⁷The span of Ishmael's life was one hundred and thirty-seven years. After he had breathed his last and died, he was taken to his kinsmen.

¹⁸The Ishmaelites ranged from Havilah-by-Shur, which is on the border of Egypt, all the way to Asshur; and each of them pitched camp in opposition to his various kinsmen.

¹⁹This is the family history of Isaac, son of Abraham; Abraham had begotten Isaac.

²⁰Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram and the sister of Laban the Aramean.

²¹Isaac entreated the LORD on behalf of his wife, since she was sterile. The LORD heard his entreaty, and Rebekah became pregnant.

²²But the children in her womb jostled each other so much that she exclaimed, "If this is to be so, what good will it do me!" She went to consult the LORD,

²³and he answered her: "Two nations are in your womb, two peoples are quarreling while still within you; But one shall surpass the other, and the older shall serve the younger."

²⁴When the time of her delivery came, there were twins in her womb.

²⁵The first to emerge was reddish, and his whole body was like a hairy mantle; so they named him Esau.

²⁶His brother came out next, gripping Esau's heel; so they named him Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.

²⁷As the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man who lived in the open; whereas Jacob was a simple man, who kept to his tents.

²⁸Isaac preferred Esau, because he was fond of game; but Rebekah preferred Jacob.

²⁹Once, when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the open, famished.

³⁰He said to Jacob, "Let me gulp down some of that red stuff; I'm starving." (That is why he was called Edom.)

³¹But Jacob replied, "First give me your birthright in exchange for it."

³²"Look," said Esau, "I'm on the point of dying. What good will any birthright do me?"

³³But Jacob insisted, "Swear to me first!" So he sold Jacob his birthright under oath.

³⁴Jacob then gave him some bread and the lentil stew; and Esau ate, drank, got up, and went his way. Esau cared little for his birthright.

26There was a famine in the land (distinct from the earlier one that had occurred in the days of Abraham), and Isaac went down to Abimelech, king of the Philistines in Gerar.

²The LORD appeared to him and said: "Do not go down to Egypt, but continue to camp wherever in this land I tell you.

³Stay in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I will give all these lands, in fulfillment of the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.

⁴I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and give them all these lands, and in your descendants all the nations of the earth shall find blessing--

⁵this because Abraham obeyed me, keeping my mandate (my commandments, my ordinances, and my instructions)."

⁶So Isaac settled in Gerar.

⁷When the men of the place asked questions about his wife, he answered, "She is my sister." He was afraid, if he called her his wife, the men of the place would kill him on account of Rebekah, since she was very beautiful.

⁸But when he had been there for a long time, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, happened to look out of a window and was surprised to see Isaac fondling his wife Rebekah.

⁹He called for Isaac and said: "She must certainly be your wife! How could you have said, 'She is my sister'?" Isaac replied, "I thought I might lose my life on her account."

¹⁰"How could you do this to us!" exclaimed Abimelech. "It would have taken very little for one of the men to lie with your wife, and you would have thus brought guilt upon us!"

¹¹Abimelech therefore gave this warning to all his men: "Anyone who molests this man or his wife shall forthwith be put to death."

¹²Isaac sowed a crop in that region and reaped a hundredfold the same year. Since the LORD blessed him,

¹³he became richer and richer all the time, until he was very wealthy indeed.

¹⁴He acquired such flocks and herds, and so many work animals, that the Philistines became envious of him.

¹⁵(The Philistines had stopped up and filled with dirt all the wells that his father's servants had dug back in the days of his father Abraham.)

¹⁶So Abimelech said to Isaac, "Go away from us; you have become far too numerous for us."

¹⁷Isaac left there and made the Wadi Gerar his regular campsite.

¹⁸(Isaac reopened the wells which his father's servants had dug back in the days of his father Abraham and which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham's death; he gave them the same names that his father had given them.)

¹⁹But when Isaac's servants dug in the wadi and reached spring water in their well,

²⁰the shepherds of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's servants, saying, "The water belongs to us!" So the well was called Esek, because they had challenged him there.

²¹Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one too; so it was called Sitnah.

²²When he had moved on from there, he dug still another well; but over this one they did not quarrel. It was called Rehoboth, because he said, "The LORD has now given us ample room, and we shall flourish in the land."

²³From there Isaac went up to Beer-sheba.

²⁴The same night the LORD appeared to him and said: "I am the God of your father Abraham. You have no need to fear, since I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham."

²⁵So he built an altar there and invoked the LORD by name. After he had pitched his tent there, his servants began to dig a well nearby.

²⁶Abimelech had meanwhile come to him from Gerar, accompanied by Ahuzzath, his councilor, and Phicol, the general of his army.

²⁷Isaac asked them, "Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and have driven me away from you?"

²⁸They answered: "We are convinced that the LORD is with you, so we propose that there be a sworn agreement between our two sides--between you and us. Let us make a pact with you:

²⁹you shall not act unkindly toward us, just as we have not molested you, but have always acted kindly toward you and have let you depart in peace. Henceforth, 'The LORD'S blessing be upon you!'"

³⁰Isaac then made a feast for them, and they ate and drank.

³¹Early the next morning they exchanged oaths. Then Isaac bade them farewell, and they departed from him in peace.

³²That same day Isaac's servants came and brought him news about the well they had been digging; they told him, "We have reached water!"

³³He called it Shibah; hence the name of the city, Beer-sheba, to this day.

³⁴When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith, daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, daughter of Elon the Hivite.

³⁵But they became a source of embitterment to Isaac and Rebekah.

27When Isaac was so old that his eyesight had failed him, he called his older son Esau and said to him, "Son!" "Yes, father!" he replied.

²Isaac then said, "As you can see, I am so old that I may now die at any time.

³Take your gear, therefore--your quiver and bow--and go out into the country to hunt some game for me.

⁴With your catch prepare an appetizing dish for me, such as I like, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my special blessing before I die."

⁵Rebekah had been listening while Isaac was speaking to his son Esau. So when Esau went out into the country to hunt some game for his father,

⁶Rebekah said to her son Jacob, "Listen! I overheard your father tell your brother Esau,

⁷'Bring me some game and with it prepare an appetizing dish for me to eat, that I may give you my blessing with the LORD'S approval before I die.'

⁸Now, son, listen carefully to what I tell you.

⁹Go to the flock and get me two choice kids. With these I will prepare an appetizing dish for your father, such as he likes.

¹⁰Then bring it to your father to eat, that he may bless you before he dies."

¹¹"But my brother Esau is a hairy man," said Jacob to his mother Rebekah, "and I am smooth-skinned!

¹²Suppose my father feels me? He will think I am making sport of him, and I shall bring on myself a curse instead of a blessing."

¹³His mother, however, replied: "Let any curse against you, son, fall on me! Just do as I say. Go and get me the kids."

¹⁴So Jacob went and got them and brought them to his mother; and with them she prepared an appetizing dish, such as his father liked.

¹⁵Rebekah then took the best clothes of her older son Esau that she had in the house, and gave them to her younger son Jacob to wear;

¹⁶and with the skins of the kids she covered up his hands and the hairless parts of his neck.

¹⁷Then she handed her son Jacob the appetizing dish and the bread she had prepared.

¹⁸Bringing them to his father, Jacob said, "Father!" "Yes?" replied Isaac. "Which of my sons are you?"

¹⁹Jacob answered his father: "I am Esau, your first-born. I did as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your special blessing."

²⁰But Isaac asked, "How did you succeed so quickly, son?" He answered, "The LORD, your God, let things turn out well with me."

²¹Isaac then said to Jacob, "Come closer, son, that I may feel you, to learn whether you really are my son Esau or not."

²²So Jacob moved up closer to his father. When Isaac felt him, he said, "Although the voice is Jacob's, the hands are Esau's."

²³(He failed to identify him because his hands were hairy, like those of his brother Esau; so in the end he gave him his blessing.)

²⁴Again he asked him, "Are you really my son Esau?" "Certainly," he replied.

²⁵Then Isaac said, "Serve me your game, son, that I may eat of it and then give you my blessing." Jacob served it to him, and Isaac ate; he brought him wine, and he drank.

²⁶Finally his father Isaac said to him, "Come closer, son, and kiss me."

²⁷As Jacob went up and kissed him, Isaac smelled the fragrance of his clothes. With that, he blessed him, saying, "Ah, the fragrance of my son is like the fragrance of a field that the LORD has blessed!

²⁸"May God give to you of the dew of the heavens And of the fertility of the earth abundance of grain and wine.

²⁹"Let peoples serve you, and nations pay you homage; Be master of your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be those who curse you, and blessed be those who bless you."

³⁰Jacob had scarcely left his father, just after Isaac had finished blessing him, when his brother Esau came back from his hunt.

³¹Then he too prepared an appetizing dish with his game, and bringing it to his father, he said, "Please, father, eat some of your son's game, that you may then give me your special blessing."

³²"Who are you?" his father Isaac asked him. "I am Esau," he replied, "your first-born son."

³³With that, Isaac was seized with a fit of uncontrollable trembling. "Who was it, then," he asked, "that hunted game and brought it to me? I finished eating it just before you came, and I blessed him. Now he must remain blessed!"

³⁴On hearing his father's words, Esau burst into loud, bitter sobbing. "Father, bless me too!" he begged.

³⁵When Isaac explained, "Your brother came here by a ruse and carried off your blessing,"

³⁶Esau exclaimed, "He has been well named Jacob! He has now supplanted me twice! First he took away my birthright, and now he has taken away my blessing." Then he pleaded, "Haven't you saved a blessing for me?"

³⁷Isaac replied: "I have already appointed him your master, and I have assigned to him all his kinsmen as his slaves; besides, I have enriched him with grain and wine. What then can I do for you, son?"

³⁸But Esau urged his father, "Have you only that one blessing, father? Bless me too!" Isaac, however, made no reply; and Esau wept aloud.

³⁹Finally Isaac spoke again and said to him: "Ah, far from the fertile earth shall be your dwelling; far from the dew of the heavens above!

⁴⁰"By your sword you shall live, and your brother you shall serve; But when you become restive, you shall throw off his yoke from your neck."

⁴¹Esau bore Jacob a grudge because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, "When the time of mourning for my father comes, I will kill my brother Jacob."

⁴²When Rebekah got news of what her older son Esau had in mind, she called her younger son Jacob and said to him: "Listen! Your brother Esau intends to settle accounts with you by killing you.

⁴³Therefore, son, do what I tell you: flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran,

⁴⁴and stay with him a while until your brother's fury subsides

⁴⁵(until your brother's anger against you subsides) and he forgets what you did to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back. Must I lose both of you in a single day?"

⁴⁶Rebekah said to Isaac: "I am disgusted with life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob also should marry a Hittite woman, a native of the land, like these women, what good would life be to me?"

28Isaac therefore called Jacob, greeted him with a blessing, and charged him: "You shall not marry a Canaanite woman!

²Go now to Paddan-aram, to the home of your mother's father Bethuel, and there choose a wife for yourself from among the daughters of your uncle Laban.

³May God Almighty bless you and make you fertile, multiply you that you may become an assembly of peoples.

⁴May he extend to you and your descendants the blessing he gave to Abraham, so that you may gain possession of the land where you are staying, which he assigned to Abraham."

⁵Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way; he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean, and brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

⁶Esau noted that Isaac had blessed Jacob when he sent him to Paddan-aram to get himself a wife there, charging him, as he gave him his blessing, not to marry a Canaanite woman,

⁷and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and gone to Paddan-aram.

⁸Esau realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac,

⁹so he went to Ishmael, and in addition to the wives he had, married Mahalath, the daughter of Abraham's son Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.

¹⁰Jacob departed from Beer-sheba and proceeded toward Haran.

¹¹When he came upon a certain shrine, as the sun had already set, he stopped there for the night. Taking one of the stones at the shrine, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep at that spot.

¹²Then he had a dream: a stairway rested on the ground, with its top reaching to the heavens; and God's messengers were going up and down on it.

¹³And there was the LORD standing beside him and saying: "I, the LORD, am the God of your forefather Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you are lying I will give to you and your descendants.

¹⁴These shall be as plentiful as the dust of the earth, and through them you shall spread out east and west, north and south. In you and your descendants all the nations of the earth shall find blessing.

¹⁵Know that I am with you; I will protect you wherever you go, and bring you back to this land. I will never leave you until I have done what I promised you."

¹⁶When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he exclaimed, "Truly, the LORD is in this spot, although I did not know it!"

¹⁷In solemn wonder he cried out: "How awesome is this shrine! This is nothing else but an abode of God, and that is the gateway to heaven!"

¹⁸Early the next morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head, set it up as a memorial stone, and poured oil on top of it.

¹⁹He called that site Bethel, whereas the former name of the town had been Luz.

²⁰Jacob then made this vow: "If God remains with me, to protect me on this journey I am making and to give me enough bread to eat and clothing to wear,

²¹and I come back safe to my father's house, the LORD shall be my God.

²²This stone that I have set up as a memorial stone shall be God's abode. Of everything you give me, I will faithfully return a tenth part to you."

29After Jacob resumed his journey, he came to the land of the Easterners.

²Looking about, he saw a well in the open country, with three droves of sheep huddled near it, for droves were watered from that well. A large stone covered the mouth of the well.

³Only when all the shepherds were assembled there could they roll the stone away from the mouth of the well and water the flocks. Then they would put the stone back again over the mouth of the well.

⁴Jacob said to them, "Friends, where are you from?" "We are from Haran," they replied.

⁵Then he asked them, "Do you know Laban, son of Nahor?" "We do," they answered.

⁶He inquired further, "Is he well?" "He is," they answered; "and here comes his daughter Rachel with his flock."

⁷Then he said: "There is still much daylight left; it is hardly the time to bring the animals home. Why don't you water the flocks now, and then continue pasturing them?"

⁸"We cannot," they replied, "until all the shepherds are here to roll the stone away from the mouth of the well; only then can we water the flocks."

⁹While he was still talking with them, Rachel arrived with her father's sheep; she was the one who tended them.

¹⁰As soon as Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his uncle Laban, with the sheep of his uncle Laban, he went up, rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well, and watered his uncle's sheep.

¹¹Then Jacob kissed Rachel and burst into tears.

¹²He told her that he was her father's relative, Rebekah's son, and she ran to tell her father.

¹³When Laban heard the news about his sister's son Jacob, he hurried out to meet him. After embracing and kissing him, he brought him to his house. Jacob then recounted to Laban all that had happened,

¹⁴and Laban said to him, "You are indeed my flesh and blood." After Jacob had stayed with him a full month,

¹⁵Laban said to him: "Should you serve me for nothing just because you are a relative of mine? Tell me what your wages should be."

¹⁶Now Laban had two daughters; the older was called Leah, the younger Rachel.

¹⁷Leah had lovely eyes, but Rachel was well formed and beautiful.

¹⁸Since Jacob had fallen in love with Rachel, he answered Laban, "I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel."

¹⁹Laban replied, "I prefer to give her to you rather than to an outsider. Stay with me."

²⁰So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, yet they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her.

²¹Then Jacob said to Laban, "Give me my wife, that I may consummate my marriage with her, for my term is now completed."

²²So Laban invited all the local inhabitants and gave a feast.

²³At nightfall he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and Jacob consummated the marriage with her.

²⁴(Laban assigned his slave girl Zilpah to his daughter Leah as her maidservant.)

²⁵In the morning Jacob was amazed: it was Leah! So he cried out to Laban: "How could you do this to me! Was it not for Rachel that I served you? Why did you dupe me?"

²⁶"It is not the custom in our country," Laban replied, "to marry off a younger daughter before an older one.

²⁷Finish the bridal week for this one, and then I will give you the other too, in return for another seven years of service with me."

²⁸Jacob agreed. He finished the bridal week for Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel in marriage.

²⁹(Laban assigned his slave girl Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maidservant.)

³⁰Jacob then consummated his marriage with Rachel also, and he loved her more than Leah. Thus he remained in Laban's service another seven years.

³¹When the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, he made her fruitful, while Rachel remained barren.

³²Leah conceived and bore a son, and she named him Reuben; for she said, "It means, 'The LORD saw my misery; now my husband will love me.'"

³³She conceived again and bore a son, and said, "It means, 'The LORD heard that I was unloved,' and therefore he has given me this one also"; so she named him Simeon.

³⁴Again she conceived and bore a son, and she said, "Now at last my husband will become attached to me, since I have now borne him three sons"; that is why she named him Levi.

³⁵Once more she conceived and bore a son, and she said, "This time I will give grateful praise to the LORD"; therefore she named him Judah. Then she stopped bearing children.

30When Rachel saw that she failed to bear children to Jacob, she became envious of her sister. She said to Jacob, "Give me children or I shall die!"

²In anger Jacob retorted, "Can I take the place of God, who has denied you the fruit of the womb?"

³She replied, "Here is my maidservant Bilhah. Have intercourse with her, and let her give birth on my knees, so that I too may have offspring, at least through her."

⁴So she gave him her maidservant Bilhah as a consort, and Jacob had intercourse with her.

⁵When Bilhah conceived and bore a son,

⁶Rachel said, "God has vindicated me; indeed he has heeded my plea and given me a son." Therefore she named him Dan.

⁷Rachel's maidservant Bilhah conceived again and bore a second son,

⁸and Rachel said, "I engaged in a fateful struggle with my sister, and I prevailed." So she named him Naphtali.

⁹When Leah saw that she had ceased to bear children, she gave her maidservant Zilpah to Jacob as a consort.

¹⁰So Jacob had intercourse with Zilpah, and she conceived and bore a son.

¹¹Leah then said, "What good luck!" So she named him Gad.

¹²Then Leah's maidservant Zilpah bore a second son to Jacob;

¹³and Leah said, "What good fortune!"--meaning, "Women call me fortunate." So she named him Asher.

¹⁴One day, during the wheat harvest, when Reuben was out in the field, he came upon some mandrakes which he brought home to his mother Leah. Rachel asked Leah, "Please let me have some of your son's mandrakes."

¹⁵Leah replied, "Was it not enough for you to take away my husband, that you must now take my son's mandrakes too?" "Very well, then!" Rachel answered. "In exchange for your son's mandrakes, Jacob may lie with you tonight."

¹⁶That evening, when Jacob came home from the fields, Leah went out to meet him. "You are now to come in with me," she told him, "because I have paid for you with my son's mandrakes." So that night he slept with her,

¹⁷and God heard her prayer; she conceived and bore a fifth son to Jacob.

¹⁸Leah then said, "God has given me my reward for having let my husband have my maidservant"; so she named him Issachar.

¹⁹Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son to Jacob;

²⁰and she said, "God has brought me a precious gift. This time my husband will offer me presents, now that I have borne him six sons"; so she named him Zebulun.

²¹Finally, she gave birth to a daughter, and she named her Dinah.

²²Then God remembered Rachel; he heard her prayer and made her fruitful.

²³She conceived and bore a son, and she said, "God has removed my disgrace."

²⁴So she named him Joseph, meaning, "May the LORD add another son to this one for me!"

²⁵After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban: "Give me leave to go to my homeland.

²⁶Let me have my wives, for whom I served you, and my children, too, that I may depart. You know very well the service that I have rendered you."

²⁷Laban answered him: "If you will please. . . . "I have learned through divination that it is because of you that God has blessed me.

²⁸So," he continued, "state what wages you want from me, and I will pay them."

²⁹Jacob replied: "You know what work I did for you and how well your livestock fared under my care;

³⁰the little you had before I came has grown into very much, since the LORD'S blessings came upon you in my company. Therefore I should now do something for my own household as well."

³¹"What should I pay you?" Laban asked. Jacob answered: "You do not have to pay me anything outright. I will again pasture and tend your flock, if you do this one thing for me:

³²go through your whole flock today and remove from it every dark animal among the sheep and every spotted or speckled one among the goats. Only such animals shall be my wages.

³³In the future, whenever you check on these wages of mine, let my honesty testify against me: any animal in my possession that is not a speckled or spotted goat, or a dark sheep, got there by theft!"

³⁴"Very well," agreed Laban. "Let it be as you say."

³⁵That same day Laban removed the streaked and spotted he-goats and all the speckled and spotted she-goats, all those with some white on them, as well as the fully dark-colored sheep; these he left. . . in charge of his sons.

³⁶Then he put a three days' journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to pasture the rest of Laban's flock.

³⁷Jacob, however, got some fresh shoots of poplar, almond and plane trees, and he made white stripes in them by peeling off the bark down to the white core of the shoots.

³⁸The rods that he had thus peeled he then set upright in the watering troughs, so that they would be in front of the animals that drank from the troughs. When the animals were in heat as they came to drink,

³⁹the goats mated by the rods, and so they brought forth streaked, speckled and spotted kids.

⁴⁰The sheep, on the other hand, Jacob kept apart, and he set these animals to face the streaked or fully dark-colored animals of Laban. Thus he produced special flocks of his own, which he did not put with Laban's flock.

⁴¹Moreover, whenever the hardier animals were in heat, Jacob would set the rods in the troughs in full view of these animals, so that they mated by the rods;

⁴²but with the weaker animals he would not put the rods there. So the feeble animals would go to Laban, but the sturdy ones to Jacob.

⁴³Thus the man grew increasingly prosperous, and he came to own not only large flocks but also male and female servants and camels and asses.

31Jacob learned that Laban's sons were saying, "Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father, and he has accumulated all this wealth of his by using our father's property."

²Jacob perceived, too, that Laban's attitude toward him was not what it had previously been.

³Then the LORD said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your fathers, where you were born, and I will be with you."

⁴So Jacob sent for Rachel and Leah to meet him where he was in the field with his flock.

⁵There he said to them: "I have noticed that your father's attitude toward me is not as it was in the past; but the God of my father has been with me.

⁶You well know what effort I put into serving your father;

⁷yet your father cheated me and changed my wages time after time. God, however, did not let him do me any harm.

⁸Whenever your father said, 'The speckled animals shall be your wages,' the entire flock would bear speckled young; whenever he said, 'The streaked animals shall be your wages,' the entire flock would bear streaked young.

⁹Thus God reclaimed your father's livestock and gave it to me.

¹⁰Once, in the breeding season, I had a dream in which I saw mating he-goats that were streaked, speckled and mottled.

¹¹In the dream God's messenger called to me, 'Jacob!' 'Here!' I replied.

¹²Then he said: 'Note well. All the he-goats in the flock, as they mate, are streaked, speckled and mottled, for I have seen all the things that Laban has been doing to you.

¹³I am the God who appeared to you in Bethel, where you anointed a memorial stone and made a vow to me. Up, then! Leave this land and return to the land of your birth.'"

¹⁴Rachel and Leah answered him: "Have we still an heir's portion in our father's house?

¹⁵Are we not regarded by him as outsiders? He not only sold us; he has even used up the money that he got for us!

¹⁶All the wealth that God reclaimed from our father really belongs to us and our children. Therefore, do just as God has told you."

¹⁷Jacob proceeded to put his children and wives on camels,

¹⁸and he drove off with all his livestock and all the property he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.

¹⁹Now Laban had gone away to shear his sheep, and Rachel had meanwhile appropriated her father's household idols.

²⁰Jacob had hoodwinked Laban the Aramean by not telling him of his intended flight.

²¹Thus he made his escape with all that he had. Once he was across the Euphrates, he headed for the highlands of Gilead.

²²On the third day, word came to Laban that Jacob had fled.

²³Taking his kinsmen with him, he pursued him for seven days until he caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead.

²⁴But that night God appeared to Laban the Aramean in a dream and warned him, "Take care not to threaten Jacob with any harm!"

²⁵When Laban overtook Jacob, Jacob's tents were pitched in the highlands; Laban also pitched his tents there, on Mount Gilead.

²⁶"What do you mean," Laban demanded of Jacob, "by hoodwinking me and carrying off my daughters like war captives?

²⁷Why did you dupe me by stealing away secretly? You should have told me, and I would have sent you off with merry singing to the sound of tambourines and harps.

²⁸You did not even allow me a parting kiss to my daughters and grandchildren! What you have now done is a senseless thing.

²⁹I have it in my power to harm all of you; but last night the God of your father said to me, 'Take care not to threaten Jacob with any harm!'

³⁰Granted that you had to leave because you were desperately homesick for your father's house, why did you steal my gods?"

³¹"I was frightened," Jacob replied to Laban, "at the thought that you might take your daughters away from me by force.

³²But as for your gods, the one you find them with shall not remain alive! If, with my kinsmen looking on, you identify anything here as belonging to you, take it." Jacob, of course, had no idea that Rachel had stolen the idols.

³³Laban then went in and searched Jacob's tent and Leah's tent, as well as the tents of the two maidservants; but he did not find the idols. Leaving Leah's tent, he went into Rachel's.

³⁴Now Rachel had taken the idols, put them inside a camel cushion, and seated herself upon them. When Laban had rummaged through the rest of her tent without finding them,

³⁵Rachel said to her father, "Let not my lord feel offended that I cannot rise in your presence; a woman's period is upon me." So, despite his search, he did not find his idols.

³⁶Jacob, now enraged, upbraided Laban. "What crime or offense have I committed," he demanded, "that you should hound me so fiercely?

³⁷Now that you have ransacked all my things, have you found a single object taken from your belongings? If so, produce it here before your kinsmen and mine, and let them decide between us two.

³⁸"In the twenty years that I was under you, no ewe or she-goat of yours ever miscarried, and I have never feasted on a ram of your flock.

³⁹I never brought you an animal torn by wild beasts; I made good the loss myself. You held me responsible for anything stolen by day or night.

⁴⁰How often the scorching heat ravaged me by day, and the frost by night, while sleep fled from my eyes!

⁴¹Of the twenty years that I have now spent in your household, I slaved fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, while you changed my wages time after time.

⁴²If my ancestral God, the God of Abraham and the Awesome One of Isaac, had not been on my side, you would now have sent me away empty-handed. But God saw my plight and the fruits of my toil, and last night he gave judgment."

⁴³Laban replied to Jacob: "The women are mine, their children are mine, and the flocks are mine; everything you see belongs to me. But since these women are my daughters, I will now do something for them and for the children they have borne.

⁴⁴Come, then, we will make a pact, you and I; the LORD shall be a witness between us."

⁴⁵Then Jacob took a stone and set it up as a memorial stone.

⁴⁶Jacob said to his kinsmen, "Gather some stones." So they got some stones and made a mound; and they had a meal there at the mound.

⁴⁷Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob named it Galeed.

⁴⁸"This mound," said Laban, "shall be a witness from now on between you and me." That is why it was named Galeed--

⁴⁹and also Mizpah, for he said: "May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are out of each other's sight.

⁵⁰If you mistreat my daughters, or take other wives besides my daughters, remember that even though no one else is about, God will be witness between you and me."

⁵¹Laban said further to Jacob: "Here is this mound, and here is the memorial stone that I have set up between you and me.

⁵²This mound shall be witness, and this memorial stone shall be witness, that, with hostile intent, neither may I pass beyond this mound into your territory, nor may you pass beyond it into mine.

⁵³May the God of Abraham and the god of Nahor (their ancestral deities) maintain justice between us!" Jacob took the oath by the Awesome One of Isaac.

⁵⁴He then offered a sacrifice on the mountain and invited his kinsmen to share in the meal. When they had eaten, they passed the night on the mountain.

32Early the next morning, Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters goodbye; then he set out on his journey back home,

²while Jacob continued on his own way. Then God's messengers encountered Jacob.

³When he saw them he said, "This is God's encampment." So he named that place Mahanaim.

⁴Jacob sent messengers ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom,

⁵with this message: "Thus shall you say to my lord Esau: 'Your servant Jacob speaks as follows: I have been staying with Laban and have been detained there until now.

⁶I own cattle, asses and sheep, as well as male and female servants. I am sending my lord this information in the hope of gaining your favor.'"

⁷When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, "We reached your brother Esau. He is now coming to meet you, accompanied by four hundred men."

⁸Jacob was very much frightened. In his anxiety, he divided the people who were with him, as well as his flocks, herds and camels, into two camps.

⁹"If Esau should attack and overwhelm one camp," he reasoned, "the remaining camp may still survive."

¹⁰Then he prayed: "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac! You told me, O LORD, 'Go back to the land of your birth, and I will be good to you.'

¹¹I am unworthy of all the acts of kindness that you have loyally performed for your servant: although I crossed the Jordan here with nothing but my staff, I have now grown into two companies.

¹²Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau! Otherwise I fear that when he comes he will strike me down and slay the mothers and children.

¹³You yourself said, 'I will be very good to you, and I will make your descendants like the sands of the sea, which are too numerous to count.'"

¹⁴After passing the night there, Jacob selected from what he had with him the following presents for his brother Esau:

¹⁵two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats; two hundred ewes and twenty rams;

¹⁶thirty milch camels and their young; forty cows and ten bulls; twenty she-asses and ten he-asses.

¹⁷He put these animals in charge of his servants, in separate droves, and he told the servants, "Go on ahead of me, but keep a space between one drove and the next."

¹⁸To the servant in the lead he gave this instruction: "When my brother Esau meets you, he may ask you, 'Whose man are you? Where are you going? To whom do these animals ahead of you belong?'

¹⁹Then you shall answer, 'They belong to your brother Jacob, but they have been sent as a gift to my lord Esau; and Jacob himself is right behind us.'"

²⁰He gave similar instructions to the second servant and the third and to all the others who followed behind the droves, namely: "Thus and thus shall you say to Esau, when you reach him;

²¹and be sure to add, 'Your servant Jacob is right behind us.'" For Jacob reasoned, "If I first appease him with gifts that precede me, then later, when I face him, perhaps he will forgive me."

²²So the gifts went on ahead of him, while he stayed that night in the camp.

²³In the course of that night, however, Jacob arose, took his two wives, with the two maidservants and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.

²⁴After he had taken them across the stream and had brought over all his possessions,

²⁵Jacob was left there alone. Then some man wrestled with him until the break of dawn.

²⁶When the man saw that he could not prevail over him, he struck Jacob's hip at its socket, so that the hip socket was wrenched as they wrestled.

²⁷The man then said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go until you bless me."

²⁸"What is your name?" the man asked. He answered, "Jacob."

²⁹Then the man said, "You shall no longer be spoken of as Jacob, but as Israel, because you have contended with divine and human beings and have prevailed."

³⁰Jacob then asked him, "Do tell me your name, please." He answered, "Why should you want to know my name?" With that, he bade him farewell.

³¹Jacob named the place Peniel, "Because I have seen God face to face," he said, "yet my life has been spared."

³²At sunrise, as he left Penuel, Jacob limped along because of his hip.

³³That is why, to this day, the Israelites do not eat the sciatic muscle that is on the hip socket, inasmuch as Jacob's hip socket was struck at the sciatic muscle.

33Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming, accompanied by four hundred men. So he divided his children among Leah, Rachel and the two maidservants,

²putting the maids and their children first, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last.

³He himself went on ahead of them, bowing to the ground seven times, until he reached his brother.

⁴Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, and flinging himself on his neck, kissed him as he wept.

⁵When Esau looked about, he saw the women and children. "Who are these with you?" he asked. Jacob answered, "They are the children whom God has graciously bestowed on your servant."

⁶Then the maidservants and their children came forward and bowed low;

⁷next, Leah and her children came forward and bowed low; lastly, Rachel and her children came forward and bowed low.

⁸Then Esau asked, "What did you intend with all those droves that I encountered?" Jacob answered, "It was to gain my lord's favor."

⁹"I have plenty," replied Esau; "you should keep what is yours, brother."

¹⁰"No, I beg you!" said Jacob. "If you will do me the favor, please accept this gift from me, since to come into your presence is for me like coming into the presence of God, now that you have received me so kindly.

¹¹Do accept the present I have brought you; God has been generous toward me, and I have an abundance." Since he so urged him, Esau accepted.

¹²Then Esau said, "Let us break camp and be on our way; I will travel alongside you."

¹³But Jacob replied: "As my lord can see, the children are frail. Besides, I am encumbered with the flocks and herds, which now have sucklings; if overdriven for a single day, the whole flock will die.

¹⁴Let my lord, then, go on ahead of me, while I proceed more slowly at the pace of the livestock before me and at the pace of my children, until I join my lord in Seir."

¹⁵Esau replied, "Let me at least put at your disposal some of the men who are with me." But Jacob said, "For what reason? Please indulge me in this, my lord."

¹⁶So on the same day that Esau began his journey back to Seir,

¹⁷Jacob journeyed to Succoth. There he built a home for himself and made booths for his livestock. That is why the place was called Succoth.

¹⁸Having thus come from Paddan-aram, Jacob arrived safely at the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, and he encamped in sight of the city.

¹⁹The plot of ground on which he had pitched his tent he bought for a hundred pieces of bullion from the descendants of Hamor, the founder of Shechem.

²⁰He set up a memorial stone there and invoked "El, the God of Israel."

34Dinah, the daughter whom Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit some of the women of the land.

²When Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivite, who was chief of the region, saw her, he seized her and lay with her by force.

³Since he was strongly attracted to Dinah, daughter of Jacob, indeed was really in love with the girl, he endeavored to win her affection.

⁴Shechem also asked his father Hamor, "Get me this girl for a wife."

⁵Meanwhile, Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter Dinah; but since his sons were out in the fields with his livestock, he held his peace until they came home.

⁶Now Hamor, the father of Shechem, went out to discuss the matter with Jacob,

⁷just as Jacob's sons were coming in from the fields. When they heard the news, the men were shocked and seethed with indignation. What Shechem had done was an outrage in Israel; such a thing could not be tolerated.

⁸Hamor appealed to them, saying: "My son Shechem has his heart set on your daughter. Please give her to him in marriage.

⁹Intermarry with us; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves.

¹⁰Thus you can live among us. The land is open before you; you can settle and move about freely in it, and acquire landed property here."

¹¹Then Shechem, too, appealed to Dinah's father and brothers: "Do me this favor, and I will pay whatever you demand of me.

¹²No matter how high you set the bridal price, I will pay you whatever you ask; only give me the maiden in marriage."

¹³Jacob's sons replied to Shechem and his father Hamor with guile, speaking as they did because their sister Dinah had been defiled.

¹⁴"We could not do such a thing," they said, "as to give our sister to an uncircumcised man; that would be a disgrace for us.

¹⁵We will agree with you only on this condition, that you become like us by having every male among you circumcised.

¹⁶Then we will give you our daughters and take yours in marriage; we will settle among you and become one kindred people with you.

¹⁷But if you do not comply with our terms regarding circumcision, we will take our daughter and go away."

¹⁸Their proposal seemed fair to Hamor and his son Shechem.

¹⁹The young man lost no time in acting in the matter, since he was deeply in love with Jacob's daughter. Moreover he was more highly respected than anyone else in his clan.

²⁰So Hamor and his son Shechem went to their town council and thus presented the matter to their fellow townsmen:

²¹"These men are friendly toward us. Let them settle in the land and move about in it freely; there is ample room in the country for them. We can marry their daughters and give our daughters to them in marriage.

²²But the men will agree to live with us and form one kindred people with us only on this condition, that every male among us be circumcised as they themselves are.

²³Would not the livestock they have acquired--all their animals--then be ours? Let us, therefore, give in to them, so that they may settle among us."

²⁴All the able-bodied men of the town agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem, and all the males, including every able-bodied man in the community, were circumcised.

²⁵On the third day, while they were still in pain, Dinah's full brothers Simeon and Levi, two of Jacob's sons, took their swords, advanced against the city without any trouble, and massacred all the males.

²⁶After they had put Hamor and his son Shechem to the sword, they took Dinah from Shechem's house and left.

²⁷Then the other sons of Jacob followed up the slaughter and sacked the city in reprisal for their sister Dinah's defilement.

²⁸They seized their flocks, herds and asses, whatever was in the city and in the country around.

²⁹They carried off all their wealth, their women, and their children, and took for loot whatever was in the houses.

³⁰Jacob said to Simeon and Levi: "You have brought trouble upon me by making me loathsome to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I have so few men that, if these people unite against me and attack me, I and my family will be wiped out."

³¹But they retorted, "Should our sister have been treated like a harlot?"

35God said to Jacob: "Go up now to Bethel. Settle there and build an altar there to the God who appeared to you while you were fleeing from your brother Esau."

²So Jacob told his family and all the others who were with him: "Get rid of the foreign gods that you have among you; then purify yourselves and put on fresh clothes.

³We are now to go up to Bethel, and I will build an altar there to the God who answered me in my hour of distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone."

⁴They therefore handed over to Jacob all the foreign gods in their possession and also the rings they had in their ears.

⁵Then, as they set out, a terror from God fell upon the towns round about, so that no one pursued the sons of Jacob.

⁶Thus Jacob and all the people who were with him arrived in Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan.

⁷There he built an altar and named the place Bethel, for it was there that God had revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.

⁸Death came to Rebekah's nurse Deborah; she was buried under the oak below Bethel, and so it was called Allonbacuth.

⁹On Jacob's arrival from Paddan-aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him.

¹⁰God said to him: "You whose name is Jacob shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name." Thus he was named Israel.

¹¹God also said to him: "I am God Almighty; be fruitful and multiply. A nation, indeed an assembly of nations, shall stem from you, and kings shall issue from your loins.

¹²The land I once gave to Abraham and Isaac I now give to you; And to your descendants after you will I give this land."

¹³Then God departed from him.

¹⁴On the site where God had spoken with him, Jacob set up a memorial stone, and upon it he made a libation and poured out oil.

¹⁵Jacob named the site Bethel, because God had spoken with him there.

¹⁶Then they departed from Bethel; but while they still had some distance to go on the way to Ephrath, Rachel began to be in labor and to suffer great distress.

¹⁷When her pangs were most severe, her midwife said to her, "Have no fear! This time, too, you have a son."

¹⁸With her last breath--for she was at the point of death-she called him Ben-oni; his father, however, named him Benjamin.

¹⁹Thus Rachel died; and she was buried on the road to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).

²⁰Jacob set up a memorial stone on her grave, and the same monument marks Rachel's grave to this day.

²¹Israel moved on and pitched his tent beyond Migdal-eder.

²²While Israel was encamped in that region, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine. When Israel heard of it, he was greatly offended. The sons of Jacob were now twelve.

²³The sons of Leah: Reuben, Jacob's first-born, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun;

²⁴the sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin;

²⁵the sons of Rachel's maid Bilhah: Dan and Naphtali;

²⁶the sons of Leah's maid Zilpah: Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-aram.

²⁷Jacob went home to his father Isaac at Mamre, in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed.

²⁸The lifetime of Isaac was one hundred and eighty years;

²⁹then he breathed his last. After a full life, he died as an old man and was taken to his kinsmen. His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

36These are the descendants of Esau (that is, Edom).

²Esau took his wives from among the Canaanite women: Adah, daughter of Elon the Hittite; Oholibamah, granddaughter through Anah of Zibeon the Hivite;

³and Basemath, daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.

⁴Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau; Basemath bore Reuel;

⁵and Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam and Korah. These are the sons of Esau who were born to him in the land of Canaan.

⁶Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the members of his household, as well as his livestock comprising various animals and all the property he had acquired in the land of Canaan, and went to the land of Seir, out of the way of his brother Jacob.

⁷Their possessions had become too great for them to dwell together, and the land in which they were staying could not support them because of their livestock.

⁸So Esau settled in the highlands of Seir. (Esau is Edom.)

⁹These are the descendants of Esau, ancestor of the Edomites, in the highlands of Seir.

¹⁰These are the names of Esau's sons: Eliphaz, son of Esau's wife Adah; and Reuel, son of Esau's wife Basemath.

¹¹The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz.

¹²(Esau's son Eliphaz had a concubine Timna, and she bore Amalek to Eliphaz.) These are the descendants of Esau's wife Adah.

¹³The sons of Reuel were Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These are the descendants of Esau's wife Basemath.

¹⁴The descendants of Esau's wife Oholibamah--granddaughter through Anah of Zibeon--whom she bore to Esau were Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.

¹⁵The following are the clans of Esau's descendants. The descendants of Eliphaz, Esau's first-born: the clans of Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz,

¹⁶Korah, Gatam, and Amalek. These are the clans of Eliphaz in the land of Edom; they are descended from Adah.

¹⁷The descendants of Esau's son Reuel: the clans of Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These are the clans of Reuel in the land of Edom; they are descended from Esau's wife Basemath.

¹⁸The descendants of Esau's wife Oholibamah: the clans of Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. These are the clans of Esau's wife Oholibamah, daughter of Anah.

¹⁹Such are the descendants of Esau (that is, Edom) according to their clans.

²⁰The following are the descendants of Seir the Horite, the original settlers in the land: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,

²¹Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan; they are the Horite clans descended from Seir, in the land of Edom.

²²Lotan's descendants were Hori and Hemam, and Lotan's sister was Timna.

²³Shobal's descendants were Alvan, Mahanath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam.

²⁴Zibeon's descendants were Aiah and Anah. (He is the Anah who found water in the desert while he was pasturing the asses of his father Zibeon.)

²⁵The descendants of Anah were Dishon and Oholibamah, daughter of Anah.

²⁶The descendants of Dishon were Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Cheran.

²⁷The descendants of Ezer were Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan.

²⁸The descendants of Dishan were Uz and Aran.

²⁹These are the Horite clans: the clans of Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,

³⁰Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan; they were the clans of the Horites, clan by clan, in the land of Seir.

³¹The following are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the Israelites.

³²Bela, son of Beor, became king in Edom; the name of his city was Dinhabah.

³³When Bela died, Jobab, son of Zerah, from Bozrah, succeeded him as king.

³⁴When Jobab died, Husham, from the land of the Temanites, succeeded him as king. He defeated the Midianites in the country of Moab; the name of his city was Avith.

³⁵When Husham died, Hadad, son of Bedad, succeeded him as king.

³⁶When Hadad died, Samlah, from Masrekah, succeeded him as king.

³⁷When Samlah died, Shaul, from Rehoboth-on-the-River, succeeded him as king.

³⁸When Shaul died, Baal-hanan, son of Achbor, succeeded him as king.

³⁹When Baal-hanan died, Hadar succeeded him as king; the name of his city was Pau. (His wife's name was Mehetabel; she was the daughter of Matred, son of Mezahab.)

⁴⁰The following are the names of the clans of Esau individually according to their subdivisions and localities: the clans of Timna, Alvah, Jetheth,

⁴¹Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon,

⁴²Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar,

⁴³Magdiel, and Iram. These are the clans of the Edomites, according to their settlements in their territorial holdings. (Esau was the father of the Edomites.)

37Jacob settled in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.

²This is his family history. When Joseph was seventeen years old, he was tending the flocks with his brothers; he was an assistant to the sons of his father's wives Bilhah and Zilpah, and he brought his father bad reports about them.

³Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons, for he was the child of his old age; and he had made him a long tunic.

⁴When his brothers saw that their father loved him best of all his sons, they hated him so much that they would not even greet him.

⁵Once Joseph had a dream, which he told to his brothers:

⁶"Listen to this dream I had.

⁷There we were, binding sheaves in the field, when suddenly my sheaf rose to an upright position, and your sheaves formed a ring around my sheaf and bowed down to it."

⁸"Are you really going to make yourself king over us?" his brothers asked him. "Or impose your rule on us?" So they hated him all the more because of his talk about his dreams.

⁹Then he had another dream, and this one, too, he told to his brothers. "I had another dream," he said; "this time, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me."

¹⁰When he also told it to his father, his father reproved him. "What is the meaning of this dream of yours?" he asked. "Can it be that I and your mother and your brothers are to come and bow to the ground before you?"

¹¹So his brothers were wrought up against him but his father pondered the matter.

¹²One day, when his brothers had gone to pasture their father's flocks at Shechem,

¹³Israel said to Joseph, "Your brothers, you know, are tending our flocks at Shechem. Get ready; I will send you to them." "I am ready," Joseph answered.

¹⁴"Go then," he replied; "see if all is well with your brothers and the flocks, and bring back word." So he sent him off from the valley of Hebron. When Joseph reached Shechem,

¹⁵a man met him as he was wandering about in the fields. "What are you looking for?" the man asked him.

¹⁶"I am looking for my brothers," he answered. "Could you please tell me where they are tending the flocks?"

¹⁷The man told him, "They have moved on from here; in fact, I heard them say, 'Let us go on to Dothan.'" So Joseph went after his brothers and caught up with them in Dothan.

¹⁸They noticed him from a distance, and before he came up to them, they plotted to kill him.

¹⁹They said to one another: "Here comes that master dreamer!

²⁰Come on, let us kill him and throw him into one of the cisterns here; we could say that a wild beast devoured him. We shall then see what comes of his dreams."

²¹When Reuben heard this, he tried to save him from their hands, saying: "We must not take his life.

²²Instead of shedding blood," he continued, "just throw him into that cistern there in the desert; but don't kill him outright." His purpose was to rescue him from their hands and restore him to his father.

²³So when Joseph came up to them, they stripped him of the long tunic he had on;

²⁴then they took him and threw him into the cistern, which was empty and dry.

²⁵They then sat down to their meal. Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, their camels laden with gum, balm and resin to be taken down to Egypt.

²⁶Judah said to his brothers: "What is to be gained by killing our brother and concealing his blood?

²⁷Rather, let us sell him to these Ishmaelites, instead of doing away with him ourselves. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh." His brothers agreed.

²⁸They sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. Some Midianite traders passed by, and they pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and took him to Egypt.

²⁹When Reuben went back to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not in it, he tore his clothes,

³⁰and returning to his brothers, he exclaimed: "The boy is gone! And I--where can I turn?"

³¹They took Joseph's tunic, and after slaughtering a goat, dipped the tunic in its blood.

³²Then they sent someone to bring the long tunic to their father, with the message: "We found this. See whether it is your son's tunic or not."

³³He recognized it and exclaimed: "My son's tunic! A wild beast has devoured him! Joseph has been torn to pieces!"

³⁴Then Jacob rent his clothes, put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned his son many days.

³⁵Though his sons and daughters tried to console him, he refused all consolation, saying, "No, I will go down mourning to my son in the nether world." Thus did his father lament him.

³⁶The Midianites, meanwhile, sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, a courtier of Pharaoh and his chief steward.

38About that time Judah parted from his brothers and pitched his tent near a certain Adullamite named Hirah.

²There he met the daughter of a Canaanite named Shua, married her, and had relations with her.

³She conceived and bore a son, whom she named Er.

⁴Again she conceived and bore a son, whom she named Onan.

⁵Then she bore still another son, whom she named Shelah. They were in Chezib when he was born.

⁶Judah got a wife named Tamar for his first-born, Er.

⁷But Er, Judah's first-born, greatly offended the LORD; so the LORD took his life.

⁸Then Judah said to Onan, "Unite with your brother's widow, in fulfillment of your duty as brother-in-law, and thus preserve your brother's line."

⁹Onan, however, knew that the descendants would not be counted as his; so whenever he had relations with his brother's widow, he wasted his seed on the ground, to avoid contributing offspring for his brother.

¹⁰What he did greatly offended the LORD, and the LORD took his life too.

¹¹Thereupon Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, "Stay as a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah grows up"--for he feared that Shelah also might die like his brothers. So Tamar went to live in her father's house.

¹²Years passed, and Judah's wife, the daughter of Shua, died. After Judah completed the period of mourning, he went up to Timnah for the shearing of his sheep, in company with his friend Hirah the Adullamite.

¹³When Tamar was told that her father-in-law was on his way up to Timnah to shear his sheep,

¹⁴she took off her widow's garb, veiled her face by covering herself with a shawl, and sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah; for she was aware that, although Shelah was now grown up, she had not been given to him in marriage.

¹⁵When Judah saw her, he mistook her for a harlot, since she had covered her face.

¹⁶So he went over to her at the roadside, and not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he said, "Come, let me have intercourse with you." She replied, "What will you pay me for letting you have intercourse with me?"

¹⁷He answered, "I will send you a kid from the flock." "Very well," she said, "provided you leave a pledge until you send it."

¹⁸Judah asked, "What pledge am I to give to you?" She answered, "Your seal and cord, and the staff you carry." So he gave them to her and had intercourse with her, and she conceived by him.

¹⁹When she went away, she took off her shawl and put on her widow's garb again.

²⁰Judah sent the kid by his friend the Adullamite to recover the pledge from the woman; but he could not find her.

²¹So he asked the men of the place, "Where is the temple prostitute, the one by the roadside in Enaim?" But they answered, "There has never been a temple prostitute here."

²²He went back to Judah and told him, "I could not find her; and besides, the men of the place said there was no temple prostitute there."

²³"Let her keep the things," Judah replied; "otherwise we shall become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her the kid, even though you were unable to find her."

²⁴About three months later, Judah was told that his daughter-in-law Tamar had played the harlot and was then with child from her harlotry. "Bring her out," cried Judah; "she shall be burned."

²⁵But as they were bringing her out, she sent word to her father-in-law, "It is by the man to whom these things belong that I am with child. Please verify," she added, "whose seal and cord and whose staff these are."

²⁶Judah recognized them and said, "She is more in the right than I am, since I did not give her to my son Shelah." But he had no further relations with her.

²⁷When the time of her delivery came, she was found to have twins in her womb.

²⁸While she was giving birth, one infant put out his hand; and the midwife, taking a crimson thread, tied it on his hand, to note that this one came out first.

²⁹But as he withdrew his hand, his brother came out; and she said, "What a breach you have made for yourself!" So he was called Perez.

³⁰Afterward his brother came out; he was called Zerah.

39When Joseph was taken down to Egypt, a certain Egyptian (Potiphar, a courtier of Pharaoh and his chief steward) bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him there.

²But since the LORD was with him, Joseph got on very well and was assigned to the household of his Egyptian master.

³When his master saw that the LORD was with him and brought him success in whatever he did,

⁴he took a liking to Joseph and made him his personal attendant; he put him in charge of his household and entrusted to him all his possessions.

⁵From the moment that he put him in charge of his household and all his possessions, the LORD blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; in fact, the LORD'S blessing was on everything he owned, both inside the house and out.

⁶Having left everything he owned in Joseph's charge, he gave no thought, with Joseph there, to anything but the food he ate. Now Joseph was strikingly handsome in countenance and body.

⁷After a time, his master's wife began to look fondly at him and said, "Lie with me."

⁸But he refused. "As long as I am here," he told her, "my master does not concern himself with anything in the house, but has entrusted to me all he owns.

⁹He wields no more authority in this house than I do, and he has withheld from me nothing but yourself, since you are his wife. How, then, could I commit so great a wrong and thus stand condemned before God?"

¹⁰Although she tried to entice him day after day, he would not agree to lie beside her, or even stay near her.

¹¹One such day, when Joseph came into the house to do his work, and none of the household servants were then in the house,

¹²she laid hold of him by his cloak, saying, "Lie with me!" But leaving the cloak in her hand, he got away from her and ran outside.

¹³When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand as he fled outside,

¹⁴she screamed for her household servants and told them, "Look! my husband has brought in a Hebrew slave to make sport of us! He came in here to lie with me, but I cried out as loud as I could.

¹⁵When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran away outside."

¹⁶She kept the cloak with her until his master came home.

¹⁷Then she told him the same story: "The Hebrew slave whom you brought here broke in on me, to make sport of me.

¹⁸But when I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and fled outside."

¹⁹As soon as the master heard his wife's story about how his slave had treated her, he became enraged.

²⁰He seized Joseph and threw him into the jail where the royal prisoners were confined. But even while he was in prison,

²¹the LORD remained with Joseph; he showed him kindness by making the chief jailer well-disposed toward him.

²²The chief jailer put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners in the jail, and everything that had to be done there was done under his management.

²³The chief jailer did not concern himself with anything at all that was in Joseph's charge, since the LORD was with him and brought success to all he did.

40Some time afterward, the royal cupbearer and baker gave offense to their lord, the king of Egypt.

²Pharaoh was angry with his two courtiers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker,

³and he put them in custody in the house of the chief steward (the same jail where Joseph was confined).

⁴The chief steward assigned Joseph to them, and he became their attendant. After they had been in custody for some time,

⁵the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt who were confined in the jail both had dreams on the same night, each dream with its own meaning.

⁶When Joseph came to them in the morning, he noticed that they looked disturbed.

⁷So he asked Pharaoh's courtiers who were with him in custody in his master's house, "Why do you look so sad today?"

⁸They answered him, "We have had dreams, but there is no one to interpret them for us." Joseph said to them, "Surely, interpretations come from God. Please tell the dreams to me."

⁹Then the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream. "In my dream," he said, "I saw a vine in front of me,

¹⁰and on the vine were three branches. It had barely budded when its blossoms came out, and its clusters ripened into grapes.

¹¹Pharaoh's cup was in my hand; so I took the grapes, pressed them out into his cup, and put it in Pharaoh's hand."

¹²Joseph said to him: "This is what it means. The three branches are three days;

¹³within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your post. You will be handing Pharaoh his cup as you formerly used to do when you were his cupbearer.

¹⁴So if you will still remember, when all is well with you, that I was here with you, please do me the favor of mentioning me to Pharaoh, to get me out of this place.

¹⁵The truth is that I was kidnaped from the land of the Hebrews, and here I have not done anything for which I should have been put into a dungeon."

¹⁶When the chief baker saw that Joseph had given this favorable interpretation, he said to him: "I too had a dream. In it I had three wicker baskets on my head;

¹⁷in the top one were all kinds of bakery products for Pharaoh, but the birds were pecking at them out of the basket on my head."

¹⁸Joseph said to him in reply: "This is what it means. The three baskets are three days;

¹⁹within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and have you impaled on a stake, and the birds will be pecking the flesh from your body."

²⁰And in fact, on the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, when he gave a banquet to all his staff, with his courtiers around him, he lifted up the heads of the chief cupbearer and chief baker.

²¹He restored the chief cupbearer to his office, so that he again handed the cup to Pharaoh;

²²but the chief baker he impaled-just as Joseph had told them in his interpretation.

²³Yet the chief cupbearer gave no thought to Joseph; he had forgotten him.

41After a lapse of two years, Pharaoh had a dream. He saw himself standing by the Nile,

²when up out of the Nile came seven cows, handsome and fat; they grazed in the reed grass.

³Behind them seven other cows, ugly and gaunt, came up out of the Nile; and standing on the bank of the Nile beside the others,

⁴the ugly, gaunt cows ate up the seven handsome, fat cows. Then Pharaoh woke up.

⁵He fell asleep again and had another dream. He saw seven ears of grain, fat and healthy, growing on a single stalk.

⁶Behind them sprouted seven ears of grain, thin and blasted by the east wind;

⁷and the seven thin ears swallowed up the seven fat, healthy ears. Then Pharaoh woke up, to find it was only a dream.

⁸Next morning his spirit was agitated. So he summoned all the magicians and sages of Egypt and recounted his dreams to them; but no one could interpret his dreams for him.

⁹Then the chief cupbearer spoke up and said to Pharaoh: "On this occasion I am reminded of my negligence.

¹⁰Once, when Pharaoh was angry, he put me and the chief baker in custody in the house of the chief steward.

¹¹Later, we both had dreams on the same night, and each of our dreams had its own meaning.

¹²There with us was a Hebrew youth, a slave of the chief steward; and when we told him our dreams, he interpreted them for us and explained for each of us the meaning of his dream.

¹³And it turned out just as he had told us: I was restored to my post, but the other man was impaled."

¹⁴Pharaoh therefore had Joseph summoned, and they hurriedly brought him from the dungeon. After he shaved and changed his clothes, he came into Pharaoh's presence.

¹⁵Pharaoh then said to him: "I had certain dreams that no one can interpret. But I hear it said of you that the moment you are told a dream you can interpret it."

¹⁶"It is not I," Joseph replied to Pharaoh, "but God who will give Pharaoh the right answer."

¹⁷Then Pharaoh said to Joseph: "In my dream, I was standing on the bank of the Nile,

¹⁸when up from the Nile came seven cows, fat and well-formed; they grazed in the reed grass.

¹⁹Behind them came seven other cows, scrawny, most ill-formed and gaunt. Never have I seen such ugly specimens as these in all the land of Egypt!

²⁰The gaunt, ugly cows ate up the first seven fat cows.

²¹But when they had consumed them, no one could tell that they had done so, because they looked as ugly as before. Then I woke up.

²²In another dream I saw seven ears of grain, fat and healthy, growing on a single stalk.

²³Behind them sprouted seven ears of grain, shriveled and thin and blasted by the east wind;

²⁴and the seven thin ears swallowed up the seven healthy ears. I have spoken to the magicians, but none of them can give me an explanation."

²⁵Joseph said to Pharaoh: "Both of Pharaoh's dreams have the same meaning. God has thus foretold to Pharaoh what he is about to do.

²⁶The seven healthy cows are seven years, and the seven healthy ears are seven years--the same in each dream.

²⁷So also, the seven thin, ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, as are the seven thin, wind-blasted ears; they are seven years of famine.

²⁸It is just as I told Pharaoh: God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do.

²⁹Seven years of great abundance are now coming throughout the land of Egypt;

³⁰but these will be followed by seven years of famine, when all the abundance in the land of Egypt will be forgotten. When the famine has ravaged the land,

³¹no trace of the abundance will be found in the land because of the famine that follows it--so utterly severe will that famine be.

³²That Pharaoh had the same dream twice means that the matter has been reaffirmed by God and that God will soon bring it about.

³³"Therefore, let Pharaoh seek out a wise and discerning man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt.

³⁴Pharaoh should also take action to appoint overseers, so as to regiment the land during the seven years of abundance.

³⁵They should husband all the food of the coming good years, collecting the grain under Pharaoh's authority, to be stored in the towns for food.

³⁶This food will serve as a reserve for the country against the seven years of famine that are to follow in the land of Egypt, so that the land may not perish in the famine."

³⁷This advice pleased Pharaoh and all his officials.

³⁸"Could we find another like him," Pharaoh asked his officials, "a man so endowed with the spirit of God?"

³⁹So Pharaoh said to Joseph: "Since God has made all this known to you, no one can be as wise and discerning as you are.

⁴⁰You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people shall dart at your command. Only in respect to the throne shall I outrank you.

⁴¹Herewith," Pharaoh told Joseph, "I place you in charge of the whole land of Egypt."

⁴²With that, Pharaoh took off his signet ring and put it on Joseph's finger. He had him dressed in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain about his neck.

⁴³He then had him ride in the chariot of his vizier, and they shouted "Abrek!" before him. Thus was Joseph installed over the whole land of Egypt.

⁴⁴"I, Pharaoh, proclaim," he told Joseph, "that without your approval no one shall move hand or foot in all the land of Egypt."

⁴⁵Pharaoh also bestowed the name of Zaphnath-paneah on Joseph, and he gave him in marriage Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of Heliopolis.

⁴⁶Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. After Joseph left Pharaoh's presence, he traveled throughout the land of Egypt.

⁴⁷During the seven years of plenty, when the land produced abundant crops,

⁴⁸he husbanded all the food of these years of plenty that the land of Egypt was enjoying and stored it in the towns, placing in each town the crops of the fields around it.

⁴⁹Joseph garnered grain in quantities like the sands of the sea, so vast that at last he stopped measuring it, for it was beyond measure.

⁵⁰Before the famine years set in, Joseph became the father of two sons, borne to him by Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, priest of Heliopolis.

⁵¹He named his first-born Manasseh, meaning, "God has made me forget entirely the sufferings I endured at the hands of my family";

⁵²and the second he named Ephraim, meaning, "God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction."

⁵³When the seven years of abundance enjoyed by the land of Egypt came to an end,

⁵⁴the seven years of famine set in, just as Joseph had predicted. Although there was famine in all the other countries, food was available throughout the land of Egypt.

⁵⁵When hunger came to be felt throughout the land of Egypt and the people cried to Pharaoh for bread, Pharaoh directed all the Egyptians to go to Joseph and do whatever he told them.

⁵⁶When the famine had spread throughout the land, Joseph opened all the cities that had grain and rationed it to the Egyptians, since the famine had gripped the land of Egypt.

⁵⁷In fact, all the world came to Joseph to obtain rations of grain, for famine had gripped the whole world.

42When Jacob learned that grain rations were available in Egypt, he said to his sons: "Why do you keep gaping at one another?

²I hear," he went on, "that rations of grain are available in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, that we may stay alive rather than die of hunger."

³So ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy an emergency supply of grain from Egypt.

⁴It was only Joseph's full brother Benjamin that Jacob did not send with the rest, for he thought some disaster might befall him.

⁵Thus, since there was famine in the land of Canaan also, the sons of Israel were among those who came to procure rations.

⁶It was Joseph, as governor of the country, who dispensed the rations to all the people. When Joseph's brothers came and knelt down before him with their faces to the ground,

⁷he recognized them as soon as he saw them. But he concealed his own identity from them and spoke sternly to them. "Where do you come from?" he asked them. They answered, "From the land of Canaan, to procure food."

⁸When Joseph recognized his brothers, although they did not recognize him,

⁹he was reminded of the dreams he had about them. He said to them: "You are spies. You have come to see the nakedness of the land."

¹⁰"No, my lord," they replied. "On the contrary, your servants have come to procure food.

¹¹All of us are sons of the same man. We are honest men; your servants have never been spies."

¹²But he answered them: "Not so! You have come to see the nakedness of the land."

¹³"We your servants," they said, "were twelve brothers, sons of a certain man in Canaan; but the youngest one is at present with our father, and the other one is gone."

¹⁴"It is just as I said," Joseph persisted; "you are spies.

¹⁵This is how you shall be tested: unless your youngest brother comes here, I swear by the life of Pharaoh that you shall not leave here.

¹⁶So send one of your number to get your brother, while the rest of you stay here under arrest. Thus shall your words be tested for their truth; if they are untrue, as Pharaoh lives, you are spies!"

¹⁷With that, he locked them up in the guardhouse for three days.

¹⁸On the third day Joseph said to them: "Do this, and you shall live; for I am a God-fearing man.

¹⁹If you have been honest, only one of your brothers need be confined in this prison, while the rest of you may go and take home provisions for your starving families.

²⁰But you must come back to me with your youngest brother. Your words will thus be verified, and you will not die." To this they agreed.

²¹To one another, however, they said: "Alas, we are being punished because of our brother. We saw the anguish of his heart when he pleaded with us, yet we paid no heed; that is why this anguish has now come upon us."

²²"Didn't I tell you," broke in Reuben, "not to do wrong to the boy? But you wouldn't listen! Now comes the reckoning for his blood."

²³They did not know, of course, that Joseph understood what they said, since he spoke with them through an interpreter.

²⁴But turning away from them, he wept. When he was able to speak to them again, he had Simeon taken from them and bound before their eyes.

²⁵Then Joseph gave orders to have their containers filled with grain, their money replaced in each one's sack, and provisions given them for their journey. After this had been done for them,

²⁶they loaded their donkeys with the rations and departed.

²⁷At the night encampment, when one of them opened his bag to give his donkey some fodder, he was surprised to see his money in the mouth of his bag.

²⁸"My money has been returned!" he cried out to his brothers. "Here it is in my bag!" At that their hearts sank. Trembling, they asked one another, "What is this that God has done to us?"

²⁹When they got back to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them.

³⁰"The man who is lord of the country," they said, "spoke to us sternly and put us in custody as if we were spying on the land.

³¹But we said to him: 'We are honest men; we have never been spies.

³²There were twelve of us brothers, sons of the same father; but one is gone, and the youngest one is at present with our father in the land of Canaan.'

³³Then the man who is lord of the country said to us: 'This is how I shall know if you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me, while the rest of you go home with rations for your starving families.

³⁴When you come back to me with your youngest brother, and I know that you are honest men and not spies, I will restore your brother to you, and you may move about freely in the land.'"

³⁵When they were emptying their sacks, there in each one's sack was his moneybag! At the sight of their moneybags, they and their father were dismayed.

³⁶Their father Jacob said to them: "Must you make me childless? Joseph is gone, and Simeon is gone, and now you would take away Benjamin! Why must such things always happen to me?"

³⁷Then Reuben told his father: "Put him in my care, and I will bring him back to you. You may kill my own two sons if I do not return him to you."

³⁸But Jacob replied: "My son shall not go down with you. Now that his full brother is dead, he is the only one left. If some disaster should befall him on the journey you must make, you would send my white head down to the nether world in grief."

43Now the famine in the land grew more severe.

²So when they had used up all the rations they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, "Go back and procure us a little more food."

³But Judah replied: "The man strictly warned us, 'You shall not appear in my presence unless your brother is with you.'

⁴If you are willing to let our brother go with us, we will go down to procure food for you.

⁵But if you are not willing, we will not go down, because the man told us, 'You shall not appear in my presence unless your brother is with you.'"

⁶Israel demanded, "Why did you bring this trouble on me by telling the man that you had another brother?"

⁷They answered: "The man kept asking about ourselves and our family: 'Is your father still living? Do you have another brother?' We had to answer his questions. How could we know that he would say, 'Bring your brother down here'?"

⁸Then Judah urged his father Israel: "Let the boy go with me, that we may be off and on our way if you and we and our children are to keep from starving to death.

⁹I myself will stand surety for him. You can hold me responsible for him. If I fail to bring him back, to set him in your presence, you can hold it against me forever.

¹⁰Had we not dilly-dallied, we could have been there and back twice by now!"

¹¹Their father Israel then told them: "If it must be so, then do this: Put some of the land's best products in your baggage and take them down to the man as gifts: some balm and honey, gum and resin, and pistachios and almonds.

¹²Also take extra money along, for you must return the amount that was put back in the mouths of your bags; it may have been a mistake.

¹³Take your brother, too, and be off on your way back to the man.

¹⁴May God Almighty dispose the man to be merciful toward you, so that he may let your other brother go, as well as Benjamin. As for me, if I am to suffer bereavement, I shall suffer it."

¹⁵So the men got the gifts, took double the amount of money with them, and, accompanied by Benjamin, were off on their way down to Egypt to present themselves to Joseph.

¹⁶When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he told his head steward, "Take these men into the house, and have an animal slaughtered and prepared, for they are to dine with me at noon."

¹⁷Doing as Joseph had ordered, the steward conducted the men to Joseph's house.

¹⁸But on being led to his house, they became apprehensive. "It must be," they thought, "on account of the money put back in our bags the first time, that we are taken inside; they want to use it as a pretext to attack us and take our donkeys and seize us as slaves."

¹⁹So they went up to Joseph's head steward and talked to him at the entrance of the house.

²⁰"If you please, sir," they said, "we came down here once before to procure food.

²¹But when we arrived at a night's encampment and opened our bags, there was each man's money in the mouth of his bag--our money in the full amount! We have now brought it back.

²²We have brought other money to procure food with. We do not know who put the first money in our bags."

²³"Be at ease," he replied; "you have no need to fear. Your God and the God of your father must have put treasures in your bags for you. As for your money, I received it." With that, he led Simeon out to them.

²⁴The steward then brought the men inside Joseph's house. He gave them water to bathe their feet, and got fodder for their donkeys.

²⁵Then they set out their gifts to await Joseph's arrival at noon, for they had heard that they were to dine there.

²⁶When Joseph came home, they presented him with the gifts they had brought inside, while they bowed down before him to the ground.

²⁷After inquiring how they were, he asked them, "And how is your aged father, of whom you spoke? Is he still in good health?"

²⁸"Your servant our father is thriving and still in good health," they said, as they bowed respectfully.

²⁹When Joseph's eye fell on his full brother Benjamin, he asked, "Is this your youngest brother, of whom you told me?" Then he said to him, "May God be gracious to you, my boy!"

³⁰With that, Joseph had to hurry out, for he was so overcome with affection for his brother that he was on the verge of tears. He went into a private room and wept there.

³¹After washing his face, he reappeared and, now in control of himself, gave the order, "Serve the meal."

³²It was served separately to him, to the brothers, and to the Egyptians who partook of his board. (Egyptians may not eat with Hebrews; that is abhorrent to them.)

³³When they were seated by his directions according to their age, from the oldest to the youngest, they looked at one another in amazement;

³⁴and as portions were brought to them from Joseph's table, Benjamin's portion was five times as large as anyone else's. So they drank freely and made merry with him.

44Then Joseph gave his head steward these instructions: "Fill the men's bags with as much food as they can carry, and put each man's money in the mouth of his bag.

²In the mouth of the youngest one's bag put also my silver goblet, together with the money for his rations." The steward carried out Joseph's instructions.

³At daybreak the men and their donkeys were sent off.

⁴They had not gone far out of the city when Joseph said to his head steward: "Go at once after the men! When you overtake them, say to them, 'Why did you repay good with evil? Why did you steal the silver goblet from me?

⁵It is the very one from which my master drinks and which he uses for divination. What you have done is wrong.'"

⁶When the steward overtook them and repeated these words to them,

⁷they remonstrated with him: "How can my lord say such things? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing!

⁸We even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the money that we found in the mouths of our bags. Why, then, would we steal silver or gold from your master's house?

⁹If any of your servants is found to have the goblet, he shall die, and as for the rest of us, we shall become my lord's slaves."

¹⁰But he replied, "Even though it ought to be as you propose, only the one who is found to have it shall become my slave, and the rest of you shall be exonerated."

¹¹Then each of them eagerly lowered his bag to the ground and opened it;

¹²and when a search was made, starting with the oldest and ending with the youngest, the goblet turned up in Benjamin's bag.

¹³At this, they tore their clothes. Then, when each man had reloaded his donkey, they returned to the city.

¹⁴As Judah and his brothers reentered Joseph's house, he was still there; so they flung themselves on the ground before him.

¹⁵"How could you do such a thing?" Joseph asked them. "You should have known that such a man as I could discover by divination what happened."

¹⁶Judah replied: "What can we say to my lord? How can we plead or how try to prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servants' guilt. Here we are, then, the slaves of my lord--the rest of us no less than the one in whose possession the goblet was found."

¹⁷"Far be it from me to act thus!" said Joseph. "Only the one in whose possession the goblet was found shall become my slave; the rest of you may go back safe and sound to your father."

¹⁸Judah then stepped up to him and said: "I beg you, my lord, let your servant speak earnestly to my lord, and do not become angry with your servant, for you are the equal of Pharaoh.

¹⁹My lord asked your servants, 'Have you a father, or another brother?'

²⁰So we said to my lord, 'We have an aged father, and a young brother, the child of his old age. This one's full brother is dead, and since he is the only one by that mother who is left, his father dotes on him.'

²¹Then you told your servants, 'Bring him down to me that my eyes may look on him.'

²²We replied to my lord, 'The boy cannot leave his father; his father would die if he were to leave him.'

²³But you told your servants, 'Unless your youngest brother comes back with you, you shall not come into my presence again.'

²⁴When we returned to your servant our father, we reported to him the words of my lord.

²⁵"Later, our father told us to come back and buy some food for the family.

²⁶So we reminded him, 'We cannot go down there; only if our youngest brother is with us can we go, for we may not see the man if our youngest brother is not with us.'

²⁷Then your servant our father said to us, 'As you know, my wife bore me two sons.

²⁸One of them, however, disappeared, and I had to conclude that he must have been torn to pieces by wild beasts; I have not seen him since.

²⁹If you now take this one away from me too, and some disaster befalls him, you will send my white head down to the nether world in grief.'

³⁰"If then the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father, whose very life is bound up with his, he will die as soon as he sees that the boy is missing;

³¹and your servants will thus send the white head of our father down to the nether world in grief.

³²Besides, I, your servant, got the boy from his father by going surety for him, saying, 'If I fail to bring him back to you, father, you can hold it against me forever.'

³³Let me, your servant, therefore, remain in place of the boy as the slave of my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers.

³⁴How could I go back to my father if the boy were not with me? I could not bear to see the anguish that would overcome my father."

45Joseph could no longer control himself in the presence of all his attendants, so he cried out, "Have everyone withdraw from me!" Thus no one else was about when he made himself known to his brothers.

²But his sobs were so loud that the Egyptians heard him, and so the news reached Pharaoh's palace.

³"I am Joseph," he said to his brothers. "Is my father still in good health?" But his brothers could give him no answer, so dumbfounded were they at him.

⁴"Come closer to me," he told his brothers. When they had done so, he said: "I am your brother Joseph, whom you once sold into Egypt.

⁵But now do not be distressed, and do not reproach yourselves for having sold me here. It was really for the sake of saving lives that God sent me here ahead of you.

⁶For two years now the famine has been in the land, and for five more years tillage will yield no harvest.

⁷God, therefore, sent me on ahead of you to ensure for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives in an extraordinary deliverance.

⁸So it was not really you but God who had me come here; and he has made of me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his household, and ruler over the whole land of Egypt.

⁹"Hurry back, then, to my father and tell him: 'Thus says your son Joseph: God has made me lord of all Egypt; come to me without delay.

¹⁰You will settle in the region of Goshen, where you will be near me--you and your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and everything that you own.

¹¹Since five years of famine still lie ahead, I will provide for you there, so that you and your family and all that are yours may not suffer want.'

¹²Surely, you can see for yourselves, and Benjamin can see for himself, that it is I, Joseph, who am speaking to you.

¹³Tell my father all about my high position in Egypt and what you have seen. But hurry and bring my father down here."

¹⁴Thereupon he flung himself on the neck of his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin wept in his arms.

¹⁵Joseph then kissed all his brothers, crying over each of them; and only then were his brothers able to talk with him.

¹⁶When the news reached Pharaoh's palace that Joseph's brothers had come, Pharaoh and his courtiers were pleased.

¹⁷So Pharaoh told Joseph: "Say to your brothers: 'This is what you shall do: Load up your animals and go without delay to the land of Canaan.

¹⁸There get your father and your families, and then come back here to me; I will assign you the best land in Egypt, where you will live off the fat of the land.'

¹⁹Instruct them further: 'Do this. Take wagons from the land of Egypt for your children and your wives and to transport your father on your way back here.

²⁰Do not be concerned about your belongings, for the best in the whole land of Egypt shall be yours.'"

²¹The sons of Israel acted accordingly. Joseph gave them the wagons, as Pharaoh had ordered, and he supplied them with provisions for the journey.

²²He also gave to each of them fresh clothing, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver and five sets of garments.

²³Moreover, what he sent to his father was ten jackasses loaded with the finest products of Egypt and ten jennies loaded with grain and bread and other provisions for his journey.

²⁴As he sent his brothers on their way, he told them, "Let there be no recriminations on the way."

²⁵So they left Egypt and made their way to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan.

²⁶When they told him, "Joseph is still alive--in fact, it is he who is ruler of all the land of Egypt," he was dumbfounded; he could not believe them.

²⁷But when they recounted to him all that Joseph had told them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent for his transport, the spirit of their father Jacob revived.

²⁸"It is enough," said Israel. "My son Joseph is still alive! I must go and see him before I die."

46Israel set out with all that was his. When he arrived at Beer-sheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

²There God, speaking to Israel in a vision by night, called, "Jacob! Jacob!" "Here I am," he answered.

³Then he said: "I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you a great nation.

⁴Not only will I go down to Egypt with you; I will also bring you back here, after Joseph has closed your eyes."

⁵So Jacob departed from Beer-sheba, and the sons of Israel put their father and their wives and children on the wagons that Pharaoh had sent for his transport.

⁶They took with them their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan. Thus Jacob and all his descendants migrated to Egypt.

⁷His sons and his grandsons, his daughters and his granddaughters--all his descendants--he took with him to Egypt.

⁸These are the names of the Israelites, Jacob and his descendants, who migrated to Egypt. Reuben, Jacob's first-born,

⁹and the sons of Reuben: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.

¹⁰The sons of Simeon: Nemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, son of a Canaanite woman.

¹¹The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

¹²The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah--but Er and Onan had died in the land of Canaan; and the sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.

¹³The sons of Issachar: Tola, Puah, Jashub, and Shimron.

¹⁴The sons of Zebulun: Sered, Elon, and Jahleel.

¹⁵These were the sons whom Leah bore to Jacob in Paddan-aram, along with his daughter Dinah--thirty-three persons in all, male and female.

¹⁶The sons of Gad: Zephon, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arod, and Areli.

¹⁷The sons of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, and Beriah, with their sister Serah; and the sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel.

¹⁸These were the descendants of Zilpah, whom Laban had given to his daughter Leah; these she bore to Jacob--sixteen persons in all.

¹⁹The sons of Jacob's wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

²⁰In the land of Egypt Joseph became the father of Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, priest of Heliopolis, bore to him.

²¹The sons of Benjamin: Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ahiram, Shupham, Hupham, and Ard.

²²These were the sons whom Rachel bore to Jacob--fourteen persons in all.

²³The sons of Dan: Hushim.

²⁴The sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem.

²⁵These were the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban had given to his daughter Rachel; these she bore to Jacob--seven persons in all.

²⁶Jacob's people who migrated to Egypt--his direct descendants, not counting the wives of Jacob's sons--numbered sixty-six persons in all.

²⁷Together with Joseph's sons who were born to him in Egypt--two persons--all the people comprising Jacob's family who had come to Egypt amounted to seventy persons in all.

²⁸Israel had sent Judah ahead to Joseph, so that he might meet him in Goshen. On his arrival in the region of Goshen,

²⁹Joseph hitched the horses to his chariot and rode to meet his father Israel in Goshen. As soon as he saw him, he flung himself on his neck and wept a long time in his arms.

³⁰And Israel said to Joseph, "At last I can die, now that I have seen for myself that Joseph is still alive."

³¹Joseph then said to his brothers and his father's household: "I will go and inform Pharaoh, telling him: 'My brothers and my father's household, whose home is in the land of Canaan, have come to me.

³²The men are shepherds, having long been keepers of livestock; and they have brought with them their flocks and herds, as well as everything else they own.'

³³So when Pharaoh summons you and asks what your occupation is,

³⁴you must answer, 'We your servants, like our ancestors, have been keepers of livestock from the beginning until now,' in order that you may stay in the region of Goshen, since all shepherds are abhorrent to the Egyptians."

47Joseph went and told Pharaoh, "My father and my brothers have come from the land of Canaan, with their flocks and herds and everything else they own; and they are now in the region of Goshen."

²He then presented to Pharaoh five of his brothers whom he had selected from their full number.

³When Pharaoh asked them what their occupation was, they answered, "We, your servants, like our ancestors, are shepherds.

⁴We have come," they continued, "in order to stay in this country, for there is no pasture for your servants' flocks in the land of Canaan, so severe has the famine been there. Please, therefore, let your servants settle in the region of Goshen."

⁵Pharaoh said to Joseph, "They may settle in the region of Goshen; and if you know any of them to be qualified, you may put them in charge of my own livestock." Thus, when Jacob and his sons came to Joseph in Egypt, and Pharaoh, king of Egypt, heard about it, Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Now that your father and brothers have come to you,

⁶the land of Egypt is at your disposal; settle your father and brothers in the pick of the land."

⁷Then Joseph brought his father Jacob and presented him to Pharaoh. After Jacob had paid his respects to Pharaoh,

⁸Pharaoh asked him, "How many years have you lived?"

⁹Jacob replied: "The years I have lived as a wayfarer amount to a hundred and thirty. Few and hard have been these years of my life, and they do not compare with the years that my ancestors lived as wayfarers."

¹⁰Then Jacob bade Pharaoh farewell and withdrew from his presence.

¹¹As Pharaoh had ordered, Joseph settled his father and brothers and gave them holdings in Egypt on the pick of the land, in the region of Rameses.

¹²And Joseph sustained his father and brothers and his father's whole household, down to the youngest, with food.

¹³Since there was no food in any country because of the extreme severity of the famine, and the lands of Egypt and Canaan were languishing from hunger,

¹⁴Joseph gathered in, as payment for the rations that were being dispensed, all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan, and he put it in Pharaoh's palace.

¹⁵When all the money in Egypt and Canaan was spent, all the Egyptians came to Joseph, pleading, "Give us food or we shall perish under your eyes; for our money is gone."

¹⁶"Since your money is gone," replied Joseph, "give me your livestock, and I will sell you bread in return for your livestock."

¹⁷So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he sold them food in return for their horses, their flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, and their donkeys. Thus he got them through that year with bread in exchange for all their livestock.

¹⁸When that year ended, they came to him in the following one and said: "We cannot hide from my lord that, with our money spent and our livestock made over to my lord, there is nothing left to put at my lord's disposal except our bodies and our farm land.

¹⁹Why should we and our land perish before your very eyes? Take us and our land in exchange for food, and we will become Pharaoh's slaves and our land his property; only give us seed, that we may survive and not perish, and that our land may not turn into a waste."

²⁰Thus Joseph acquired all the farm land of Egypt for Pharaoh, since with the famine too much for them to bear, every Egyptian sold his field; so the land passed over to Pharaoh,

²¹and the people were reduced to slavery, from one end of Egypt's territory to the other.

²²Only the priests' lands Joseph did not take over. Since the priests had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh and lived off the allowance Pharaoh had granted them, they did not have to sell their land.

²³Joseph told the people: "Now that I have acquired you and your land for Pharaoh, here is your seed for sowing the land.

²⁴But when the harvest is in, you must give a fifth of it to Pharaoh, while you keep four-fifths as seed for your fields and as food for yourselves and your families (and as food for your children)."

²⁵"You have saved our lives!" they answered. "We are grateful to my lord that we can be Pharaoh's slaves."

²⁶Thus Joseph made it a law for the land in Egypt, which is still in force, that a fifth of its produce should go to Pharaoh. Only the land of the priests did not pass over to Pharaoh.

²⁷Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the region of Goshen. There they acquired property, were fertile, and increased greatly.

²⁸Jacob lived in the land of Egypt for seventeen years; the span of his life came to a hundred and forty-seven years.

²⁹When the time approached for Israel to die, he called his son Joseph and said to him: "If you really wish to please me, put your hand under my thigh as a sign of your constant loyalty to me; do not let me be buried in Egypt.

³⁰When I lie down with my ancestors, have me taken out of Egypt and buried in their burial place."

³¹"I will do as you say," he replied. But his father demanded, "Swear it to me!" So Joseph swore to him. Then Israel bowed at the head of the bed.

48Some time afterward, Joseph was informed, "Your father is failing." So he took along with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.

²When Jacob was told, "Your son Joseph has come to you," he rallied his strength and sat up in bed.

³Jacob then said to Joseph: "God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessing me,

⁴he said, 'I will make you fertile and numerous and raise you into an assembly of tribes, and I will give this land to your descendants after you as a permanent possession.'

⁵Your two sons, therefore, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I joined you here, shall be mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine as much as Reuben and Simeon are mine.

⁶Progeny born to you after them shall remain yours; but their heritage shall be recorded in the names of their two brothers.

⁷I do this because, when I was returning from Paddan, your mother Rachel died, to my sorrow, during the journey in Canaan, while we were still a short distance from Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem)."

⁸When Israel saw Joseph's sons, he asked, "Who are these?"

⁹"They are my sons," Joseph answered his father, "whom God has given me here." "Bring them to me," said his father, "that I may bless them."

¹⁰(Now Israel's eyes were dim from age, and he could not see well.) When Joseph brought his sons close to him, he kissed and embraced them.

¹¹Then Israel said to Joseph, "I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your descendants as well!"

¹²Joseph removed them from his father's knees and bowed down before him with his face to the ground.

¹³Then Joseph took the two, Ephraim with his right hand, to Israel's left, and Manasseh with his left hand, to Israel's right, and led them to him.

¹⁴But Israel, crossing his hands, put out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, although he was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, although he was the first-born.

¹⁵Then he blessed them with these words: "May the God in whose ways my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, The God who has been my shepherd from my birth to this day,

¹⁶The Angel who has delivered me from all harm, bless these boys That in them my name be recalled, and the names of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, And they may become teeming multitudes upon the earth!"

¹⁷When Joseph saw that his father had laid his right hand on Ephraim's head, this seemed wrong to him; so he took hold of his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's,

¹⁸saying, "That is not right, father; the other one is the first-born; lay your right hand on his head!"

¹⁹But his father resisted. "I know it, son," he said, "I know. That one too shall become a tribe, and he too shall be great. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall surpass him, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations."

²⁰So when he blessed them that day and said, "By you shall the people of Israel pronounce blessings; may they say, 'God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh,'" he placed Ephraim before Manasseh.

²¹Then Israel said to Joseph: "I am about to die. But God will be with you and will restore you to the land of your fathers.

²²As for me, I give to you, as to the one above his brothers, Shechem, which I captured from the Amorites with my sword and bow."

49Jacob called his sons and said: "Gather around, that I may tell you what is to happen to you in days to come.

²"Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob, listen to Israel, your father.

³"You, Reuben, my first-born, my strength and the first fruit of my manhood, excelling in rank and excelling in power!

⁴Unruly as water, you shall no longer excel, for you climbed into your father's bed and defiled my couch to my sorrow.

⁵"Simeon and Levi, brothers indeed, weapons of violence are their knives.

⁶Let not my soul enter their council, or my spirit be joined with their company; For in their fury they slew men, in their willfulness they maimed oxen.

⁷Cursed be their fury so fierce, and their rage so cruel! I will scatter them in Jacob, disperse them throughout Israel.

⁸"You, Judah, shall your brothers praise --your hand on the neck of your enemies; the sons of your father shall bow down to you.

⁹Judah, like a lion's whelp, you have grown up on prey, my son. He crouches like a lion recumbent, the king of beasts--who would dare rouse him?

¹⁰The scepter shall never depart from Judah, or the mace from between his legs, While tribute is brought to him, and he receives the people's homage.

¹¹He tethers his donkey to the vine, his purebred ass to the choicest stem. In wine he washes his garments his robe in the blood of grapes.

¹²His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth are whiter than milk.

¹³"Zebulun shall dwell by the seashore (This means a shore for ships), and his flank shall be based on Sidon.

¹⁴"Issachar is a rawboned ass, crouching between the saddlebags.

¹⁵When he saw how good a settled life was, and how pleasant the country, He bent his shoulder to the burden and became a toiling serf.

¹⁶"Dan shall achieve justice for his kindred like any other tribe of Israel.

¹⁷Let Dan be a serpent by the roadside, a horned viper by the path, That bites the horse's heel, so that the rider tumbles backward.

¹⁸"(I long for your deliverance, O LORD!)

¹⁹"Gad shall be raided by raiders, but he shall raid at their heels.

²⁰"Asher's produce is rich, and he shall furnish dainties for kings.

²¹"Naphtali is a hind let loose which brings forth lovely fawns.

²²"Joseph is a wild colt ,a wild colt by a spring, a wild ass on a hillside.

²³Harrying and attacking, the archers opposed him;

²⁴But each one's bow remained stiff, as their arms were unsteady, By the power of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,

²⁵The God of your father, who helps you, God Almighty, who blesses you, With the blessings of the heavens above, the blessings of the abyss that crouches below, The blessings of breasts and womb,

²⁶the blessings of fresh grain and blossoms, The blessings of the everlasting mountains, the delights of the eternal hills. May they rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers.

²⁷"Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; mornings he devours the prey, and evenings he distributes the spoils."

²⁸All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said about them, as he bade them farewell and gave to each of them an appropriate message.

²⁹Then he gave them this charge: "Since I am about to be taken to my kindred, bury me with my fathers in the cave that lies in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

³⁰the cave in the field of Machpelah, facing on Mamre, in the land of Canaan, the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite for a burial ground.

³¹There Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried, and so are Isaac and his wife Rebekah, and there, too, I buried Leah--

³²the field and the cave in it that had been purchased from the Hittites."

³³When Jacob had finished giving these instructions to his sons, he drew his feet into the bed, breathed his last, and was taken to his kindred.

50Joseph threw himself on his father's face and wept over him as he kissed him.

²Then he ordered the physicians in his service to embalm his father. When they embalmed Israel,

³they spent forty days at it, for that is the full period of embalming; and the Egyptians mourned him for seventy days.

⁴When that period of mourning was over, Joseph spoke to Pharaoh's courtiers. "Please do me this favor," he said, "and convey to Pharaoh this request of mine.

⁵Since my father, at the point of death, made me promise on oath to bury him in the tomb that he had prepared for himself in the land of Canaan, may I go up there to bury my father and then come back?"

⁶Pharaoh replied, "Go and bury your father, as he made you promise on oath."

⁷So Joseph left to bury his father; and with him went all of Pharaoh's officials who were senior members of his court and all the other dignitaries of Egypt,

⁸as well as Joseph's whole household, his brothers, and his father's household; only their children and their flocks and herds were left in the region of Goshen.

⁹Chariots, too, and charioteers went up with him; it was a very large retinue.

¹⁰When they arrived at Goren-ha-atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they held there a very great and solemn memorial service; and Joseph observed seven days of mourning for his father.

¹¹When the Canaanites who inhabited the land saw the mourning at Goren-ha-atad, they said, "This is a solemn funeral the Egyptians are having." That is why the place was named Abel-mizraim. It is beyond the Jordan.

¹²Thus Jacob's sons did for him as he had instructed them.

¹³They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah, facing on Mamre, the field that Abraham had bought for a burial ground from Ephron the Hittite.

¹⁴After Joseph had buried his father he returned to Egypt, together with his brothers and all who had gone up with him for the burial of his father.

¹⁵Now that their father was dead, Joseph's brothers became fearful and thought, "Suppose Joseph has been nursing a grudge against us and now plans to pay us back in full for all the wrong we did him!"

¹⁶So they approached Joseph and said: "Before your father died, he gave us these instructions:

¹⁷'You shall say to Joseph, Jacob begs you to forgive the criminal wrongdoing of your brothers, who treated you so cruelly.' Please, therefore, forgive the crime that we, the servants of your father's God, committed." When they spoke these words to him, Joseph broke into tears.

¹⁸Then his brothers proceeded to fling themselves down before him and said, "Let us be your slaves!"

¹⁹But Joseph replied to them: "Have no fear. Can I take the place of God?

²⁰Even though you meant harm to me, God meant it for good, to achieve his present end, the survival of many people.

²¹Therefore have no fear. I will provide for you and for your children." By thus speaking kindly to them, he reassured them.

²²Joseph remained in Egypt, together with his father's family. He lived a hundred and ten years.

²³He saw Ephraim's children to the third generation, and the children of Manasseh's son Machir were also born on Joseph's knees.

²⁴Joseph said to his brothers: "I am about to die. God will surely take care of you and lead you out of this land to the land that he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."

²⁵Then, putting the sons of Israel under oath, he continued, "When God thus takes care of you, you must bring my bones up with you from this place."

²⁶Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. He was embalmed and laid to rest in a coffin in Egypt.

1These are the names of the sons of Israel who, accompanied by their households, migrated with Jacob into Egypt:

²Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah;

³Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin;

⁴Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher.

⁵The total number of the direct descendants of Jacob was seventy. Joseph was already in Egypt.

⁶Now Joseph and all his brothers and that whole generation died.

⁷But the Israelites were fruitful and prolific. They became so numerous and strong that the land was filled with them.

⁸Then a new king, who knew nothing of Joseph , came to power in Egypt.

⁹He said to his subjects, "Look how numerous and powerful the Israelite people are growing, more so than we ourselves!

¹⁰Come, let us deal shrewdly with them to stop their increase; otherwise, in time of war they too may join our enemies to fight against us, and so leave our country."

¹¹Accordingly, taskmasters were set over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. Thus they had to build for Pharaoh the supply cities of Pithom and Raamses.

¹²Yet the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread. The Egyptians, then, dreaded the Israelites

¹³and reduced them to cruel slavery,

¹⁴making life bitter for them with hard work in mortar and brick and all kinds of field work--the whole cruel fate of slaves.

¹⁵The king of Egypt told the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was called Shiphrah and the other Puah,

¹⁶When you act as midwives for the Hebrew women and see them giving birth, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she may live."

¹⁷The midwives, however, feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt had ordered them, but let the boys live.

¹⁸So the king summoned the midwives and asked them, "Why have you acted thus, allowing the boys to live?"

¹⁹The midwives answered Pharaoh, "The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. They are robust and give birth before the midwife arrives."

²⁰Therefore God dealt well with the midwives. The people, too, increased and grew strong.

²¹And because the midwives feared God, he built up families for them.

²²Pharaoh then commanded all his subjects, "Throw into the river every boy that is born to the Hebrews, but you may let all the girls live."

2Now a certain man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman,

²who conceived and bore a son. Seeing that he was a goodly child, she hid him for three months.

³When she could hide him no longer, she took a papyrus basket, daubed it with bitumen and pitch, and putting the child in it, placed it among the reeds on the river bank.

⁴His sister stationed herself at a distance to find out what would happen to him.

⁵Pharaoh's daughter came down to the river to bathe, while her maids walked along the river bank. Noticing the basket among the reeds, she sent her handmaid to fetch it.

⁶On opening it, she looked, and lo, there was a baby boy, crying! She was moved with pity for him and said, "It is one of the Hebrews' children."

⁷Then his sister asked Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and call one of the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?"

⁸"Yes, do so," she answered. So the maiden went and called the child's own mother.

⁹Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will repay you." The woman therefore took the child and nursed it.

¹⁰When the child grew, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, who adopted him as her son and called him Moses; for she said, "I drew him out of the water."

¹¹On one occasion, after Moses had grown up, when he visited his kinsmen and witnessed their forced labor, he saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his own kinsmen.

¹²Looking about and seeing no one, he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

¹³The next day he went out again, and now two Hebrews were fighting! So he asked the culprit, "Why are you striking your fellow Hebrew?"

¹⁴But he replied, "Who has appointed you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses became afraid and thought, "The affair must certainly be known."

¹⁵Pharaoh, too, heard of the affair and sought to put him to death. But Moses fled from him and stayed in the land of Midian. As he was seated there by a well,

¹⁶seven daughters of a priest of Midian came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock.

¹⁷But some shepherds came and drove them away. Then Moses got up and defended them and watered their flock.

¹⁸When they returned to their father Reuel, he said to them, "How is it you have returned so soon today?"

¹⁹They answered, "An Egyptian saved us from the interference of the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock!"

²⁰"Where is the man?" he asked his daughters. "Why did you leave him there? Invite him to have something to eat."

²¹Moses agreed to live with him, and the man gave him his daughter Zipporah in marriage.

²²She bore him a son, whom he named Gershom; for he said, "I am a stranger in a foreign land."

²³A long time passed, during which the king of Egypt died. Still the Israelites groaned and cried out because of their slavery. As their cry for release went up to God,

²⁴he heard their groaning and was mindful of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

²⁵He saw the Israelites and knew. . . .

3Meanwhile Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. Leading the flock across the desert, he came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

²There an angel of the LORD appeared to him in fire flaming out of a bush. As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed.

³So Moses decided, "I must go over to look at this remarkable sight, and see why the bush is not burned."

⁴When the LORD saw him coming over to look at it more closely, God called out to him from the bush, "Moses! Moses!" He answered, "Here I am."

⁵God said, "Come no nearer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.

⁶I am the God of your father," he continued, "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob." Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

⁷But the LORD said, "I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry of complaint against their slave drivers, so I know well what they are suffering.

⁸Therefore I have come down to rescue them from the hands of the Egyptians and lead them out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the country of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

⁹So indeed the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have truly noted that the Egyptians are oppressing them.

¹⁰Come, now! I will send you to Pharaoh to lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt."

¹¹But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and lead the Israelites out of Egypt?"

¹²He answered, "I will be with you; and this shall be your proof that it is I who have sent you: when you bring my people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this very mountain."

¹³"But," said Moses to God, "when I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' if they ask me, 'What is his name?' what am I to tell them?"

¹⁴God replied, "I am who am." Then he added, "This is what you shall tell the Israelites: I AM sent me to you."

¹⁵God spoke further to Moses, "Thus shall you say to the Israelites: The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. "This is my name forever; this is my title for all generations.

¹⁶"Go and assemble the elders of the Israelites, and tell them: The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has appeared to me and said: I am concerned about you and about the way you are being treated in Egypt;

¹⁷so I have decided to lead you up out of the misery of Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.

¹⁸"Thus they will heed your message. Then you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him: The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent us word. Permit us, then, to go a three days' journey in the desert, that we may offer sacrifice to the LORD, our God.

¹⁹"Yet I know that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go unless he is forced.

²⁰I will stretch out my hand, therefore, and smite Egypt by doing all kinds of wondrous deeds there. After that he will send you away.

²¹I will even make the Egyptians so well-disposed toward this people that, when you leave, you will not go empty-handed.

²²Every woman shall ask her neighbor and her house guest for silver and gold articles and for clothing to put on your sons and daughters. Thus you will despoil the Egyptians."

4"But," objected Moses, "suppose they will not believe me, nor listen to my plea? For they may say, 'The LORD did not appear to you.'"

²The LORD therefore asked him, "What is that in your hand?" "A staff," he answered.

³The LORD then said, "Throw it on the ground." When he threw it on the ground it was changed into a serpent, and Moses shied away from it.

⁴"Now, put out your hand," the LORD said to him, "and take hold of its tail." So he put out his hand and laid hold of it, and it became a staff in his hand.

⁵"This will take place so that they may believe," he continued, "that the LORD, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, did appear to you."

⁶Again the LORD said to him, "Put your hand in your bosom." He put it in his bosom, and when he withdrew it, to his surprise his hand was leprous, like snow.

⁷The LORD then said, "Now, put your hand back in your bosom." Moses put his hand back in his bosom, and when he withdrew it, to his surprise it was again like the rest of his body.

⁸"If they will not believe you, nor heed the message of the first sign, they should believe the message of the second.

⁹And if they will not believe even these two signs, nor heed your plea, take some water from the river and pour it on the dry land. The water you take from the river will become blood on the dry land."

¹⁰Moses, however, said to the LORD, "If you please, LORD, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past, nor recently, nor now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and tongue."

¹¹The LORD said to him, "Who gives one man speech and makes another deaf and dumb? Or who gives sight to one and makes another blind? Is it not I, the LORD?

¹²Go, then! It is I who will assist you in speaking and will teach you what you are to say."

¹³Yet he insisted, "If you please, Lord, send someone else!"

¹⁴Then the LORD became angry with Moses and said, "Have you not your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know that he is an eloquent speaker. Besides, he is now on his way to meet you.

¹⁵When he sees you, his heart will be glad. You are to speak to him, then, and put the words in his mouth. I will assist both you and him in speaking and will teach the two of you what you are to do.

¹⁶He shall speak to the people for you: he shall be your spokesman, and you shall be as God to him.

¹⁷Take this staff in your hand; with it you are to perform the signs."

¹⁸After this Moses returned to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, "Let me go back, please, to my kinsmen in Egypt, to see whether they are still living." Jethro replied, "Go in peace."

¹⁹In Midian the LORD said to Moses, "Go back to Egypt, for all the men who sought your life are dead."

²⁰So Moses took his wife and his sons, and started back to the land of Egypt, with them riding the ass. The staff of God he carried with him.

²¹The LORD said to him, "On your return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have put in your power. I will make him obstinate, however, so that he will not let the people go.

²²So you shall say to Pharaoh: Thus says the LORD: Israel is my son, my first-born.

²³Hence I tell you: Let my son go, that he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go, I warn you, I will kill your son, your first-born."

²⁴On the journey, at a place where they spent the night, the Lord came upon Moses and would have killed him.

²⁵But Zipporah took a piece of flint and cut off her son's foreskin and, touching his person, she said, "You are a spouse of blood to me."

²⁶Then God let Moses go. At that time she said, "A spouse of blood," in regard to the circumcision.

²⁷The LORD said to Aaron, "Go into the desert to meet Moses." So he went, and when they met at the mountain of God, Aaron kissed him.

²⁸Moses informed him of all the LORD had said in sending him, and of the various signs he had enjoined upon him.

²⁹Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled all the elders of the Israelites.

³⁰Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses, and he performed the signs before the people.

³¹The people believed, and when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their affliction, they bowed down in worship.

5After that, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Let my people go, that they may celebrate a feast to me in the desert."

²Pharaoh answered, "Who is the LORD, that I should heed his plea to let Israel go? I do not know the LORD; even if I did, I would not let Israel go."

³They replied, "The God of the Hebrews has sent us word. Let us go a three days' journey in the desert, that we may offer sacrifice to the LORD, our God; otherwise he will punish us with pestilence or the sword."

⁴The king of Egypt answered them, "What do you mean, Moses and Aaron, by taking the people away from their work? Off to your labor!

⁵Look how numerous the people of the land are already," continued Pharaoh, "and yet you would give them rest from their labor!"

⁶That very day Pharaoh gave the taskmasters and foremen of the people this order:

⁷"You shall no longer supply the people with straw for their brickmaking as you have previously done. Let them go and gather straw themselves!

⁸Yet you shall levy upon them the same quota of bricks as they have previously made. Do not reduce it. They are lazy; that is why they are crying, 'Let us go to offer sacrifice to our God.'

⁹Increase the work for the men, so that they keep their mind on it and pay no attention to lying words."

¹⁰So the taskmasters and foremen of the people went out and told them, "Thus says Pharaoh: I will not provide you with straw.

¹¹Go and gather the straw yourselves, wherever you can find it. Yet there must not be the slightest reduction in your work."

¹²The people, then, scattered throughout the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw,

¹³while the taskmasters kept driving them on, saying, "Finish your work, the same daily amount as when your straw was supplied."

¹⁴The foremen of the Israelites, whom the taskmasters of Pharaoh had placed over them, were beaten, and were asked, "Why have you not completed your prescribed amount of bricks yesterday and today, as before?"

¹⁵Then the Israelite foremen came and made this appeal to Pharaoh: "Why do you treat your servants in this manner?

¹⁶No straw is supplied to your servants, and still we are told to make bricks. Look how your servants are beaten! It is you who are at fault."

¹⁷Pharaoh answered, "It is just because you are lazy that you keep saying, 'Let us go and offer sacrifice to the LORD.'

¹⁸Off to work, then! Straw shall not be provided for you, but you must still deliver your quota of bricks."

¹⁹The Israelite foremen knew they were in a sorry plight, having been told not to reduce the daily amount of bricks.

²⁰When, therefore, they left Pharaoh and came upon Moses and Aaron, who were waiting to meet them,

²¹they said to them, "The LORD look upon you and judge! You have brought us into bad odor with Pharaoh and his servants and have put a sword in their hands to slay us."

²²Moses again had recourse to the LORD and said, "Lord, why do you treat this people so badly? And why did you send me on such a mission?

²³Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has maltreated this people of yours, and you have done nothing to rescue them."

6Then the LORD answered Moses, "Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. Forced by my mighty hand, he will send them away; compelled by my outstretched arm, he will drive them from his land."

²God also said to Moses, "I am the LORD.

³As God the Almighty I appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but my name, LORD, I did not make known to them.

⁴I also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they were living as aliens.

⁵And now that I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are treating as slaves, I am mindful of my covenant.

⁶Therefore, say to the Israelites: I am the LORD. I will free you from the forced labor of the Egyptians and will deliver you from their slavery. I will rescue you by my outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.

⁷I will take you as my own people, and you shall have me as your God. You will know that I, the LORD, am your God when I free you from the labor of the Egyptians

⁸and bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I will give it to you as your own possession--I, the LORD!"

⁹But when Moses told this to the Israelites, they would not listen to him because of their dejection and hard slavery.

¹⁰Then the LORD said to Moses,

¹¹"Go and tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to let the Israelites leave his land."

¹²But Moses protested to the LORD, "If the Israelites would not listen to me, how can it be that Pharaoh will listen to me, poor speaker that I am!"

¹³Still, the LORD, to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them his orders regarding both the Israelites and Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

¹⁴These are the heads of the ancestral houses. The sons of Reuben, the first-born of Israel, were Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron and Carmi; these are the clans of Reuben.

¹⁵The sons of Simeon were Jenuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar and Shaul, who was the son of a Canaanite woman; these are the clans of Simeon.

¹⁶The names of the sons of Levi, in their genealogical order, are Gershon, Kohath and Merari. Levi lived one hundred and thirty-seven years.

¹⁷The sons of Gershon, as heads of clans, were Libni and Shimei.

¹⁸The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel. Kohath lived one hundred and thirty-three years.

¹⁹The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi. These are the clans of Levi in their genealogical order.

²⁰Amram married his aunt Jochebed, who bore him Aaron, Moses and Miriam. Amram lived one hundred and thirty-seven years.

²¹The sons of Izhar were Korah, Nepheg and Zichri.

²²The sons of Uzziel were Mishael, Elzaphan and Sithri.

²³Aaron married Amminadab's daughter, Elisheba, the sister of Nahshon; she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

²⁴The sons of Korah were Assir, Elkanah and Abiasaph. These are the clans of the Korahites.

²⁵Aaron's son, Eleazar, married one of Putiel's daughters, who bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the ancestral clans of the Levites.

²⁶This is the Aaron and this the Moses to whom the LORD said, "Lead the Israelites from the land of Egypt, company by company."

²⁷These are the ones who spoke to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to bring the Israelites out of Egypt--the same Moses and Aaron.

²⁸On the day the LORD spoke to Moses in Egypt

²⁹he said, "I am the LORD. Repeat to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, all that I tell you."

³⁰But Moses protested to the LORD, "Since I am a poor speaker, how can it be that Pharaoh will listen to me?"

7The LORD answered him, "See! I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall act as your prophet.

²You shall tell him all that I command you. In turn, your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites leave his land.

³Yet I will make Pharaoh so obstinate that, despite the many signs and wonders that I will work in the land of Egypt,

⁴he will not listen to you. Therefore I will lay my hand on Egypt and by great acts of judgment I will bring the hosts of my people, the Israelites, out of the land of Egypt,

⁵so that the Egyptians may learn that I am the LORD, as I stretch out my hand against Egypt and lead the Israelites out of their midst."

⁶Moses and Aaron did as the LORD had commanded them.

⁷Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.

⁸The LORD told Moses and Aaron,

⁹"If Pharaoh demands that you work a sign or wonder, you shall say to Aaron: Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, and it will be changed into a snake."

¹⁰Then Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did as the LORD had commanded. Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his servants, and it was changed into a snake.

¹¹Pharaoh, in turn, summoned wise men and sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did likewise by their magic arts.

¹²Each one threw down his staff, and it was changed into a snake. But Aaron's staff swallowed their staffs.

¹³Pharaoh, however, was obstinate and would not listen to them, just as the LORD had foretold.

¹⁴Then the LORD said to Moses, "Pharaoh is obdurate in refusing to let the people go.

¹⁵Tomorrow morning, when he sets out for the water, go and present yourself by the river bank, holding in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent.

¹⁶Say to him: The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you with the message: Let my people go to worship me in the desert. But as yet you have not listened.

¹⁷The LORD now says: This is how you shall know that I am the LORD. I will strike the water of the river with the staff I hold, and it shall be changed into blood.

¹⁸The fish in the river shall die, and the river itself shall become so polluted that the Egyptians will be unable to drink its water."

¹⁹The LORD then said to Moses, "Say to Aaron: Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt--their streams and canals and pools, all their supplies of water--that they may become blood. Throughout the land of Egypt there shall be blood, even in the wooden pails and stone jars."

²⁰Moses and Aaron did as the LORD had commanded. Aaron raised his staff and struck the waters of the river in full view of Pharaoh and his servants, and all the water of the river was changed into blood.

²¹The fish in the river died, and the river itself became so polluted that the Egyptians could not drink its water. There was blood throughout the land of Egypt.

²²But the Egyptian magicians did the same by their magic arts. So Pharaoh remained obstinate and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had foretold.

²³He turned away and went into his house, with no concern even for this.

²⁴All the Egyptians had to dig in the neighborhood of the river for drinking water, since they could not drink the river water.

²⁵Seven days passed after the LORD had struck the river.

²⁶Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and tell him: Thus says the LORD: Let my people go to worship me.

²⁷If you refuse to let them go, I warn you, I will send a plague of frogs over all your territory.

²⁸The river will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and into your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your servants, too, and your subjects, even into your ovens and your kneading bowls.

²⁹The frogs will swarm all over you and your subjects and your servants."

8The LORD then told Moses, "Say to Aaron: Stretch out your hand and your staff over the streams and canals and pools, to make frogs overrun the land of Egypt."

²Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt.

³But the magicians did the same by their magic arts. They, too, made frogs overrun the land of Egypt.

⁴Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Pray the LORD to remove the frogs from me and my subjects, and I will let the people go to offer sacrifice to the LORD."

⁵Moses answered Pharaoh, "Do me the favor of appointing the time when I am to pray for you and your servants and your subjects, that the frogs may be taken away from you and your houses and be left only in the river."

⁶"Tomorrow," said Pharaoh. Then Moses replied, "It shall be as you have said, so that you may learn that there is none like the LORD, our God.

⁷The frogs shall leave you and your houses, your servants and your subjects; only in the river shall they be left."

⁸After Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh's presence, Moses implored the LORD to fulfill the promise he had made to Pharaoh about the frogs;

⁹and the LORD did as Moses had asked. The frogs in the houses and courtyards and fields died off.

¹⁰Heaps and heaps of them were gathered up, and there was a stench in the land.

¹¹But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he became obdurate and would not listen to them, just as the LORD had foretold.

¹²Thereupon the LORD said to Moses, "Tell Aaron to stretch out his staff and strike the dust of the earth, that it may be turned into gnats throughout the land of Egypt."

¹³They did so. Aaron stretched out his hand, and with his staff he struck the dust of the earth, and gnats came upon man and beast. The dust of the earth was turned into gnats throughout the land of Egypt.

¹⁴Though the magicians tried to bring forth gnats by their magic arts, they could not do so. As the gnats infested man and beast,

¹⁵the magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." Yet Pharaoh remained obstinate and would not listen to them, just as the LORD had foretold.

¹⁶Again the LORD told Moses, "Early tomorrow morning present yourself to Pharaoh when he goes forth to the water, and say to him: Thus says the LORD: Let my people go to worship me.

¹⁷If you will not let my people go, I warn you, I will loose swarms of flies upon you and your servants and your subjects and your houses. The houses of the Egyptians and the very ground on which they stand shall be filled with swarms of flies.

¹⁸But on that day I will make an exception of the land of Goshen: there shall be no flies where my people dwell, that you may know that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth.

¹⁹I will make this distinction between my people and your people. This sign shall take place tomorrow."

²⁰This the LORD did. Thick swarms of flies entered the house of Pharaoh and the houses of his servants; throughout Egypt the land was infested with flies.

²¹Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said to them, "Go and offer sacrifice to your God in this land."

²²But Moses replied, "It is not right to do so, for the sacrifices we offer to the LORD, our God, are an abomination to the Egyptians. If before their very eyes we offer sacrifices which are an abomination to them, will not the Egyptians stone us?

²³We must go a three days' journey in the desert to offer sacrifice to the LORD, our God, as he commands us."

²⁴"Well, then," said Pharaoh, "I will let you go to offer sacrifice to the LORD, your God, in the desert, provided that you do not go too far away and that you pray for me."

²⁵Moses answered, "As soon as I leave your presence I will pray to the LORD that the flies may depart tomorrow from Pharaoh and his servants and his subjects. Pharaoh, however, must not play false again by refusing to let the people go to offer sacrifice to the LORD."

²⁶When Moses left Pharaoh's presence, he prayed to the LORD;

²⁷and the LORD did as Moses had asked. He removed the flies from Pharaoh and his servants and subjects. Not one remained.

²⁸But once more Pharaoh became obdurate and would not let the people go.

9Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and tell him: Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews: Let my people go to worship me.

²If you refuse to let them go and persist in holding them,

³I warn you, the LORD will afflict all your livestock in the field--your horses, asses, camels, herds and flocks--with a very severe pestilence.

⁴But the LORD will distinguish between the livestock of Israel and that of Egypt, so that none belonging to the Israelites will die."

⁵And setting a definite time, the LORD added, "Tomorrow the LORD shall do this in the land."

⁶And on the next day the LORD did so. All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one beast belonging to the Israelites.

⁷But though Pharaoh's messengers informed him that not even one beast belonging to the Israelites had died, he still remained obdurate and would not let the people go.

⁸Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Take a double handful of soot from a furnace, and in the presence of Pharaoh let Moses scatter it toward the sky.

⁹It will then turn into fine dust over the whole land of Egypt and cause festering boils on man and beast throughout the land."

¹⁰So they took soot from a furnace and stood in the presence of Pharaoh. Moses scattered it toward the sky, and it caused festering boils on man and beast.

¹¹The magicians could not stand in Moses' presence, for there were boils on the magicians no less than on the rest of the Egyptians.

¹²But the LORD made Pharaoh obstinate, and he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had foretold to Moses.

¹³Then the LORD told Moses, "Early tomorrow morning present yourself to Pharaoh and say to him: Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews: Let my people go to worship me,

¹⁴or this time I will hurl all my blows upon you and your servants and your subjects, that you may know that there is none like me anywhere on earth.

¹⁵For by now I would have stretched out my hand and struck you and your subjects with such pestilence as would wipe you from the earth.

¹⁶But this is why I have spared you: to show you my power and to make my name resound throughout the earth!

¹⁷Will you still block the way for my people by refusing to let them go?

¹⁸I warn you, then, tomorrow at this hour I will rain down such fierce hail as there has never been in Egypt from the day the nation was founded up to the present.

¹⁹Therefore, order all your livestock and whatever else you have in the open fields to be brought to a place of safety. Whatever man or beast remains in the fields and is not brought to shelter shall die when the hail comes upon them."

²⁰Some of Pharaoh's servants feared the warning of the LORD and hurried their servants and livestock off to shelter.

²¹Others, however, did not take the warning of the LORD to heart and left their servants and livestock in the fields.

²²The LORD then said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that hail may fall upon the entire land of Egypt, on man and beast and every growing thing in the land of Egypt."

²³When Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, the LORD sent forth hail and peals of thunder. Lightning flashed toward the earth, and the LORD rained down hail upon the land of Egypt;

²³But Pharaoh, seeing that the rain and hail and thunder had ceased, sinned again: he with his servants became obdurate,

²⁴and lightning constantly flashed through the hail, such fierce hail as had never been seen in the land since Egypt became a nation.

²⁵It struck down every man and beast that was in the open throughout the land of Egypt; it beat down every growing thing and splintered every tree in the fields.

²⁶Only in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites dwelt, was there no hail.

²⁷Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said to them, "I have sinned again! The LORD is just; it is I and my subjects who are at fault.

²⁸Pray to the LORD, for we have had enough of God's thunder and hail. Then I will let you go; you need stay no longer."

²⁹Moses replied, "As soon as I leave the city I will extend my hands to the LORD; the thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail. Thus you shall learn that the earth is the LORD'S.

³⁰But you and your servants, I know, do not yet fear the LORD God."

³¹Now the flax and the barley were ruined, because the barley was in ear and the flax in bud.

³²But the wheat and the spelt were not ruined, for they grow later.

³³When Moses had left Pharaoh's presence and had gone out of the city, he extended his hands to the LORD. Then the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured down upon the earth.

³⁵and in his obstinacy he would not let the Israelites go, as the LORD had foretold through Moses.

10Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh, for I have made him and his servants obdurate in order that I may perform these signs of mine among them

²and that you may recount to your son and grandson how ruthlessly I dealt with the Egyptians and what signs I wrought among them, so that you may know that I am the LORD."

³So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and told him, "Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews: How long will you refuse to submit to me? Let my people go to worship me.

⁴If you refuse to let my people go, I warn you, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country.

⁵They shall cover the ground, so that the ground itself will not be visible. They shall eat up the remnant you saved unhurt from the hail, as well as all the foliage that has since sprouted in your fields.

⁶They shall fill your houses and the houses of your servants and of all the Egyptians; such a sight your fathers or grandfathers have not seen from the day they first settled on this soil up to the present day." With that he turned and left Pharaoh.

⁷But Pharaoh's servants said to him, "How long must he be a menace to us? Let the men go to worship the LORD, their God. Do you not yet realize that Egypt is being destroyed?"

⁸So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, who said to them, "You may go and worship the LORD, your God. But how many of you will go?"

⁹"Young and old must go with us," Moses answered, "our sons and daughters as well as our flocks and herds must accompany us. That is what a feast of the LORD means to us."

¹⁰"The LORD help you," Pharaoh replied, "if I ever let your little ones go with you! Clearly, you have some evil in mind.

¹¹No, no! Just you men can go and worship the LORD. After all, that is what you want." With that they were driven from Pharaoh's presence.

¹²The LORD then said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt, that locusts may swarm over it and eat up all the vegetation and whatever the hail has left."

¹³So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the LORD sent an east wind blowing over the land all that day and all that night. At dawn the east wind brought the locusts.

¹⁴They swarmed over the whole land of Egypt and settled down on every part of it. Never before had there been such a fierce swarm of locusts, nor will there ever be.

¹⁵They covered the surface of the whole land, till it was black with them. They ate up all the vegetation in the land and the fruit of whatever trees the hail had spared. Nothing green was left on any tree or plant throughout the land of Egypt.

¹⁶Hastily Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "I have sinned against the LORD, your God, and against you.

¹⁷But now, do forgive me my sin once more, and pray the LORD, your God, to take at least this deadly pest from me."

¹⁸When Moses left the presence of Pharaoh, he prayed to the LORD,

¹⁹and the LORD changed the wind to a very strong west wind, which took up the locusts and hurled them into the Red Sea. But though not a single locust remained within the confines of Egypt,

²⁰the LORD made Pharaoh obstinate, and he would not let the Israelites go.

²¹Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that over the land of Egypt there may be such intense darkness that one can feel it."

²²So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and there was dense darkness throughout the land of Egypt for three days.

²³Men could not see one another, nor could they move from where they were, for three days. But all the Israelites had light where they dwelt.

²⁴Pharaoh then summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Go and worship the LORD. Your little ones, too, may go with you. But your flocks and herds must remain."

²⁵Moses replied, "You must also grant us sacrifices and holocausts to offer up to the LORD, our God.

²⁶Hence, our livestock also must go with us. Not an animal must be left behind. Some of them we must sacrifice to the LORD, our God, but we ourselves shall not know which ones we must sacrifice to him until we arrive at the place itself."

²⁷But the LORD made Pharaoh obstinate, and he would not let them go.

²⁸"Leave my presence," Pharaoh said to him, "and see to it that you do not appear before me again! The day you appear before me you shall die!"

²⁹Moses replied, "Well said! I will never appear before you again."

11Then the LORD told Moses, "One more plague will I bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. After that he will let you depart. In fact, he will not merely let you go; he will drive you away.

²Instruct your people that every man is to ask his neighbor, and every woman her neighbor, for silver and gold articles and for clothing."

³The LORD indeed made the Egyptians well-disposed toward the people; Moses himself was very highly regarded by Pharaoh's servants and the people in the land of Egypt.

⁴Moses then said, "Thus says the LORD: At midnight I will go forth through Egypt.

⁵Every first-born in this land shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh on the throne to the first-born of the slave-girl at the handmill, as well as all the first-born of the animals.

⁶Then there shall be loud wailing throughout the land of Egypt, such as has never been, nor will ever be again.

⁷But among the Israelites and their animals not even a dog shall growl, so that you may know how the LORD distinguishes between the Egyptians and the Israelites.

⁸All these servants of yours shall then come down to me, and prostrate before me, they shall beg me, 'Leave us, you and all your followers!' Only then will I depart." With that he left Pharaoh's presence in hot anger.

⁹The LORD said to Moses, "Pharaoh refuses to listen to you that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt."

¹⁰Thus, although Moses and Aaron performed these various wonders in Pharaoh's presence, the LORD made Pharaoh obstinate, and he would not let the Israelites leave his land.

12The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,

²"This month shall stand at the head of your calendar; you shall reckon it the first month of the year.

³Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month every one of your families must procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household.

⁴If a family is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join the nearest household in procuring one and shall share in the lamb in proportion to the number of persons who partake of it.

⁵The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish. You may take it from either the sheep or the goats.

⁶You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, and then, with the whole assembly of Israel present, it shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight.

⁷They shall take some of its blood and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel of every house in which they partake of the lamb.

⁸That same night they shall eat its roasted flesh with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

⁹It shall not be eaten raw or boiled, but roasted whole, with its head and shanks and inner organs.

¹⁰None of it must be kept beyond the next morning; whatever is left over in the morning shall be burned up.

¹¹"This is how you are to eat it: with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand, you shall eat like those who are in flight. It is the Passover of the LORD.

¹²For on this same night I will go through Egypt, striking down every first--born of the land, both man and beast, and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt-I, the LORD!

¹³But the blood will mark the houses where you are. Seeing the blood, I will pass over you; thus, when I strike the land of Egypt, no destructive blow will come upon you.

¹⁴"This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution.

¹⁵For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. From the very first day you shall have your houses clear of all leaven. Whoever eats leavened bread from the first day to the seventh shall be cut off from Israel.

¹⁶On the first day you shall hold a sacred assembly, and likewise on the seventh. On these days you shall not do any sort of work, except to prepare the food that everyone needs.

¹⁷"Keep, then, this custom of the unleavened bread. Since it was on this very day that I brought your ranks out of the land of Egypt, you must celebrate this day throughout your generations as a perpetual institution.

¹⁸From the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month until the evening of the twenty-first day of this month you shall eat unleavened bread.

¹⁹For seven days no leaven may be found in your houses. Anyone, be he a resident alien or a native, who eats leavened food shall be cut off from the community of Israel.

²⁰Nothing leavened may you eat; wherever you dwell you may eat only unleavened bread."

²¹Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go and procure lambs for your families, and slaughter them as Passover victims.

²²Then take a bunch of hyssop, and dipping it in the blood that is in the basin, sprinkle the lintel and the two doorposts with this blood. But none of you shall go outdoors until morning.

²³For the LORD will go by, striking down the Egyptians. Seeing the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over that door and not let the destroyer come into your houses to strike you down.

²⁴"You shall observe this as a perpetual ordinance for yourselves and your descendants.

²⁵Thus, you must also observe this rite when you have entered the land which the LORD will give you as he promised.

²⁶When your children ask you, 'What does this rite of yours mean?'

²⁷you shall reply, 'This is the Passover sacrifice of the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt; when he struck down the Egyptians, he spared our houses.'" Then the people bowed down in worship,

²⁸and the Israelites went and did as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron.

²⁹At midnight the LORD slew every first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh on the throne to the first-born of the prisoner in the dungeon, as well as all the first-born of the animals.

³⁰Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians; and there was loud wailing throughout Egypt, for there was not a house without its dead.

³¹During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Leave my people at once, you and the Israelites with you! Go and worship the LORD as you said.

³²Take your flocks, too, and your herds, as you demanded, and be gone; and you will be doing me a favor."

³³The Egyptians likewise urged the people on, to hasten their departure from the land; they thought that otherwise they would all die.

³⁴The people, therefore, took their dough before it was leavened, in their kneading bowls wrapped in their cloaks on their shoulders.

³⁵The Israelites did as Moses had commanded: they asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing.

³⁶The LORD indeed had made the Egyptians so well-disposed toward the people that they let them have whatever they asked for. Thus did they despoil the Egyptians.

³⁷The Israelites set out from Rameses for Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, not counting the children.

³⁸A crowd of mixed ancestry also went up with them, besides their livestock, very numerous flocks and herds.

³⁹Since the dough they had brought out of Egypt was not leavened, they baked it into unleavened loaves. They had been rushed out of Egypt and had no opportunity even to prepare food for the journey.

⁴⁰The time the Israelites had stayed in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.

⁴¹At the end of four hundred and thirty years, all the hosts of the LORD left the land of Egypt on this very date.

⁴²This was a night of vigil for the LORD, as he led them out of the land of Egypt; so on this same night all the Israelites must keep a vigil for the LORD throughout their generations.

⁴³The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "These are the regulations for the Passover. No foreigner may partake of it.

⁴⁴However, any slave who has been bought for money may partake of it, provided you have first circumcised him.

⁴⁵But no transient alien or hired servant may partake of it.

⁴⁶It must be eaten in one and the same house; you may not take any of its flesh outside the house. You shall not break any of its bones.

⁴⁷The whole community of Israel must keep this feast.

⁴⁸If any aliens living among you wish to celebrate the Passover of the LORD, all the males among them must first be circumcised, and then they may join in its observance just like the natives. But no man who is uncircumcised may partake of it.

⁴⁹The law shall be the same for the resident alien as for the native."

⁵⁰All the Israelites did just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron.

⁵¹On that same day the LORD brought the Israelites out of Egypt company by company.

13The LORD spoke to Moses and said,

²"Consecrate to me every first-born that opens the womb among the Israelites, both of man and beast, for it belongs to me."

³Moses said to the people, "Remember this day on which you came out of Egypt, that place of slavery. It was with a strong hand that the LORD brought you away. Nothing made with leaven must be eaten.

⁴This day of your departure is in the month of Abib.

⁵Therefore, it is in this month that you must celebrate this rite, after the LORD, your God, has brought you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites and Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers he would give you, a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁶For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and the seventh day shall also be a festival to the LORD.

⁷Only unleavened bread may be eaten during the seven days; no leaven and nothing leavened may be found in all your territory.

⁸On this day you shall explain to your son, 'This is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.'

⁹It shall be as a sign on your hand and as a reminder on your forehead; thus the law of the LORD will ever be on your lips, because with a strong hand the LORD brought you out of Egypt.

¹⁰Therefore, you shall keep this prescribed rite at its appointed time from year to year.

¹¹"When the LORD, your God, has brought you into the land of the Canaanites, which he swore to you and your fathers he would give you,

¹²you shall dedicate to the LORD every son that opens the womb; and all the male firstlings of your animals shall belong to the LORD.

¹³Every first-born of an ass you shall redeem with a sheep. If you do not redeem it, you shall break its neck. Every first-born son you must redeem.

¹⁴If your son should ask you later on, 'What does this mean?' you shall tell him, 'With a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, that place of slavery.

¹⁵When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed every first-born in the land of Egypt, every first-born of man and of beast. That is why I sacrifice to the LORD everything of the male sex that opens the womb, and why I redeem every first-born of my sons.'

¹⁶Let this, then, be as a sign on your hand and as a pendant on your forehead: with a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt."

¹⁷Now, when Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the Philistines' land, though this was the nearest; for he thought, should the people see that they would have to fight, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.

¹⁸Instead, he rerouted them toward the Red Sea by way of the desert road. In battle array the Israelites marched out of Egypt.

¹⁹Moses also took Joseph's bones along, for Joseph had made the Israelites swear solemnly that, when God should come to them, they would carry his bones away with them.

²⁰Setting out from Succoth, they camped at Etham near the edge of the desert.

²¹The LORD preceded them, in the daytime by means of a column of cloud to show them the way, and at night by means of a column of fire to give them light. Thus they could travel both day and night.

²²Neither the column of cloud by day nor the column of fire by night ever left its place in front of the people.

14Then the LORD said to Moses,

²"Tell the Israelites to turn about and camp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. You shall camp in front of Baal-zephon, just opposite, by the sea.

³Pharaoh will then say, 'The Israelites are wandering about aimlessly in the land. The desert has closed in on them.'

⁴Thus will I make Pharaoh so obstinate that he will pursue them. Then I will receive glory through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD." This the Israelites did.

⁵When it was reported to the king of Egypt that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his servants changed their minds about them. "What have we done!" they exclaimed. "Why, we have released Israel from our service!"

⁶So Pharaoh made his chariots ready and mustered his soldiers--

⁷six hundred first-class chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt, with warriors on them all.

⁸So obstinate had the LORD made Pharaoh that he pursued the Israelites even while they were marching away in triumph.

⁹The Egyptians, then, pursued them; Pharaoh's whole army, his horses, chariots and charioteers, caught up with them as they lay encamped by the sea, at Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.

¹⁰Pharaoh was already near when the Israelites looked up and saw that the Egyptians were on the march in pursuit of them. In great fright they cried out to the LORD.

¹¹And they complained to Moses, "Were there no burial places in Egypt that you had to bring us out here to die in the desert? Why did you do this to us? Why did you bring us out of Egypt?

¹²Did we not tell you this in Egypt, when we said, 'Leave us alone. Let us serve the Egyptians'? Far better for us to be the slaves of the Egyptians than to die in the desert."

¹³But Moses answered the people, "Fear not! Stand your ground, and you will see the victory the LORD will win for you today. These Egyptians whom you see today you will never see again.

¹⁴The LORD himself will fight for you; you have only to keep still."

¹⁵Then the LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward.

¹⁶And you, lift up your staff and, with hand outstretched over the sea, split the sea in two, that the Israelites may pass through it on dry land.

¹⁷But I will make the Egyptians so obstinate that they will go in after them. Then I will receive glory through Pharaoh and all his army, his chariots and charioteers.

¹⁸The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I receive glory through Pharaoh and his chariots and charioteers."

¹⁹The angel of God, who had been leading Israel's camp, now moved and went around behind them. The column of cloud also, leaving the front, took up its place behind them,

²⁰so that it came between the camp of the Egyptians and that of Israel. But the cloud now became dark, and thus the night passed without the rival camps coming any closer together all night long.

²¹Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD swept the sea with a strong east wind throughout the night and so turned it into dry land. When the water was thus divided,

²²the Israelites marched into the midst of the sea on dry land, with the water like a wall to their right and to their left.

²³The Egyptians followed in pursuit; all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and charioteers went after them right into the midst of the sea.

²⁴In the night watch just before dawn the LORD cast through the column of the fiery cloud upon the Egyptian force a glance that threw it into a panic;

²⁵and he so clogged their chariot wheels that they could hardly drive. With that the Egyptians sounded the retreat before Israel, because the LORD was fighting for them against the Egyptians.

²⁶Then the LORD told Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may flow back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and their charioteers."

²⁷So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at dawn the sea flowed back to its normal depth. The Egyptians were fleeing head on toward the sea, when the LORD hurled them into its midst.

²⁸As the water flowed back, it covered the chariots and the charioteers of Pharaoh's whole army which had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not a single one of them escaped.

²⁹But the Israelites had marched on dry land through the midst of the sea, with the water like a wall to their right and to their left.

³⁰Thus the LORD saved Israel on that day from the power of the Egyptians. When Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the seashore

³¹and beheld the great power that the LORD had shown against the Egyptians, they feared the LORD and believed in him and in his servant Moses.

15Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD: I will sing to the LORD, for he is gloriously triumphant; horse and chariot he has cast into the sea.

²My strength and my courage is the LORD, and he has been my savior. He is my God, I praise him; the God of my father, I extol him.

³The LORD is a warrior, LORD is his name!

⁴Pharaoh's chariots and army he hurled into the sea; the elite of his officers were submerged in the Red Sea.

⁵The flood waters covered them, they sank into the depths like a stone.

⁶Your right hand, O LORD, magnificent in power, your right hand, O LORD, has shattered the enemy.

⁷In your great majesty you overthrew your adversaries; you loosed your wrath to consume them like stubble.

⁸At a breath of your anger the waters piled up, the flowing waters stood like a mound, the flood waters congealed in the midst of the sea.

⁹The enemy boasted, "I will pursue and overtake them; I will divide the spoils and have my fill of them; I will draw my sword; my hand shall despoil them!"

¹⁰When your wind blew, the sea covered them; like lead they sank in the mighty waters.

¹¹Who is like to you among the gods, O LORD? Who is like to you, magnificent in holiness? O terrible in renown, worker of wonders,

¹²when you stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed them!

¹³In your mercy you led the people you redeemed; in your strength you guided them to your holy dwelling.

¹⁴The nations heard and quaked; anguish gripped the dwellers in Philistia.

¹⁵Then were the princes of Edom dismayed; trembling seized the chieftains of Moab; All the dwellers in Canaan melted away;

¹⁶terror and dread fell upon them. By the might of your arm they were frozen like stone, while your people, O LORD, passed over, while the people you had made your own passed over.

¹⁷And you brought them in and planted them on the mountain of your inheritance-- the place where you made your seat, O LORD, the sanctuary, O LORD, which your hands established.

¹⁸The LORD shall reign forever and ever.

¹⁹They sang thus because Pharaoh's horses and chariots and charioteers had gone into the sea, and the LORD made the waters of the sea flow back upon them, though the Israelites had marched on dry land through the midst of the sea.

²⁰The prophetess Miriam, Aaron's sister, took a tambourine in her hand, while all the women went out after her with tambourines, dancing;

²¹and she led them in the refrain: Sing to the LORD, for he is gloriously triumphant; horse and chariot he has cast into the sea.

²²Then Moses led Israel forward from the Red Sea, and they marched out to the desert of Shur. After traveling for three days through the desert without finding water,

²³they arrived at Marah, where they could not drink the water, because it was too bitter. Hence this place was called Marah.

²⁴As the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What are we to drink?"

²⁵he appealed to the LORD, who pointed out to him a certain piece of wood. When he threw this into the water, the water became fresh.It was here that the LORD, in making rules and regulations for them, put them to the test.

²⁶"If you really listen to the voice of the LORD, your God," he told them, "and do what is right in his eyes: if you heed his commandments and keep all his precepts, I will not afflict you with any of the diseases with which I afflicted the Egyptians; for I, the LORD, am your healer."

²⁷Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.

16Having set out from Elim, the whole Israelite community came into the desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt.

²Here in the desert the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.

³The Israelites said to them, "Would that we had died at the LORD'S hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread! But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!"

⁴Then the LORD said to Moses, "I will now rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion; thus will I test them, to see whether they follow my instructions or not.

⁵On the sixth day, however, when they prepare what they bring in, let it be twice as much as they gather on the other days."

⁶So Moses and Aaron told 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, as he heeds your grumbling against him. But what are we that you should grumble against us?

⁸When the LORD gives you flesh to eat in the evening," continued Moses, "and in the morning your fill of bread, as he heeds the grumbling you utter against him, what then are we? Your grumbling is not against us, but against the LORD."

⁹Then Moses said to Aaron, "Tell the whole Israelite community: Present yourselves before the LORD, for he has heard your grumbling."

¹⁰When Aaron announced this to the whole Israelite community, they turned toward the desert, and lo, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud!

¹¹The LORD spoke to Moses and said,

¹²"I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them: In the evening twilight you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread, so that you may know that I, the LORD, am your God."

¹³In the evening quail came up and covered the camp. In the morning a dew lay all about the camp,

¹⁴and when the dew evaporated, there on the surface of the desert were fine flakes like hoarfrost on the ground.

¹⁵On seeing it, the Israelites asked one another, "What is this?" for they did not know what it was. But Moses told them, "This is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat.

¹⁶"Now, this is what the LORD has commanded. So gather it that everyone has enough to eat, an omer for each person, as many of you as there are, each man providing for those of his own tent."

¹⁷The Israelites did so. Some gathered a large and some a small amount.

¹⁸But when they measured it out by the omer, he who had gathered a large amount did not have too much, and he who had gathered a small amount did not have too little. They so gathered that everyone had enough to eat.

¹⁹Moses also told them, "Let no one keep any of it over until tomorrow morning."

²⁰But they would not listen to him. When some kept a part of it over until the following morning, it became wormy and rotten. Therefore Moses was displeased with them.

²¹Morning after morning they gathered it, till each had enough to eat; but when the sun grew hot, the manna melted away.

²²On the sixth day they gathered twice as much food, two omers for each person. When all the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses,

²³he told them, "That is what the LORD prescribed. Tomorrow is a day of complete rest, the sabbath, sacred to the LORD. You may either bake or boil the manna, as you please; but whatever is left put away and keep for the morrow."

²⁴When they put it away for the morrow, as Moses commanded, it did not become rotten or wormy.

²⁵Moses then said, "Eat it today, for today is the sabbath of the LORD. On this day you will not find any of it on the ground.

²⁶On the other six days you can gather it, but on the seventh day, the sabbath, none of it will be there."

²⁷Still, on the seventh day some of the people went out to gather it, although they did not find any.

²⁸Then the LORD said to Moses, "How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and laws?

²⁹Take note! The LORD has given you the sabbath. That is why on the sixth day he gives you food for two days. On the seventh day everyone is to stay home and no one is to go out."

³⁰After that the people rested on the seventh day.

³¹The Israelites called this food manna. It was like coriander seed, but white, and it tasted like wafers made with honey.

³²Moses said, "This is what the LORD has commanded. Keep an omerful of manna for your descendants, that they may see what food I gave you to eat in the desert when I brought you out of the land of Egypt."

³³Moses then told Aaron, "Take an urn and put an omer of manna in it. Then place it before the LORD in safekeeping for your descendants."

³⁴So Aaron placed it in front of the commandments for safekeeping, as the LORD had commanded Moses.

³⁵The Israelites ate this manna for forty years, until they came to settled land; they ate manna until they reached the borders of Canaan.

³⁶(An omer is one tenth of an ephah.)

17From the desert of Sin the whole Israelite community journeyed by stages, as the LORD directed, and encamped at Rephidim. Here there was no water for the people to drink.

²They quarreled, therefore, with Moses and said, "Give us water to drink." Moses replied, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to a test?"

³Here, then, in their thirst for water, the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "Why did you ever make us leave Egypt? Was it just to have us die here of thirst with our children and our livestock?"

⁴So Moses cried out to the LORD, "What shall I do with this people? A little more and they will stone me!"

⁵The LORD answered Moses, "Go over there in front of the people, along with some of the elders of Israel, holding in your hand, as you go, the staff with which you struck the river.

⁶I will be standing there in front of you on the rock in Horeb. Strike the rock, and the water will flow from it for the people to drink." This Moses did, in the presence of the elders of Israel.

⁷The place was called Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled there and tested the LORD, saying, "Is the LORD in our midst or not?"

⁸At Rephidim, Amalek came and waged war against Israel.

⁹Moses, therefore, said to Joshua, "Pick out certain men, and tomorrow go out and engage Amalek in battle. I will be standing on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand."

¹⁰So Joshua did as Moses told him: he engaged Amalek in battle after Moses had climbed to the top of the hill with Aaron and Hur.

¹¹As long as Moses kept his hands raised up, Israel had the better of the fight, but when he let his hands rest, Amalek had the better of the fight.

¹²Moses' hands, however, grew tired; so they put a rock in place for him to sit on. Meanwhile Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other, so that his hands remained steady till sunset.

¹³And Joshua mowed down Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

¹⁴Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write this down in a document as something to be remembered, and recite it in the ears of Joshua: I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under the heavens."

¹⁵Moses also built an altar there, which he called Yahweh-nissi;

¹⁶for he said, "The LORD takes in hand his banner; the LORD will war against Amalek through the centuries."

18Now Moses' father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for his people Israel: how the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt.

²So his father-in-law Jethro took along Zipporah, Moses' wife, whom Moses had sent back to him,

³and her two sons. One of these was called Gershom; for he said, "I am a stranger in a foreign land."

⁴The other was called Eliezer; for he said, "My father's God is my helper; he has rescued me from Pharaoh's sword."

⁵Together with Moses' wife and sons, then, his father-in-law Jethro came to him in the desert where he was encamped near the mountain of God,

⁶and he sent word to Moses, "I, Jethro, your father-in-law, am coming to you, along with your wife and her two sons."

⁷Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, bowed down before him, and kissed him. Having greeted each other, they went into the tent.

⁸Moses then told his father-in-law of all that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for the sake of Israel, and of all the hardships they had had to endure on their journey, and how the LORD had come to their rescue.

⁹Jethro rejoiced over all the goodness that the LORD had shown Israel in rescuing them from the hands of the Egyptians.

¹⁰"Blessed be the LORD," he said, "who has rescued his people from the hands of Pharaoh and the Egyptians.

¹¹Now I know that the LORD is a deity great beyond any other; for he took occasion of their being dealt with insolently to deliver the people from the power of the Egyptians."

¹²Then Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, brought a holocaust and other sacrifices to God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to participate with Moses' father-in-law in the meal before God.

¹³The next day Moses sat in judgment for the people, who waited about him from morning until evening.

¹⁴When his father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he inquired, "What sort of thing is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone while all the people have to stand about you from morning till evening?"

¹⁵Moses answered his father-in-law, "The people come to me to consult God.

¹⁶Whenever they have a disagreement, they come to me to have me settle the matter between them and make known to them God's decisions and regulations."

¹⁷"You are not acting wisely," his father-in-law replied.

¹⁸"You will surely wear yourself out, and not only yourself but also these people with you. The task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone.

¹⁹Now, listen to me, and I will give you some advice, that God may be with you. Act as the people's representative before God, bringing to him whatever they have to say.

²⁰Enlighten them in regard to the decisions and regulations, showing them how they are to live and what they are to do.

²¹But you should also look among all the people for able and God-fearing men, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain, and set them as officers over groups of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.

²²Let these men render decisions for the people in all ordinary cases. More important cases they should refer to you, but all the lesser cases they can settle themselves. Thus, your burden will be lightened, since they will bear it with you.

²³If you do this, when God gives you orders you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied."

²⁴Moses followed the advice of his father-in-law and did all that he had suggested.

²⁵He picked out able men from all Israel and put them in charge of the people as officers over groups of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.

²⁶They rendered decisions for the people in all ordinary cases. The more difficult cases they referred to Moses, but all the lesser cases they settled themselves.

²⁷Then Moses bade farewell to his father-in-law, who went off to his own country.

19In the third month after their departure from the land of Egypt, on its first day, the Israelites came to the desert of Sinai.

²After the journey from Rephidim to the desert of Sinai, they pitched camp. While Israel was encamped here in front of the mountain,

³Moses went up the mountain to God. Then the LORD called to him and said, "Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob;

⁴tell the Israelites: You have seen for yourselves how I treated the Egyptians and how I bore you up on eagle wings and brought you here to myself.

⁵Therefore, if you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my special possession, dearer to me than all other people, though all the earth is mine.

⁶You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. That is what you must tell the Israelites."

⁷So Moses went and summoned the elders of the people. When he set before them all that the LORD had ordered him to tell them,

⁸the people all answered together, "Everything the LORD has said, we will do." Then Moses brought back to the LORD the response of the people.

⁹The LORD also told him, "I am coming to you in a dense cloud, so that when the people hear me speaking with you, they may always have faith in you also." When Moses, then, had reported to the LORD the response of the people,

¹⁰the LORD added, "Go to the people and have them sanctify themselves today and tomorrow. Make them wash their garments

¹¹and be ready for the third day; for on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai before the eyes of all the people.

¹²Set limits for the people all around the mountain, and tell them: Take care not to go up the mountain, or even to touch its base. If anyone touches the mountain, he must be put to death.

¹³No hand shall touch him; he must be stoned to death or killed with arrows. Such a one, man or beast, must not be allowed to live. Only when the ram's horn resounds may they go up to the mountain."

¹⁴Then Moses came down from the mountain to the people and had them sanctify themselves and wash their garments.

¹⁵He warned them, "Be ready for the third day. Have no intercourse with any woman."

¹⁶On the morning of the third day there were peals of thunder and lightning, and a heavy cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled.

¹⁷But Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stationed themselves at the foot of the mountain.

¹⁸Mount Sinai was all wrapped in smoke, for the LORD came down upon it in fire. The smoke rose from it as though from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently.

¹⁹The trumpet blast grew louder and louder, while Moses was speaking and God answering him with thunder.

²⁰When the LORD came down to the top of Mount Sinai, he summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up to him.

²¹Then the LORD told Moses, "Go down and warn the people not to break through toward the LORD in order to see him; otherwise many of them will be struck down.

²²The priests, too, who approach the LORD must sanctify themselves; else he will vent his anger upon them."

²³Moses said to the LORD, "The people cannot go up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us to set limits around the mountain to make it sacred."

²⁴The LORD repeated, "Go down now! Then come up again along with Aaron. But the priests and the people must not break through to come up to the LORD; else he will vent his anger upon them."

²⁵So Moses went down to the people and told them this.

20Then God delivered all these commandments:

²"I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.

³You shall not have other gods besides me.

⁴You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth;

⁵you shall not bow down before them or worship them. For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their fathers' wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation;

⁶but bestowing mercy down to the thousandth generation, on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments.

⁷"You shall not take the name of the LORD, your God, in vain. For the LORD will not leave unpunished him who takes his name in vain.

⁸"Remember to keep holy the sabbath day.

⁹Six days you may labor and do all your work,

¹⁰but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD, your God. No work may be done then either by you, or your son or daughter, or your male or female slave, or your beast, or by the alien who lives with you.

¹¹In six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the LORD has blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.

¹²"Honor your father and your mother, that you may have a long life in the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you.

¹³"You shall not kill.

¹⁴"You shall not commit adultery.

¹⁵"You shall not steal.

¹⁶"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

¹⁷"You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male or female slave, nor his ox or ass, nor anything else that belongs to him."

¹⁸When the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the trumpet blast and the mountain smoking, they all feared and trembled. So they took up a position much farther away

¹⁹and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we shall die."

²⁰Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid, for God has come to you only to test you and put his fear upon you, lest you should sin."

²¹Still the people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the cloud where God was.

²²The LORD told Moses, "Thus shall you speak to the Israelites: You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven.

²³Do not make anything to rank with me; neither gods of silver nor gods of gold shall you make for yourselves.

²⁴"An altar of earth you shall make for me, and upon it you shall sacrifice your holocausts and peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In whatever place I choose for the remembrance of my name I will come to you and bless you.

²⁵If you make an altar of stone for me, do not build it of cut stone, for by putting a tool to it you desecrate it.

²⁶You shall not go up by steps to my altar, on which you must not be indecently uncovered.

21"These are the rules you shall lay before them.

²When you purchase a Hebrew slave, he is to serve you for six years, but in the seventh year he shall be given his freedom without cost.

³If he comes into service alone, he shall leave alone; if he comes with a wife, his wife shall leave with him.

⁴But if his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall remain the master's property and the man shall leave alone.

⁵If, however, the slave declares, 'I am devoted to my master and my wife and children; I will not go free,'

⁶his master shall bring him to God and there, at the door or doorpost, he shall pierce his ear with an awl, thus keeping him as his slave forever.

⁷"When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go free as male slaves do.

⁸But if her master, who had destined her for himself, dislikes her, he shall let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to a foreigner, since he has broken faith with her.

⁹If he destines her for his son, he shall treat her like a daughter.

¹⁰If he takes another wife, he shall not withhold her food, her clothing, or her conjugal rights.

¹¹If he does not grant her these three things, she shall be given her freedom absolutely, without cost to her.

¹²"Whoever strikes a man a mortal blow must be put to death.

¹³He, however, who did not hunt a man down, but caused his death by an act of God, may flee to a place which I will set apart for this purpose.

¹⁴But when a man kills another after maliciously scheming to do so, you must take him even from my altar and put him to death.

¹⁵Whoever strikes his father or mother shall be put to death.

¹⁶"A kidnaper, whether he sells his victim or still has him when caught, shall be put to death.

¹⁷"Whoever curses his father or mother shall be put to death.

¹⁸"When men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist, not mortally, but enough to put him in bed,

¹⁹the one who struck the blow shall be acquitted, provided the other can get up and walk around with the help of his staff. Still, he must compensate him for his enforced idleness and provide for his complete cure.

²⁰"When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished.

²¹If, however, the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own property.

²²"When men have a fight and hurt a pregnant woman, so that she suffers a miscarriage, but no further injury, the guilty one shall be fined as much as the woman's husband demands of him, and he shall pay in the presence of the judges.

²³But if injury ensues, you shall give life for life,

²⁴eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

²⁵burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

²⁶"When a man strikes his male or female slave in the eye and destroys the use of the eye, he shall let the slave go free in compensation for the eye.

²⁷If he knocks out a tooth of his male or female slave, he shall let the slave go free in compensation for the tooth.

²⁸"When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox must be stoned; its flesh may not be eaten. The owner of the ox, however, shall go unpunished.

²⁹But if an ox was previously in the habit of goring people and its owner, though warned, would not keep it in; should it then kill a man or a woman, not only must the ox be stoned, but its owner also must be put to death.

³⁰If, however, a fine is imposed on him, he must pay in ransom for his life whatever amount is imposed on him.

³¹This law applies if it is a boy or a girl that the ox gores.

³²But if it is a male or a female slave that it gores, he must pay the owner of the slave thirty shekels of silver, and the ox must be stoned.

³³"When a man uncovers or digs a cistern and does not cover it over again, should an ox or an ass fall into it,

³⁴the owner of the cistern must make good by restoring the value of the animal to its owner; the dead animal, however, he may keep.

³⁵"When one man's ox hurts another's ox so badly that it dies, they shall sell the live ox and divide this money as well as the dead animal equally between them.

³⁶But if it was known that the ox was previously in the habit of goring and its owner would not keep it in, he must make full restitution, an ox for an ox; but the dead animal he may keep. (v 37) "When a man steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters or sells it, he shall restore five oxen for the one ox, and four sheep for the one sheep.

22"(If a thief is caught in the act of housebreaking and beaten to death, there is no bloodguilt involved.

²But if after sunrise he is thus beaten, there is bloodguilt.) He must make full restitution. If he has nothing, he shall be sold to pay for his theft.

³If what he stole is found alive in his possession, be it an ox, an ass or a sheep, he shall restore two animals for each one stolen.

⁴"When a man is burning over a field or a vineyard, if he lets the fire spread so that it burns in another's field, he must make restitution with the best produce of his own field or vineyard.

⁵If the fire spreads further, and catches on to thorn bushes, so that shocked grain or standing grain or the field itself is burned up, the one who started the fire must make full restitution.

⁶"When a man gives money or an article to another for safekeeping and it is stolen from the latter's house, the thief, if caught, must make twofold restitution.

⁷If the thief is not caught, the owner of the house shall be brought to God, to swear that he himself did not lay hands on his neighbor's property.

⁸In every question of dishonest appropriation, whether it be about an ox, or an ass, or a sheep, or a garment, or anything else that has disappeared, where another claims that the thing is his, both parties shall present their case before God; the one whom God convicts must make twofold restitution to the other.

⁹"When a man gives an ass, or an ox, or a sheep, or any other animal to another for safekeeping, if it dies, or is maimed or snatched away, without anyone witnessing the fact,

¹⁰the custodian shall swear by the LORD that he did not lay hands on his neighbor's property; the owner must accept the oath, and no restitution is to be made.

¹¹But if the custodian is really guilty of theft, he must make restitution to the owner.

¹²If it has been killed by a wild beast, let him bring it as evidence, and he need not make restitution for the mangled animal.

¹³"When a man borrows an animal from his neighbor, if it is maimed or dies while the owner is not present, the man must make restitution.

¹⁴But if the owner is present, he need not make restitution. If it was hired, this was covered by the price of its hire.

¹⁵"When a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed, and lies with her, he shall pay her marriage price and marry her.

¹⁶If her father refuses to give her to him, he must still pay him the customary marriage price for virgins.

¹⁷"You shall not let a sorceress live.

¹⁸"Anyone who lies with an animal shall be put to death.

¹⁹"Whoever sacrifices to any god, except to the LORD alone, shall be doomed.

²⁰"You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.

²¹You shall not wrong any widow or orphan.

²²If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry.

²³My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword; then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans.

²⁴"If you lend money to one of your poor neighbors among my people, you shall not act like an extortioner toward him by demanding interest from him.

²⁵If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, you shall return it to him before sunset;

²⁶for this cloak of his is the only covering he has for his body. What else has he to sleep in? If he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate.

²⁷"You shall not revile God, nor curse a prince of your people.

²⁸"You shall not delay the offering of your harvest and your press. You shall give me the first-born of your sons.

²⁹You must do the same with your oxen and your sheep; for seven days the firstling may stay with its mother, but on the eighth day you must give it to me.

³⁰"You shall be men sacred to me. Flesh torn to pieces in the field you shall not eat; throw it to the dogs.

23"You shall not repeat a false report. Do not join the wicked in putting your hand, as an unjust witness, upon anyone.

²Neither shall you allege the example of the many as an excuse for doing wrong, nor shall you, when testifying in a lawsuit, side with the many in perverting justice.

³You shall not favor a poor man in his lawsuit.

⁴"When you come upon your enemy's ox or ass going astray, see to it that it is returned to him.

⁵When you notice the ass of one who hates you lying prostrate under its burden, by no means desert him; help him, rather, to raise it up.

⁶"You shall not deny one of your needy fellow men his rights in his lawsuit.

⁷You shall keep away from anything dishonest. The innocent and the just you shall not put to death, nor shall you acquit the guilty.

⁸Never take a bribe, for a bribe blinds even the most clear-sighted and twists the words even of the just.

⁹You shall not oppress an alien; you well know how it feels to be an alien, since you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.

¹⁰"For six years you may sow your land and gather in its produce.

¹¹But the seventh year you shall let the land lie untilled and unharvested, that the poor among you may eat of it and the beasts of the field may eat what the poor leave. So also shall you do in regard to your vineyard and your olive grove.

¹²"For six days you may do your work, but on the seventh day you must rest, that your ox and your ass may also have rest, and that the son of your maidservant and the alien may be refreshed.

¹³Give heed to all that I have told you. "Never mention the name of any other god; it shall not be heard from your lips.

¹⁴"Three times a year you shall celebrate a pilgrim feast to me.

¹⁵You shall keep the feast of Unleavened Bread. As I have commanded you, you must eat unleavened bread for seven days at the prescribed time in the month of Abib, for it was then that you came out of Egypt. No one shall appear before me empty-handed.

¹⁶You shall also keep the feast of the grain harvest with the first of the crop that you have sown in the field; and finally, the feast at the fruit harvest at the end of the year, when you gather in the produce from the fields.

¹⁷Thrice a year shall all your men appear before the Lord GOD.

¹⁸"You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; nor shall the fat of my feast be kept overnight till the next day.

¹⁹The choicest first fruits of your soil you shall bring to the house of the LORD, your God. "You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.

²⁰"See, I am sending an angel before you, to guard you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared.

²¹Be attentive to him and heed his voice. Do not rebel against him, for he will not forgive your sin. My authority resides in him.

²²If you heed his voice and carry out all I tell you, I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes.

²³"My angel will go before you and bring you to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites; and I will wipe them out.

²⁴Therefore, you shall not bow down in worship before their gods, nor shall you make anything like them; rather, you must demolish them and smash their sacred pillars.

²⁵The LORD, your God, you shall worship; then I will bless your food and drink, and I will remove all sickness from your midst;

²⁶no woman in your land will be barren or miscarry; and I will give you a full span of life.

²⁷"I will have the fear of me precede you, so that I will throw into panic every nation you reach. I will make all your enemies turn from you in flight,

²⁸and ahead of you I will send hornets to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way.

²⁹But not in one year will I drive them all out before you; else the land will become so desolate that the wild beasts will multiply against you.

³⁰Instead, I will drive them out little by little before you, until you have grown numerous enough to take possession of the land.

³¹I will set your boundaries from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River; all who dwell in this land I will hand over to you to be driven out of your way.

³²You shall not make a covenant with them or their gods.

³³They must not abide in your land, lest they make you sin against me by ensnaring you into worshiping their gods."

24Moses himself was told, "Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, with Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. You shall all worship at some distance,

²but Moses alone is to come close to the LORD; the others shall not come too near, and the people shall not come up at all with Moses."

³When Moses came to the people and related all the words and ordinances of the LORD, they all answered with one voice, "We will do everything that the LORD has told us."

⁴Moses then wrote down all the words of the LORD and, rising early the next day, he erected at the foot of the mountain an altar and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.

⁵Then, having sent certain young men of the Israelites to offer holocausts and sacrifice young bulls as peace offerings to the LORD,

⁶Moses took half of the blood and put it in large bowls; the other half he splashed on the altar.

⁷Taking the book of the covenant, he read it aloud to the people, who answered, "All that the LORD has said, we will heed and do."

⁸Then he took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, saying, "This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words of his."

⁹Moses then went up with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel,

¹⁰and they beheld the God of Israel. Under his feet there appeared to be sapphire tilework, as clear as the sky itself.

¹¹Yet he did not smite these chosen Israelites. After gazing on God, they could still eat and drink.

¹²The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and, while you are there, I will give you the stone tablets on which I have written the commandments intended for their instruction."

¹³So Moses set out with Joshua, his aide, and went up to the mountain of God.

¹⁴The elders, however, had been told by him, "Wait here for us until we return to you. Aaron and Hur are staying with you. If anyone has a complaint, let him refer the matter to them."

¹⁵After Moses had gone up, a cloud covered the mountain.

¹⁶The glory of the LORD settled upon Mount Sinai. The cloud covered it for six days, and on the seventh day he called to Moses from the midst of the cloud.

¹⁷To the Israelites the glory of the LORD was seen as a consuming fire on the mountaintop.

¹⁸But Moses passed into the midst of the cloud as he went up on the mountain; and there he stayed for forty days and forty nights.

25This is what the LORD then said to Moses:

²"Tell the Israelites to take up a collection for me. From every man you shall accept the contribution that his heart prompts him to give me.

³These are the contributions you shall accept from them: gold, silver and bronze;

⁴violet, purple and scarlet yarn; fine linen and goat hair;

⁵rams' skins dyed red, and tahash skins; acacia wood;

⁶oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense;

⁷onyx stones and other gems for mounting on the ephod and the breastpiece.

⁸"They shall make a sanctuary for me, that I may dwell in their midst.

⁹This Dwelling and all its furnishings you shall make exactly according to the pattern that I will now show you.

¹⁰"You shall make an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits long, one and a half cubits wide, and one and a half cubits high.

¹¹Plate it inside and outside with pure gold, and put a molding of gold around the top of it.

¹²Cast four gold rings and fasten them on the four supports of the ark, two rings on one side and two on the opposite side.

¹³Then make poles of acacia wood and plate them with gold.

¹⁴These poles you are to put through the rings on the sides of the ark, for carrying it;

¹⁵they must remain in the rings of the ark and never be withdrawn.

¹⁶In the ark you are to put the commandments which I will give you.

¹⁷"You shall then make a propitiatory of pure gold, two cubits and a half long, and one and a half cubits wide.

¹⁸Make two cherubim of beaten gold for the two ends of the propitiatory,

¹⁹fastening them so that one cherub springs direct from each end.

²⁰The cherubim shall have their wings spread out above, covering the propitiatory with them; they shall be turned toward each other, but with their faces looking toward the propitiatory.

²¹This propitiatory you shall then place on top of the ark. In the ark itself you are to put the commandments which I will give you.

²²There I will meet you and there, from above the propitiatory, between the two cherubim on the ark of the commandments, I will tell you all the commands that I wish you to give the Israelites.

²³"You shall also make a table of acacia wood, two cubits long, a cubit wide, and a cubit and a half high.

²⁴Plate it with pure gold and make a molding of gold around it.

²⁵Surround it with a frame, a handbreadth high, with a molding of gold around the frame.

²⁶You shall also make four rings of gold for it and fasten them at the four corners, one at each leg,

²⁷on two opposite sides of the frame as holders for the poles to carry the table.

²⁸These poles for carrying the table you shall make of acacia wood and plate with gold.

²⁹Of pure gold you shall make its plates and cups, as well as its pitchers and bowls for pouring libations.

³⁰On the table you shall always keep showbread set before me.

³¹"You shall make a lampstand of pure beaten gold-its shaft and branches-with its cups and knobs and petals springing directly from it.

³²Six branches are to extend from the sides of the lampstand, three branches on one side, and three on the other.

³³On one branch there are to be three cups, shaped like almond blossoms, each with its knob and petals; on the opposite branch there are to be three cups, shaped like almond blossoms, each with its knob and petals; and so for the six branches that extend from the lampstand.

³⁴On the shaft there are to be four cups, shaped like almond blossoms, with their knobs and petals,

³⁵including a knob below each of the three pairs of branches that extend from the lampstand.

³⁶Their knobs and branches shall so spring from it that the whole will form but a single piece of pure beaten gold.

³⁷You shall then make seven lamps for it and so set up the lamps that they shed their light on the space in front of the lampstand.

³⁸These, as well as the trimming shears and trays, must be of pure gold.

³⁹Use a talent of pure gold for the lampstand and all its appurtenances.

⁴⁰See that you make them according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.

26"The Dwelling itself you shall make out of sheets woven of fine linen twined and of violet, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim embroidered on them.

²The length of each shall be twenty-eight cubits, and the width four cubits; all the sheets shall be of the same size.

³Five of the sheets are to be sewed together, edge to edge; and the same for the other five.

⁴Make loops of violet yarn along the edge of the end sheet in one set, and the same along the edge of the end sheet in the other set.

⁵There are to be fifty loops along the edge of the end sheet in the first set, and fifty loops along the edge of the corresponding sheet in the second set, and so placed that the loops are directly opposite each other.

⁶Then make fifty clasps of gold, with which to join the two sets of sheets, so that the Dwelling forms one whole.

⁷"Also make sheets woven of goat hair, to be used as a tent covering over the Dwelling.

⁸Eleven such sheets are to be made; the length of each shall be thirty cubits, and the width four cubits: all eleven sheets shall be of the same size.

⁹Sew five of the sheets, edge to edge, into one set, and the other six sheets into another set. Use the sixth sheet double at the front of the tent.

¹⁰Make fifty loops along the edge of the end sheet in one set, and fifty loops along the edge of the end sheet in the second set.

¹¹Also make fifty bronze clasps and put them into the loops, to join the tent into one whole.

¹²There will be an extra half sheet of tent covering, which shall be allowed to hang down over the rear of the Dwelling.

¹³Likewise, the sheets of the tent will have an extra cubit's length to be left hanging down on either side of the Dwelling to protect it.

¹⁴Over the tent itself you shall make a covering of rams' skins dyed red, and above that, a covering of tahash skins.

¹⁵"You shall make boards of acacia wood as walls for the Dwelling.

¹⁶The length of each board is to be ten cubits, and its width one and a half cubits.

¹⁷Each board shall have two arms that shall serve to fasten the boards in line. In this way all the boards of the Dwelling are to be made.

¹⁸Set up the boards of the Dwelling as follows: twenty boards on the south side,

¹⁹with forty silver pedestals under the twenty boards, so that there are two pedestals under each board, at its two arms;

²⁰twenty boards on the other side of the Dwelling, the north side,

²¹with their forty silver pedestals, two under each board;

²²six boards for the rear of the Dwelling, to the west;

²³and two boards for the corners at the rear of the Dwelling.

²⁴These two shall be double at the bottom, and likewise double at the top, to the first ring. That is how both boards in the corners are to be made.

²⁵Thus, there shall be in the rear eight boards, with their sixteen silver pedestals, two pedestals under each board.

²⁶Also make bars of acacia wood: five for the boards on one side of the Dwelling,

²⁷five for those on the other side, and five for those at the rear, toward the west.

²⁸The center bar, at the middle of the boards, shall reach across from end to end.

²⁹Plate the boards with gold, and make gold rings on them as holders for the bars, which are also to be plated with gold.

³⁰You shall erect the Dwelling according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.

³¹"You shall have a veil woven of violet, purple and scarlet yarn, and of fine linen twined, with cherubim embroidered on it.

³²It is to be hung on four gold-plated columns of acacia wood, which shall have hooks of gold and shall rest on four silver pedestals.

³³Hang the veil from clasps. The ark of the commandments you shall bring inside, behind this veil which divides the holy place from the holy of holies.

³⁴Set the propitiatory on the ark of the commandments in the holy of holies.

³⁵"Outside the veil you shall place the table and the lampstand, the latter on the south side of the Dwelling, opposite the table, which is to be put on the north side.

³⁶For the entrance of the tent make a variegated curtain of violet, purple and scarlet yarn and of fine linen twined.

³⁷Make five columns of acacia wood for this curtain; have them plated with gold, with their hooks of gold; and cast five bronze pedestals for them.

27"You shall make an altar of acacia wood, on a square, five cubits long and five cubits wide; it shall be three cubits high.

²At the four corners there are to be horns, so made that they spring directly from the altar. You shall then plate it with bronze.

³Make pots for removing the ashes, as well as shovels, basins, forks and fire pans, all of which shall be of bronze.

⁴Make a grating of bronze network for it; this to have four bronze rings, one at each of its four corners.

⁵Put it down around the altar, on the ground. This network is to be half as high as the altar.

⁶You shall also make poles of acacia wood for the altar, and plate them with bronze.

⁷These poles are to be put through the rings, so that they are on either side of the altar when it is carried.

⁸Make the altar itself in the form of a hollow box, just as it was shown you on the mountain.

⁹"You shall also make a court for the Dwelling. On the south side the court shall have hangings a hundred cubits long, woven of fine linen twined,

¹⁰with twenty columns and twenty pedestals of bronze; the hooks and bands on the columns shall be of silver.

¹¹On the north side there shall be similar hangings, a hundred cubits long, with twenty columns and twenty pedestals of bronze; the hooks and bands on the columns shall be of silver.

¹²On the west side, across the width of the court, there shall be hangings, fifty cubits long, with ten columns and ten pedestals.

¹³The width of the court on the east side shall be fifty cubits.

¹⁴On one side there shall be hangings to the extent of fifteen cubits, with three columns and three pedestals;

¹⁵on the other side there shall be hangings to the extent of fifteen cubits, with three columns and three pedestals.

¹⁶"At the entrance of the court there shall be a variegated curtain, twenty cubits long, woven of violet, purple and scarlet yarn and of fine linen twined. It shall have four columns and four pedestals.

¹⁷"All the columns around the court shall have bands and hooks of silver, and pedestals of bronze.

¹⁸The enclosure of the court is to be one hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and five cubits high. Fine linen twined must be used, and the pedestals must be of bronze.

¹⁹All the fittings of the Dwelling, whatever be their use, as well as all its tent pegs and all the tent pegs of the court, must be of bronze.

²⁰"You shall order the Israelites to bring you clear oil of crushed olives, to be used for the light, so that you may keep lamps burning regularly.

²¹From evening to morning Aaron and his sons shall maintain them before the LORD in the meeting tent, outside the veil which hangs in front of the commandments. This shall be a perpetual ordinance for the Israelites throughout their generations.

28"From among the Israelites have your brother Aaron, together with his sons Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, brought to you, that they may be my priests.

²For the glorious adornment of your brother Aaron you shall have sacred vestments made.

³Therefore, to the various expert workmen whom I have endowed with skill, you shall give instructions to make such vestments for Aaron as will set him apart for his sacred service as my priest.

⁴These are the vestments they shall make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a brocaded tunic, a miter and a sash. In making these sacred vestments which your brother Aaron and his sons are to wear in serving as my priests,

⁵they shall use gold, violet, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen.

⁶"The ephod they shall make of gold thread and of violet, purple and scarlet yarn, embroidered on cloth of fine linen twined.

⁷It shall have a pair of shoulder straps joined to its two upper ends.

⁸The embroidered belt of the ephod shall extend out from it and, like it, be made of gold thread, of violet, purple and scarlet yarn, and of fine linen twined.

⁹"Get two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel:

¹⁰six of their names on one stone, and the other six on the other stone, in the order of their birth.

¹¹As a gem-cutter engraves a seal, so shall you have the two stones engraved with the names of the sons of Israel and then mounted in gold filigree work.

¹²Set these two stones on the shoulder straps of the ephod as memorial stones of the sons of Israel. Thus Aaron shall bear their names on his shoulders as a reminder before the LORD.

¹³Make filigree rosettes of gold,

¹⁴as well as two chains of pure gold, twisted like cords, and fasten the cordlike chains to the filigree rosettes.

¹⁵"The breastpiece of decision you shall also have made, embroidered like the ephod with gold thread and violet, purple and scarlet yarn on cloth of fine linen twined.

¹⁶It is to be square when folded double, a span high and a span wide.

¹⁷On it you shall mount four rows of precious stones: in the first row, a carnelian, a topaz and an emerald;

¹⁸in the second row, a garnet, a sapphire and a beryl;

¹⁹in the third row, a jacinth, an agate and an amethyst;

²⁰in the fourth row, a chrysolite, an onyx and a jasper. These stones are to be mounted in gold filigree work,

²¹twelve of them to match the names of the sons of Israel, each stone engraved like a seal with the name of one of the twelve tribes.

²²"When the chains of pure gold, twisted like cords, have been made for the breastpiece,

²³you shall then make two rings of gold for it and fasten them to the two upper ends of the breastpiece.

²⁴The gold cords are then to be fastened to the two rings at the upper ends of the breastpiece,

²⁵the other two ends of the cords being fastened in front to the two filigree rosettes which are attached to the shoulder straps of the ephod.

²⁶Make two other rings of gold and put them on the two lower ends of the breastpiece, on its edge that faces the ephod.

²⁷Then make two more rings of gold and fasten them to the bottom of the shoulder straps next to where they join the ephod in front, just above its embroidered belt.

²⁸Violet ribbons shall bind the rings of the breastpiece to the rings of the ephod, so that the breastpiece will stay right above the embroidered belt of the ephod and not swing loose from it.

²⁹"Whenever Aaron enters the sanctuary, he will thus bear the names of the sons of Israel on the breastpiece of decision over his heart as a constant reminder before the LORD.

³⁰In this breastpiece of decision you shall put the Urim and Thummim, that they may be over Aaron's heart whenever he enters the presence of the LORD. Thus he shall always bear the decisions for the Israelites over his heart in the LORD'S presence.

³¹"The robe of the ephod you shall make entirely of violet material.

³²It shall have an opening for the head in the center, and around this opening there shall be a selvage, woven as at the opening of a shirt, to keep it from being torn.

³³All around the hem at the bottom you shall make pomegranates, woven of violet, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen twined, with gold bells between them;

³⁴first a gold bell, then a pomegranate, and thus alternating all around the hem of the robe.

³⁵Aaron shall wear it when ministering, that its tinkling may be heard as he enters and leaves the LORD'S presence in the sanctuary; else he will die.

³⁶"You shall also make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it, as on a seal engraving, 'Sacred to the LORD.'

³⁷This plate is to be tied over the miter with a violet ribbon in such a way that it rests on the front of the miter,

³⁸over Aaron's forehead. Since Aaron bears whatever guilt the Israelites may incur in consecrating any of their sacred gifts, this plate must always be over his forehead, so that they may find favor with the LORD.

³⁹"The tunic of fine linen shall be brocaded. The miter shall be made of fine linen. The sash shall be of variegated work.

⁴⁰"Likewise, for the glorious adornment of Aaron's sons you shall have tunics and sashes and turbans made.

⁴¹With these you shall clothe your brother Aaron and his sons. Anoint and ordain them, consecrating them as my priests.

⁴²You must also make linen drawers for them, to cover their naked flesh from their loins to their thighs.

⁴³Aaron and his sons shall wear them whenever they go into the meeting tent or approach the altar to minister in the sanctuary, lest they incur guilt and die. This shall be a perpetual ordinance for him and for his descendants.

29"This is the rite you shall perform in consecrating them as my priests. Procure a young bull and two unblemished rams.

²With fine wheat flour make unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers spread with oil,

³and put them in a basket. Take the basket of them along with the bullock and the two rams.

⁴Aaron and his sons you shall also bring to the entrance of the meeting tent, and there wash them with water.

⁵Take the vestments and clothe Aaron with the tunic, the robe of the ephod, the ephod itself, and the breastpiece, fastening the embroidered belt of the ephod around him.

⁶Put the miter on his head, the sacred diadem on the miter.

⁷Then take the anointing oil and anoint him with it, pouring it on his head.

⁸Bring forward his sons also and clothe them with the tunics,

⁹gird them with the sashes, and tie the turbans on them. Thus shall the priesthood be theirs by perpetual law, and thus shall you ordain Aaron and his sons.

¹⁰"Now bring forward the bullock in front of the meeting tent. There Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head.

¹¹Then slaughter the bullock before the LORD, at the entrance of the meeting tent.

¹²Take some of its blood and with your finger put it on the horns of the altar. All the rest of the blood you shall pour out at the base of the altar.

¹³All the fat that covers its inner organs, as well as the lobe of its liver and its two kidneys, together with the fat that is on them, you shall take and burn on the altar.

¹⁴But the flesh and hide and offal of the bullock you must burn up outside the camp, since this is a sin offering.

¹⁵"Then take one of the rams, and after Aaron and his sons have laid their hands on its head,

¹⁶slaughter it. The blood you shall take and splash on all the sides of the altar.

¹⁷Cut the ram into pieces; its inner organs and shanks you shall first wash, and then put them with the pieces and with the head.

¹⁸The entire ram shall then be burned on the altar, since it is a holocaust, a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD.

¹⁹"After this take the other ram, and when Aaron and his sons have laid their hands on its head,

²⁰slaughter it. Some of its blood you shall take and put on the tip of Aaron's right ear and on the tips of his sons' right ears and on the thumbs of their right hands and the great toes of their right feet. Splash the rest of the blood on all the sides of the altar.

²¹Then take some of the blood that is on the altar, together with some of the anointing oil, and sprinkle this on Aaron and his vestments, as well as on his sons and their vestments, that his sons and their vestments may be sacred.

²²"Now, from this ram you shall take its fat: its fatty tail, the fat that covers its inner organs, the lobe of its liver, its two kidneys with the fat that is on them, and its right thigh, since this is the ordination ram;

²³then, out of the basket of unleavened food that you have set before the LORD, you shall take one of the loaves of bread, one of the cakes made with oil, and one of the wafers.

²⁴All these things you shall put into the hands of Aaron and his sons, so that they may wave them as a wave offering before the LORD.

²⁵After you have received them back from their hands, you shall burn them on top of the holocaust on the altar as a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD.

²⁶Finally, take the breast of Aaron's ordination ram and wave it as a wave offering before the LORD; this is to be your own portion.

²⁷"Thus shall you set aside the breast of whatever wave offering is waved, as well as the thigh of whatever raised offering is raised up, whether this be the ordination ram or anything else belonging to Aaron or to his sons.

²⁸Such things are due to Aaron and his sons from the Israelites by a perpetual ordinance as a contribution. From their peace offerings, too, the Israelites shall make a contribution, their contribution to the LORD.

²⁹"The sacred vestments of Aaron shall be passed down to his descendants, that in them they may be anointed and ordained.

³⁰The descendant who succeeds him as priest and who is to enter the meeting tent to minister in the sanctuary shall be clothed with them for seven days.

³¹"You shall take the flesh of the ordination ram and boil it in a holy place.

³²At the entrance of the meeting tent Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram and the bread that is in the basket.

³³They themselves are to eat of these things by which atonement was made at their ordination and consecration; but no layman may eat of them, since they are sacred.

³⁴If some of the flesh of the ordination sacrifice or some of the bread remains over on the next day, this remnant must be burned up; it is not to be eaten, since it is sacred.

³⁵Carry out all these orders in regard to Aaron and his sons just as I have given them to you. "Seven days you shall spend in ordaining them,

³⁶sacrificing a bullock each day as a sin offering, to make atonement. Thus also shall you purge the altar in making atonement for it; you shall anoint it in order to consecrate it.

³⁷Seven days you shall spend in making atonement for the altar and in consecrating it. Then the altar will be most sacred, and whatever touches it will become sacred.

³⁸"Now, this is what you shall offer on the altar: two yearling lambs as the sacrifice established for each day;

³⁹one lamb in the morning and the other lamb at the evening twilight.

⁴⁰With the first lamb there shall be a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a fourth of a hin of oil of crushed olives and, as its libation, a fourth of a hin of wine.

⁴¹The other lamb you shall offer at the evening twilight, with the same cereal offering and libation as in the morning. You shall offer this as a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD.

⁴²Throughout your generations this established holocaust shall be offered before the LORD at the entrance of the meeting tent, where I will meet you and speak to you.

⁴³"There, at the altar, I will meet the Israelites; hence, it will be made sacred by my glory.

⁴⁴Thus I will consecrate the meeting tent and the altar, just as I also consecrate Aaron and his sons to be my priests.

⁴⁵I will dwell in the midst of the Israelites and will be their God.

⁴⁶They shall know that I, the LORD, am their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, so that I, the LORD, their God, might dwell among them.

30"For burning incense you shall make an altar of acacia wood,

²with a square surface, a cubit long, a cubit wide, and two cubits high, with horns that spring directly from it.

³Its grate on top, its walls on all four sides, and its horns you shall plate with pure gold. Put a gold molding around it.

⁴Underneath the molding you shall put gold rings, two on one side and two on the opposite side, as holders for the poles used in carrying it.

⁵Make the poles, too, of acacia wood and plate them with gold.

⁶This altar you are to place in front of the veil that hangs before the ark of the commandments where I will meet you.

⁷"On it Aaron shall burn fragrant incense. Morning after morning, when he prepares the lamps,

⁸and again in the evening twilight, when he lights the lamps, he shall burn incense. Throughout your generations this shall be the established incense offering before the LORD.

⁹On this altar you shall not offer up any profane incense, or any holocaust or cereal offering; nor shall you pour out a libation upon it.

¹⁰Once a year Aaron shall perform the atonement rite on its horns. Throughout your generations this atonement is to be made once a year with the blood of the atoning sin offering. This altar is most sacred to the LORD."

¹¹The LORD also said to Moses,

¹²"When you take a census of the Israelites who are to be registered, each one, as he is enrolled, shall give the LORD a forfeit for his life, so that no plague may come upon them for being registered.

¹³Everyone who enters the registered group must pay a half-shekel, according to the standard of the sanctuary shekel, twenty gerahs to the shekel. This payment of a half-shekel is a contribution to the LORD.

¹⁴Everyone of twenty years or more who enters the registered group must give this contribution to the LORD.

¹⁵The rich need not give more, nor shall the poor give less, than a half-shekel in this contribution to the LORD to pay the forfeit for their lives.

¹⁶When you receive this forfeit money from the Israelites, you shall donate it to the service of the meeting tent, that there it may be the Israelites' reminder before the LORD, of the forfeit paid for their lives."

¹⁷The LORD said to Moses,

¹⁸"For ablutions you shall make a bronze laver with a bronze base. Place it between the meeting tent and the altar, and put water in it.

¹⁹Aaron and his sons shall use it in washing their hands and feet.

²⁰When they are about to enter the meeting tent, they must wash with water, lest they die. Likewise when they approach the altar in their ministry, to offer an oblation to the LORD,

²¹they must wash their hands and feet, lest they die. This shall be a perpetual ordinance for him and his descendants throughout their generations."

²²The LORD said to Moses,

²³"Take the finest spices: five hundred shekels of free-flowing myrrh; half that amount, that is, two hundred and fifty shekels, of fragrant cinnamon; two hundred and fifty shekels of fragrant cane;

²⁴five hundred shekels of cassia-all according to the standard of the sanctuary shekel; together with a hin of olive oil;

²⁵and blend them into sacred anointing oil, perfumed ointment expertly prepared.

²⁶With this sacred anointing oil you shall anoint the meeting tent and the ark of the commandments,

²⁷the table and all its appurtenances, the lampstand and its appurtenances, the altar of incense

²⁸and the altar of holocausts with all its appurtenances, and the laver with its base.

²⁹When you have consecrated them, they shall be most sacred; whatever touches them shall be sacred.

³⁰Aaron and his sons you shall also anoint and consecrate as my priests.

³¹To the Israelites you shall say: As sacred anointing oil this shall belong to me throughout your generations.

³²It may not be used in any ordinary anointing of the body, nor may you make any other oil of a like mixture. It is sacred, and shall be treated as sacred by you.

³³Whoever prepares a perfume like this, or whoever puts any of this on a layman, shall be cut off from his kinsmen."

³⁴The LORD told Moses, "Take these aromatic substances: storax and onycha and galbanum, these and pure frankincense in equal parts;

³⁵and blend them into incense. This fragrant powder, expertly prepared, is to be salted and so kept pure and sacred.

³⁶Grind some of it into fine dust and put this before the commandments in the meeting tent where I will meet you. This incense shall be treated as most sacred by you.

³⁷You may not make incense of a like mixture for yourselves; you must treat it as sacred to the LORD.

³⁸Whoever makes an incense like this for his own enjoyment of its fragrance, shall be cut off from his kinsmen."

31The LORD said to Moses,

²"See, I have chosen Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah,

³and I have filled him with a divine spirit of skill and understanding and knowledge in every craft:

⁴in the production of embroidery, in making things of gold, silver or bronze,

⁵in cutting and mounting precious stones, in carving wood, and in every craft.

⁶As his assistant I have appointed Oholiab, son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. I have also endowed all the experts with the necessary skill to make all the things I have ordered you to make:

⁷the meeting tent, the ark of the commandments with the propitiatory on top of it, all the furnishings of the tent,

⁸the table with its appurtenances, the pure gold lampstand with all its appurtenances, the altar of incense,

⁹the altar of holocausts with all its appurtenances, the laver with its base,

¹⁰the service cloths, the sacred vestments for Aaron the priest, the vestments for his sons in their ministry,

¹¹the anointing oil, and the fragrant incense for the sanctuary. All these things they shall make just as I have commanded you."

¹²The LORD said to Moses,

¹³"You must also tell the Israelites: Take care to keep my sabbaths, for that is to be the token between you and me throughout the generations, to show that it is I, the LORD, who make you holy.

¹⁴Therefore, you must keep the sabbath as something sacred. Whoever desecrates it shall be put to death. If anyone does work on that day, he must be rooted out of his people.

¹⁵Six days there are for doing work, but the seventh day is the sabbath of complete rest, sacred to the LORD. Anyone who does work on the sabbath day shall be put to death.

¹⁶So shall the Israelites observe the sabbath, keeping it throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.

¹⁷Between me and the Israelites it is to be an everlasting token; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, but on the seventh day he rested at his ease."

¹⁸When the LORD had finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the commandments, the stone tablets inscribed by God's own finger.

32When the people became aware of Moses' delay in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, "Come, make us a god who will be our leader; as for the man Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him."

²Aaron replied, "Have your wives and sons and daughters take off the golden earrings they are wearing, and bring them to me."

³So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron,

⁴who accepted their offering, and fashioning this gold with a graving tool, made a molten calf. Then they cried out, "This is your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt."

⁵On seeing this, Aaron built an altar before the calf and proclaimed, "Tomorrow is a feast of the LORD."

⁶Early the next day the people offered holocausts and brought peace offerings. Then they sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel.

⁷With that, the LORD said to Moses, "Go down at once to your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, for they have become depraved.

⁸They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them, making for themselves a molten calf and worshiping it, sacrificing to it and crying out, 'This is your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!'

⁹I see how stiff-necked this people is," continued the LORD to Moses.

¹⁰"Let me alone, then, that my wrath may blaze up against them to consume them. Then I will make of you a great nation."

¹¹But Moses implored the LORD, his God, saying, "Why, O LORD, should your wrath blaze up against your own people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with such great power and with so strong a hand?

¹²Why should the Egyptians say, 'With evil intent he brought them out, that he might kill them in the mountains and exterminate them from the face of the earth'? Let your blazing wrath die down; relent in punishing your people.

¹³Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, and how you swore to them by your own self, saying, 'I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky; and all this land that I promised, I will give your descendants as their perpetual heritage.'"

¹⁴So the LORD relented in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people.

¹⁵Moses then turned and came down the mountain with the two tablets of the commandments in his hands, tablets that were written on both sides, front and back;

¹⁶tablets that were made by God, having inscriptions on them that were engraved by God himself.

¹⁷Now, when Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, "That sounds like a battle in the camp."

¹⁸But Moses answered, "It does not sound like cries of victory, nor does it sound like cries of defeat; the sounds that I hear are cries of revelry."

¹⁹As he drew near the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing. With that, Moses' wrath flared up, so that he threw the tablets down and broke them on the base of the mountain.

²⁰Taking the calf they had made, he fused it in the fire and then ground it down to powder, which he scattered on the water and made the Israelites drink.

²¹Moses asked Aaron, "What did this people ever do to you that you should lead them into so grave a sin?" Aaron replied, "Let not my lord be angry.

²²You know well enough how prone the people are to evil.

²³They said to me, 'Make us a god to be our leader; as for the man Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.'

²⁴So I told them, 'Let anyone who has gold jewelry take it off.' They gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and this calf came out."

²⁵When Moses realized that, to the scornful joy of their foes, Aaron had let the people run wild,

²⁶he stood at the gate of the camp and cried, "Whoever is for the LORD, let him come to me!" All the Levites then rallied to him,

²⁷and he told them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Put your sword on your hip, every one of you! Now go up and down the camp, from gate to gate, and slay your own kinsmen, your friends and neighbors!"

²⁸The Levites carried out the command of Moses, and that day there fell about three thousand of the people.

²⁹Then Moses said, "Today you have been dedicated to the LORD, for you were against your own sons and kinsmen, to bring a blessing upon yourselves this day."

³⁰On the next day Moses said to the people, "You have committed a grave sin. I will go up to the LORD, then; perhaps I may be able to make atonement for your sin."

³¹So Moses went back to the LORD and said, "Ah, this people has indeed committed a grave sin in making a god of gold for themselves!

³²If you would only forgive their sin! If you will not, then strike me out of the book that you have written."

³³The LORD answered, "Him only who has sinned against me will I strike out of my book.

³⁴Now, go and lead the people whither I have told you. My angel will go before you. When it is time for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin."

³⁵Thus the LORD smote the people for having had Aaron make the calf for them.

33The LORD told Moses, "You and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt, are to go up from here to the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob I would give to their descendants.

²Driving out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, I will send an angel before you

³to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I myself will not go up in your company, because you are a stiff-necked people; otherwise I might exterminate you on the way."

⁴When the people heard this bad news, they went into mourning, and no one wore his ornaments.

⁵The LORD said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites: You are a stiff-necked people. Were I to go up in your company even for a moment, I would exterminate you. Take off your ornaments, therefore; I will then see what I am to do with you."

⁶So, from Mount Horeb onward, the Israelites laid aside their ornaments.

⁷The tent, which was called the meeting tent, Moses used to pitch at some distance away, outside the camp. Anyone who wished to consult the LORD would go to this meeting tent outside the camp.

⁸Whenever Moses went out to the tent, the people would all rise and stand at the entrance of their own tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent.

⁹As Moses entered the tent, the column of cloud would come down and stand at its entrance while the LORD spoke with Moses.

¹⁰On seeing the column of cloud stand at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise and worship at the entrance of their own tents.

¹¹The LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as one man speaks to another. Moses would then return to the camp, but his young assistant, Joshua, son of Nun, would not move out of the tent.

¹²Moses said to the LORD, "You, indeed, are telling me to lead this people on; but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, 'You are my intimate friend,' and also, 'You have found favor with me.'

¹³Now, if I have found favor with you, do let me know your ways so that, in knowing you, I may continue to find favor with you. Then, too, this nation is, after all, your own people."

¹⁴"I myself," the LORD answered, "will go along, to give you rest."

¹⁵Moses replied, "If you are not going yourself, do not make us go up from here.

¹⁶For how can it be known that we, your people and I, have found favor with you, except by your going with us? Then we, your people and I, will be singled out from every other people on the earth."

¹⁷The LORD said to Moses, "This request, too, which you have just made, I will carry out, because you have found favor with me and you are my intimate friend."

¹⁸Then Moses said, "Do let me see your glory!"

¹⁹He answered, "I will make all my beauty pass before you, and in your presence I will pronounce my name, 'LORD'; I who show favors to whom I will, I who grant mercy to whom I will.

²⁰But my face you cannot see, for no man sees me and still lives.

²¹Here," continued the LORD, "is a place near me where you shall station yourself on the rock.

²²When my glory passes I will set you in the hollow of the rock and will cover you with my hand until I have passed by.

²³Then I will remove my hand, so that you may see my back; but my face is not to be seen."

34The LORD said to Moses, "Cut two stone tablets like the former, that I may write on them the commandments which were on the former tablets that you broke.

²Get ready for tomorrow morning, when you are to go up Mount Sinai and there present yourself to me on the top of the mountain.

³No one shall come up with you, and no one is even to be seen on any part of the mountain; even the flocks and the herds are not to go grazing toward this mountain."

⁴Moses then cut two stone tablets like the former, and early the next morning he went up Mount Sinai as the LORD had commanded him, taking along the two stone tablets.

⁵Having come down in a cloud, the LORD stood with him there and proclaimed his name, "LORD."

⁶Thus the LORD passed before him and cried out, "The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity,

⁷continuing his kindness for a thousand generations, and forgiving wickedness and crime and sin; yet not declaring the guilty guiltless, but punishing children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for their fathers' wickedness!"

⁸Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship.

⁹Then he said, "If I find favor with you, O Lord, do come along in our company. This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins, and receive us as your own."

¹⁰"Here, then," said the LORD, "is the covenant I will make. Before the eyes of all your people I will work such marvels as have never been wrought in any nation anywhere on earth, so that this people among whom you live may see how awe-inspiring are the deeds which I, the LORD, will do at your side.

¹¹But you, on your part, must keep the commandments I am giving you today. "I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

¹²Take care, therefore, not to make a covenant with these inhabitants of the land that you are to enter; else they will become a snare among you.

¹³Tear down their altars; smash their sacred pillars, and cut down their sacred poles.

¹⁴You shall not worship any other god, for the LORD is 'the Jealous One'; a jealous God is he.

¹⁵Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of that land; else, when they render their wanton worship to their gods and sacrifice to them, one of them may invite you and you may partake of his sacrifice.

¹⁶Neither shall you take their daughters as wives for your sons; otherwise, when their daughters render their wanton worship to their gods, they will make your sons do the same.

¹⁷"You shall not make for yourselves molten gods.

¹⁸"You shall keep the feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days at the prescribed time in the month of Abib you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you; for in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt.

¹⁹"To me belongs every first-born male that opens the womb among all your livestock, whether in the herd or in the flock.

²⁰The firstling of an ass you shall redeem with one of the flock; if you do not redeem it, you must break its neck. The first-born among your sons you shall redeem. "No one shall appear before me empty-handed.

²¹"For six days you may work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; on that day you must rest even during the seasons of plowing and harvesting.

²²"You shall keep the feast of Weeks with the first of the wheat harvest; likewise, the feast at the fruit harvest at the close of the year.

²³Three times a year all your men shall appear before the Lord, the LORD God of Israel.

²⁴Since I will drive out the nations before you to give you a large territory, there will be no one to covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the LORD, your God.

²⁵"You shall not offer me the blood of sacrifice with leavened bread, nor shall the sacrifice of the Passover feast be kept overnight for the next day.

²⁶"The choicest first fruits of your soil you shall bring to the house of the LORD, your God. "You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk."

²⁷Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write down these words, for in accordance with them I have made a covenant with you and with Israel."

²⁸So Moses stayed there with the LORD for forty days and forty nights, without eating any food or drinking any water, and he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

²⁹As Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the commandments in his hands, he did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant while he conversed with the LORD.

³⁰When Aaron, then, and the other Israelites saw Moses and noticed how radiant the skin of his face had become, they were afraid to come near him.

³¹Only after Moses called to them did Aaron and all the rulers of the community come back to him. Moses then spoke to them.

³²Later on, all the Israelites came up to him, and he enjoined on them all that the LORD had told him on Mount Sinai.

³³When he finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.

³⁴Whenever Moses entered the presence of the LORD to converse with him, he removed the veil until he came out again. On coming out, he would tell the Israelites all that had been commanded.

³⁵Then the Israelites would see that the skin of Moses' face was radiant; so he would again put the veil over his face until he went in to converse with the LORD.

35Moses assembled the whole Israelite community and said to them, "This is what the LORD has commanded to be done.

²On six days work may be done, but the seventh day shall be sacred to you as the sabbath of complete rest to the LORD. Anyone who does work on that day shall be put to death.

³You shall not even light a fire in any of your dwellings on the sabbath day."

⁴Moses told the whole Israelite community, "This is what the LORD has commanded:

⁵Take up among you a collection for the LORD. Everyone, as his heart prompts him, shall bring, as a contribution to the LORD, gold, silver and bronze;

⁶violet, purple and scarlet yarn; fine linen and goat hair;

⁷rams' skins dyed red, and tahash skins; acacia wood;

⁸oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense;

⁹onyx stones and other gems for mounting on the ephod and on the breastpiece.

¹⁰"Let every expert among you come and make all that the LORD has commanded: the Dwelling,

¹¹with its tent, its covering, its clasps, its boards, its bars, its columns and its pedestals;

¹²the ark, with its poles, the propitiatory, and the curtain veil;

¹³the table, with its poles and all its appurtenances, and the showbread;

¹⁴the lampstand, with its appurtenances, the lamps, and the oil for the light;

¹⁵the altar of incense, with its poles; the anointing oil, and the fragrant incense; the entrance curtain for the entrance of the Dwelling;

¹⁶the altar of holocausts, with its bronze grating, its poles, and all its appurtenances; the laver, with its base;

¹⁷the hangings of the court, with their columns and pedestals; the curtain for the entrance of the court;

¹⁸the tent pegs for the Dwelling and for the court, with their ropes;

¹⁹the service cloths for use in the sanctuary; the sacred vestments for Aaron, the priest, and the vestments worn by his sons in their ministry."

²⁰When the whole Israelite community left Moses' presence,

²¹everyone, as his heart suggested and his spirit prompted, brought a contribution to the LORD for the construction of the meeting tent, for all its services, and for the sacred vestments.

²²Both the men and the women, all as their heart prompted them, brought brooches, earrings, rings, necklaces and various other gold articles. Everyone who could presented an offering of gold to the LORD.

²³Everyone who happened to have violet, purple or scarlet yarn, fine linen or goat hair, rams' skins dyed red or tahash skins, brought them.

²⁴Whoever could make a contribution of silver or bronze offered it to the LORD; and everyone who happened to have acacia wood for any part of the work, brought it.

²⁵All the women who were expert spinners brought hand-spun violet, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen thread.

²⁶All the women who possessed the skill, spun goat hair.

²⁷The princes brought onyx stones and other gems for mounting on the ephod and on the breastpiece;

²⁸as well as spices, and oil for the light, anointing oil, and fragrant incense.

²⁹Every Israelite man and woman brought to the LORD such voluntary offerings as they thought best, for the various kinds of work which the LORD had commanded Moses to have done.

³⁰Moses said to the Israelites, "See, the LORD has chosen Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah,

³¹and has filled him with a divine spirit of skill and understanding and knowledge in every craft:

³²in the production of embroidery, in making things of gold, silver or bronze,

³³in cutting and mounting precious stones, in carving wood, and in every other craft.

³⁴He has also given both him and Oholiab, son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others.

³⁵He has endowed them with skill to execute all types of work: engraving, embroidering, the making of variegated cloth of violet, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen thread, weaving, and all other arts and crafts.

36"Bezalel, therefore, will set to work with Oholiab and with all the experts whom the LORD has endowed with skill and understanding in knowing how to execute all the work for the service of the sanctuary, just as the LORD has commanded."

²Moses then called Bezalel and Oholiab and all the other experts whom the LORD had endowed with skill, men whose hearts moved them to come and take part in the work.

³They received from Moses all the contributions which the Israelites had brought for establishing the service of the sanctuary. Still, morning after morning the people continued to bring their voluntary offerings to Moses.

⁴Thereupon the experts who were executing the various kinds of work for the sanctuary, all left the work they were doing,

⁵and told Moses, "The people are bringing much more than is needed to carry out the work which the LORD has commanded us to do."

⁶Moses, therefore, ordered a proclamation to be made throughout the camp: "Let neither man nor woman make any more contributions for the sanctuary." So the people stopped bringing their offerings;

⁷there was already enough at hand, in fact, more than enough, to complete the work to be done.

⁸The various experts who were executing the work, made the Dwelling with its ten sheets woven of fine linen twined, having cherubim embroidered on them with violet, purple and scarlet yarn.

⁹The length of each sheet was twenty-eight cubits, and the width four cubits; all the sheets were of the same size.

¹⁰Five of the sheets were sewed together, edge to edge; and the same for the other five.

¹¹Loops of violet yarn were made along the edge of the end sheet in the first set, and the same along the edge of the end sheet in the second set.

¹²Fifty loops were thus put on one inner sheet, and fifty loops on the inner sheet in the other set, with the loops directly opposite each other.

¹³Then fifty clasps of gold were made, with which the sheets were joined so that the Dwelling formed one whole.

¹⁴Sheets of goat hair were also woven as a tent over the Dwelling. Eleven such sheets were made.

¹⁵The length of each sheet was thirty cubits and the width four cubits; all eleven sheets were the same size.

¹⁶Five of these sheets were sewed edge to edge into one set; and the other six sheets into another set.

¹⁷Fifty loops were made along the edge of the end sheet in one set, and fifty loops along the edge of the corresponding sheet in the other set.

¹⁸Fifty bronze clasps were made with which the tent was joined so that it formed one whole.

¹⁹A covering for the tent was made of rams' skins dyed red, and above that, a covering of tahash skins.

²⁰Boards of acacia wood were made as walls for the Dwelling.

²¹The length of each board was ten cubits, and the width one and a half cubits.

²²Each board had two arms, fastening them in line. In this way all the boards of the Dwelling were made.

²³They were set up as follows: twenty boards on the south side,

²⁴with forty silver pedestals under the twenty boards, so that there were two pedestals under each board, at its two arms;

²⁵twenty boards on the other side of the Dwelling, the north side,

²⁶with their forty silver pedestals, two under each board;

²⁷six boards at the rear of the Dwelling, to the west;

²⁸and two boards at the corners in the rear of the Dwelling.

²⁹These were double at the bottom, and likewise double at the top, to the first ring. That is how both boards in the corners were made.

³⁰Thus, there were in the rear eight boards, with their sixteen silver pedestals, two pedestals under each board.

³¹Bars of acacia wood were also made, five for the boards on one side of the Dwelling,

³²five for those on the other side, and five for those at the rear, to the west.

³³The center bar, at the middle of the boards, was made to reach across from end to end.

³⁴The boards were plated with gold, and gold rings were made on them as holders for the bars, which were also plated with gold.

³⁵The veil was woven of violet, purple and scarlet yarn, and of fine linen twined, with cherubim embroidered on it.

³⁶Four gold-plated columns of acacia wood, with gold hooks, were made for it, and four silver pedestals were cast for them.

³⁷The curtain for the entrance of the tent was made of violet, purple and scarlet yarn, and of fine linen twined, woven in a variegated manner.

³⁸Its five columns, with their hooks as well as their capitals and bands, were plated with gold; their five pedestals were of bronze.

37Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits long, one and a half cubits wide, and one and a half cubits high.

²The inside and outside were plated with gold, and a molding of gold was put around it.

³Four gold rings were cast and put on its four supports, two rings for one side and two for the opposite side.

⁴Poles of acacia wood were made and plated with gold;

⁵these were put through the rings on the sides of the ark, for carrying it.

⁶The propitiatory was made of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide.

⁷Two cherubim of beaten gold were made for the two ends of the propitiatory,

⁸one cherub fastened at one end, the other at the other end, springing directly from the propitiatory at its two ends.

⁹The cherubim had their wings spread out above, covering the propitiatory with them. They were turned toward each other, but with their faces looking toward the propitiatory.

¹⁰The table was made of acacia wood, two cubits long, one cubit wide, and one and a half cubits high.

¹¹It was plated with pure gold, and a molding of gold was put around it.

¹²A frame a handbreadth high was also put around it, with a molding of gold around the frame.

¹³Four rings of gold were cast for it and fastened, one at each of the four corners.

¹⁴The rings were alongside the frame as holders for the poles to carry the table.

¹⁵These poles were made of acacia wood and plated with gold.

¹⁶The vessels that were set on the table, its plates and cups, as well as its pitchers and bowls for pouring libations, were of pure gold.

¹⁷The lampstand was made of pure beaten gold--its shaft and branches as well as its cups and knobs and petals springing directly from it.

¹⁸Six branches extended from its sides, three branches on one side and three on the other.

¹⁹On one branch there were three cups, shaped like almond blossoms, each with its knob and petals; on the opposite branch there were three cups, shaped like almond blossoms, each with its knob and petals; and so for the six branches that extended from the lampstand.

²⁰On the shaft there were four cups, shaped like almond blossoms, with their knobs and petals,

²¹including a knob below each of the three pairs of branches that extended from the lampstand.

²²The knobs and branches sprang so directly from it that the whole formed but a single piece of pure beaten gold.

²³Its seven lamps, as well as its trimming shears and trays, were made of pure gold.

²⁴A talent of pure gold was used for the lampstand and its various appurtenances.

²⁵The altar of incense was made of acacia wood, on a square, a cubit long, a cubit wide, and two cubits high, having horns that sprang directly from it.

²⁶Its grate on top, its walls on all four sides, and its horns were plated with pure gold; and a molding of gold was put around it.

²⁷Underneath the molding gold rings were placed, two on one side and two on the opposite side, as holders for the poles to carry it.

²⁸The poles, too, were made of acacia wood and plated with gold.

²⁹The sacred anointing oil and the fragrant incense were prepared in their pure form by a perfumer.

38The altar of holocausts was made of acacia wood, on a square, five cubits long and five cubits wide; its height was three cubits.

²At the four corners horns were made that sprang directly from the altar. The whole was plated with bronze.

³All the utensils of the altar, the pots, shovels, basins, forks and fire pans, were likewise made of bronze.

⁴A grating of bronze network was made for the altar and placed round it, on the ground, half as high as the altar itself.

⁵Four rings were cast for the four corners of the bronze grating, as holders for the poles,

⁶which were made of acacia wood and plated with bronze.

⁷The poles were put through the rings on the sides of the altar for carrying it. The altar was made in the form of a hollow box.

⁸The bronze laver, with its bronze base, was made from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance of the meeting tent.

⁹The court was made as follows. On the south side of the court there were hangings, woven of fine linen twined, a hundred cubits long,

¹⁰with twenty columns and twenty pedestals of bronze, the hooks and bands of the columns being of silver.

¹¹On the north side there were similar hangings, one hundred cubits long, with twenty columns and twenty pedestals of bronze, the hooks and bands of the columns being of silver.

¹²On the west side there were hangings, fifty cubits long, with ten columns and ten pedestals, the hooks and bands of the columns being of silver.

¹³On the east side the court was fifty cubits long.

¹⁴Toward one side there were hangings to the extent of fifteen cubits, with three columns and three pedestals; toward the other side,

¹⁵beyond the entrance of the court, there were likewise hangings to the extent of fifteen cubits, with three columns and three pedestals.

¹⁶The hangings on all sides of the court were woven of fine linen twined.

¹⁷The pedestals of the columns were of bronze, while the hooks and bands of the columns were of silver; the capitals were silver-plated, and all the columns of the court were banded with silver.

¹⁸At the entrance of the court there was a variegated curtain, woven of violet, purple and scarlet yarn and of fine linen twined, twenty cubits long and five cubits wide, in keeping with the hangings of the court.

¹⁹There were four columns and four pedestals of bronze for it, while their hooks were of silver.

²⁰All the tent pegs for the Dwelling and for the court around it were of bronze.

²¹The following is an account of the various amounts used on the Dwelling, the Dwelling of the commandments, drawn up at the command of Moses by the Levites under the direction of Ithamar, son of Aaron the priest.

²²However, it was Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, who made all that the Lord commanded Moses,

²³and he was assisted by Oholiab, son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, who was an engraver, an embroiderer, and a weaver of variegated cloth of violet, purple and scarlet yarn and of fine linen.

²⁴All the gold used in the entire construction of the sanctuary, having previously been given as an offering, amounted to twenty-nine talents and seven hundred and thirty shekels, according to the standard of the sanctuary shekel.

²⁵The amount of the silver received from the community was one hundred talents and one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels, according to the standard of the sanctuary shekel;

²⁶one bekah apiece, that is, a half-shekel apiece, according to the standard of the sanctuary shekel, was received from every man of twenty years or more who entered the registered group; the number of these was six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty men.

²⁷One hundred talents of silver were used for casting the pedestals of the sanctuary and the pedestals of the veil, one talent for each pedestal, or one hundred talents for the one hundred pedestals.

²⁸The remaining one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels were used for making the hooks on the columns, for plating the capitals, and for banding them with silver.

²⁹The bronze, given as an offering, amounted to seventy talents and two thousand four hundred shekels.

³⁰With this were made the pedestals at the entrance of the meeting tent, the bronze altar with its bronze gratings and all the appurtenances of the altar,

³¹the pedestals around the court, the pedestals at the entrance of the court, and all the tent pegs for the Dwelling and for the court around it.

39With violet, purple and scarlet yarn were woven the service cloths for use in the sanctuary, as well as the sacred vestments for Aaron, as the LORD had commanded Moses.

²The ephod was woven of gold thread and of violet, purple and scarlet yarn and of fine linen twined.

³Gold was first hammered into gold leaf and then cut up into threads, which were woven with the violet, purple and scarlet yarn into an embroidered pattern on the fine linen.

⁴Shoulder straps were made for it and joined to its two upper ends.

⁵The embroidered belt on the ephod extended out from it, and like it, was made of gold thread, of violet, purple and scarlet yarn, and of fine linen twined, as the LORD had commanded Moses.

⁶The onyx stones were prepared and mounted in gold filigree work; they were engraved like seal engravings with the names of the sons of Israel.

⁷These stones were set on the shoulder straps of the ephod as memorial stones of the sons of Israel, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

⁸The breastpiece was embroidered like the ephod, with gold thread and violet, purple and scarlet yarn on cloth of fine linen twined.

⁹It was square and folded double, a span high and a span wide in its folded form.

¹⁰Four rows of precious stones were mounted on it: in the first row a carnelian, a topaz and an emerald;

¹¹in the second row, a garnet, a sapphire and a beryl;

¹²in the third row a jacinth, an agate and an amethyst;

¹³in the fourth row a chrysolite, an onyx and a jasper. They were mounted in gold filigree work.

¹⁴These stones were twelve, to match the names of the sons of Israel, and each stone was engraved like a seal with the name of one of the twelve tribes.

¹⁵Chains of pure gold, twisted like cords, were made for the breastpiece,

¹⁶together with two gold filigree rosettes and two gold rings. The two rings were fastened to the two upper ends of the breastpiece.

¹⁷The two gold chains were then fastened to the two rings at the ends of the breastpiece.

¹⁸The other two ends of the two chains were fastened in front to the two filigree rosettes, which were attached to the shoulder straps of the ephod.

¹⁹Two other gold rings were made and put on the two lower ends of the breastpiece, on the edge facing the ephod.

²⁰Two more gold rings were made and fastened to the bottom of the two shoulder straps next to where they joined the ephod in front, just above its embroidered belt.

²¹Violet ribbons bound the rings of the breastpiece to the rings of the ephod, so that the breastpiece stayed right above the embroidered belt of the ephod and did not swing loose from it. All this was just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

²²The robe of the ephod was woven entirely of violet yarn,

²³with an opening in its center like the opening of a shirt, with selvage around the opening to keep it from being torn.

²⁴At the hem of the robe pomegranates were made of violet, purple and scarlet yarn and of fine linen twined;

²⁵bells of pure gold were also made and put between the pomegranates all around the hem of the robe:

²⁶first a bell, then a pomegranate, and thus alternating all around the hem of the robe which was to be worn in performing the ministry--all this, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

²⁷For Aaron and his sons there were also woven tunics of fine linen;

²⁸the miter of fine linen; the ornate turbans of fine linen; drawers of linen (of fine linen twined);

²⁹and sashes of variegated work made of fine linen twined and of violet, purple and scarlet yarn, as the LORD had commanded Moses.

³⁰The plate of the sacred diadem was made of pure gold and inscribed, as on a seal engraving: "Sacred to the LORD."

³¹It was tied over the miter with a violet ribbon, as the LORD had commanded Moses.

³²Thus the entire work of the Dwelling of the meeting tent was completed. The Israelites did the work just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

³³They then brought to Moses the Dwelling, the tent with all its appurtenances, the clasps, the boards, the bars, the columns, the pedestals,

³⁴the covering of rams' skins dyed red, the covering of tahash skins, the curtain veil;

³⁵the ark of the commandments with its poles, the propitiatory,

³⁶the table with all its appurtenances and the showbread,

³⁷the pure gold lampstand with its lamps set up on it and with all its appurtenances, the oil for the light,

³⁸the golden altar, the anointing oil, the fragrant incense; the curtain for the entrance of the tent,

³⁹the altar of bronze with its bronze grating, its poles and all its appurtenances, the laver with its base,

⁴⁰the hangings of the court with their columns and pedestals, the curtain for the entrance of the court with its ropes and tent pegs, all the equipment for the service of the Dwelling of the meeting tent;

⁴¹the service cloths for use in the sanctuary, the sacred vestments for Aaron the priest, and the vestments to be worn by his sons in their ministry.

⁴²The Israelites had carried out all the work just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

⁴³So when Moses saw that all the work was done just as the LORD had commanded, he blessed them.

40Then the LORD said to Moses,

²"On the first day of the first month you shall erect the Dwelling of the meeting tent.

³Put the ark of the commandments in it, and screen off the ark with the veil.

⁴Bring in the table and set it. Then bring in the lampstand and set up the lamps on it.

⁵Put the golden altar of incense in front of the ark of the commandments, and hang the curtain at the entrance of the Dwelling.

⁶Put the altar of holocausts in front of the entrance of the Dwelling of the meeting tent.

⁷Place the laver between the meeting tent and the altar, and put water in it.

⁸Set up the court round about, and put the curtain at the entrance of the court.

⁹"Take the anointing oil and anoint the Dwelling and everything in it, consecrating it and all its furnishings, so that it will be sacred.

¹⁰Anoint the altar of holocausts and all its appurtenances, consecrating it, so that it will be most sacred.

¹¹Likewise, anoint the laver with its base, and thus consecrate it.

¹²"Then bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the meeting tent, and there wash them with water.

¹³Clothe Aaron with the sacred vestments and anoint him, thus consecrating him as my priest.

¹⁴Bring forward his sons also, and clothe them with the tunics.

¹⁵As you have anointed their father, anoint them also as my priests. Thus, by being anointed, shall they receive a perpetual priesthood throughout all future generations."

¹⁶Moses did exactly as the LORD had commanded him.

¹⁷On the first day of the first month of the second year the Dwelling was erected.

¹⁸It was Moses who erected the Dwelling. He placed its pedestals, set up its boards, put in its bars, and set up its columns.

¹⁹He spread the tent over the Dwelling and put the covering on top of the tent, as the LORD had commanded him.

²⁰He took the commandments and put them in the ark; he placed poles alongside the ark and set the propitiatory upon it.

²¹He brought the ark into the Dwelling and hung the curtain veil, thus screening off the ark of the commandments, as the LORD had commanded him.

²²He put the table in the meeting tent, on the north side of the Dwelling, outside the veil,

²³and arranged the bread on it before the LORD, as the LORD had commanded him.

²⁴He placed the lampstand in the meeting tent, opposite the table, on the south side of the Dwelling,

²⁵and he set up the lamps before the LORD, as the LORD had commanded him.

²⁶He placed the golden altar in the meeting tent, in front of the veil,

²⁷and on it he burned fragrant incense, as the LORD had commanded him.

²⁸He hung the curtain at the entrance of the Dwelling.

²⁹He put the altar of holocausts in front of the entrance of the Dwelling of the meeting tent, and offered holocausts and cereal offerings on it, as the LORD had commanded him.

³⁰He placed the laver between the meeting tent and the altar, and put water in it for washing.

³¹Moses and Aaron and his sons used to wash their hands and feet there,

³²for they washed themselves whenever they went into the meeting tent or approached the altar, as the LORD had commanded Moses.

³³Finally, he set up the court around the Dwelling and the altar and hung the curtain at the entrance of the court. Thus Moses finished all the work.

³⁴Then the cloud covered the meeting tent, and the glory of the LORD filled the Dwelling.

³⁵Moses could not enter the meeting tent, because the cloud settled down upon it and the glory of the LORD filled the Dwelling.

³⁶Whenever the cloud rose from the Dwelling, the Israelites would set out on their journey.

³⁷But if the cloud did not lift, they would not go forward; only when it lifted did they go forward.

³⁸In the daytime the cloud of the LORD was seen over the Dwelling; whereas at night, fire was seen in the cloud by the whole house of Israel in all the stages of their journey.

1The LORD called Moses, and from the meeting tent gave him this message:

²"Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When any one of you wishes to bring an animal offering to the LORD, such an offering must be from the herd or from the flock.

³"If his holocaust offering is from the herd, it must be a male without blemish. To find favor with the LORD, he shall bring it to the entrance of the meeting tent

⁴and there lay his hand on the head of the holocaust, so that it may be acceptable to make atonement for him.

⁵He shall then slaughter the bull before the LORD, but Aaron's sons, the priests, shall offer up its blood by splashing it on the sides of the altar which is at the entrance of the meeting tent.

⁶Then he shall skin the holocaust and cut it up into pieces.

⁷After Aaron's sons, the priests, have put some burning embers on the altar and laid some wood on them,

⁸they shall lay the pieces of meat, together with the head and the suet, on top of the wood and embers on the altar.

⁹The inner organs and the shanks, however, the offerer shall first wash with water. The priest shall then burn the whole offering on the altar as a holocaust, a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD.

¹⁰"If his holocaust offering is from the flock, that is, a sheep or a goat, he must bring a male without blemish.

¹¹This he shall slaughter before the LORD at the north side of the altar. Then Aaron's sons, the priests, shall splash its blood on the sides of the altar.

¹²When the offerer has cut it up into pieces, the priest shall lay these, together with the head and suet, on top of the wood and the fire on the altar.

¹³The inner organs and the shanks, however, the offerer shall first wash with water. The priest shall offer them up and then burn the whole offering on the altar as a holocaust, a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD.

¹⁴"If he offers a bird as a holocaust to the LORD, he shall choose a turtledove or a pigeon as his offering.

¹⁵Having brought it to the altar where it is to be burned, the priest shall snap its head loose and squeeze out its blood against the side of the altar.

¹⁶Its crop and feathers shall be removed and thrown on the ash heap at the east side of the altar.

¹⁷Then, having split the bird down the middle without separating the halves, the priest shall burn it on the altar, over the wood on the fire, as a holocaust, a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD.

2"When anyone wishes to bring a cereal offering to the LORD, his offering must consist of fine flour. He shall pour oil on it and put frankincense over it.

²When he has brought it to Aaron's sons, the priests, one of them shall take a handful of this fine flour and oil, together with all the frankincense, and this he shall burn on the altar as a token offering, a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD.

³The rest of the cereal offering belongs to Aaron and his sons. It is a most sacred oblation to the LORD.

⁴"When the cereal offering you present is baked in an oven, it must be in the form of unleavened cakes made of fine flour mixed with oil, or of unleavened wafers spread with oil.

⁵If you present a cereal offering that is fried on a griddle, it must be of fine flour mixed with oil and unleavened.

⁶Such a cereal offering must be broken into pieces, and oil must be poured over it.

⁷If you present a cereal offering that is prepared in a pot, it must be of fine flour, deep-fried in oil.

⁸A cereal offering that is made in any of these ways you shall bring to the LORD, offering it to the priest, who shall take it to the altar.

⁹Its token offering the priest shall then lift from the cereal offering and burn on the altar as a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD.

¹⁰The rest of the cereal offering belongs to Aaron and his sons. It is a most sacred oblation to the LORD.

¹¹"Every cereal offering that you present to the LORD shall be unleavened, for you shall not burn any leaven or honey as an oblation to the LORD.

¹²Such you may indeed present to the LORD in the offering of first fruits, but they are not to be placed on the altar for a pleasing odor.

¹³However, every cereal offering that you present to the LORD shall be seasoned with salt. Do not let the salt of the covenant of your God be lacking from your cereal offering. On every offering you shall offer salt.

¹⁴"If you present a cereal offering of first fruits to the LORD, you shall offer it in the form of fresh grits of new ears of grain, roasted by fire.

¹⁵On this cereal offering you shall put oil and frankincense.

¹⁶For its token offering the priest shall then burn some of the grits and oil, together with all the frankincense, as an oblation to the LORD.

3"If someone in presenting a peace offering makes his offering from the herd, he may offer before the LORD either a male or a female animal, but it must be without blemish.

²He shall lay his hand on the head of his offering, and then slaughter it at the entrance of the meeting tent; but Aaron's sons, the priests, shall splash its blood on the sides of the altar.

³From the peace offering he shall offer as an oblation to the LORD the fatty membrane over the inner organs, and all the fat that adheres to them,

⁴as well as the two kidneys, with the fat on them near the loins, and the lobe of the liver, which he shall sever above the kidneys.

⁵All this Aaron's sons shall then burn on the altar with the holocaust, on the wood over the fire, as a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD.

⁶"If the peace offering he presents to the LORD is from the flock, he may offer either a male or a female animal, but it must be without blemish.

⁷If he presents a lamb as his offering, he shall bring it before the LORD,

⁸and after laying his hand on the head of his offering, he shall slaughter it before the meeting tent; but Aaron's sons shall splash its blood on the sides of the altar.

⁹As an oblation to the LORD he shall present the fat of the peace offering: the whole fatty tail, which he must sever close to the spine, the fatty membrane over the inner organs, and all the fat that adheres to them,

¹⁰as well as the two kidneys, with the fat on them near the loins, and the lobe of the liver, which he must sever above the kidneys.

¹¹All this the priest shall burn on the altar as the food of the LORD'S oblation.

¹²"If he presents a goat, he shall bring it before the LORD,

¹³and after laying his hand on its head, he shall slaughter it before the meeting tent; but Aaron's sons shall splash its blood on the sides of the altar.

¹⁴From it he shall offer as an oblation to the LORD the fatty membrane over the inner organs, and all the fat that adheres to them,

¹⁵as well as the two kidneys, with the fat on them near the loins, and the lobe of the liver, which he must sever above the kidneys.

¹⁶All this the priest shall burn on the altar as the food of the sweet-smelling oblation. All the fat belongs to the LORD.

¹⁷This shall be a perpetual ordinance for your descendants wherever they may dwell. You shall not partake of any fat or any blood."

4The LORD said to Moses,

²"Tell the Israelites: When a person inadvertently commits a sin against some command of the LORD by doing one of the forbidden things,

³if it is the anointed priest who thus sins and thereby makes the people also become guilty, he shall present to the LORD a young, unblemished bull as a sin offering for the sin he committed.

⁴Bringing the bullock to the entrance of the meeting tent, before the LORD, he shall lay his hand on its head and slaughter it before the LORD.

⁵The anointed priest shall then take some of the bullock's blood and bring it into the meeting tent,

⁶where, dipping his finger in the blood, he shall sprinkle it seven times before the LORD, toward the veil of the sanctuary.

⁷The priest shall also put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense which is before the LORD in the meeting tent. The rest of the bullock's blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of holocausts which is at the entrance of the meeting tent.

⁸From the sin-offering bullock he shall remove all the fat: the fatty membrane over the inner organs, and all the fat that adheres to them,

⁹as well as the two kidneys, with the fat on them near the loins, and the lobe of the liver, which he must sever above the kidneys.

¹⁰This is the same as is removed from the ox of the peace offering; and the priest shall burn it on the altar of holocausts.

¹¹The hide of the bullock and all its flesh, with its head, legs, inner organs and offal,

¹²in short, the whole bullock, shall be brought outside the camp to a clean place where the ashes are deposited and there be burned up in a wood fire. At the place of the ash heap, there it must be burned.

¹³"If the whole community of Israel inadvertently and without even being aware of it does something that the LORD has forbidden and thus makes itself guilty,

¹⁴should it later on become known that the sin was committed, the community shall present a young bull as a sin offering. They shall bring it before the meeting tent,

¹⁵and here, before the LORD, the elders of the community shall lay their hands on the bullock's head. When the bullock has been slaughtered before the LORD,

¹⁶the anointed priest shall bring some of its blood into the meeting tent,

¹⁷and dipping his finger in the blood, he shall sprinkle it seven times before the LORD, toward the veil.

¹⁸He shall also put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense which is before the LORD in the meeting tent. The rest of the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of holocausts which is at the entrance of the meeting tent.

¹⁹All of its fat he shall take from it and burn on the altar,

²⁰doing with this bullock just as he did with the other sin-offering bullock. Thus the priest shall make atonement for them, and they will be forgiven.

²¹This bullock must also be brought outside the camp and burned, just as has been prescribed for the other one. This is the sin offering for the community.

²²"Should a prince commit a sin inadvertently by doing one of the things which are forbidden by some commandment of the LORD, his God, and thus become guilty,

²³if later on he learns of the sin he committed, he shall bring as his offering an unblemished male goat.

²⁴Having laid his hands on its head, he shall slaughter the goat as a sin offering before the LORD, in the place where the holocausts are slaughtered.

²⁵The priest shall then take some of the blood of the sin offering on his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of holocausts. The rest of the blood he shall pour out at the base of this altar.

²⁶All of the fat he shall burn on the altar like the fat of the peace offering. Thus the priest shall make atonement for the prince's sin, and it will be forgiven.

²⁷"If a private person commits a sin inadvertently by doing one of the things which are forbidden by the commandments of the LORD, and thus becomes guilty,

²⁸should he later on learn of the sin he committed, he shall bring an unblemished she-goat as the offering for his sin.

²⁹Having laid his hand on the head of the sin offering, he shall slaughter it at the place of the holocausts.

³⁰The priest shall then take some of its blood on his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of holocausts. The rest of the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar.

³¹All the fat shall be removed, just as the fat is removed from the peace offering, and the priest shall burn it on the altar for an odor pleasing to the LORD. Thus the priest shall make atonement for him, and he will be forgiven.

³²"If, however, for his sin offering he presents a lamb, he shall bring an unblemished female.

³³Having laid his hand on its head, he shall slaughter this sin offering in the place where the holocausts are slaughtered.

³⁴The priest shall then take some of the blood of the sin offering on his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of holocausts. The rest of the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar.

³⁵All the fat shall be removed, just as the fat is removed from the peace-offering lamb, and the priest shall burn it on the altar with the other oblations of the LORD. Thus the priest shall make atonement for the man's sin, and it will be forgiven.

5"If any person refuses to give the information which, as a witness of something he has seen or learned, he has been adjured to give, and thus commits a sin and has guilt to bear;

²or if someone, without being aware of it, touches any unclean thing, as the carcass of an unclean wild animal, or that of an unclean domestic animal, or that of an unclean swarming creature, and thus becomes unclean and guilty;

³or if someone, without being aware of it, touches some human uncleanness, whatever kind of uncleanness this may be, and then recognizes his guilt;

⁴or if someone, without being aware of it, rashly utters an oath to do good or evil, such as men are accustomed to utter rashly, and then recognizes that he is guilty of such an oath;

⁵then whoever is guilty in any of these cases shall confess the sin he has incurred,

⁶and as his sin offering for the sin he has committed he shall bring to the LORD a female animal from the flock, a ewe lamb or a she-goat. The priest shall then make atonement for his sin.

⁷"If, however, he cannot afford an animal of the flock, he shall bring to the LORD as the sin offering for his sin two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a sin offering and the other for a holocaust.

⁸He shall bring them to the priest, who shall offer the one for the sin offering first. Snapping its head loose at the neck, yet without breaking it off completely,

⁹he shall sprinkle some of the blood of the sin offering against the side of the altar. The rest of the blood shall be squeezed out against the base of the altar. Such is the offering for sin.

¹⁰The other bird shall be offered as a holocaust in the usual way. Thus the priest shall make atonement for the sin the man committed, and it will be forgiven.

¹¹"If he is unable to afford even two turtledoves or two pigeons, he shall present as a sin offering for his sin one tenth of an ephah of fine flour. He shall not put oil or frankincense on it, because it is a sin offering.

¹²When he has brought it to the priest, the latter shall take a handful of this flour as a token offering, and this he shall burn as a sin offering on the altar with the other oblations of the LORD.

¹³Thus the priest shall make atonement for the sin that the man committed in any of the above cases, and it will be forgiven. The rest of the flour, like the cereal offerings, shall belong to the priest."

¹⁴The LORD said to Moses,

¹⁵"If someone commits a sin by inadvertently cheating in the LORD'S sacred dues, he shall bring to the LORD as his guilt offering an unblemished ram from the flock, valued at two silver shekels according to the standard of the sanctuary shekel.

¹⁶He shall also restore what he has sinfully withheld from the sanctuary, adding to it a fifth of its value. This is to be given to the priest, who shall then make atonement for him with the guilt-offering ram, and he will be forgiven.

¹⁷"If someone, without being aware of it, commits such a sin by doing one of the things which are forbidden by some commandment of the LORD, that he incurs guilt for which he must answer,

¹⁸he shall bring as a guilt offering to the priest an unblemished ram of the flock of the established value. The priest shall then make atonement for the fault which was unwittingly committed, and it will be forgiven.

¹⁹Such is the offering for guilt; the penalty of the guilt must be paid to the LORD."

²⁰The LORD said to Moses,

²¹"If someone commits a sin of dishonesty against the LORD by denying his neighbor a deposit or a pledge for a stolen article, or by otherwise retaining his neighbor's goods unjustly,

²²or if, having found a lost article, he denies the fact and swears falsely about it with any of the sinful oaths that men make in such cases,

²³he shall therefore, since he has incurred guilt by his sin, restore the thing that was stolen or unjustly retained by him or the deposit left with him or the lost article he found

²⁴or whatever else he swore falsely about; on the day of his guilt offering he shall make full restitution of the thing itself, and in addition, give the owner one fifth of its value.

²⁵As his guilt offering he shall bring to the LORD an unblemished ram of the flock of the established value. When he has presented this as his guilt offering to the priest,

²⁶the latter shall make atonement for him before the LORD, and he will be forgiven whatever guilt he may have incurred."

6The LORD said to Moses,

²"Give Aaron and his sons the following command: This is the ritual for holocausts. The holocaust is to remain on the hearth of the altar all night until the next morning, and the fire is to be kept burning on the altar.

³The priest, clothed in his linen robe and wearing linen drawers on his body, shall take away the ashes to which the fire has reduced the holocaust on the altar, and lay them at the side of the altar.

⁴Then, having taken off these garments and put on other garments, he shall carry the ashes to a clean place outside the camp.

⁵The fire on the altar is to be kept burning; it must not go out. Every morning the priest shall put firewood on it. On this he shall lay out the holocaust and burn the fat of the peace offerings.

⁶The fire is to be kept burning continuously on the altar; it must not go out.

⁷"This is the ritual of the cereal offering. One of Aaron's sons shall first present it before the LORD, in front of the altar.

⁸Then he shall take from it a handful of its fine flour and oil, together with all the frankincense that is on it, and this he shall burn on the altar as its token offering, a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD.

⁹The rest of it Aaron and his sons may eat; but it must be eaten in the form of unleavened cakes and in a sacred place: in the court of the meeting tent they shall eat it.

¹⁰It shall not be baked with leaven. I have given it to them as their portion from the oblations of the LORD; it is most sacred, like the sin offering and the guilt offering.

¹¹All the male descendants of Aaron may partake of it as their rightful share in the oblations of the LORD perpetually throughout your generations. Whatever touches the oblations becomes sacred."

¹²The LORD said to Moses,

¹³"This is the offering that Aaron and his sons shall present to the LORD (on the day he is anointed): one tenth of an ephah of fine flour for the established cereal offering, half in the morning and half in the evening.

¹⁴It shall be well kneaded and fried in oil on a griddle when you bring it in. Having broken the offering into pieces, you shall present it as a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD.

¹⁵Aaron's descendant who succeeds him as the anointed priest shall do likewise. This is a perpetual ordinance: for the Lord the whole offering shall be burned.

¹⁶Every cereal offering of a priest shall be a whole burnt offering; it may not be eaten."

¹⁷The LORD said to Moses,

¹⁸"Tell Aaron and his sons: This is the ritual for sin offerings. At the place where holocausts are slaughtered, there also, before the LORD, shall the sin offering be slaughtered. It is most sacred.

¹⁹The priest who presents the sin offering may partake of it; but it must be eaten in a sacred place, in the court of the meeting tent.

²⁰Whatever touches its flesh shall become sacred. If any of its blood is spilled on a garment, the stained part must be washed in a sacred place.

²¹A clay vessel in which it has been cooked shall thereafter be broken; if it is cooked in a bronze vessel, this shall be scoured afterward and rinsed with water.

²²All the males of the priestly line may partake of the sin offering, since it is most sacred.

²³But no one may partake of any sin offering of which some blood has been brought into the meeting tent to make atonement in the sanctuary; such an offering must be burned up in the fire.

7"This is the ritual for guilt offerings, which are most sacred.

²At the place where the holocausts are slaughtered, there also shall the guilt offering be slaughtered. Its blood shall be splashed on the sides of the altar.

³All of its fat shall be taken from it and offered up: the fatty tail, the fatty membrane over the inner organs,

⁴as well as the two kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the lobe of the liver, which must be severed above the kidneys.

⁵All this the priest shall burn on the altar as an oblation to the LORD. This is the guilt offering.

⁶All the males of the priestly line may partake of it; but it must be eaten in a sacred place, since it is most sacred.

⁷"Because the sin offering and the guilt offering are alike, both having the same ritual, the guilt offering likewise belongs to the priest who makes atonement with it.

⁸Similarly, the priest who offers a holocaust for someone may keep for himself the hide of the holocaust that he has offered.

⁹Also, every cereal offering that is baked in an oven or deep-fried in a pot or fried on a griddle shall belong to the priest who offers it,

¹⁰whereas all cereal offerings that are offered up dry or mixed with oil shall belong to all of Aaron's sons without distinction.

¹¹"This is the ritual for the peace offerings that are presented to the LORD.

¹²When anyone makes a peace offering in thanksgiving, together with his thanksgiving sacrifice he shall offer unleavened cakes mixed with oil, unleavened wafers spread with oil, and cakes made of fine flour mixed with oil and well kneaded.

¹³His offering shall also include loaves of leavened bread along with the victim of his peace offering for thanksgiving.

¹⁴From each of his offerings he shall present one portion as a contribution to the LORD; this shall belong to the priest who splashes the blood of the peace offering.

¹⁵"The flesh of the thanksgiving sacrifice shall be eaten on the day it is offered; none of it may be kept till the next day.

¹⁶However, if the sacrifice is a votive or a free-will offering, it should indeed be eaten on the day the sacrifice is offered, but what is left over may be eaten on the next day.

¹⁷Should any flesh from the sacrifice be left over on the third day, it must be burned up in the fire.

¹⁸If, therefore, any of the flesh of the peace offering is eaten on the third day, it shall not win favor for him nor shall it be reckoned to his credit; rather, it shall be considered as refuse, and anyone who eats of it shall have his guilt to bear.

¹⁹Should the flesh touch anything unclean, it may not be eaten, but shall be burned up in the fire. "All who are clean may partake of this flesh.

²⁰If, however, someone while in a state of uncleanness eats any of the flesh of a peace offering belonging to the LORD, that person shall be cut off from his people.

²¹Likewise, if someone touches anything unclean, whether the uncleanness be of human or of animal origin or from some loathsome crawling creature, and then eats of a peace offering belonging to the LORD, that person, too, shall be cut off from his people."

²²The LORD said to Moses,

²³"Tell the Israelites: You shall not eat the fat of any ox or sheep or goat.

²⁴Although the fat of an animal that has died a natural death or has been killed by wild beasts may be put to any other use, you may not eat it.

²⁵If anyone eats the fat of an animal from which an oblation is made to the LORD, such a one shall be cut off from his people.

²⁶Wherever you dwell, you shall not partake of any blood, be it of bird or of animal.

²⁷Every person who partakes of any blood shall be cut off from his people."

²⁸The LORD said to Moses,

²⁹"Tell the Israelites: He who presents a peace offering to the LORD shall bring a part of it as his special offering to him,

³⁰carrying in with his own hands the oblations to the LORD. The fat is to be brought in, together with the breast, which is to be waved as a wave offering before the LORD.

³¹The priest shall burn the fat on the altar, but the breast belongs to Aaron and his sons.

³²Moreover, from your peace offering you shall give to the priest the right leg as a raised offering.

³³The descendant of Aaron who offers up the blood and fat of the peace offering shall have the right leg as his portion,

³⁴for from the peace offerings of the Israelites I have taken the breast that is waved and the leg that is raised up, and I have given them to Aaron, the priest, and to his sons by a perpetual ordinance as a contribution from the Israelites."

³⁵This is the priestly share from the oblations of the LORD, allotted to Aaron and his sons on the day he called them to be the priests of the LORD;

³⁶on the day he anointed them the LORD ordered the Israelites to give them this share by a perpetual ordinance throughout their generations.

³⁷This is the ritual for holocausts, cereal offerings, sin offerings, guilt offerings, (ordination offerings) and peace offerings,

³⁸which the LORD enjoined on Moses at Mount Sinai at the time when he commanded the Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai to bring their offerings to the LORD.

8The LORD said to Moses,

²"Take Aaron and his sons, together with the vestments, the anointing oil, the bullock for a sin offering, the two rams, and the basket of unleavened food.

³Then assemble the whole community at the entrance of the meeting tent."

⁴And Moses did as the LORD had commanded. When the community had assembled at the entrance of the meeting tent,

⁵Moses told them what the LORD had ordered to be done.

⁶Bringing forward Aaron and his sons, he first washed them with water.

⁷Then he put the tunic on Aaron, girded him with the sash, clothed him with the robe, placed the ephod on him, and girded him with the embroidered belt of the ephod, fastening it around him.

⁸He then set the breastpiece on him, with the Urim and Thummim in it,

⁹and put the miter on his head, attaching the gold plate, the sacred diadem, over the front of the miter, at his forehead, as the LORD had commanded him to do.

¹⁰Taking the anointing oil, Moses anointed and consecrated the Dwelling, with all that was in it.

¹¹Then he sprinkled some of this oil seven times on the altar, and anointed the altar, with all its appurtenances, and the laver, with its base, thus consecrating them.

¹²He also poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron's head, thus consecrating him.

¹³Moses likewise brought forward Aaron's sons, clothed them with tunics, girded them with sashes, and put turbans on them, as the LORD had commanded him to do.

¹⁴When he had brought forward the bullock for a sin offering, Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head.

¹⁵Then Moses slaughtered it, and taking some of its blood, with his finger he put it on the horns around the altar, thus purifying the altar. He also made atonement for the altar by pouring out the blood at its base when he consecrated it.

¹⁶Taking all the fat that was over the inner organs, as well as the lobe of the liver and the two kidneys with their fat, Moses burned them on the altar.

¹⁷The bullock, however, with its hide and flesh and offal he burned in the fire outside the camp, as the LORD had commanded him to do.

¹⁸He next brought forward the holocaust ram, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head.

¹⁹When he had slaughtered it, Moses splashed its blood on all sides of the altar.

²⁰After cutting up the ram into pieces, he burned the head, the cut-up pieces and the suet;

²¹then, having washed the inner organs and the shanks with water, he also burned these remaining parts of the ram on the altar as a holocaust, a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD, as the LORD had commanded him to do.

²²Then he brought forward the second ram, the ordination ram, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head.

²³When he had slaughtered it, Moses took some of its blood and put it on the tip of Aaron's right ear, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.

²⁴Moses had the sons of Aaron also come forward, and he put some of the blood on the tips of their right ears, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. The rest of the blood he splashed on the sides of the altar.

²⁵He then took the fat: the fatty tail and all the fat over the inner organs, the lobe of the liver and the two kidneys with their fat, and likewise the right leg;

²⁶from the basket of unleavened food that was set before the LORD he took one unleavened cake, one loaf of bread made with oil, and one wafer; these he placed on top of the portions of fat and the right leg.

²⁷He then put all these things into the hands of Aaron and his sons, whom he had wave them as a wave offering before the LORD.

²⁸When he had received them back, Moses burned them with the holocaust on the altar as the ordination offering, a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD.

²⁹He then took the breast and waved it as a wave offering before the LORD; this was Moses' own portion of the ordination ram. All this was in keeping with the LORD'S command to Moses.

³⁰Taking some of the anointing oil and some of the blood that was on the altar, Moses sprinkled with it Aaron and his vestments, as well as his sons and their vestments, thus consecrating both Aaron and his vestments and his sons and their vestments.

³¹Finally, Moses said to Aaron and his sons, "Boil the flesh at the entrance of the meeting tent, and there eat it with the bread that is in the basket of the ordination offering, in keeping with the command I have received: 'Aaron and his sons shall eat of it.'

³²What is left over of the flesh and the bread you shall burn up in the fire.

³³Moreover, you are not to depart from the entrance of the meeting tent for seven days, until the days of your ordination are completed; for your ordination is to last for seven days.

³⁴The LORD has commanded that what has been done today be done to make atonement for you.

³⁵Hence you must remain at the entrance of the meeting tent day and night for seven days, carrying out the prescriptions of the LORD; otherwise, you shall die; for this is the command I have received."

³⁶So Aaron and his sons did all that the LORD had commanded through Moses.

9On the eighth day Moses summoned Aaron and his sons, together with the elders of Israel,

²and said to Aaron, "Take a calf for a sin offering and a ram for a holocaust, both without blemish, and offer them before the LORD.

³Tell the elders of Israel, too: Take a he-goat for a sin offering, a calf and a lamb, both unblemished yearlings, for a holocaust,

⁴and an ox and a ram for a peace offering, to sacrifice them before the LORD, along with a cereal offering mixed with oil; for today the LORD will reveal himself to you."

⁵So they brought what Moses had ordered. When the whole community had come forward and stood before the LORD,

⁶Moses said, "This is what the LORD orders you to do, that the glory of the LORD may be revealed to you.

⁷Come up to the altar," Moses then told Aaron, "and offer your sin offering and your holocaust in atonement for yourself and for your family; then present the offering of the people in atonement for them, as the LORD has commanded."

⁸Going up to the altar, Aaron first slaughtered the calf that was his own sin offering.

⁹When his sons presented the blood to him, he dipped his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar. The rest of the blood he poured out at the base of the altar.

¹⁰He then burned on the altar the fat, the kidneys and the lobe of the liver that were taken from the sin offering, as the LORD had commanded Moses;

¹¹but the flesh and the hide he burned up in the fire outside the camp.

¹²Then Aaron slaughtered his holocaust. When his sons brought him the blood, he splashed it on all sides of the altar.

¹³They then brought him the pieces and the head of the holocaust, and he burned them on the altar.

¹⁴Having washed the inner organs and the shanks, he burned these also with the holocaust on the altar.

¹⁵Thereupon he had the people's offering brought up. Taking the goat that was for the people's sin offering, he slaughtered it and offered it up for sin as before.

¹⁶Then he brought forward the holocaust, other than the morning holocaust, and offered it in the usual manner.

¹⁷He then presented the cereal offering; taking a handful of it, he burned it on the altar.

¹⁸Finally he slaughtered the ox and the ram, the peace offering of the people. When his sons brought him the blood, Aaron splashed it on all sides of the altar.

¹⁹The portions of fat from the ox and from the ram, the fatty tail, the fatty membrane over the inner organs, the two kidneys, with the fat that is on them, and the lobe of the liver,

²⁰he placed on top of the breasts and burned them on the altar,

²¹having first waved the breasts and the right legs as a wave offering before the LORD, in keeping with the LORD'S command to Moses.

²²Aaron then raised his hands over the people and blessed them. When he came down from offering the sin offering and holocaust and peace offering,

²³Moses and Aaron went into the meeting tent. On coming out they again blessed the people. Then the glory of the LORD was revealed to all the people.

²⁴Fire came forth from the LORD'S presence and consumed the holocaust and the remnants of the fat on the altar. Seeing this, all the people cried out and fell prostrate.

10During this time Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers and, strewing incense on the fire they had put in them, they offered up before the LORD profane fire, such as he had not authorized.

²Fire therefore came forth from the LORD'S presence and consumed them, so that they died in his presence.

³Moses then said to Aaron, "This is as the LORD said: Through those who approach me I will manifest my sacredness; In the sight of all the people I will reveal my glory." But Aaron said nothing.

⁴Then Moses summoned Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Aaron's uncle Uzziel, with the order, "Come, remove your kinsmen from the sanctuary and carry them to a place outside the camp."

⁵So they went in and took them, in their tunics, outside the camp, as Moses had commanded.

⁶Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, "Do not bare your heads or tear your garments, lest you bring not only death on yourselves but God's wrath also on the whole community. Your kinsmen, the rest of the house of Israel, shall mourn for those whom the LORD'S fire has smitten;

⁷but do not you go beyond the entry of the meeting tent, else you shall die; for the anointing oil of the LORD is upon you." So they did as Moses told them.

⁸The LORD said to Aaron,

⁹"When you are to go to the meeting tent, you and your sons are forbidden under pain of death, by a perpetual ordinance throughout your generations, to drink any wine or strong drink.

¹⁰You must be able to distinguish between what is sacred and what is profane, between what is clean and what is unclean;

¹¹you must teach the Israelites all the laws that the LORD has given them through Moses."

¹²Moses said to Aaron and his surviving sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, "Take the cereal offering left over from the oblations of the LORD, and eat it beside the altar in the form of unleavened cakes. Since it is most sacred,

¹³you must eat it in a sacred place. This is your due from the oblations of the LORD, and that of your sons; such is the command I have received.

¹⁴With your sons and daughters you shall also eat the breast of the wave offering and the leg of the raised offering, in a clean place; for these have been assigned to you and your children as your due from the peace offerings of the Israelites.

¹⁵The leg of the raised offering and the breast of the wave offering shall first be brought in with the oblations, the fatty portions, that are to be waved as a wave offering before the LORD. Then they shall belong to you and your children by a perpetual ordinance, as the LORD has commanded."

¹⁶When Moses inquired about the goat of the sin offering, he discovered that it had all been burned. So he was angry with the surviving sons of Aaron, Eleazar and Ithamar, and said,

¹⁷"Why did you not eat the sin offering in the sacred place, since it is most sacred? It has been given to you that you might bear the guilt of the community and make atonement for them before the LORD.

¹⁸If its blood was not brought into the inmost part of the sanctuary, you should certainly have eaten the offering in the sanctuary, in keeping with the command I had received."

¹⁹Aaron answered Moses, "Even though they presented their sin offering and holocaust before the LORD today, yet this misfortune has befallen me. Had I then eaten of the sin offering today, would it have been pleasing to the LORD?"

²⁰On hearing this, Moses was satisfied.

11The LORD said to Moses and Aaron,

²"Speak to the Israelites and tell them: Of all land animals these are the ones you may eat:

³any animal that has hoofs you may eat, provided it is cloven-footed and chews the cud.

⁴But you shall not eat any of the following that only chew the cud or only have hoofs: the camel, which indeed chews the cud, but does not have hoofs and is therefore unclean for you;

⁵the rock badger, which indeed chews the cud, but does not have hoofs and is therefore unclean for you;

⁶the hare, which indeed chews the cud, but does not have hoofs and is therefore unclean for you; and the pig,

⁷which does indeed have hoofs and is cloven-footed, but does not chew the cud and is therefore unclean for you.

⁸Their flesh you shall not eat, and their dead bodies you shall not touch; they are unclean for you.

⁹"Of the various creatures that live in the water, you may eat the following: whatever in the seas or in river waters has both fins and scales you may eat.

¹⁰But of the various creatures that crawl or swim in the water, whether in the sea or in the rivers, all those that lack either fins or scales are loathsome for you,

¹¹and you shall treat them as loathsome. Their flesh you shall not eat, and their dead bodies you shall loathe.

¹²Every water creature that lacks fins or scales is loathsome for you.

¹³"Of the birds, these you shall loathe and, as loathsome, they shall not be eaten: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey,

¹⁴the kite, the various species of falcons,

¹⁵the various species of crows,

¹⁶the ostrich, the nightjar, the gull, the various species of hawks,

¹⁷the owl, the cormorant, the screech owl,

¹⁸the barn owl, the desert owl, the buzzard,

¹⁹the stork, the various species of herons, the hoopoe, and the bat.

²⁰"The various winged insects that walk on all fours are loathsome for you.

²¹But of the various winged insects that walk on all fours you may eat those that have jointed legs for leaping on the ground;

²²hence of these you may eat the following: the various kinds of locusts, the various kinds of grasshoppers, the various kinds of katydids, and the various kinds of crickets.

²³All other winged insects that have four legs are loathsome for you.

²⁴"Such is the uncleanness that you contract, that everyone who touches their dead bodies shall be unclean until evening,

²⁵and everyone who picks up any part of their dead bodies shall wash his garments and be unclean until evening.

²⁶All hoofed animals that are not cloven-footed or do not chew the cud are unclean for you; everyone who touches them becomes unclean.

²⁷Of the various quadrupeds, all those that walk on paws are unclean for you; everyone who touches their dead bodies shall be unclean until evening,

²⁸and everyone who picks up their dead bodies shall wash his garments and be unclean until evening. Such is their uncleanness for you.

²⁹"Of the creatures that swarm on the ground, the following are unclean for you: the rat, the mouse, the various kinds of lizards,

³⁰the gecko, the chameleon, the agama, the skink, and the mole.

³¹Among the various swarming creatures, these are unclean for you. Everyone who touches them when they are dead shall be unclean until evening.

³²Everything on which one of them falls when dead becomes unclean. Any such article that men use, whether it be an article of wood, cloth, leather or goat hair, must be put in water and remain unclean until evening, when it again becomes clean.

³³Should any of these creatures fall into a clay vessel, everything in it becomes unclean, and the vessel itself you must break.

³⁴Any solid food that was in contact with water, and any liquid that men drink, in any such vessel become unclean.

³⁵Any object on which one of their dead bodies falls, becomes unclean; if it is an oven or a jar-stand, this must be broken to pieces; they are unclean and shall be treated as unclean by you.

³⁶However, a spring or a cistern for collecting water remains clean; but whoever touches the dead body becomes unclean.

³⁷Any sort of cultivated grain remains clean even though one of their dead bodies falls on it;

³⁸but if the grain has become moistened, it becomes unclean when one of these falls on it.

³⁹"When one of the animals that you could otherwise eat, dies of itself, anyone who touches its dead body shall be unclean until evening;

⁴⁰and anyone who eats of its dead body shall wash his garments and be unclean until evening; so also, anyone who removes its dead body shall wash his garments and be unclean until evening.

⁴¹"All the creatures that swarm on the ground are loathsome and shall not be eaten.

⁴²Whether it crawls on its belly, goes on all fours, or has many legs, you shall eat no swarming creature: they are loathsome.

⁴³Do not make yourselves loathsome or unclean with any swarming creature through being contaminated by them.

⁴⁴For I, the LORD, am your God; and you shall make and keep yourselves holy, because I am holy. You shall not make yourselves unclean, then, by any swarming creature that crawls on the ground.

⁴⁵Since I, the LORD, brought you up from the land of Egypt that I might be your God, you shall be holy, because I am holy.

⁴⁶"This is the law for animals and birds and for all the creatures that move about in the water or swarm on the ground,

⁴⁷that you may distinguish between the clean and the unclean, between creatures that may be eaten and those that may not be eaten."

12The LORD said to Moses,

²"Tell the Israelites: When a woman has conceived and gives birth to a boy, she shall be unclean for seven days, with the same uncleanness as at her menstrual period.

³On the eighth day, the flesh of the boy's foreskin shall be circumcised,

⁴and then she shall spend thirty-three days more in becoming purified of her blood; she shall not touch anything sacred nor enter the sanctuary till the days of her purification are fulfilled.

⁵If she gives birth to a girl, for fourteen days she shall be as unclean as at her menstruation, after which she shall spend sixty-six days in becoming purified of her blood.

⁶"When the days of her purification for a son or for a daughter are fulfilled, she shall bring to the priest at the entrance of the meeting tent a yearling lamb for a holocaust and a pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering.

⁷The priest shall offer them up before the LORD to make atonement for her, and thus she will be clean again after her flow of blood. Such is the law for the woman who gives birth to a boy or a girl child.

⁸If, however, she cannot afford a lamb, she may take two turtledoves or two pigeons, the one for a holocaust and the other for a sin offering. The priest shall make atonement for her, and thus she will again be clean."

13The LORD said to Moses and Aaron,

²"If someone has on his skin a scab or pustule or blotch which appears to be the sore of leprosy, he shall be brought to Aaron, the priest, or to one of the priests among his descendants,

³who shall examine the sore on his skin. If the hair on the sore has turned white and the sore itself shows that it has penetrated below the skin, it is indeed the sore of leprosy; the priest, on seeing this, shall declare the man unclean.

⁴If, however, the blotch on the skin is white, but does not seem to have penetrated below the skin, nor has the hair turned white, the priest shall quarantine the stricken man for seven days.

⁵On the seventh day the priest shall again examine him. If he judges that the sore has remained unchanged and has not spread on the skin, the priest shall quarantine him for another seven days,

⁶and once more examine him on the seventh day. If the sore is now dying out and has not spread on the skin, the priest shall declare the man clean; it was merely eczema. The man shall wash his garments and so become clean.

⁷But if, after he has shown himself to the priest to be declared clean, the eczema spreads at all on his skin, he shall once more show himself to the priest.

⁸Should the priest, on examining it, find that the eczema has indeed spread on the skin, he shall declare the man unclean; it is leprosy.

⁹"When someone is stricken with leprosy, he shall be brought to the priest.

¹⁰Should the priest, on examining him, find that there is a white scab on the skin which has turned the hair white and that there is raw flesh in it,

¹¹it is skin leprosy that has long developed. The priest shall declare the man unclean without first quarantining him, since he is certainly unclean.

¹²If leprosy breaks out on the skin and, as far as the priest can see, covers all the skin of the stricken man from head to foot,

¹³should the priest then, on examining him, find that the leprosy does cover his whole body, he shall declare the stricken man clean; since it has all turned white, the man is clean.

¹⁴But as soon as raw flesh appears on him, he is unclean;

¹⁵on observing the raw flesh, the priest shall declare him unclean, because raw flesh is unclean; it is leprosy.

¹⁶If, however, the raw flesh again turns white, he shall return to the priest;

¹⁷should the latter, on examining him, find that the sore has indeed turned white, he shall declare the stricken man clean, and thus he will be clean.

¹⁸"If a man who had a boil on his skin which later healed,

¹⁹should now in the place of the boil have a white scab or a pink blotch, he shall show himself to the priest.

²⁰If the latter, on examination, sees that it is deeper than the skin and that the hair has turned white, he shall declare the man unclean; it is the sore of leprosy that has broken out in the boil.

²¹But if the priest, on examining him, finds that there is no white hair in it and that it is not deeper than the skin and is already dying out, the priest shall quarantine him for seven days.

²²If it has then spread on the skin, the priest shall declare him unclean; the man is stricken.

²³But if the blotch remains in its place without spreading, it is merely the scar of the boil; the priest shall therefore declare him clean.

²⁴"If a man had a burn on his skin, and the proud flesh of the burn now becomes a pink or a white blotch,

²⁵the priest shall examine it. If the hair has turned white on the blotch and this seems to have penetrated below the skin, it is leprosy that has broken out in the burn; the priest shall therefore declare him unclean and stricken with leprosy.

²⁶But if the priest, on examining it, finds that there is no white hair on the blotch and that this is not deeper than the skin and is already dying out, the priest shall quarantine him for seven days.

²⁷Should the priest, when examining it on the seventh day, find that it has spread at all on the skin, he shall declare the man unclean and stricken with leprosy.

²⁸But if the blotch remains in its place without spreading on the skin and is already dying out, it is merely the scab of the burn; the priest shall therefore declare the man clean, since it is only the scar of the burn.

²⁹"When a man or a woman has a sore on the head or cheek,

³⁰should the priest, on examining it, find that the sore has penetrated below the skin and that there is fine yellow hair on it, the priest shall declare the person unclean, for this is scall, a leprous disease of the head or cheek.

³¹But if the priest, on examining the scall sore, finds that it has not penetrated below the skin, though the hair on it may not be black, the priest shall quarantine the person with scall sore for seven days,

³²and on the seventh day again examine the sore. If the scall has not spread and has no yellow hair on it and does not seem to have penetrated below the skin,

³³the man shall shave himself, but not on the diseased spot. Then the priest shall quarantine him for another seven days.

³⁴If the priest, when examining the scall on the seventh day, finds that it has not spread on the skin and that it has not penetrated below the skin, he shall declare the man clean; the latter shall wash his garments, and thus he will be clean.

³⁵But if the scall spreads at all on his skin after he has been declared clean,

³⁶the priest shall again examine it. If the scall has indeed spread on the skin, he need not look for yellow hair; the man is surely unclean.

³⁷If, however, he judges that the scall has remained in its place and that black hair has grown on it, the disease has been healed; the man is clean, and the priest shall declare him clean.

³⁸"When the skin of a man or a woman is spotted with white blotches,

³⁹the priest shall make an examination. If the blotches on the skin are white and already dying out, it is only tetter that has broken out on the skin, and the person therefore is clean.

⁴⁰"When a man loses the hair of his head, he is not unclean merely because of his bald crown.

⁴¹So too, if he loses the hair on the front of his head, he is not unclean merely because of his bald forehead.

⁴²But when there is a pink sore on his bald crown or bald forehead, it is leprosy that is breaking out there.

⁴³The priest shall examine him; and if the scab on the sore of the bald spot has the same pink appearance as that of skin leprosy of the fleshy part of the body,

⁴⁴the man is leprous and unclean, and the priest shall declare him unclean by reason of the sore on his head.

⁴⁵"The one who bears the sore of leprosy shall keep his garments rent and his head bare, and shall muffle his beard; he shall cry out, 'Unclean, unclean!'

⁴⁶As long as the sore is on him he shall declare himself unclean, since he is in fact unclean. He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp.

⁴⁷"When a leprous infection is on a garment of wool or of linen,

⁴⁸or on woven or knitted material of linen or wool, or on a hide or anything made of leather,

⁴⁹if the infection on the garment or hide, or on the woven or knitted material, or on any leather article is greenish or reddish, the thing is indeed infected with leprosy and must be shown to the priest.

⁵⁰Having examined the infection, the priest shall quarantine the infected article for seven days.

⁵¹"On the seventh day the priest shall again examine the infection. If it has spread on the garment, or on the woven or knitted material, or on the leather, whatever be its use, the infection is malignant leprosy, and the article is unclean.

⁵²He shall therefore burn up the garment, or the woven or knitted material of wool or linen, or the leather article, whatever it may be, which is infected; since it has malignant leprosy, it must be destroyed by fire.

⁵³But if the priest, on examining the infection, finds that it has not spread on the garment, or on the woven or knitted material, or on the leather article,

⁵⁴he shall give orders to have the infected article washed and then quarantined for another seven days.

⁵⁵"Then the priest shall again examine the infected article after it has been washed. If the infection has not changed its appearance, even though it may not have spread, the article is unclean and shall be destroyed by fire.

⁵⁶But if the priest, on examining the infection, finds that it is dying out after the washing, he shall tear the infected part out of the garment, or the leather, or the woven or knitted material.

⁵⁷If, however, the infection again appears on the garment, or on the woven or knitted material, or on the leather article, it is still virulent and the thing infected shall be destroyed by fire.

⁵⁸But if, after the washing, the infection has left the garment, or the woven or knitted material, or the leather article, the thing shall be washed a second time, and thus it will be clean.

⁵⁹This is the law for leprous infection on a garment of wool or linen, or on woven or knitted material, or on any leather article, to determine whether it is clean or unclean."

14The LORD said to Moses,

²"This is the law for the victim of leprosy at the time of his purification. He shall be brought to the priest,

³who is to go outside the camp to examine him. If the priest finds that the sore of leprosy has healed in the leper,

⁴he shall order the man who is to be purified, to get two live, clean birds, as well as some cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop.

⁵The priest shall then order him to slay one of the birds over an earthen vessel with spring water in it.

⁶Taking the living bird with the cedar wood, the scarlet yarn and the hyssop, the priest shall dip them all in the blood of the bird that was slain over the spring water,

⁷and then sprinkle seven times the man to be purified from his leprosy. When he has thus purified him, he shall let the living bird fly away over the countryside.

⁸The man being purified shall then wash his garments and shave off all his hair and bathe in water; only when he is thus made clean may he come inside the camp; but he shall still remain outside his tent for seven days.

⁹On the seventh day he shall again shave off all the hair of his head, his beard, his eyebrows, and any other hair he may have, and also wash his garments and bathe his body in water; and so he will be clean.

¹⁰"On the eighth day he shall take two unblemished male lambs, one unblemished yearling ewe lamb, three tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil for a cereal offering, and one log of oil.

¹¹The priest who performs the purification ceremony shall place the man who is being purified, as well as all these offerings, before the LORD at the entrance of the meeting tent.

¹²Taking one of the male lambs, the priest shall present it as a guilt offering, along with the log of oil, waving them as a wave offering before the LORD.

¹³(This lamb he shall slaughter in the sacred place where the sin offering and the holocaust are slaughtered; because, like the sin offering, the guilt offering belongs to the priest and is most sacred.)

¹⁴Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt offering and put it on the tip of the man's right ear, the thumb of his right hand, and the big toe of his right foot.

¹⁵The priest shall also take the log of oil and pour some of it into the palm of his own left hand;

¹⁶then, dipping his right forefinger in it, he shall sprinkle it seven times before the LORD.

¹⁷Of the oil left in his hand the priest shall put some on the tip of the man's right ear, the thumb of his right hand, and the big toe of his right foot, over the blood of the guilt offering.

¹⁸The rest of the oil in his hand the priest shall put on the head of the man being purified. Thus shall the priest make atonement for him before the LORD.

¹⁹Only after he has offered the sin offering in atonement for the man's uncleanness shall the priest slaughter the holocaust

²⁰and offer it, together with the cereal offering, on the altar before the LORD. When the priest has thus made atonement for him, the man will be clean.

²¹"If a man is poor and cannot afford so much, he shall take one male lamb for a guilt offering, to be used as a wave offering in atonement for himself, one tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil for a cereal offering, a log of oil,

²²and two turtledoves or pigeons, which he can more easily afford, the one as a sin offering and the other as a holocaust.

²³On the eighth day of his purification he shall bring them to the priest, at the entrance of the meeting tent before the LORD.

²⁴Taking the guilt-offering lamb, along with the log of oil, the priest shall wave them as a wave offering before the LORD.

²⁵When he has slaughtered the guilt-offering lamb, he shall take some of its blood, and put it on the tip of the right ear of the man being purified, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.

²⁶The priest shall then pour some of the oil into the palm of his own left hand

²⁷and with his right forefinger sprinkle it seven times before the LORD.

²⁸Some of the oil in his hand the priest shall also put on the tip of the man's right ear, the thumb of his right hand, and the big toe of his right foot, over the blood of the guilt offering.

²⁹The rest of the oil in his hand the priest shall put on the man's head. Thus shall he make atonement for him before the LORD.

³⁰Then, of the turtledoves or pigeons, such as the man can afford,

³¹the priest shall offer up one as a sin offering and the other as a holocaust, along with the cereal offering. Thus shall the priest make atonement before the LORD for the man who is to be purified.

³²This is the law for one afflicted with leprosy who has insufficient means for his purification."

³³The LORD said to Moses and Aaron,

³⁴"When you come into the land of Canaan, which I am giving you to possess, if I put a leprous infection on any house of the land you occupy,

³⁵the owner of the house shall come and report to the priest, 'It looks to me as if my house were infected.'

³⁶The priest shall then order the house to be cleared out before he goes in to examine the infection, lest everything in the house become unclean. Only after this is he to go in to examine the house.

³⁷If the priest, on examining it, finds that the infection on the walls of the house consists of greenish or reddish depressions which seem to go deeper than the surface of the wall,

³⁸he shall close the door of the house behind him and quarantine the house for seven days.

³⁹On the seventh day the priest shall return to examine the house again. If he finds that the infection has spread on the walls,

⁴⁰he shall order the infected stones to be pulled out and cast in an unclean place outside the city.

⁴¹The whole inside of the house shall then be scraped, and the mortar that has been scraped off shall be dumped in an unclean place outside the city.

⁴²Then new stones shall be brought and put in the place of the old stones, and new mortar shall be made and plastered on the house.

⁴³"If the infection breaks out once more after the stones have been pulled out and the house has been scraped and replastered,

⁴⁴the priest shall come again; and if he finds that the infection has spread in the house, it is corrosive leprosy, and the house is unclean.

⁴⁵It shall be pulled down, and all its stones, beams and mortar shall be hauled away to an unclean place outside the city.

⁴⁶Whoever enters a house while it is quarantined shall be unclean until evening.

⁴⁷Whoever sleeps or eats in such a house shall also wash his garments.

⁴⁸If the priest finds, when he comes to examine the house, that the infection has in fact not spread after the plastering, he shall declare the house clean, since the infection has been healed.

⁴⁹To purify the house, he shall take two birds, as well as cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop.

⁵⁰One of the birds he shall slay over an earthen vessel with spring water in it.

⁵¹Then, taking the cedar wood, the hyssop and the scarlet yarn, together with the living bird, he shall dip them all in the blood of the slain bird and the spring water, and sprinkle the house seven times.

⁵²Thus shall he purify the house with the bird's blood and the spring water, along with the living bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the scarlet yarn.

⁵³He shall then let the living bird fly away over the countryside outside the city. When he has thus made atonement for it, the house will be clean.

⁵⁴"This is the law for every kind of human leprosy and scall,

⁵⁵for leprosy of garments and houses,

⁵⁶as well as for scabs, pustules and blotches,

⁵⁷so that it may be manifest when there is a state of uncleanness and when a state of cleanness. This is the law for leprosy."

15The LORD said to Moses and Aaron,

²"Speak to the Israelites and tell them: Every man who is afflicted with a chronic flow from his private parts is thereby unclean.

³Such is his uncleanness from this flow that it makes no difference whether the flow drains off or is blocked up; his uncleanness remains.

⁴Any bed on which the man afflicted with the flow lies, is unclean, and any piece of furniture on which he sits, is unclean.

⁵Anyone who touches his bed shall wash his garments, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.

⁶Whoever sits on a piece of furniture on which the afflicted man was sitting, shall wash his garments, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.

⁷Whoever touches the body of the afflicted man shall wash his garments, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.

⁸If the afflicted man spits on a clean man, the latter shall wash his garments, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.

⁹Any saddle on which the afflicted man rides, is unclean.

¹⁰Whoever touches anything that was under him shall be unclean until evening; whoever lifts up any such thing shall wash his garments, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.

¹¹Anyone whom the afflicted man touches with unrinsed hands shall wash his garments, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.

¹²Earthenware touched by the afflicted man shall be broken; and every wooden article shall be rinsed with water.

¹³"When a man who has been afflicted with a flow becomes free of his affliction, he shall wait seven days for his purification. Then he shall wash his garments and bathe his body in fresh water, and so he will be clean.

¹⁴On the eighth day he shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons, and going before the LORD, to the entrance of the meeting tent, he shall give them to the priest,

¹⁵who shall offer them up, the one as a sin offering and the other as a holocaust. Thus shall the priest make atonement before the LORD for the man's flow.

¹⁶"When a man has an emission of seed, he shall bathe his whole body in water and be unclean until evening.

¹⁷Any piece of cloth or leather with seed on it shall be washed with water and be unclean until evening.

¹⁸"If a man lies carnally with a woman, they shall both bathe in water and be unclean until evening.

¹⁹"When a woman has her menstrual flow, she shall be in a state of impurity for seven days. Anyone who touches her shall be unclean until evening.

²⁰Anything on which she lies or sits during her impurity shall be unclean.

²¹Anyone who touches her bed shall wash his garments, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.

²²Whoever touches any article of furniture on which she was sitting, shall wash his garments, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.

²³But if she is on the bed or on the seat when he touches it, he shall be unclean until evening.

²⁴If a man dares to lie with her, he contracts her impurity and shall be unclean for seven days; every bed on which he then lies also becomes unclean.

²⁵"When a woman is afflicted with a flow of blood for several days outside her menstrual period, or when her flow continues beyond the ordinary period, as long as she suffers this unclean flow she shall be unclean, just as during her menstrual period.

²⁶Any bed on which she lies during such a flow becomes unclean, as it would during her menstruation, and any article of furniture on which she sits becomes unclean just as during her menstruation.

²⁷Anyone who touches them becomes unclean; he shall wash his garments, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.

²⁸"If she becomes freed from her affliction, she shall wait seven days, and only then is she to be purified.

²⁹On the eighth day she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance of the meeting tent.

³⁰The priest shall offer up one of them as a sin offering and the other as a holocaust. Thus shall the priest make atonement before the LORD for her unclean flow.

³¹"You shall warn the Israelites of their uncleanness, lest by defiling my Dwelling, which is in their midst, their uncleanness be the cause of their death.

³²"This is the law for the man who is afflicted with a chronic flow, or who has an emission of seed, and thereby becomes unclean;

³³as well as for the woman who has her menstrual period, or who is afflicted with a chronic flow; the law for male and female; and also for the man who lies with an unclean woman."

16After the death of Aaron's two sons, who died when they approached the LORD'S presence, the LORD spoke to Moses

²and said to him, "Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come whenever he pleases into the sanctuary, inside the veil, in front of the propitiatory on the ark; otherwise, when I reveal myself in a cloud above the propitiatory, he will die.

³Only in this way may Aaron enter the sanctuary. He shall bring a young bullock for a sin offering and a ram for a holocaust.

⁴He shall wear the sacred linen tunic, with the linen drawers next his flesh, gird himself with the linen sash and put on the linen miter. But since these vestments are sacred, he shall not put them on until he has first bathed his body in water.

⁵From the Israelite community he shall receive two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a holocaust.

⁶"Aaron shall bring in the bullock, his sin offering to atone for himself and for his household.

⁷Taking the two male goats and setting them before the LORD at the entrance of the meeting tent,

⁸he shall cast lots to determine which one is for the LORD and which for Azazel.

⁹The goat that is determined by lot for the LORD, Aaron shall bring in and offer up as a sin offering.

¹⁰But the goat determined by lot for Azazel he shall set alive before the LORD, so that with it he may make atonement by sending it off to Azazel in the desert.

¹¹"Thus shall Aaron offer up the bullock, his sin offering, to atone for himself and for his family. When he has slaughtered it,

¹²he shall take a censer full of glowing embers from the altar before the LORD, as well as a double handful of finely ground fragrant incense, and bringing them inside the veil,

¹³there before the LORD he shall put incense on the fire, so that a cloud of incense may cover the propitiatory over the commandments; else he will die.

¹⁴Taking some of the bullock's blood, he shall sprinkle it with his finger on the fore part of the propitiatory and likewise sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times in front of the propitiatory.

¹⁵"Then he shall slaughter the people's sin-offering goat, and bringing its blood inside the veil, he shall do with it as he did with the bullock's blood, sprinkling it on the propitiatory and before it.

¹⁶Thus he shall make atonement for the sanctuary because of all the sinful defilements and faults of the Israelites. He shall do the same for the meeting tent, which is set up among them in the midst of their uncleanness.

¹⁷No one else may be in the meeting tent from the time he enters the sanctuary to make atonement until he departs. When he has made atonement for himself and his household, as well as for the whole Israelite community,

¹⁸he shall come out to the altar before the LORD and make atonement for it also. Taking some of the bullock's and the goat's blood, he shall put it on the horns around the altar,

¹⁹and with his finger sprinkle some of the blood on it seven times. Thus he shall render it clean and holy, purged of the defilements of the Israelites.

²⁰"When he has completed the atonement rite for the sanctuary, the meeting tent and the altar, Aaron shall bring forward the live goat.

²¹Laying both hands on its head, he shall confess over it all the sinful faults and transgressions of the Israelites, and so put them on the goat's head. He shall then have it led into the desert by an attendant.

²²Since the goat is to carry off their iniquities to an isolated region, it must be sent away into the desert.

²³"After Aaron has again gone into the meeting tent, he shall strip off and leave in the sanctuary the linen vestments he had put on when he entered there.

²⁴After bathing his body with water in a sacred place, he shall put on his vestments, and then come out and offer his own and the people's holocaust, in atonement for himself and for the people,

²⁵and also burn the fat of the sin offering on the altar.

²⁶"The man who has led away the goat for Azazel shall wash his garments and bathe his body in water; only then may he enter the camp.

²⁷The sin-offering bullock and goat whose blood was brought into the sanctuary to make atonement, shall be taken outside the camp, where their hides and flesh and offal shall be burned up in the fire.

²⁸The one who burns them shall wash his garments and bathe his body in water; only then may he enter the camp.

²⁹"This shall be an everlasting ordinance for you: on the tenth day of the seventh month every one of you, whether a native or a resident alien, shall mortify himself and shall do no work.

³⁰Since on this day atonement is made for you to make you clean, so that you may be cleansed of all your sins before the LORD,

³¹by everlasting ordinance it shall be a most solemn sabbath for you, on which you must mortify yourselves.

³²"This atonement is to be made by the priest who has been anointed and ordained to the priesthood in succession to his father. He shall wear the linen garments, the sacred vestments,

³³and make atonement for the sacred sanctuary, the meeting tent and the altar, as well as for the priests and all the people of the community.

³⁴This, then, shall be an everlasting ordinance for you: once a year atonement shall be made for all the sins of the Israelites." Thus was it done, as the LORD had commanded Moses.

17The LORD said to Moses,

²"Speak to Aaron and his sons, as well as to all the Israelites, and tell them: This is what the LORD has commanded.

³Any Israelite who slaughters an ox or a sheep or a goat, whether in the camp or outside of it,

⁴without first bringing it to the entrance of the meeting tent to present it as an offering to the LORD in front of his Dwelling, shall be judged guilty of bloodshed; and for this, such a man shall be cut off from among his people.

⁵Therefore, such sacrifices as they used to offer up in the open field the Israelites shall henceforth offer to the LORD, bringing them to the priest at the entrance of the meeting tent and sacrificing them there as peace offerings to the LORD.

⁶The priest shall splash the blood on the altar of the LORD at the entrance of the meeting tent and there burn the fat for an odor pleasing to the LORD.

⁷No longer shall they offer their sacrifices to the satyrs to whom they used to render their wanton worship. This shall be an everlasting ordinance for them and their descendants.

⁸"Tell them, therefore: Anyone, whether of the house of Israel or of the aliens residing among them, who offers a holocaust or sacrifice

⁹without bringing it to the entrance of the meeting tent to offer it to the LORD, shall be cut off from his kinsmen.

¹⁰And if anyone, whether of the house of Israel or of the aliens residing among them, partakes of any blood, I will set myself against that one who partakes of blood and will cut him off from among his people.

¹¹Since the life of a living body is in its blood, I have made you put it on the altar, so that atonement may thereby be made for your own lives, because it is the blood, as the seat of life, that makes atonement.

¹²That is why I have told the Israelites: No one among you, not even a resident alien, may partake of blood.

¹³"Anyone hunting, whether of the Israelites or of the aliens residing among them, who catches an animal or a bird that may be eaten, shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth.

¹⁴Since the life of every living body is its blood, I have told the Israelites: You shall not partake of the blood of any meat. Since the life of every living body is its blood, anyone who partakes of it shall be cut off.

¹⁵"Everyone, whether a native or an alien, who eats of an animal that died of itself or was killed by a wild beast, shall wash his garments, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening, and then he will be clean.

¹⁶If he does not wash or does not bathe his body, he shall have the guilt to bear."

18The LORD said to Moses,

²"Speak to the Israelites and tell them: I, the LORD, am your God.

³You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you once lived, nor shall you do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you; do not conform to their customs.

⁴My decrees you shall carry out, and my statutes you shall take care to follow. I, the LORD, am your God.

⁵Keep, then, my statutes and decrees, for the man who carries them out will find life through them. I am the LORD.

⁶"None of you shall approach a close relative to have sexual intercourse with her. I am the LORD.

⁷You shall not disgrace your father by having intercourse with your mother. Besides, since she is your own mother, you shall not have intercourse with her.

⁸You shall not have intercourse with your father's wife, for that would be a disgrace to your father.

⁹You shall not have intercourse with your sister, your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether she was born in your own household or born elsewhere.

¹⁰You shall not have intercourse with your son's daughter or with your daughter's daughter, for that would be a disgrace to your own family.

¹¹You shall not have intercourse with the daughter whom your father's wife bore to him, since she, too, is your sister.

¹²You shall not have intercourse with your father's sister, since she is your father's relative.

¹³You shall not have intercourse with your mother's sister, since she is your mother's relative.

¹⁴You shall not disgrace your father's brother by being intimate with his wife, since she, too, is your aunt.

¹⁵You shall not have intercourse with your daughter-in-law; she is your son's wife, and therefore you shall not disgrace her.

¹⁶You shall not have intercourse with your brother's wife, for that would be a disgrace to your brother.

¹⁷You shall not have intercourse with a woman and also with her daughter, nor shall you marry and have intercourse with her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter; this would be shameful, because they are related to her.

¹⁸While your wife is still living you shall not marry her sister as her rival; for thus you would disgrace your first wife.

¹⁹"You shall not approach a woman to have intercourse with her while she is unclean from menstruation.

²⁰You shall not have carnal relations with your neighbor's wife, defiling yourself with her.

²¹You shall not offer any of your offspring to be immolated to Molech, thus profaning the name of your God. I am the LORD.

²²You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; such a thing is an abomination.

²³You shall not have carnal relations with an animal, defiling yourself with it; nor shall a woman set herself in front of an animal to mate with it; such things are abhorrent.

²⁴"Do not defile yourselves by any of these things by which the nations whom I am driving out of your way have defiled themselves.

²⁵Because their land has become defiled, I am punishing it for its wickedness, by making it vomit out its inhabitants.

²⁶You, however, whether natives or resident aliens, must keep my statutes and decrees forbidding all such abominations

²⁷by which the previous inhabitants defiled the land;

²⁸otherwise the land will vomit you out also for having defiled it, just as it vomited out the nations before you.

²⁹Everyone who does any of these abominations shall be cut off from among his people.

³⁰Heed my charge, then, not to defile yourselves by observing the abominable customs that have been observed before you. I, the LORD, am your God."

19The LORD said to Moses,

²"Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them: Be holy, for I, the LORD your God, am holy.

³Revere your mother and father, and keep my sabbaths. I, the LORD, am your God.

⁴"Do not turn aside to idols, nor make molten gods for yourselves. I, the LORD, am your God.

⁵"When you sacrifice your peace offering to the LORD, if you wish it to be acceptable,

⁶it must be eaten on the very day of your sacrifice or on the following day. Whatever is left over until the third day shall be burned up in the fire.

⁷If any of it is eaten on the third day, the sacrifice will be unacceptable as refuse;

⁸whoever eats of it then shall pay the penalty for having profaned what is sacred to the LORD. Such a one shall be cut off from his people.

⁹"When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not be so thorough that you reap the field to its very edge, nor shall you glean the stray ears of grain.

¹⁰Likewise, you shall not pick your vineyard bare, nor gather up the grapes that have fallen. These things you shall leave for the poor and the alien. I, the LORD, am your God.

¹¹"You shall not steal. You shall not lie or speak falsely to one another.

¹²You shall not swear falsely by my name, thus profaning the name of your God. I am the LORD.

¹³"You shall not defraud or rob your neighbor. You shall not withhold overnight the wages of your day laborer.

¹⁴You shall not curse the deaf, or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but you shall fear your God. I am the LORD.

¹⁵"You shall not act dishonestly in rendering judgment. Show neither partiality to the weak nor deference to the mighty, but judge your fellow men justly.

¹⁶You shall not go about spreading slander among your kinsmen; nor shall you stand by idly when your neighbor's life is at stake. I am the LORD.

¹⁷"You shall not bear hatred for your brother in your heart. Though you may have to reprove your fellow man, do not incur sin because of him.

¹⁸Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your fellow countrymen. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.

¹⁹"Keep my statutes: do not breed any of your domestic animals with others of a different species; do not sow a field of yours with two different kinds of seed; and do not put on a garment woven with two different kinds of thread.

²⁰"If a man has carnal relations with a female slave who has already been living with another man but has not yet been redeemed or given her freedom, they shall be punished but not put to death, because she is not free.

²¹The man, moreover, shall bring to the entrance of the meeting tent a ram as his guilt offering to the LORD.

²²With this ram the priest shall make atonement before the LORD for the sin he has committed, and it will be forgiven him.

²³"When you come into the land and plant any fruit tree there, first look upon its fruit as if it were uncircumcised. For three years, while its fruit remains uncircumcised, it may not be eaten.

²⁴In the fourth year, however, all of its fruit shall be sacred to the LORD as a thanksgiving feast to him.

²⁵Not until the fifth year may you eat its fruit. Thus it will continue its yield for you. I, the LORD, am your God.

²⁶"Do not eat meat with the blood still in it. Do not practice divination or soothsaying.

²⁷Do not clip your hair at the temples, nor trim the edges of your beard.

²⁸Do not lacerate your bodies for the dead, and do not tattoo yourselves. I am the LORD.

²⁹"You shall not degrade your daughter by making a prostitute of her; else the land will become corrupt and full of lewdness.

³⁰Keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary. I am the LORD.

³¹"Do not go to mediums or consult fortune-tellers, for you will be defiled by them. I, the LORD, am your God.

³²"Stand up in the presence of the aged, and show respect for the old; thus shall you fear your God. I am the LORD.

³³"When an alien resides with you in your land, do not molest him.

³⁴You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; have the same love for him as for yourself; for you too were once aliens in the land of Egypt. I, the LORD, am your God.

³⁵"Do not act dishonestly in using measures of length or weight or capacity.

³⁶You shall have a true scale and true weights, an honest ephah and an honest hin. I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

³⁷Be careful, then, to observe all my statutes and decrees. I am the LORD."

20The LORD said to Moses,

²"Tell the Israelites: Anyone, whether an Israelite or an alien residing in Israel, who gives any of his offspring to Molech shall be put to death. Let his fellow citizens stone him.

³I myself will turn against such a man and cut him off from the body of his people; for in giving his offspring to Molech, he has defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name.

⁴Even if his fellow citizens connive at such a man's crime of giving his offspring to Molech, and fail to put him to death,

⁵I myself will set my face against that man and his family and will cut off from their people both him and all who join him in his wanton worship of Molech.

⁶Should anyone turn to mediums and fortune-tellers and follow their wanton ways, I will turn against such a one and cut him off from his people.

⁷Sanctify yourselves, then, and be holy; for I, the LORD, your God, am holy.

⁸Be careful, therefore, to observe what I, the LORD, who make you holy, have prescribed.

⁹"Anyone who curses his father or mother shall be put to death; since he has cursed his father or mother, he has forfeited his life.

¹⁰If a man commits adultery with his neighbor's wife, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death.

¹¹If a man disgraces his father by lying with his father's wife, both the man and his stepmother shall be put to death; they have forfeited their lives.

¹²If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall be put to death; since they have committed an abhorrent deed, they have forfeited their lives.

¹³If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them shall be put to death for their abominable deed; they have forfeited their lives.

¹⁴If a man marries a woman and her mother also, the man and the two women as well shall be burned to death for their shameful conduct, so that such shamefulness may not be found among you.

¹⁵If a man has carnal relations with an animal, the man shall be put to death, and the animal shall be slain.

¹⁶If a woman goes up to any animal to mate with it, the woman and the animal shall be slain; let them both be put to death; their lives are forfeit.

¹⁷If a man consummates marriage with his sister or his half-sister, they shall be publicly cut off from their people for this shameful deed; the man shall pay the penalty of having had intercourse with his own sister.

¹⁸If a man lies in sexual intercourse with a woman during her menstrual period, both of them shall be cut off from their people, because they have laid bare the flowing fountain of her blood.

¹⁹You shall not have intercourse with your mother's sister or your father's sister; whoever does so shall pay the penalty of incest.

²⁰If a man disgraces his uncle by having intercourse with his uncle's wife, the man and his aunt shall pay the penalty by dying childless.

²¹If a man marries his brother's wife and thus disgraces his brother, they shall be childless because of this incest.

²²"Be careful to observe all my statutes and all my decrees; otherwise the land where I am bringing you to dwell will vomit you out.

²³Do not conform, therefore, to the customs of the nations whom I am driving out of your way, because all these things that they have done have filled me with disgust for them.

²⁴But to you I have said: Their land shall be your possession, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am giving it to you as your own, I, the LORD, your God, who have set you apart from the other nations.

²⁵You, too, must set apart, then, the clean animals from the unclean, and the clean birds from the unclean, so that you may not be contaminated with the uncleanness of any beast or bird or of any swarming creature in the land that I have set apart for you.

²⁶To me, therefore, you shall be sacred; for I, the LORD, am sacred, I, who have set you apart from the other nations to be my own.

²⁷"A man or a woman who acts as a medium or fortune-teller shall be put to death by stoning; they have no one but themselves to blame for their death."

21The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to Aaron's sons, the priests, and tell them: None of you shall make himself unclean for any dead person among his people,

²except for his nearest relatives, his mother or father, his son or daughter, his brother

³or his maiden sister, who is of his own family while she remains unmarried; for these he may make himself unclean.

⁴But for a sister who has married out of his family he shall not make himself unclean; this would be a profanation.

⁵"The priests shall not make bare the crown of the head, nor shave the edges of the beard, nor lacerate the body.

⁶To their God they shall be sacred, and not profane his name; since they offer up the oblations of the LORD, the food of their God, they must be holy.

⁷"A priest shall not marry a woman who has been a prostitute or has lost her honor, nor a woman who has been divorced by her husband; for the priest is sacred to his God.

⁸Honor him as sacred who offers up the food of your God; treat him as sacred, because I, the LORD, who have consecrated him, am sacred.

⁹"A priest's daughter who loses her honor by committing fornication and thereby dishonors her father also, shall be burned to death.

¹⁰"The most exalted of the priests, upon whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been ordained to wear the special vestments, shall not bare his head or rend his garments,

¹¹nor shall he go near any dead person. Not even for his father or mother may he thus become unclean

¹²or leave the sanctuary; otherwise he will profane the sanctuary of his God, for with the anointing oil upon him, he is dedicated to his God, to me, the LORD.

¹³"The priest shall marry a virgin.

¹⁴Not a widow or a woman who has been divorced or a woman who has lost her honor as a prostitute, but a virgin, taken from his own people, shall he marry;

¹⁵otherwise he will have base offspring among his people. I, the LORD, have made him sacred."

¹⁶The LORD said to Moses,

¹⁷"Speak to Aaron and tell him: None of your descendants, of whatever generation, who has any defect shall come forward to offer up the food of his God.

¹⁸Therefore, he who has any of the following defects may not come forward: he who is blind, or lame, or who has any disfigurement or malformation,

¹⁹or a crippled foot or hand,

²⁰or who is hump-backed or weakly or walleyed, or who is afflicted with eczema, ringworm or hernia.

²¹No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any such defect may draw near to offer up the oblations of the LORD; on account of his defect he may not draw near to offer up the food of his God.

²²He may, however, partake of the food of his God: of what is most sacred as well as of what is sacred.

²³Only, he may not approach the veil nor go up to the altar on account of his defect; he shall not profane these things that are sacred to me, for it is I, the LORD, who make them sacred."

²⁴Moses, therefore, told this to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites.

22The LORD said to Moses,

²"Tell Aaron and his sons to respect the sacred offerings which the Israelites consecrate to me; else they will profane my holy name. I am the LORD.

³"Tell them: If any one of you, or of your descendants in any future generation, dares, while he is in a state of uncleanness, to draw near the sacred offerings which the Israelites consecrate to the LORD, such a one shall be cut off from my presence. I am the LORD.

⁴"No descendant of Aaron who is stricken with leprosy, or who suffers from a flow, may eat of these sacred offerings, unless he again becomes clean. Moreover, if anyone touches a person who has become unclean by contact with a corpse, or if anyone has had an emission of seed,

⁵or if anyone touches any swarming creature or any man whose uncleanness, of whatever kind it may be, is contagious,

⁶the one who touches such as these shall be unclean until evening and may not eat of the sacred portions until he has first bathed his body in water,

⁷then, when the sun sets, he again becomes clean. Only then may he eat of the sacred offerings, which are his food.

⁸He shall not make himself unclean by eating of any animal that has died of itself or has been killed by wild beasts. I am the LORD.

⁹"They shall keep my charge and not do wrong in this matter; else they will die for their profanation. I am the LORD who have consecrated them.

¹⁰"Neither a lay person nor a priest's tenant or hired servant may eat of any sacred offering.

¹¹But a slave whom a priest acquires by purchase or who is born in his house may eat of his food.

¹²A priest's daughter who is married to a layman may not eat of the sacred contributions.

¹³But if a priest's daughter is widowed or divorced and, having no children, returns to her father's house, she may then eat of her father's food as in her youth. No layman, however, may eat of it.

¹⁴If such a one eats of a sacred offering through inadvertence, he shall make restitution to the priest for the sacred offering, with an increment of one fifth of the amount.

¹⁵The sacred offerings which the Israelites contribute to the LORD the priests shall not allow to be profaned

¹⁶nor in the eating of the sacred offering shall they bring down guilt that must be punished; it is I, the LORD, who make them sacred."

¹⁷The LORD said to Moses,

¹⁸"Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites, and tell them: When anyone of the house of Israel, or any alien residing in Israel, who wishes to offer a sacrifice, brings a holocaust as a votive offering or as a free-will offering to the LORD,

¹⁹if it is to be acceptable, the ox or sheep or goat that he offers must be an unblemished male.

²⁰You shall not offer one that has any defect, for such a one would not be acceptable for you.

²¹When anyone presents a peace offering to the LORD from the herd or the flock in fulfillment of a vow, or as a free-will offering, if it is to find acceptance, it must be unblemished; it shall not have any defect.

²²One that is blind or crippled or maimed, or one that has a running sore or mange or ringworm, you shall not offer to the LORD; do not put such an animal on the altar as an oblation to the LORD.

²³An ox or a sheep that is in any way ill-proportioned or stunted you may indeed present as a free-will offering, but it will not be acceptable as a votive offering.

²⁴One that has its testicles bruised or crushed or torn out or cut off you shall not offer to the LORD. You shall neither do this in your own land

²⁵nor receive from a foreigner any such animals to offer up as the food of your God; since they are deformed or defective, they will not be acceptable for you."

²⁶The LORD said to Moses,

²⁷"When an ox or a lamb or a goat is born, it shall remain with its mother for seven days; only from the eighth day onward will it be acceptable, to be offered as an oblation to the LORD.

²⁸You shall not slaughter an ox or a sheep on one and the same day with its young.

²⁹Whenever you offer a thanksgiving sacrifice to the LORD, so offer it that it may be acceptable for you;

³⁰it must, therefore, be eaten on the same day; none of it shall be left over until the next day. I am the LORD.

³¹"Be careful to observe the commandments which I, the LORD, give you,

³²and do not profane my holy name; in the midst of the Israelites I, the LORD, must be held as sacred. It is I who made you sacred

³³and led you out of the land of Egypt, that I, the LORD, might be your God."

23The LORD said to Moses,

²"Speak to the Israelites and tell them: The following are the festivals of the LORD, my feast days, which you shall celebrate with a sacred assembly.

³"For six days work may be done; but the seventh day is the sabbath rest, a day for sacred assembly, on which you shall do no work. The sabbath shall belong to the LORD wherever you dwell.

⁴"These, then, are the festivals of the LORD which you shall celebrate at their proper time with a sacred assembly.

⁵The Passover of the LORD falls on the fourteenth day of the first month, at the evening twilight.

⁶The fifteenth day of this month is the LORD'S feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.

⁷On the first of these days you shall hold a sacred assembly and do no sort of work.

⁸On each of the seven days you shall offer an oblation to the LORD. Then on the seventh day you shall again hold a sacred assembly and do no sort of work."

⁹The LORD said to Moses,

¹⁰"Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you come into the land which I am giving you, and reap your harvest, you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest,

¹¹who shall wave the sheaf before the LORD that it may be acceptable for you. On the day after the sabbath the priest shall do this.

¹²On this day, when your sheaf is waved, you shall offer to the LORD for a holocaust an unblemished yearling lamb.

¹³Its cereal offering shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, as a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD; and its libation shall be a fourth of a hin of wine.

¹⁴Until this day, when you bring your God this offering, you shall not eat any bread or roasted grain or fresh kernels. This shall be a perpetual statute for you and your descendants wherever you dwell.

¹⁵"Beginning with the day after the sabbath, the day on which you bring the wave-offering sheaf, you shall count seven full weeks,

¹⁶and then on the day after the seventh week, the fiftieth day, you shall present the new cereal offering to the LORD.

¹⁷For the wave offering of your first fruits to the LORD, you shall bring with you from wherever you live two loaves of bread made of two tenths of an ephah of fine flour and baked with leaven.

¹⁸Besides the bread, you shall offer to the LORD a holocaust of seven unblemished yearling lambs, one young bull, and two rams, along with their cereal offering and libations, as a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD.

¹⁹One male goat shall be sacrificed as a sin offering, and two yearling lambs as a peace offering.

²⁰The priest shall wave the bread of the first fruits and the two lambs as a wave offer ing before the LORD; these shall be sacred to the LORD and belong to the priest.

²¹On this same day you shall by proclamation have a sacred assembly, and no sort of work may be done. This shall be a perpetual statute for you and your descendants wherever you dwell.

²²"When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not be so thorough that you reap the field to its very edge, nor shall you glean the stray ears of your grain. These things you shall leave for the poor and the alien. I, the LORD, am your God."

²³The LORD said to Moses,

²⁴"Tell the Israelites: On the first day of the seventh month you shall keep a sabbath rest, with a sacred assembly and with the trumpet blasts as a reminder;

²⁵you shall then do no sort of work, and you shall offer an oblation to the LORD."

²⁶The LORD said to Moses,

²⁷"The tenth of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement, when you shall hold a sacred assembly and mortify yourselves and offer an oblation to the LORD.

²⁸On this day you shall not do any work, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the LORD, your God.

²⁹Anyone who does not mortify himself on this day shall be cut off from his people,

³⁰and if anyone does any work on this day, I will remove him from the midst of his people.

³¹This is a perpetual statute for you and your descendants wherever you dwell: you shall do no work,

³²but shall keep a sabbath of complete rest and mortify yourselves. Beginning on the evening of the ninth of the month, you shall keep this sabbath of yours from evening to evening."

³³The LORD said to Moses,

³⁴"Tell the Israelites: The fifteenth day of this seventh month is the LORD'S feast of Booths, which shall continue for seven days.

³⁵On the first day there shall be a sacred assembly, and you shall do no sort of work.

³⁶For seven days you shall offer an oblation to the LORD, and on the eighth day you shall again hold a sacred assembly and offer an oblation to the LORD. On that solemn closing you shall do no sort of work.

³⁷"These, therefore, are the festivals of the LORD on which you shall proclaim a sacred assembly, and offer as an oblation to the LORD holocausts and cereal offerings, sacrifices and libations, as prescribed for each day,

³⁸in addition to those of the LORD'S sabbaths, your donations, your various votive offerings and the free-will offerings that you present to the LORD.

³⁹"On the fifteenth day, then, of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate a pilgrim feast of the LORD for a whole week. The first and the eighth day shall be days of complete rest.

⁴⁰On the first day you shall gather foliage from majestic trees, branches of palms and boughs of myrtles and of valley poplars, and then for a week you shall make merry before the LORD, your God.

⁴¹By perpetual statute for you and your descendants you shall keep this pilgrim feast of the LORD for one whole week in the seventh month of the year.

⁴²During this week every native Israelite among you shall dwell in booths,

⁴³that your descendants may realize that, when I led the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, I made them dwell in booths. I, the LORD, am your God."

⁴⁴Thus did Moses announce to the Israelites the festivals of the LORD.

24The LORD said to Moses,

²"Order the Israelites to bring you clear oil of crushed olives for the light, so that you may keep lamps burning regularly.

³In the meeting tent, outside the veil that hangs in front of the commandments, Aaron shall set up the lamps to burn before the LORD regularly, from evening till morning. Thus, by a perpetual statute for you and your descendants,

⁴the lamps shall be set up on the pure gold lampstand, to burn regularly before the LORD.

⁵"You shall take fine flour and bake it into twelve cakes, using two tenths of an ephah of flour for each cake.

⁶These you shall place in two piles, six in each pile, on the pure gold table before the LORD.

⁷On each pile put some pure frankincense, which shall serve as an oblation to the LORD, a token offering for the bread.

⁸Regularly on each sabbath day this bread shall be set out afresh before the LORD, offered on the part of the Israelites by an everlasting agreement.

⁹It shall belong to Aaron and his sons, who must eat it in a sacred place, since, as something most sacred among the various oblations to the LORD, it is his by perpetual right."

¹⁰Among the Israelites there was a man born of an Israelite mother (Shelomith, daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan) and an Egyptian father.

¹¹This man quarreled publicly with another Israelite and cursed and blasphemed the LORD'S name. So the people brought him to Moses,

¹²who kept him in custody till a decision from the LORD should settle the case for them.

¹³The LORD then said to Moses,

¹⁴"Take the blasphemer outside the camp, and when all who heard him have laid their hands on his head, let the whole community stone him.

¹⁵Tell the Israelites: Anyone who curses his God shall bear the penalty of his sin;

¹⁶whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD shall be put to death. The whole community shall stone him; alien and native alike must be put to death for blaspheming the LORD'S name.

¹⁷"Whoever takes the life of any human being shall be put to death;

¹⁸whoever takes the life of an animal shall make restitution of another animal. A life for a life!

¹⁹Anyone who inflicts an injury on his neighbor shall receive the same in return.

²⁰Limb for limb, eye for eye, tooth for tooth! The same injury that a man gives another shall be inflicted on him in return.

²¹Whoever slays an animal shall make restitution, but whoever slays a man shall be put to death.

²²You shall have but one rule, for alien and native alike. I, the LORD, am your God."

²³When Moses told this to the Israelites, they took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him; they carried out the command that the LORD had given Moses.

25The LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai,

²"Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, let the land, too, keep a sabbath for the LORD.

³For six years you may sow your field, and for six years prune your vineyard, gathering in their produce.

⁴But during the seventh year the land shall have a complete rest, a sabbath for the LORD, when you may neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard.

⁵The aftergrowth of your harvest you shall not reap, nor shall you pick the grapes of your untrimmed vines in this year of sabbath rest for the land.

⁶While the land has its sabbath, all its produce will be food equally for you yourself and for your male and female slaves, for your hired help and the tenants who live with you,

⁷and likewise for your livestock and for the wild animals on your land.

⁸"Seven weeks of years shall you count--seven times seven years--so that the seven cycles amount to forty-nine years.

⁹Then, on the tenth day of the seventh month let the trumpet resound; on this, the Day of Atonement, the trumpet blast shall re-echo throughout your land.

¹⁰This fiftieth year you shall make sacred by proclaiming liberty in the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when every one of you shall return to his own property, every one to his own family estate.

¹¹In this fiftieth year, your year of jubilee, you shall not sow, nor shall you reap the aftergrowth or pick the grapes from the untrimmed vines.

¹²Since this is the jubilee, which shall be sacred for you, you may not eat of its produce, except as taken directly from the field.

¹³"In this year of jubilee, then, every one of you shall return to his own property.

¹⁴Therefore, when you sell any land to your neighbor or buy any from him, do not deal unfairly.

¹⁵On the basis of the number of years since the last jubilee shall you purchase the land from him; and so also, on the basis of the number of years for crops, shall he sell it to you.

¹⁶When the years are many, the price shall be so much the more; when the years are few, the price shall be so much the less. For it is really the number of crops that he sells you.

¹⁷Do not deal unfairly, then; but stand in fear of your God. I, the LORD, am your God.

¹⁸"Observe my precepts and be careful to keep my regulations, for then you will dwell securely in the land.

¹⁹The land will yield its fruit and you will have food in abundance, so that you may live there without worry.

²⁰Therefore, do not say, 'What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we do not then sow or reap our crop?'

²¹I will bestow such blessings on you in the sixth year that there will then be crop enough for three years.

²²When you sow in the eighth year, you will continue to eat from the old crop; and even into the ninth year, when the crop comes in, you will still have the old to eat from.

²³"The land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine, and you are but aliens who have become my tenants.

²⁴Therefore, in every part of the country that you occupy, you must permit the land to be redeemed.

²⁵When one of your countrymen is reduced to poverty and has to sell some of his property, his closest relative, who has the right to redeem it, may go and buy back what his kinsman has sold.

²⁶If, however, the man has no relative to redeem his land, but later on acquires sufficient means to buy it back in his own name,

²⁷he shall make a deduction from the price in proportion to the number of years since the sale, and then pay back the balance to the one to whom he sold it, so that he may thus regain his own property.

²⁸But if he does not acquire sufficient means to buy back his land, what he has sold shall remain in the possession of the purchaser until the jubilee, when it must be released and returned to its original owner.

²⁹"When someone sells a dwelling in a walled town, he has the right to buy it back during the time of one full year from its sale.

³⁰But if such a house in a walled town has not been redeemed at the end of a full year, it shall belong in perpetuity to the purchaser and his descendants; nor shall it be released in the jubilee.

³¹However, houses in villages that are not encircled by walls shall be considered as belonging to the surrounding farm land; they may be redeemed at any time, and in the jubilee they must be released.

³²"In levitical cities the Levites shall always have the right to redeem the town houses that are their property.

³³Any town house of the Levites in their cities that had been sold and not redeemed, shall be released in the jubilee; for the town houses of the Levites are their hereditary property in the midst of the Israelites.

³⁴Moreover, the pasture land belonging to their cities shall not be sold at all; it must always remain their hereditary property.

³⁵"When one of your fellow countrymen is reduced to poverty and is unable to hold out beside you, extend to him the privileges of an alien or a tenant, so that he may continue to live with you.

³⁶Do not exact interest from your countryman either in money or in kind, but out of fear of God let him live with you.

³⁷You are to lend him neither money at interest nor food at a profit.

³⁸I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

³⁹"When, then, your countryman becomes so impoverished beside you that he sells you his services, do not make him work as a slave.

⁴⁰Rather, let him be like a hired servant or like your tenant, working with you until the jubilee year,

⁴¹when he, together with his children, shall be released from your service and return to his kindred and to the property of his ancestors.

⁴²Since those whom I brought out of the land of Egypt are servants of mine, they shall not be sold as slaves to any man.

⁴³Do not lord it over them harshly, but stand in fear of your God.

⁴⁴"Slaves, male and female, you may indeed possess, provided you buy them from among the neighboring nations.

⁴⁵You may also buy them from among the aliens who reside with you and from their children who are born and reared in your land. Such slaves you may own as chattels,

⁴⁶and leave to your sons as their hereditary property, making them perpetual slaves. But you shall not lord it harshly over any of the Israelites, your kinsmen.

⁴⁷"When one of your countrymen is reduced to such poverty that he sells himself to a wealthy alien who has a permanent or a temporary residence among you, or to one of the descendants of an immigrant family,

⁴⁸even after he has thus sold his services he still has the right of redemption; he may be redeemed by one of his own brothers,

⁴⁹or by his uncle or cousin, or by some other relative or fellow clansman; or, if he acquires the means, he may redeem himself.

⁵⁰With his purchaser he shall compute the years from the sale to the jubilee, distributing the sale price over these years as though he had been hired as a day laborer.

⁵¹The more such years there are, the more of the sale price he shall pay back as ransom;

⁵²the fewer years there are left before the jubilee year, the more he has to his credit; in proportion to his years of service shall he pay his ransom.

⁵³The alien shall treat him as a servant hired on an annual basis, and he shall not lord it over him harshly under your very eyes.

⁵⁴If he is not thus redeemed, he shall nevertheless be released, together with his children, in the jubilee year.

⁵⁵For to me the Israelites belong as servants; they are servants of mine, because I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I, the LORD, your God.

26"Do not make false gods for yourselves. You shall not erect an idol or a sacred pillar for yourselves, nor shall you set up a stone figure for worship in your land; for I, the LORD, am your God.

²Keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary. I am the LORD.

³"If you live in accordance with my precepts and are careful to observe my commandments,

⁴I will give you rain in due season, so that the land will bear its crops, and the trees their fruit;

⁵your threshing will last till vintage time, and your vintage till the time for sowing, and you will have food to eat in abundance, so that you may dwell securely in your land.

⁶I will establish peace in the land, that you may lie down to rest without anxiety. I will rid the country of ravenous beasts, and keep the sword of war from sweeping across your land.

⁷You will rout your enemies and lay them low with your sword.

⁸Five of you will put a hundred of your foes to flight, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand of them, till they are cut down by your sword.

⁹I will look with favor upon you, and make you fruitful and numerous, as I carry out my covenant with you.

¹⁰So much of the old crops will you have stored up for food that you will have to discard them to make room for the new.

¹¹I will set my Dwelling among you, and will not disdain you.

¹²Ever present in your midst, I will be your God, and you will be my people;

¹³for it is I, the LORD, your God, who brought you out of the land of the Egyptians and freed you from their slavery, breaking the yoke they had laid upon you and letting you walk erect.

¹⁴"But if you do not heed me and do not keep all these commandments,

¹⁵if you reject my precepts and spurn my decrees, refusing to obey all my commandments and breaking my covenant,

¹⁶then I, in turn, will give you your deserts. I will punish you with terrible woes--with wasting and fever to dim the eyes and sap the life. You will sow your seed in vain, for your enemies will consume the crop.

¹⁷I will turn against you, till you are beaten down before your enemies and lorded over by your foes. You will take to flight though no one pursues you.

¹⁸"If even after this you do not obey me, I will increase the chastisement for your sins sevenfold,

¹⁹to break your haughty confidence. I will make the sky above you as hard as iron, and your soil as hard as bronze,

²⁰so that your strength will be spent in vain; your land will bear no crops, and its trees no fruit.

²¹"If then you become defiant in your unwillingness to obey me, I will multiply my blows another sevenfold, as your sins deserve.

²²I will unleash the wild beasts against you, to rob you of your children and wipe out your livestock, till your population dwindles away and your roads become deserted.

²³"If, with all this, you still refuse to be chastened by me and continue to defy me,

²⁴I, too, will defy you and will smite you for your sins seven times harder than before.

²⁵I will make the sword, the avenger of my covenant, sweep over you. Though you then huddle together in your walled cities, I will send in pestilence among you, till you are forced to surrender to the enemy.

²⁶And as I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will need but one oven for baking all the bread they dole out to you in rations--not enough food to still your hunger.

²⁷"If, despite all this, you still persist in disobeying and defying me,

²⁸I, also, will meet you with fiery defiance and will chastise you with sevenfold fiercer punishment for your sins,

²⁹till you begin to eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.

³⁰I will demolish your high places, overthrow your incense stands, and cast your corpses on those of your idols. In my abhorrence of you,

³¹I will lay waste your cities and devastate your sanctuaries, refusing to accept your sweet-smelling offerings.

³²So devastated will I leave the land that your very enemies who come to live there will stand aghast at the sight of it.

³³You yourselves I will scatter among the nations at the point of my drawn sword, leaving your countryside desolate and your cities deserted.

³⁴Then shall the land retrieve its lost sabbaths during all the time it lies waste, while you are in the land of your enemies; then shall the land have rest and make up for its sabbaths

³⁵during all the time that it lies desolate, enjoying the rest that you would not let it have on the sabbaths when you lived there.

³⁶"Those of you who survive in the lands of their enemies I will make so fainthearted that, if leaves rustle behind them, they will flee headlong, as if from the sword, though no one pursues them;

³⁷stumbling over one another as if to escape a weapon, while no one is after them--so helpless will you be to take a stand against your foes!

³⁸You will be lost among the Gentiles, swallowed up in your enemies' country.

³⁹Those of you who survive in the lands of their enemies will waste away for their own and their fathers' guilt.

⁴⁰"Thus they will have to confess that they and their fathers were guilty of having rebelled against me and of having defied me,

⁴¹so that I, too, had to defy them and bring them into their enemies' land. Then, when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they make amends for their guilt,

⁴²I will remember my covenant with Jacob, my covenant with Isaac, and my covenant with Abraham; and of the land, too, I will be mindful.

⁴³But the land must first be rid of them, that in its desolation it may make up its lost sabbaths, and that they, too, may make good the debt of their guilt for having spurned my precepts and abhorred my statutes.

⁴⁴Yet even so, even while they are in their enemies' land, I will not reject or spurn them, lest, by wiping them out, I make void my covenant with them; for I, the LORD, am their God.

⁴⁵I will remember them because of the covenant I made with their forefathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt under the very eyes of the Gentiles, that I, the LORD, might be their God."

⁴⁶These are the precepts, decrees and laws which the LORD had Moses promulgate on Mount Sinai in the pact between himself and the Israelites.

27The LORD said to Moses,

²"Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When anyone fulfills a vow of offering one or more persons to the LORD, who are to be ransomed at a fixed sum of money,

³for persons between the ages of twenty and sixty, the fixed sum, in sanctuary shekels, shall be fifty silver shekels for a man,

⁴and thirty shekels for a woman;

⁵for persons between the ages of five and twenty, the fixed sum shall be twenty shekels for a youth, and ten for a maiden;

⁶for persons between the ages of one month and five years, the fixed sum shall be five silver shekels for a boy, and three for a girl;

⁷for persons of sixty or more, the fixed sum shall be fifteen shekels for a man, and ten for a woman.

⁸However, if the one who took the vow is too poor to meet the fixed sum, the person must be set before the priest, who shall determine the sum for his ransom in keeping with the means of the one who made the vow.

⁹"If the offering vowed to the LORD is an animal that may be sacrificed, every such animal, when vowed to the LORD, becomes sacred.

¹⁰The offerer shall not present a substitute for it by exchanging either a better for a worse one or a worse for a better one. If he attempts to offer one animal in place of another, both the original and its substitute shall be treated as sacred.

¹¹If the animal vowed to the LORD is unclean and therefore unfit for sacrifice, it must be set before the priest,

¹²who shall determine its value in keeping with its good or bad qualities, and the value set by the priest shall stand.

¹³If the offerer wishes to redeem the animal, he shall pay one fifth more than this valuation.

¹⁴"When someone dedicates his house as sacred to the LORD, the priest shall determine its value in keeping with its good or bad points, and the value set by the priest shall stand.

¹⁵If the one who dedicated his house wishes to redeem it, he shall pay one fifth more than the price thus established, and then it will again be his.

¹⁶"If the object which someone dedicates to the LORD is a piece of his hereditary land, its valuation shall be made according to the amount of seed required to sow it, the acreage sown with a homer of barley seed being valued at fifty silver shekels.

¹⁷If the dedication of a field is made at the beginning of a jubilee period, the full valuation shall hold;

¹⁸but if it is some time after this, the priest shall estimate its money value according to the number of years left until the next jubilee year, with a corresponding rebate on the valuation.

¹⁹If the one who dedicated his field wishes to redeem it, he shall pay one fifth more than the price thus established, and so reclaim it.

²⁰If, instead of redeeming such a field, he sells it to someone else, it may no longer be redeemed;

²¹but at the jubilee it shall be released as sacred to the LORD; like a field that is doomed, it shall become priestly property.

²²"If the field that some man dedicates to the LORD is one he had purchased and not a part of his hereditary property,

²³the priest shall compute its value in proportion to the number of years until the next jubilee, and on the same day the price thus established shall be given as sacred to the LORD;

²⁴at the jubilee, however, the field shall revert to the hereditary owner of this land from whom it had been purchased.

²⁵"Every valuation shall be made according to the standard of the sanctuary shekel. There are twenty gerahs to the shekel.

²⁶"Note that a first-born animal, which as such already belongs to the LORD, may not be dedicated by vow to him. If it is an ox or a sheep, it shall be ceded to the LORD;

²⁷but if it is an unclean animal, it may be redeemed by paying one fifth more than its fixed value. If it is not redeemed, it shall be sold at its fixed value.

²⁸"Note, also, that any one of his possessions which a man vows as doomed to the LORD, whether it is a human being or an animal or a hereditary field, shall be neither sold nor ransomed; everything that is thus doomed becomes most sacred to the LORD.

²⁹All human beings that are doomed lose the right to be redeemed; they must be put to death.

³⁰"All tithes of the land, whether in grain from the fields or in fruit from the trees, belong to the LORD, as sacred to him.

³¹If someone wishes to buy back any of his tithes, he shall pay one fifth more than their value.

³²The tithes of the herd and the flock shall be determined by ceding to the LORD as sacred every tenth animal as they are counted by the herdsman's rod.

³³It shall not matter whether good ones or bad ones are thus chosen, and no exchange may be made. If any exchange is attempted, both the original animal and its substitute shall be treated as sacred, without the right of being bought back."

³⁴These are the commandments which the LORD gave Moses on Mount Sinai for the Israelites.

1In the year following that of the Israelites' departure from the land of Egypt, on the first day of the second month, the LORD said to Moses in the meeting tent in the desert of Sinai:

²"Take a census of the whole community of the Israelites, by clans and ancestral houses, registering each male individually.

³You and Aaron shall enroll in companies all the men in Israel of twenty years or more who are fit for military service.

⁴"To assist you there shall be a man from each tribe, the head of his ancestral house.

⁵These are the names of those who are to assist you: from Reuben: Elizur, son of Shedeur;

⁶from Simeon: Shelumiel, son of Zurishaddai;

⁷from Judah: Nahshon, son of Amminadab;

⁸from Issachar: Nethanel, son of Zuar;

⁹from Zebulun: Eliab, son of Helon;

¹⁰from Ephraim: Elishama, son of Ammihud, and from Manasseh: Gamaliel, son of Pedahzur, for the descendants of Joseph;

¹¹from Benjamin: Abidan, son of Gideoni;

¹²from Dan: Ahiezer, son of Ammishaddai;

¹³from Asher: Pagiel, son of Ochran;

¹⁴from Gad: Eliasaph, son of Reuel;

¹⁵from Naphtali: Ahira, son of Enan."

¹⁶These were councilors of the community, princes of their ancestral tribes, chiefs of the troops of Israel.

¹⁷So Moses and Aaron took these men who had been designated,

¹⁸and assembled the whole community on the first day of the second month. Every man of twenty years or more then declared his name and lineage according to clan and ancestral house,

¹⁹as the LORD had commanded Moses. This is their census as taken in the desert of Sinai.

²⁰Of the descendants of Reuben, the first-born of Israel, registered by lineage in clans and ancestral houses: when all the males of twenty years or more who were fit for military service were polled,

²¹forty-six thousand five hundred were enrolled in the tribe of Reuben.

²²Of the descendants of Simeon, registered by lineage in clans and ancestral houses: when all the males of twenty years or more who were fit for military service were polled,

²³fifty-nine thousand three hundred were enrolled in the tribe of Simeon.

²⁴Of the descendants of Gad, registered by lineage in clans and ancestral houses: when all the males of twenty years or more who were fit for military service were polled,

²⁵forty-five thousand six hundred and fifty were enrolled in the tribe of Gad.

²⁶Of the descendants of Judah, registered by lineage in clans and ancestral houses: when all the males of twenty years or more who were fit for military service were polled,

²⁷seventy-four thousand six hundred were enrolled in the tribe of Judah.

²⁸Of the descendants of Issachar, registered by lineage in clans and ancestral houses: when all the males of twenty years or more who were fit for military service were polled,

²⁹fifty-four thousand four hundred were enrolled in the tribe of Issachar.

³⁰Of the descendants of Zebulun, registered by lineage in clans and ancestral houses: when all the males of twenty years or more who were fit for military service were polled,

³¹fifty-seven thousand four hundred were enrolled in the tribe of Zebulun.

³²Of the descendants of Joseph-Of the descendants of Ephraim, registered by lineage in clans and ancestral houses: when all the males of twenty years or more who were fit for military service were polled,

³³forty thousand five hundred were enrolled in the tribe of Ephraim.

³⁴Of the descendants of Manasseh, registered by lineage in clans and ancestral houses: when all the males of twenty years or more who were fit for military service were polled,

³⁵thirty-two thousand two hundred were enrolled in the tribe of Manasseh.

³⁶Of the descendants of Benjamin, registered by lineage in clans and ancestral houses: when all the males of twenty years or more who were fit for military service were polled,

³⁷thirty-five thousand four hundred were enrolled in the tribe of Benjamin.

³⁸Of the descendants of Dan, registered by lineage in clans and ancestral houses: when all the males of twenty years or more who were fit for military service were polled,

³⁹sixty-two thousand seven hundred were enrolled in the tribe of Dan.

⁴⁰Of the descendants of Asher, registered by lineage in clans and ancestral houses: when all the males of twenty years or more who were fit for military service were polled,

⁴¹forty-one thousand five hundred were enrolled in the tribe of Asher.

⁴²Of the descendants of Naphtali, registered by lineage in clans and ancestral houses: when all the males of twenty years or more who were fit for military service were polled,

⁴³fifty-three thousand four hundred were enrolled in the tribe of Naphtali.

⁴⁴It was these who were registered, each according to his ancestral house, in the census taken by Moses and Aaron and the twelve princes of Israel.

⁴⁵The total number of the Israelites of twenty years or more who were fit for military service, registered by ancestral houses,

⁴⁶was six hundred and three thousand, five hundred and fifty.

⁴⁷The Levites, however, were not registered by ancestral tribe with the others.

⁴⁸For the LORD had told Moses,

⁴⁹"The tribe of Levi alone you shall not enroll nor include in the census along with the other Israelites.

⁵⁰You are to give the Levites charge of the Dwelling of the commandments with all its equipment and all that belongs to it. It is they who shall carry the Dwelling with all its equipment and who shall be its ministers. They shall therefore camp around the Dwelling.

⁵¹When the Dwelling is to move on, the Levites shall take it down; when the Dwelling is to be pitched, it is the Levites who shall set it up. Any layman who comes near it shall be put to death.

⁵²While the other Israelites shall camp by companies, each in his own division of the camp,

⁵³the Levites shall camp around the Dwelling of the commandments. Otherwise God's wrath will strike the Israelite community. The Levites, then, shall have charge of the Dwelling of the commandments."

⁵⁴All this the Israelites fulfilled as the LORD had commanded Moses.

2The LORD said to Moses and Aaron:

²"The Israelites shall camp, each in his own division, under the ensigns of their ancestral houses. They shall camp around the meeting tent, but at some distance from it.

³"Encamped on the east side, toward the sunrise, shall be the divisional camp of Judah, arranged in companies. (The prince of the Judahites was Nahshon, son of Amminadab,

⁴and his soldiers amounted in the census to seventy-four thousand six hundred.)

⁵With Judah shall camp the tribe of Issachar (Their prince was Nethanel, son of Zuar,

⁶and his soldiers amounted in the census to fifty-four thousand four hundred.)

⁷and the tribe of Zebulun. (Their prince was Eliab, son of Helon,

⁸and his soldiers amounted in the census to fifty-seven thousand four hundred.

⁹The total number of those registered by companies in the camp of Judah was one hundred and eighty-six thousand four hundred.) These shall be first on the march.

¹⁰"On the south side shall be the divisional camp of Reuben, arranged in companies. (Their prince was Elizur, son of Shedeur,

¹¹and his soldiers amounted in the census to forty-six thousand five hundred.)

¹²Beside them shall camp the tribe of Simeon (Their prince was Shelumiel, son of Zurishaddai,

¹³and his soldiers amounted in the census to fifty-nine thousand three hundred.)

¹⁴and next the tribe of Gad. (Their prince was Eliasaph, son of Reuel,

¹⁵and his soldiers amounted in the census to forty-five thousand six hundred and fifty.

¹⁶The total number of those registered by companies in the camp of Reuben was one hundred and fifty-one thousand four hundred and fifty.) These shall be second on the march.

¹⁷"Then the meeting tent and the camp of the Levites shall set out in the middle of the line. As in camp, so also on the march, every man shall be in his proper place, with his own division.

¹⁸"On the west side shall be the divisional camp of Ephraim, arranged in companies. (Their prince was Elishama, son of Ammihud,

¹⁹and his soldiers amounted in the census to forty thousand five hundred.)

²⁰Beside them shall camp the tribe of Manasseh (Their prince was Gamaliel, son of Pedahzur,

²¹and his soldiers amounted in the census to thirty-two thousand two hundred.)

²²and the tribe of Benjamin. (Their prince was Abidan, son of Gideoni,

²³and his soldiers amounted in the census to thirty-five thousand four hundred.

²⁴The total number of those registered by companies in the camp of Ephraim was one hundred and eight thousand one hundred.) These shall be third on the march.

²⁵"On the north side shall be the divisional camp of Dan, arranged in companies. (Their prince was Ahiezer, son of Ammishaddai,

²⁶and his soldiers amounted in the census to sixty-two thousand seven hundred.)

²⁷Beside them shall camp the tribe of Asher (Their prince was Pagiel, son of Ochran,

²⁸and his soldiers amounted in the census to forty-one thousand five hundred.)

²⁹and next the tribe of Naphtali. (Their prince was Ahira, son of Enan,

³⁰and his soldiers amounted in the census to fifty-three thousand four hundred.

³¹The total number of those registered by companies in the camp of Dan was one hundred and fifty-seven thousand six hundred.) These shall be the last of the divisions on the march."

³²This was the census of the Israelites taken by ancestral houses. The total number of those registered by companies in the camps was six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty.

³³The Levites, however, were not registered with the other Israelites, for so the LORD had commanded Moses.

³⁴The Israelites did just as the LORD had commanded Moses; both in camp and on the march they were in their own divisions, every man according to his clan and his ancestral house.

3The following were the descendants of Aaron and Moses at the time that the LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai.

²The sons of Aaron were Nadab his first-born, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.

³These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the anointed priests who were ordained to exercise the priesthood.

⁴But when Nadab and Abihu offered profane fire before the LORD in the desert of Sinai, they met death in the presence of the LORD, and left no sons. Thereafter only Eleazar and Ithamar performed the priestly functions under the direction of their father Aaron.

⁵Now the LORD said to Moses:

⁶"Summon the tribe of Levi and present them to Aaron the priest, as his assistants.

⁷They shall discharge his obligations and those of the whole community before the meeting tent by serving at the Dwelling.

⁸They shall have custody of all the furnishings of the meeting tent and discharge the duties of the Israelites in the service of the Dwelling.

⁹You shall give the Levites to Aaron and his sons; they have been set aside from among the Israelites as dedicated to me.

¹⁰But only Aaron and his descendants shall you appoint to have charge of the priestly functions. Any layman who comes near shall be put to death."

¹¹The LORD said to Moses,

¹²"It is I who have chosen the Levites from the Israelites in place of every first-born that opens the womb among the Israelites. The Levites, therefore, are mine,

¹³because every first-born is mine. When I slew all the first-born in the land of Egypt, I made all the first-born in Israel sacred to me, both of man and of beast. They belong to me; I am the LORD."

¹⁴The LORD said to Moses in the desert of Sinai,

¹⁵"Take a census of the Levites by ancestral houses and clans, registering every male of a month or more."

¹⁶Moses, therefore, took their census in accordance with the command the LORD had given him.

¹⁷The sons of Levi were named Gershon, Kohath and Merari.

¹⁸The descendants of Gershon, by clans, were named Libni and Shimei.

¹⁹The descendants of Kohath, by clans, were Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel.

²⁰The descendants of Merari, by clans, were Mahli and Mushi. These were the clans of the Levites by ancestral houses.

²¹To Gershon belonged the clan of the Libnites and the clan of the Shimeites; these were the clans of the Gershonites.

²²When all their males of a month or more were registered, they numbered seven thousand five hundred.

²³The clans of the Gershonites camped behind the Dwelling, to the west.

²⁴The prince of their ancestral house was Eliasaph, son of Lael.

²⁵At the meeting tent they had charge of whatever pertained to the Dwelling, the tent and its covering, the curtain at the entrance of the meeting tent,

²⁶the hangings of the court, the curtain at the entrance of the court enclosing both the Dwelling and the altar, and the ropes.

²⁷To Kohath belonged the clans of the Amramites, the Izharites, the Hebronites, and the Uzzielites; these were the clans of the Kohathites.

²⁸When all their males of a month or more were registered, they numbered eight thousand three hundred. They had charge of the sanctuary.

²⁹The clans of the Kohathites camped at the south side of the Dwelling.

³⁰The prince of their ancestral house was Elizaphan, son of Uzziel.

³¹They had charge of whatever pertained to the ark, the table, the lampstand, the altars, the utensils with which the ministry of the sanctuary was exercised, and the veil.

³²The chief prince of the Levites, however, was Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest; he was supervisor over those who had charge of the sanctuary.

³³To Merari belonged the clans of the Mahlites and the Mushites; these were the clans of Merari.

³⁴When all their males of a month or more were registered, they numbered six thousand two hundred.

³⁵The prince of the ancestral house of the clans of Merari was Zuriel, son of Abihail. They camped at the north side of the Dwelling.

³⁶The Merarites were charged with the care of whatever pertained to the boards of the Dwelling, its bars, columns, pedestals, and all its fittings,

³⁷as well as the columns of the surrounding court with their pedestals, pegs and ropes.

³⁸East of the Dwelling, that is, in front of the meeting tent, toward the sunrise, were camped Moses and Aaron and the latter's sons. They discharged the obligations of the sanctuary for the Israelites. Any layman who came near was to be put to death.

³⁹The total number of male Levites a month old or more whom Moses had registered by clans in keeping with the LORD'S command, was twenty-two thousand.

⁴⁰The LORD then said to Moses, "Take a census of all the first-born males of the Israelites a month old or more, and compute their total number.

⁴¹Then assign the Levites to me, the LORD, in place of all the first-born of the Israelites, as well as their cattle in place of all the first-born among the cattle of the Israelites."

⁴²So Moses took a census of all the first-born of the Israelites, as the LORD had commanded him.

⁴³When all the first-born males of a month or more were registered, they numbered twenty-two thousand two hundred and seventy-three.

⁴⁴The LORD said to Moses:

⁴⁵"Take the Levites in place of all the first-born of the Israelites, and the Levites' cattle in place of their cattle, that the Levites may belong to me. I am the LORD.

⁴⁶As ransom for the two hundred and seventy-three first-born of the Israelites who outnumber the Levites,

⁴⁷you shall take five shekels for each individual, according to the standard of the sanctuary shekel, twenty gerahs to the shekel.

⁴⁸Give this silver to Aaron and his sons as ransom for the extra number."

⁴⁹So Moses took the silver as ransom from those who were left when the rest had been redeemed by the Levites.

⁵⁰From the first-born of the Israelites he received in silver one thousand three hundred and sixty-five shekels according to the sanctuary standard.

⁵¹He then gave this ransom silver to Aaron and his sons, as the LORD had commanded him.

4The LORD said to Moses and Aaron:

²"Among the Levites take a total of the Kohathites, by clans and ancestral houses, all the men of the Kohathites

³between thirty and fifty years of age; these are to undertake obligatory tasks in the meeting tent.

⁴"The service of the Kohathites in the meeting tent concerns the most sacred objects.

⁵In breaking camp, Aaron and his sons shall go in and take down the screening curtain and cover the ark of the commandments with it.

⁶Over these they shall put a cover of tahash skin, and on top of this spread an all-violet cloth. They shall then put the poles in place.

⁷On the table of the Presence they shall spread a violet cloth and put on it the plates and cups, as well as the bowls and pitchers for libations; the established bread offering shall remain on the table.

⁸Over these they shall spread a scarlet cloth and cover all this with tahash skin. They shall then put the poles in place.

⁹They shall use a violet cloth to cover the lampstand with its lamps, trimming shears, and trays, as well as the various containers of oil from which it is supplied.

¹⁰The lampstand with all its utensils they shall then enclose in a covering of tahash skin, and place on a litter.

¹¹Over the golden altar they shall spread a violet cloth, and cover this also with a covering of tahash skin. They shall then put the poles in place.

¹²Taking the utensils of the sanctuary service, they shall wrap them all in violet cloth and cover them with tahash skin. They shall then place them on a litter.

¹³After cleansing the altar of its ashes, they shall spread a purple cloth over it.

¹⁴On this they shall put all the utensils with which it is served: the fire pans, forks, shovels, basins, and all the utensils of the altar. They shall then spread a covering of tahash skin over this, and put the poles in place.

¹⁵"Only after Aaron and his sons have finished covering the sacred objects and all their utensils on breaking camp, shall the Kohathites enter to carry them. But they shall not touch the sacred objects; if they do they will die. These, then, are the objects in the meeting tent that the Kohathites shall carry.

¹⁶"Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, shall be in charge of the oil for the light, the fragrant incense, the established cereal offering, and the anointing oil. He shall be in charge of the whole Dwelling with all the sacred objects and utensils that are in it."

¹⁷The LORD said to Moses and Aaron:

¹⁸"Do not let the group of Kohathite clans perish from the body of the Levites.

¹⁹That they may live and not die when they approach the most sacred objects, this is what you shall do for them: Aaron and his sons shall go in and assign to each of them his task and what he must carry;

²⁰but the Kohathites shall not go in to look upon the sacred objects, even for an instant; if they do, they will die."

²¹The LORD said to Moses,

²²"Take a total among the Gershonites also, by ancestral houses and clans,

²³of all the men between thirty and fifty years of age; these are to undertake obligatory tasks in the meeting tent.

²⁴This is the task of the clans of the Gershonites, what they must do and what they must carry:

²⁵they shall carry the sheets of the Dwelling, the meeting tent with its covering and the outer wrapping of tahash skin, the curtain at the entrance of the meeting tent,

²⁶the hangings of the court, the curtain at the entrance of the court that encloses both the Dwelling and the altar, together with their ropes and all other objects necessary in their use. Whatever is to be done with these things shall be their task.

²⁷The service of the Gershonites shall be entirely under the direction of Aaron and his sons, with regard to what they must do and what they must carry; you shall make each man of them responsible for what he is to carry.

²⁸This, then, is the task of the Gershonites in the meeting tent; and they shall be under the supervision of Ithamar, son of Aaron the priest.

²⁹"Among the Merarites, too, you shall enroll by clans and ancestral houses

³⁰all their men between thirty and fifty years of age; these are to undertake obligatory tasks in the meeting tent.

³¹This is what they shall be responsible for carrying, all the years of their service in the meeting tent: the boards of the Dwelling with its bars, columns and pedestals,

³²and the columns of the surrounding court with their pedestals, pegs and ropes. You shall designate for each man of them all the objects connected with his service, which he shall be responsible for carrying.

³³This, then, is the task of the clans of the Merarites during all their service in the meeting tent under the supervision of Ithamar, son of Aaron the priest."

³⁴So Moses and Aaron and the princes of the community made a registration among the Kohathites, by clans and ancestral houses,

³⁵of all the men between thirty and fifty years of age. These were to undertake obligatory tasks in the meeting tent;

³⁶as registered by clans, they numbered two thousand seven hundred and fifty.

³⁷Such was the census of all the men of the Kohathite clans who were to serve in the meeting tent, which Moses took, together with Aaron, as the LORD bade him.

³⁸The registration was then made among the Gershonites, by clans and ancestral houses,

³⁹of all the men between thirty and fifty years of age. These were to undertake obligatory tasks in the meeting tent;

⁴⁰as registered by clans and ancestral houses, they numbered two thousand six hundred and thirty.

⁴¹Such was the census of all the men of the Gershonite clans who were to serve in the meeting tent, which Moses took, together with Aaron, at the LORD'S bidding.

⁴²Then the registration was made among the Merarites, by clans and ancestral houses,

⁴³of all the men from thirty up to fifty years of age. These were to undertake obligatory tasks in the meeting tent;

⁴⁴as registered by clans, they numbered three thousand two hundred.

⁴⁵Such was the census of the men of the Merarite clans which Moses took, together with Aaron, as the LORD bade him.

⁴⁶Therefore, when Moses and Aaron and the Israelites princes had completed the registration among the Levites, by clans and ancestral houses,

⁴⁷of all the men between thirty and fifty years of age who were to undertake tasks of service or transport of the meeting tent,

⁴⁸the total number registered was eight thousand five hundred and eighty.

⁴⁹According to the LORD'S bidding to Moses, they gave them their individual assignments for service and for transport; so the LORD had commanded Moses.

5The LORD said to Moses:

²"Order the Israelites to expel from camp every leper, and everyone suffering from a discharge, and everyone who has become unclean by contact with a corpse.

³Male and female alike, you shall compel them to go out of the camp; they are not to defile the camp in which I dwell."

⁴The Israelites obeyed the command that the LORD had given Moses; they expelled them from the camp.

⁵The LORD said to Moses,

⁶"Tell the Israelites: If a man (or a woman) commits a fault against his fellow man and wrongs him, thus breaking faith with the LORD,

⁷he shall confess the wrong he has done, restore his ill-gotten goods in full, and in addition give one fifth of their value to the one he has wronged.

⁸However, if the latter has no next of kin to whom restoration of the ill-gotten goods can be made, the goods to be restored shall be the LORD'S and shall fall to the priest; this is apart from the atonement ram with which the priest makes amends for the guilty man.

⁹Likewise, every sacred contribution that the Israelites are bound to make shall fall to the priest.

¹⁰Each Israelite man may dispose of his own sacred contributions; they become the property of the priest to whom he gives them."

¹¹The LORD said to Moses,

¹²"Speak to the Israelites and tell them: If a man's wife goes astray and becomes unfaithful to him

¹³by having intercourse with another man, though her husband has not sufficient evidence of the fact, so that her impurity remains unproved for lack of a witness who might have caught her in the act;

¹⁴or if a man is overcome by a feeling of jealousy that makes him suspect his wife, whether she was actually impure or not:

¹⁵he shall bring his wife to the priest and shall take along as an offering for her a tenth of an ephah of barley meal. However, he shall not pour oil on it nor put frankincense over it, since it is a cereal offering of jealousy, a cereal offering for an appeal in a question of guilt.

¹⁶"The priest shall first have the woman come forward and stand before the LORD.

¹⁷In an earthen vessel he shall meanwhile put some holy water, as well as some dust that he has taken from the floor of the Dwelling.

¹⁸Then, as the woman stands before the LORD, the priest shall uncover her head and place in her hands the cereal offering of her appeal, that is, the cereal offering of jealousy, while he himself shall hold the bitter water that brings a curse.

¹⁹Then he shall adjure the woman, saying to her, 'If no other man has had intercourse with you, and you have not gone astray by impurity while under the authority of your husband, be immune to the curse brought by this bitter water.

²⁰But if you have gone astray while under the authority of your husband and have acted impurely by letting a man other than your husband have intercourse with you'--

²¹so shall the priest adjure the woman with this oath of imprecation--'may the LORD make you an example of malediction and imprecation among your people by causing your thighs to waste away and your belly to swell!

²²May this water, then, that brings a curse, enter your body to make your belly swell and your thighs waste away!' And the woman shall say, 'Amen, amen!'

²³The priest shall put these imprecations in writing and shall then wash them off into the bitter water,

²⁴which he is to have the woman drink, so that it may go into her with all its bitter curse.

²⁵But first he shall take the cereal offering of jealousy from the woman's hand, and having waved this offering before the LORD, shall put it near the altar,

²⁶where he shall take a handful of the cereal offering as its token offering and burn it on the altar. Only then shall he have the woman drink the water.

²⁷Once she has done so, if she has been impure and unfaithful to her husband, this bitter water that brings a curse will go into her, and her belly will swell and her thighs will waste away, so that she will become an example of imprecation among her people.

²⁸If, however, the woman has not defiled herself, but is still pure, she will be immune and will still be able to bear children.

²⁹"This, then, is the law for jealousy: When a woman goes astray while under the authority of her husband and acts impurely,

³⁰or when such a feeling of jealousy comes over a man that he becomes suspicious of his wife, he shall have her stand before the LORD, and the priest shall apply this law in full to her.

³¹The man shall be free from guilt, but the woman shall bear such guilt as she may have."

6The LORD said to Moses:

²"Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When a man (or a woman) solemnly takes the nazirite vow to dedicate himself to the LORD,

³he shall abstain from wine and strong drink; he may neither drink wine vinegar, other vinegar, of any kind of grape juice, nor eat either fresh or dried grapes.

⁴As long as he is a nazirite he shall not eat anything of the produce of the vine; not even unripe grapes or grapeskins.

⁵While he is under the nazirite vow, no razor shall touch his hair. Until the period of his dedication to the LORD is over, he shall be sacred, and shall let the hair of his head grow freely.

⁶As long as he is dedicated to the LORD, he shall not enter where a dead person is.

⁷Not even for his father or mother, his sister or brother, should they die, may he become unclean, since his head bears his dedication to God.

⁸As long as he is a nazirite he is sacred to the LORD.

⁹"If someone dies very suddenly in his presence, so that his dedicated head becomes unclean, he shall shave his head on the day of his purification, that is, on the seventh day.

¹⁰On the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two pigeons to the priest at the entrance of the meeting tent.

¹¹The priest shall offer up the one as a sin offering and the other as a holocaust, thus making atonement for him for the sin he has committed by reason of the dead person. On the same day he shall reconsecrate his head

¹²and begin anew the period of his dedication to the LORD as a nazirite, bringing a yearling lamb as a guilt offering. The previous period is not valid, because his dedicated head became unclean.

¹³"This is the ritual for the nazirite: On the day he completes the period of his dedication he shall go to the entrance of the meeting tent,

¹⁴bringing as his offering to the LORD one unblemished yearling lamb for a holocaust, one unblemished yearling ewe lamb for a sin offering, one unblemished ram as a peace offering, along with their cereal offerings and libations,

¹⁵and a basket of unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil and of unleavened wafers spread with oil.

¹⁶The priest shall present them before the LORD, and shall offer up the sin offering and the holocaust for him.

¹⁷He shall then offer up the ram as a peace offering to the LORD, with its cereal offering and libation, and the basket of unleavened cakes.

¹⁸Then at the entrance of the meeting tent the nazirite shall shave his dedicated head, collect the hair, and put it in the fire that is under the peace offering.

¹⁹After the nazirite has shaved off his dedicated hair, the priest shall take a boiled shoulder of the ram, as well as one unleavened cake and one unleavened wafer from the basket, and shall place them in the hands of the nazirite.

²⁰The priest shall then wave them as a wave offering before the LORD. They become sacred and shall belong to the priest, along with the breast of the wave offering and the leg of the raised offering. Only after this may the nazirite drink wine.

²¹"This, then, is the law for the nazirite; this is the offering to the LORD which is included in his vow of dedication apart from anything else which his means may allow. Thus shall he carry out the law of his dedication in keeping with the vow he has taken."

²²The LORD said to Moses:

²³"Speak to Aaron and his sons and tell them: This is how you shall bless the Israelites. Say to them:

²⁴The LORD bless you and keep you!

²⁵The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you!

²⁶The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!

²⁷So shall they invoke my name upon the Israelites, and I will bless them."

7Now, when Moses had completed the erection of the Dwelling and had anointed and consecrated it with all its equipment (as well as the altar with all its equipment),

²an offering was made by the princes of Israel, who were heads of ancestral houses; the same princes of the tribes who supervised the census.

³The offering they brought before the LORD consisted of six baggage wagons and twelve oxen, that is, a wagon for every two princes, and an ox for every prince. These they presented as their offering before the Dwelling.

⁴The LORD then said to Moses,

⁵"Accept their offering, that these things may be put to use in the service of the meeting tent. Assign them to the Levites, to each group in proportion to its duties."

⁶So Moses accepted the wagons and oxen, and assigned them to the Levites.

⁷He gave two wagons and four oxen to the Gershonites in proportion to their duties,

⁸and four wagons and eight oxen to the Merarites in proportion to their duties, under the supervision of Ithamar, son of Aaron the priest.

⁹He gave none to the Kohathites, because they had to carry on their shoulders the sacred objects which were their charge.

¹⁰For the dedication of the altar also, the princes brought offerings before the altar on the day it was anointed.

¹¹But the LORD said to Moses, "Let one prince a day present his offering for the dedication of the altar."

¹²The one who presented his offering on the first day was Nahshon, son of Amminadab, prince of the tribe of Judah.

¹³His offering consisted of one silver plate weighing a hundred and thirty shekels according to the sanctuary standard and one silver basin weighing seventy shekels, both filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a cereal offering;

¹⁴one gold cup of ten shekels' weight filled with incense;

¹⁵one young bull, one ram, and one yearling lamb for a holocaust;

¹⁶one goat for a sin offering;

¹⁷and two oxen, five rams, five goats, and five yearling lambs for a peace offering. This was the offering of Nahshon, son of Amminadab.

¹⁸On the second day Nethanel, son of Zuar, prince of Issachar, made his offering.

¹⁹He presented as his offering one silver plate weighing a hundred and thirty shekels according to the sanctuary standard and one silver basin weighing seventy shekels, both filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a cereal offering;

²⁰one gold cup of ten shekels' weight filled with incense;

²¹one young bull, one ram, and one yearling lamb for a holocaust;

²²one goat for a sin offering;

²³and two oxen, five rams, five goats, and five yearling lambs for a peace offering. This was the offering of Nethanel, son of Zuar.

²⁴On the third day it was the turn of Eliab, son of Helon, prince of the Zebulunites.

²⁵His offering consisted of one silver plate weighing a hundred and thirty shekels according to the sanctuary standard and one silver basin weighing seventy shekels, both filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a cereal offering;

²⁶one gold cup of ten shekels' weight filled with incense;

²⁷one young bull, one ram, and one yearling lamb for a holocaust;

²⁸one goat for a sin offering;

²⁹and two oxen, five rams, five goats, and five yearling lambs for a peace offering. This was the offering of Eliab, son of Helon.

³⁰On the fourth day it was the turn of Elizur, son of Shedeur, prince of the Reubenites.

³¹His offering consisted of one silver plate weighing a hundred and thirty shekels according to the sanctuary standard and one silver basin weighing seventy shekels, both filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a cereal offering;

³²one gold cup of ten shekels' weight filled with incense;

³³one young bull, one ram, and one yearling lamb for a holocaust;

³⁴one goat for a sin offering;

³⁵and two oxen, five rams, five goats, and five yearling lambs for a peace offering. This was the offering of Elizur, son of Shedeur.

³⁶On the fifth day it was the turn of Shelumiel, son of Zurishaddai, prince of the Simeonites.

³⁷His offering consisted of one silver plate weighing a hundred and thirty shekels according to the sanctuary standard and one silver basin weighing seventy shekels, both filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a cereal offering;

³⁸one gold cup of ten shekels' weight filled with incense;

³⁹one young bull, one ram, and one yearling lamb for a holocaust;

⁴⁰one goat for a sin offering;

⁴¹and two oxen, five rams, five goats, and five yearling lambs for a peace offering. This was the offering of Shelumiel, son of Zurishaddai.

⁴²On the sixth day it was the turn of Eliasaph, son of Reuel, prince of the Gadites.

⁴³His offering consisted of one silver plate weighing a hundred and thirty shekels according to the sanctuary standard and one silver basin weighing seventy shekels, both filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a cereal offering;

⁴⁴one gold cup of ten shekels' weight filled with incense;

⁴⁵one young bull, one ram, and one yearling lamb for a holocaust;

⁴⁶one goat for a sin offering;

⁴⁷and two oxen, five rams, five goats, and five yearling lambs for a peace offering. This was the offering of Eliasaph, son of Reuel.

⁴⁸On the seventh day it was the turn of Elishama, son of Ammihud, prince of the Ephraimites.

⁴⁹His offering consisted of one silver plate weighing a hundred and thirty shekels according to the sanctuary standard and one silver basin weighing seventy shekels, both filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a cereal offering;

⁵⁰one gold cup of ten shekels' weight filled with incense;

⁵¹one young bull, one ram, and one yearling lamb for a holocaust;

⁵²one goat for a sin offering;

⁵³and two oxen, five rams, five goats, and five yearling lambs for a peace offering. This was the offering of Elishama, son of Ammihud.

⁵⁴On the eighth day it was the turn of Gamaliel, son of Pedahzur, prince of the Manassehites.

⁵⁵His offering consisted of one silver plate weighing a hundred and thirty shekels according to the sanctuary standard and one silver basin weighing seventy shekels, both filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a cereal offering;

⁵⁶one gold cup of ten shekels' weight filled with incense;

⁵⁷one young bull, one ram, and one yearling lamb for a holocaust;

⁵⁸one goat for a sin offering;

⁵⁹and two oxen, five rams, five goats, and five yearling lambs for a peace offering. This was the offering of Gamaliel, son of Pedahzur.

⁶⁰On the ninth day it was the turn of Abidan, son of Gideoni, prince of the Benjaminites.

⁶¹His offering consisted of one silver plate weighing a hundred and thirty shekels according to the sanctuary standard and one silver basin weighing seventy shekels, both filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a cereal offering;

⁶²one gold cup of ten shekels' weight filled with incense;

⁶³one young bull, one ram, and one yearling lamb for a holocaust;

⁶⁴one goat for a sin offering;

⁶⁵and two oxen, five rams, five goats, and five yearling lambs for a peace offering. This was the offering of Abidan, son of Gideoni.

⁶⁶On the tenth day it was the turn of Ahiezer, son of Ammishaddai, prince of the Danites.

⁶⁷His offering consisted of one silver plate weighing a hundred and thirty shekels according to the sanctuary standard and one silver basin weighing seventy shekels, both filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a cereal offering;

⁶⁸one gold cup of ten shekels' weight filled with incense;

⁶⁹one young bull, one ram, and one yearling lamb for a holocaust;

⁷⁰one goat for a sin offering;

⁷¹and two oxen, five rams, five goats, and five yearling lambs for a peace offering. This was the offering of Ahiezer, son of Ammishaddai.

⁷²On the eleventh day it was the turn of Pagiel, son of Ochran, prince of the Asherites.

⁷³His offering consisted of one silver plate weighing one hundred and thirty shekels according to the sanctuary standard and one silver basin weighing seventy shekels, both filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a cereal offering;

⁷⁴one gold cup of ten shekels' weight filled with incense;

⁷⁵one young bull, one ram, and one yearling lamb for a holocaust;

⁷⁶one goat for a sin offering;

⁷⁷and two oxen, five rams, five goats, and five yearling lambs for a peace offering. This was the offering of Pagiel, son of Ochran.

⁷⁸On the twelfth day it was the turn of Ahira, son of Enan, prince of the Naphtalites.

⁷⁹His offering consisted of one silver plate weighing a hundred and thirty shekels according to the sanctuary standard and one silver basin weighing seventy shekels, both filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a cereal offering;

⁸⁰one gold cup of ten shekels' weight filled with incense;

⁸¹one young bull, one ram, and one yearling lamb for a holocaust;

⁸²one goat for a sin offering;

⁸³and two oxen, five rams, five goats, and five yearling lambs for a peace offering. This was the offering of Ahira, son of Enan.

⁸⁴These were the offerings for the dedication of the altar, given by the princes of Israel on the occasion of its anointing: twelve silver plates, twelve silver basins, and twelve gold cups.

⁸⁵Each silver plate weighed a hundred and thirty shekels, and each silver basin seventy, so that all the silver of these vessels amounted to two thousand four hundred shekels, according to the sanctuary standard.

⁸⁶The twelve gold cups that were filled with incense weighed ten shekels apiece, according to the sanctuary standard, so that all the gold of the cups amounted to one hundred and twenty shekels.

⁸⁷The animals for the holocausts were, in all, twelve young bulls, twelve rams, and twelve yearling lambs, with their cereal offerings; those for the sin offerings were twelve goats.

⁸⁸The animals for the peace offerings were, in all, twenty-four oxen, sixty rams, sixty goats, and sixty yearling lambs. These, then, were the offerings for the dedication of the altar after it was anointed.

⁸⁹When Moses entered the meeting tent to speak with him, he heard the voice addressing him from above the propitiatory on the ark of the commandments, from between the two cherubim; and it spoke to him. . . .

8The LORD spoke to Moses, and said,

²"Give Aaron this command: When you set up the seven lamps, have them throw their light toward the front of the lampstand."

³Aaron did so, setting up the lamps to face toward the front of the lampstand, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

⁴The lampstand was made of beaten gold in both its shaft and its branches, according to the pattern which the LORD had shown Moses.

⁵The LORD said to Moses:

⁶"Take the Levites from among the Israelites and purify them.

⁷This is what you shall do to them to purify them. Sprinkle them with the water of remission; then have them shave their whole bodies and wash their clothes, and so purify themselves.

⁸They shall take a young bull, along with its cereal offering of fine flour mixed with oil; you shall take another young bull for a sin offering.

⁹Then have the Levites come forward in front of the meeting tent, where you shall assemble also the whole community of the Israelites.

¹⁰While the Levites are present before the LORD, the Israelites shall lay their hands upon them.

¹¹Let Aaron then offer the Levites before the LORD as a wave offering from the Israelites, thus devoting them to the service of the LORD.

¹²The Levites in turn shall lay their hands on the heads of the bullocks, which shall then be immolated, the one as a sin offering and the other as a holocaust to the LORD, in atonement for the Levites.

¹³Thus, then, shall you have the Levites stand before Aaron and his sons, to be offered as a wave offering to the LORD;

¹⁴and thus shall you set aside the Levites from the rest of the Israelites, that they may be mine.

¹⁵"Only then shall the Levites enter upon their service in the meeting tent. You shall purify them and offer them as a wave offering;

¹⁶because they, among the Israelites, are strictly dedicated to me; I have taken them for myself in place of every first-born that opens the womb among the Israelites.

¹⁷Indeed, all the first-born among the Israelites, both of man and of beast, belong to me; I consecrated them to myself on the day I slew all the first-born in the land of Egypt.

¹⁸But in place of all the first-born Israelites I have taken the Levites;

¹⁹and I have given these dedicated Israelites to Aaron and his sons to discharge the duties of the Israelites in the meeting tent and to make atonement for them, so that no plague may strike among the Israelites should they come near the sanctuary."

²⁰Thus, then, did Moses and Aaron and the whole community of the Israelites deal with the Levites, carrying out exactly the command which the LORD had given Moses concerning them.

²¹When the Levites had cleansed themselves of sin and washed their clothes, Aaron offered them as a wave offering before the LORD, and made atonement for them to purify them.

²²Only then did they enter upon their service in the meeting tent under the supervision of Aaron and his sons. The command which the LORD had given Moses concerning the Levites was carried out.

²³The LORD said to Moses:

²⁴"This is the rule for the Levites. Each from his twenty-fifth year onward shall perform the required service in the meeting tent.

²⁵When he is fifty years old, he shall retire from the required service and work no longer.

²⁶His service with his fellow Levites shall consist in sharing their responsibilities in the meeting tent, but he shall not do the work. This, then, is how you are to regulate the duties of the Levites."

9In the first month of the year following their departure from the land of Egypt, the Lord said to Moses in the desert of Sinai,

²"Tell the Israelites to celebrate the Passover at the prescribed time.

³The evening twilight of the fourteenth day of this month is the prescribed time when you shall celebrate it, observing all its rules and regulations."

⁴Moses, therefore, told the Israelites to celebrate the Passover.

⁵And they did so, celebrating the Passover in the desert of Sinai during the evening twilight of the fourteenth day of the first month, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

⁶There were some, however, who were unclean because of a human corpse and so could not keep the Passover that day. These men came up to Moses and Aaron that same day

⁷and said, "Although we are unclean because of a corpse, why should we be deprived of presenting the LORD'S offering at its proper time along with the other Israelites?"

⁸Moses answered them, "Wait until I learn what the LORD will command in your regard."

⁹The LORD then said to Moses:

¹⁰"Speak to the Israelites and say: If any one of you or of your descendants is unclean because of a corpse, or if he is absent on a journey, he may still keep the LORD'S Passover.

¹¹But he shall keep it in the second month, during the evening twilight of the fourteenth day of that month, eating it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs,

¹²and not leaving any of it over till morning, nor breaking any of its bones, but observing all the rules of the Passover.

¹³However, anyone who is clean and not away on a journey, who yet fails to keep the Passover, shall be cut off from his people, because he did not present the LORD'S offering at the prescribed time. That man shall bear the consequences of his sin.

¹⁴"If an alien who lives among you wishes to keep the LORD'S Passover, he too shall observe the rules and regulations for the Passover. You shall have the same law for the resident alien as for the native of the land."

¹⁵On the day when the Dwelling was erected, the cloud covered the Dwelling, the tent of the commandments; but from evening until morning it took on the appearance of fire over the Dwelling.

¹⁶It was always so: during the day the Dwelling was covered by the cloud, which at night had the appearance of fire.

¹⁷Whenever the cloud rose from the tent, the Israelites would break camp; wherever the cloud came to rest, they would pitch camp.

¹⁸At the bidding of the LORD the Israelites moved on, and at his bidding they encamped. As long as the cloud stayed over the Dwelling, they remained in camp.

¹⁹Even when the cloud tarried many days over the Dwelling, the Israelites obeyed the LORD and would not move on;

²⁰yet sometimes the cloud was over the Dwelling only for a few days. It was at the bidding of the LORD that they stayed in camp, and it was at his bidding that they departed.

²¹Sometimes the cloud remained there only from evening until morning; and when it rose in the morning, they would depart. Or if the cloud lifted during the day, or even at night, they would then set out.

²²Whether the cloud tarried over the Dwelling for two days or for a month or longer, the Israelites remained in camp and did not depart; but when it lifted, they moved on.

²³Thus, it was always at the bidding of the LORD that they encamped, and at his bidding that they set out; ever heeding the charge of the LORD, as he had bidden them through Moses.

10The LORD said to Moses:

²"Make two trumpets of beaten silver, which you shall use in assembling the community and in breaking camp.

³When both are blown, the whole community shall gather round you at the entrance of the meeting tent;

⁴but when one of them is blown, only the princes, the chiefs of the troops of Israel, shall gather round you.

⁵When you sound the first alarm, those encamped on the east side shall set out;

⁶when you sound the second alarm, those encamped on the south side shall set out; when you sound the third alarm, those encamped on the west side shall set out; when you sound the fourth alarm, those encamped on the north side shall set out. Thus shall the alarm be sounded for them to depart.

⁷But in calling forth an assembly you are to blow an ordinary blast, without sounding the alarm.

⁸"It is the sons of Aaron, the priests, who shall blow the trumpets; and the use of them is prescribed by perpetual statute for you and your descendants.

⁹When in your own land you go to war against an enemy that is attacking you, you shall sound the alarm on the trumpets, and the LORD, your God, will remember you and save you from your foes.

¹⁰On your days of celebration, your festivals, and your new-moon feasts, you shall blow the trumpets over your holocausts and your peace offerings; this will serve as a reminder of you before your God. I, the LORD, am your God."

¹¹In the second year, on the twentieth day of the second month, the cloud rose from the Dwelling of the commandments.

¹²The Israelites moved on from the desert of Sinai by stages, until the cloud came to rest in the desert of Paran.

¹³The first time that they broke camp at the bidding of the LORD through Moses,

¹⁴the camp of the Judahites, under its own standard and arranged in companies, was the first to set out. Nahshon, son of Amminadab, was over their host,

¹⁵and Nethanel, son of Zuar, over the host of the tribe of Issachar,

¹⁶and Eliab, son of Helon, over the host of the tribe of Zebulun.

¹⁷Then, after the Dwelling was dismantled, the clans of Gershon and Merari set out, carrying the Dwelling.

¹⁸The camp of the Reubenites, under its own standard and arranged in companies, was the next to set out, with Elizur, son of Shedeur, over their host,

¹⁹and Shelumiel, son of Zurishaddai, over the host of the tribe of Simeon,

²⁰and Eliasaph, son of Reuel, over the host of the tribe of Gad.

²¹The clan of Kohath then set out, carrying the sacred objects for the Dwelling, which was to be erected before their arrival.

²²The camp of the Ephraimites next set out, under its own standard and arranged in companies, with Elishama, son of Ammihud, over their host,

²³and Gamaliel, son of Pedahzur, over the host of the tribe of Manasseh,

²⁴and Abidan, son of Gideoni, over the host of the tribe of Benjamin.

²⁵Finally, as rear guard for all the camps, the camp of the Danites set out, under its own standard and arranged in companies, with Ahiezer, son of Ammishaddai, over their host,

²⁶and Pagiel, son of Ochran, over the host of the tribe of Asher,

²⁷and Ahira, son of Enan, over the host of the tribe of Naphtali.

²⁸This was the order of departure for the Israelites, company by company. As they were setting out,

²⁹Moses said to his brother-in-law Hobab, son of Reuel the Midianite, "We are setting out for the place which the LORD has promised to give us. Come with us, and we will be generous toward you, for the LORD has promised prosperity to Israel."

³⁰But he answered, "No, I will not come. I am going instead to my own country and to my own kindred."

³¹Moses said, "Please, do not leave us; you know where we can camp in the desert, and you will serve as eyes for us.

³²If you come with us, we will share with you the prosperity the LORD will bestow on us."

³³They moved on from the mountain of the LORD, a three days' journey, and the ark of the covenant of the LORD which was to seek out their resting place went the three days' journey with them.

³⁴And when they set out from camp, the cloud of the LORD was over them by day.

³⁵Whenever the ark set out, Moses would say, "Arise, O LORD, that your enemies may be scattered, and those who hate you may flee before you."

³⁶And when it came to rest, he would say, "Return, O LORD, you who ride upon the clouds, to the troops of Israel."

11Now the people complained in the hearing of the LORD; and when he heard it his wrath flared up so that the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp.

²But when the people cried out to Moses, he prayed to the LORD and the fire died out.

³Hence that place was called Taberah, because there the fire of the LORD burned among them.

⁴The foreign elements among them were so greedy for meat that even the Israelites lamented again, "Would that we had meat for food!

⁵We remember the fish we used to eat without cost in Egypt, and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.

⁶But now we are famished; we see nothing before us but this manna."

⁷Manna was like coriander seed and had the appearance of bdellium.

⁸When they had gone about and gathered it up, the people would grind it between millstones or pound it in a mortar, then cook it in a pot and make it into loaves, which tasted like cakes made with oil.

⁹At night, when the dew fell upon the camp, the manna also fell.

¹⁰When Moses heard the people, family after family, crying at the entrance of their tents, so that the LORD became very angry, he was grieved.

¹¹"Why do you treat your servant so badly?" Moses asked the LORD. "Why are you so displeased with me that you burden me with all this people?

¹²Was it I who conceived all this people? or was it I who gave them birth, that you tell me to carry them at my bosom, like a foster father carrying an infant, to the land you have promised under oath to their fathers?

¹³Where can I get meat to give to all this people? For they are crying to me, 'Give us meat for our food.'

¹⁴I cannot carry all this people by myself, for they are too heavy for me.

¹⁵If this is the way you will deal with me, then please do me the favor of killing me at once, so that I need no longer face this distress."

¹⁶Then the LORD said to Moses, "Assemble for me seventy of the elders of Israel, men you know for true elders and authorities among the people, and bring them to the meeting tent. When they are in place beside you,

¹⁷I will come down and speak with you there. I will also take some of the spirit that is on you and will bestow it on them, that they may share the burden of the people with you. You will then not have to bear it by yourself.

¹⁸"To the people, however, you shall say: Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, when you shall have meat to eat. For in the hearing of the LORD you have cried, 'Would that we had meat for food! Oh, how well off we were in Egypt!' Therefore the LORD will give you meat for food,

¹⁹and you will eat it, not for one day, or two days, or five, or ten, or twenty days,

²⁰but for a whole month-until it comes out of your very nostrils and becomes loathsome to you. For you have spurned the LORD who is in your midst, and in his presence you have wailed, 'Why did we ever leave Egypt?'"

²¹But Moses said, "The people around me include six hundred thousand soldiers; yet you say, 'I will give them meat to eat for a whole month.'

²²Can enough sheep and cattle be slaughtered for them? If all the fish of the sea were caught for them, would they have enough?"

²³The LORD answered Moses, "Is this beyond the LORD'S reach? You shall see now whether or not what I have promised you takes place."

²⁴So Moses went out and told the people what the LORD had said. Gathering seventy elders of the people, he had them stand around the tent.

²⁵The LORD then came down in the cloud and spoke to him. Taking some of the spirit that was on Moses, he bestowed it on the seventy elders; and as the spirit came to rest on them, they prophesied.

²⁶Now two men, one named Eldad and the other Medad, were not in the gathering but had been left in the camp. They too had been on the list, but had not gone out to the tent; yet the spirit came to rest on them also, and they prophesied in the camp.

²⁷So, when a young man quickly told Moses, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp,"

²⁸Joshua, son of Nun, who from his youth had been Moses' aide, said, "Moses, my lord, stop them."

²⁹But Moses answered him, "Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the people of the LORD were prophets! Would that the LORD might bestow his spirit on them all!"

³⁰Then Moses retired to the camp, along with the elders of Israel.

³¹There arose a wind sent by the LORD, that drove in quail from the sea and brought them down over the camp site at a height of two cubits from the ground for the distance of a day's journey all around the camp.

³²All that day, all night, and all the next day the people gathered in the quail. Even the one who got the least gathered ten homers of them. Then they spread them out all around the camp.

³³But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it could be consumed, the LORD'S wrath flared up against the people, and he struck them with a very great plague.

³⁴So that place was named Kibroth-hattaavah, because it was there that the greedy people were buried.

³⁵From Kibroth-hattaavah the people set out for Hazeroth.

12While they were in Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses on the pretext of the marriage he had contracted with a Cushite woman.

²They complained, "Is it through Moses alone that the LORD speaks? Does he not speak through us also?" And the LORD heard this.

³Now, Moses himself was by far the meekest man on the face of the earth.

⁴So at once the LORD said to Moses and Aaron and Miriam, "Come out, you three, to the meeting tent." And the three of them went.

⁵Then the LORD came down in the column of cloud, and standing at the entrance of the tent, called Aaron and Miriam. When both came forward,

⁶he said, "Now listen to the words of the LORD: Should there be a prophet among you, in visions will I reveal myself to him, in dreams will I speak to him;

⁷Not so with my servant Moses! Throughout my house he bears my trust:

⁸face to face I speak to him, plainly and not in riddles. The presence of the LORD he beholds. Why, then, did you not fear to speak against my servant Moses?"

⁹So angry was the LORD against them that when he departed,

¹⁰and the cloud withdrew from the tent, there was Miriam, a snow-white leper! When Aaron turned and saw her a leper,

¹¹"Ah, my lord!" he said to Moses, "please do not charge us with the sin that we have foolishly committed!

¹²Let her not thus be like the stillborn babe that comes forth from its mother's womb with its flesh half consumed."

¹³Then Moses cried to the LORD, "Please, not this! Pray, heal her!"

¹⁴But the LORD answered Moses, "Suppose her father had spit in her face, would she not hide in shame for seven days? Let her be confined outside the camp for seven days; only then may she be brought back."

¹⁵So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not start out again until she was brought back.

¹⁶After that the people set out from Hazeroth and encamped in the desert of Paran.

13The LORD said to Moses,

²"Send men to reconnoiter the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. You shall send one man from each ancestral tribe, all of them princes."

³So Moses dispatched them from the desert of Paran, as the LORD had ordered. All of them were leaders among the Israelites;

⁴by name they were: Shammua, son of Zaccur, of the tribe of Reuben;

⁵Shaphat, son of Hori, of the tribe of Simeon;

⁶Caleb, son of Jephunneh, of the tribe of Judah;

⁷Igal (son of Joseph), of the tribe of Issachar;

⁸Hoshea, son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim;

⁹Palti, son of Raphu, of the tribe of Benjamin;

¹⁰Gaddiel, son of Sodi, of the tribe of Zebulun;

¹¹Gaddi, son of Susi, of the tribe of Manasseh, for the Josephites, with

¹²Ammiel, son of Gemalli, of the tribe of Dan;

¹³Sethur, son of Michael, of the tribe of Asher;

¹⁴Nahbi, son of Vophsi, of the tribe of Naphtali;

¹⁵Geuel, son of Machi, of the tribe of Gad.

¹⁶These are the names of the men whom Moses sent out to reconnoiter the land. But Hoshea, son of Nun, Moses called Joshua.

¹⁷In sending them to reconnoiter the land of Canaan, Moses said to them, "Go up here in the Negeb, up into the highlands,

¹⁸and see what kind of land it is. Are the people living there strong or weak, few or many?

¹⁹Is the country in which they live good or bad? Are the towns in which they dwell open or fortified?

²⁰Is the soil fertile or barren, wooded or clear? And do your best to get some of the fruit of the land." It was then the season for early grapes.

²¹So they went up and reconnoitered the land from the desert of Zin as far as where Rehob adjoins Labo of Hamath.

²²Going up by way of the Negeb, they reached Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, descendants of the Anakim, were living. (Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)

²³They also reached the Wadi Eshcol, where they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes on it, which two of them carried on a pole, as well as some pomegranates and figs.

²⁴It was because of the cluster the Israelites cut there that they called the place Wadi Eshcol.

²⁵After reconnoitering the land for forty days they returned,

²⁶met Moses and Aaron and the whole community of the Israelites in the desert of Paran at Kadesh, made a report to them all, and showed them the fruit of the country.

²⁷They told Moses: "We went into the land to which you sent us. It does indeed flow with milk and honey, and here is its fruit.

²⁸However, the people who are living in the land are fierce, and the towns are fortified and very strong. Besides, we saw descendants of the Anakim there.

²⁹Amalekites live in the region of the Negeb; Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites dwell in the highlands, and Canaanites along the seacoast and the banks of the Jordan."

³⁰Caleb, however, to quiet the people toward Moses, said, "We ought to go up and seize the land, for we can certainly do so."

³¹But the men who had gone up with him said, "We cannot attack these people; they are too strong for us."

³²So they spread discouraging reports among the Israelites about the land they had scouted, saying, "The land that we explored is a country that consumes its inhabitants. And all the people we saw there are huge men,

³³veritable giants (the Anakim were a race of giants); we felt like mere grasshoppers, and so we must have seemed to them."

14At this, the whole community broke out with loud cries, and even in the night the people wailed.

²All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, the whole community saying to them, "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt, or that here in the desert we were dead!

³Why is the LORD bringing us into this land only to have us fall by the sword? Our wives and little ones will be taken as booty. Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?"

⁴So they said to one another, "Let us appoint a leader and go back to Egypt."

⁵But Moses and Aaron fell prostrate before the whole assembled community of the Israelites;

⁶while Joshua, son of Nun, and Caleb, son of Jephunneh, who had been in the party that scouted the land, tore their garments

⁷and said to the whole community of the Israelites, "The country which we went through and explored is a fine, rich land.

⁸If the LORD is pleased with us, he will bring us in and give us that land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁹But do not rebel against the LORD! You need not be afraid of the people of that land; they are but food for us! Their defense has left them, but the LORD is with us. Therefore, do not be afraid of them."

¹⁰In answer, the whole community threatened to stone them. But then the glory of the LORD appeared at the meeting tent to all the Israelites.

¹¹And the LORD said to Moses, "How long will this people spurn me? How long will they refuse to believe in me, despite all the signs I have performed among them?

¹²I will strike them with pestilence and wipe them out. Then I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they."

¹³But Moses said to the LORD: "Are the Egyptians to hear of this? For by your power you brought out this people from among them.

¹⁴And are they to tell of it to the inhabitants of this land? It has been heard that you, O LORD, are in the midst of this people; you, LORD, who plainly reveal yourself! Your cloud stands over them, and you go before them by day in a column of cloud and by night in a column of fire.

¹⁵If now you slay this whole people, the nations who have heard such reports of you will say,

¹⁶'The LORD was not able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them; that is why he slaughtered them in the desert.'

¹⁷Now then, let the power of my Lord be displayed in its greatness, even as you have said,

¹⁸'The LORD is slow to anger and rich in kindness, forgiving wickedness and crime; yet not declaring the guilty guiltless, but punishing children to the third and fourth generation for their fathers' wickedness.'

¹⁹Pardon, then, the wickedness of this people in keeping with your great kindness, even as you have forgiven them from Egypt until now."

²⁰The LORD answered: "I pardon them as you have asked.

²¹Yet, by my life and the LORD'S glory that fills the whole earth,

²²of all the men who have seen my glory and the signs I worked in Egypt and in the desert, and who nevertheless have put me to the test ten times already and have failed to heed my voice,

²³not one shall see the land which I promised on oath to their fathers. None of these who have spurned me shall see it.

²⁴But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me unreservedly, I will bring him into the land where he has just been, and his descendants shall possess it.

²⁵But now, since the Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn away tomorrow and set out in the desert on the Red Sea road."

²⁶The LORD also said to Moses and Aaron:

²⁷"How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the Israelites against me.

²⁸Tell them: By my life, says the LORD, I will do to you just what I have heard you say.

²⁹Here in the desert shall your dead bodies fall. Of all your men of twenty years or more, registered in the census, who grumbled against me,

³⁰not one shall enter the land where I solemnly swore to settle you, except Caleb, son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, son of Nun.

³¹Your little ones, however, who you said would be taken as booty, I will bring in, and they shall appreciate the land you spurned.

³²But as for you, your bodies shall fall here in the desert,

³³here where your children must wander for forty years, suffering for your faithlessness, till the last of you lies dead in the desert.

³⁴Forty days you spent in scouting the land; forty years shall you suffer for your crimes: one year for each day. Thus you will realize what it means to oppose me.

³⁵I, the LORD, have sworn to do this to all this wicked community that conspired against me: here in the desert they shall die to the last man."

³⁶And so it happened to the men whom Moses had sent to reconnoiter the land and who on returning had set the whole community grumbling against him by spreading discouraging reports about the land;

³⁷these men who had given out the bad report about the land were struck down by the LORD and died.

³⁸Of all the men who had gone to reconnoiter the land, only Joshua, son of Nun, and Caleb, son of Jephunneh, survived.

³⁹When Moses repeated these words to all the Israelites, the people felt great remorse.

⁴⁰Early the next morning they started up into the foothills, saying, "Here we are, ready to go up to the place that the LORD spoke of: for we were indeed doing wrong."

⁴¹But Moses said, "Why are you again disobeying the LORD'S orders? This cannot succeed.

⁴²Do not go up, because the LORD is not in your midst; if you go, you will be beaten down before your enemies.

⁴³For there the Amalekites and Canaanites face you, and you will fall by the sword. You have turned back from following the LORD; therefore the LORD will not be with you."

⁴⁴Yet they dared to go up into the foothills, even though neither the ark of the covenant of the LORD nor Moses left the camp.

⁴⁵And the Amalekites and Canaanites who dwelt in that hill country came down and defeated them, beating them back as far as Hormah.

15The LORD said to Moses,

²"Give the Israelites these instructions: When you have entered the land that I will give you for your homesteads,

³if you make to the LORD a sweet-smelling oblation from the herd or from the flock, in holocaust, in fulfillment of a vow, or as a freewill offering, or for one of your festivals,

⁴whoever does so shall also present to the LORD a cereal offering consisting of a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a fourth of a hin of oil,

⁵as well as a libation of a fourth of a hin of wine, with each lamb sacrificed in holocaust or otherwise.

⁶With each sacrifice of a ram you shall present a cereal offering of two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a third of a hin of oil,

⁷and a libation of a third of a hin of wine, thus making a sweet-smelling offering to the LORD.

⁸When you sacrifice an ox as a holocaust, or in fulfillment of a vow, or as a peace offering to the LORD,

⁹with it you shall present a cereal offering of three tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with half a hin of oil,

¹⁰and a libation of half a hin of wine, as a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD.

¹¹The same is to be done for each ox, ram, lamb or goat.

¹²Whatever the number you offer, do the same for each of them.

¹³"All the native-born shall make these offerings in the same way, whenever they present a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD.

¹⁴Likewise, in any future generation, any alien residing with you permanently or for a time, who presents a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD, shall do as you do.

¹⁵There is but one rule for you and for the resident alien, a perpetual rule for all your descendants. Before the LORD you and the alien are alike,

¹⁶with the same law and the same application of it for the alien residing among you as for yourselves."

¹⁷The LORD said to Moses,

¹⁸"Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you enter the land into which I will bring you

¹⁹and begin to eat of the food of that land, you shall offer the LORD a contribution

²⁰consisting of a cake of your first batch of dough. You shall offer it just as you offer a contribution from the threshing floor.

²¹Throughout your generations you shall give a contribution to the LORD from your first batch of dough.

²²"When through inadvertence you fail to carry out any of these commandments which the LORD gives to Moses,

²³and through Moses to you, from the time the LORD first issues the commandment down through your generations:

²⁴if the community itself unwittingly becomes guilty of the fault of inadvertence, the whole community shall offer the holocaust of one young bull as a sweet-smelling oblation pleasing to the LORD, along with its prescribed cereal offering and libation, as well as one he-goat as a sin offering.

²⁵Then the priest shall make atonement for the whole Israelite community; thus they will be forgiven the inadvertence for which they have brought their holocaust as an oblation to the LORD.

²⁶Not only the whole Israelite community, but also the aliens residing among you, shall be forgiven, since the fault of inadvertence affects all the people.

²⁷"However, if it is an individual who sins inadvertently, he shall bring a yearling she-goat as a sin offering,

²⁸and the priest shall make atonement before the LORD for him who sinned inadvertently; when atonement has been made for him, he will be forgiven.

²⁹You shall have but one law for him who sins inadvertently, whether he be a native Israelite or an alien residing with you.

³⁰"But anyone who sins defiantly, whether he be a native or an alien, insults the LORD, and shall be cut off from among his people.

³¹Since he has despised the word of the LORD and has broken his commandment, he must be cut off. He has only himself to blame."

³²While the Israelites were in the desert, a man was discovered gathering wood on the sabbath day.

³³Those who caught him at it brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly.

³⁴But they kept him in custody, for there was no clear decision as to what should be done with him.

³⁵Then the LORD said to Moses, "This man shall be put to death; let the whole community stone him outside the camp."

³⁶So the whole community led him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the LORD had commanded Moses.

³⁷The LORD said to Moses,

³⁸"Speak to the Israelites and tell them that they and their descendants must put tassels on the corners of their garments, fastening each corner tassel with a violet cord.

³⁹When you use these tassels, let the sight of them remind you to keep all the commandments of the LORD, without going wantonly astray after the desires of your hearts and eyes.

⁴⁰Thus you will remember to keep all my commandments and be holy to your God.

⁴¹I, the LORD, am your God who, as God, brought you out of Egypt that I, the LORD, may be your God."

16Korah, son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, (and Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, son of Pallu, son of Reuben) took

²two hundred and fifty Israelites who were leaders in the community, members of the council and men of note. They stood before Moses,

³and held an assembly against Moses and Aaron, to whom they said, "Enough from you! The whole community, all of them, are holy; the LORD is in their midst. Why then should you set yourselves over the LORD'S congregation?"

⁴When Moses heard this, he fell prostrate.

⁵Then he said to Korah and to all his band, "May the LORD make known tomorrow morning who belongs to him and who is the holy one and whom he will have draw near to him! Whom he chooses, he will have draw near him.

⁶Do this: take your censers (Korah and all his band)

⁷and put fire in them and place incense in them before the LORD tomorrow. He whom the LORD then chooses is the holy one. Enough from you Levites!"

⁸Moses also said to Korah, "Listen to me, you Levites!

⁹Is it too little for you that the God of Israel has singled you out from the community of Israel, to have you draw near him for the service of the LORD'S Dwelling and to stand before the community to minister for them?

¹⁰He has allowed you and your kinsmen, the descendants of Levi, to approach him, and yet you now seek the priesthood too.

¹¹It is therefore against the LORD that you and all your band are conspiring. For what has Aaron done that you should grumble against him?"

¹²Moses summoned Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, but they answered, "We will not go.

¹³Are you not satisfied with having led us here away from a land flowing with milk and honey, to make us perish in the desert, that you must now lord it over us?

¹⁴Far from bringing us to a land flowing with milk and honey, or giving us fields and vineyards for our inheritance, will you also gouge out our eyes? No, we will not go."

¹⁵Then Moses became very angry and said to the LORD, "Pay no heed to their offering. I have never taken a single ass from them, nor have I wronged any one of them."

¹⁶Moses said to Korah, "You and all your band shall appear before the LORD tomorrow-you and they and Aaron too.

¹⁷Then each of your two hundred and fifty followers shall take his own censer, put incense in it, and offer it to the LORD; and you and Aaron, each with his own censer, shall do the same."

¹⁸So they all took their censers, and laying incense on the fire they had put in them, they took their stand by the entrance of the meeting tent along with Moses and Aaron.

¹⁹Then, when Korah had assembled all his band against them at the entrance of the meeting tent, the glory of the LORD appeared to the entire community,

²⁰and the LORD said to Moses and Aaron,

²¹"Stand apart from this band, that I may consume them at once."

²²But they fell prostrate and cried out, "O God, God of the spirits of all mankind, will one man's sin make you angry with the whole community?"

²³The LORD answered Moses,

²⁴"Speak to the community and tell them: Withdraw from the space around the Dwelling" (of Korah, Dathan and Abiram).

²⁵Moses, followed by the elders of Israel, arose and went to Dathan and Abiram.

²⁶Then he warned the community, "Keep away from the tents of these wicked men and do not touch anything that is theirs: otherwise you too will be swept away because of all their sins."

²⁷When Dathan and Abiram had come out and were standing at the entrances of their tents with their wives and sons and little ones,

²⁸Moses said, "This is how you shall know that it was the LORD who sent me to do all I have done, and that it was not I who planned it:

²⁹if these men die an ordinary death, merely suffering the fate common to all mankind, then it was not the LORD who sent me.

³⁰But if the LORD does something entirely new, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them alive down into the nether world, with all belonging to them, then you will know that these men have defied the LORD."

³¹No sooner had he finished saying all this than the ground beneath them split open,

³²and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their families (and all of Korah's men) and all their possessions.

³³They went down alive to the nether world with all belonging to them; the earth closed over them, and they perished from the community.

³⁴But all the Israelites near them fled at their shrieks, saying, "The earth might swallow us too!"

³⁵So they withdrew from the space around the Dwelling (of Korah, Dathan and Abiram). And fire from the LORD came forth which consumed the two hundred and fifty men who were offering the incense.

17The LORD said to Moses,

²"Tell Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, to remove the censers from the embers; and scatter the fire some distance away,

³for these sinners have consecrated the censers at the cost of their lives. Have them hammered into plates to cover the altar, because in being presented before the LORD they have become sacred. In this way they shall serve as a sign to the Israelites."

⁴So Eleazar the priest had the bronze censers of those burned during the offering hammered into a covering for the altar,

⁵in keeping with the orders which the LORD had given him through Moses. This cover was to be a reminder to the Israelites that no layman, no one who was not a descendant of Aaron, should approach the altar to offer incense before the LORD, lest he meet the fate of Korah and his band.

⁶The next day the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, "It is you who have slain the LORD'S people."

⁷But while the community was deliberating against them, Moses and Aaron turned toward the meeting tent, and the cloud now covered it and the glory of the LORD appeared.

⁸Then Moses and Aaron came to the front of the meeting tent,

⁹and the LORD said to Moses and Aaron,

¹⁰"Depart from this community, that I may consume them at once." But they fell prostrate.

¹¹Then Moses said to Aaron, "Take your censer, put fire from the altar in it, lay incense on it, and bring it quickly to the community to make atonement for them; for wrath has come forth from the LORD and the blow is falling."

¹²Obeying the orders of Moses, Aaron took his censer and ran in among the community, where the blow was already falling on the people. Then, as he offered the incense and made atonement for the people,

¹³standing there between the living and the dead, the scourge was checked.

¹⁴Yet fourteen thousand seven hundred died from the scourge, in addition to those who died because of Korah.

¹⁵When the scourge had been checked, Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the meeting tent.

¹⁶The LORD now said to Moses,

¹⁷"Speak to the Israelites and get one staff from them for each ancestral house, twelve staffs in all, one from each of their tribal princes. Mark each man's name on his staff;

¹⁸and mark Aaron's name on Levi's staff, for the head of Levi's ancestral house shall also have a staff.

¹⁹Then lay them down in the meeting tent, in front of the commandments, where I meet you.

²⁰There the staff of the man of my choice shall sprout. Thus will I suppress from my presence the Israelites' grumbling against you."

²¹So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and their princes gave him staffs, twelve in all, one from each tribal prince; and Aaron's staff was with them.

²²Then Moses laid the staffs down before the LORD in the tent of the commandments.

²³The next day, when Moses entered the tent, Aaron's staff, representing the house of Levi, had sprouted and put forth not only shoots, but blossoms as well, and even bore ripe almonds!

²⁴Moses thereupon brought out all the staffs from the LORD'S presence to the Israelites. After each prince identified his own staff and took it,

²⁵the LORD said to Moses, "Put back Aaron's staff in front of the commandments, to be kept there as a warning to the rebellious, so that their grumbling may cease before me; if it does not, they will die."

²⁶And Moses did as the LORD had commanded him.

²⁷Then the Israelites cried out to Moses, "We are perishing; we are lost, we are all lost!

²⁸Every time anyone approaches the Dwelling of the LORD, he dies! Are we to perish to the last man?"

18The LORD said to Aaron, "You and your sons as well as the other members of your ancestral house shall be responsible for the sanctuary; but the responsibility of the priesthood shall rest on you and your sons alone.

²Bring with you also your other kinsmen of the tribe of Levi, your ancestral tribe, as your associates and assistants, while you and your sons are in front of the tent of the commandments.

³They shall look after your persons and the whole tent; however, they shall not come near the sacred vessels or the altar, lest both they and you die.

⁴As your associates they shall have charge of all the work connected with the meeting tent. But no layman shall come near you.

⁵You shall have charge of the sanctuary and of the altar, that wrath may not fall again upon the Israelites.

⁶"Remember, it is I who have taken your kinsmen, the Levites, from the body of the Israelites; they are a gift to you, dedicated to the LORD for the service of the meeting tent.

⁷But only you and your sons are to have charge of performing the priestly functions in whatever concerns the altar and the room within the veil. I give you the priesthood as a gift. Any layman who draws near shall be put to death."

⁸The LORD said to Aaron, "I myself have given you charge of the contributions made to me in the various sacred offerings of the Israelites; by perpetual ordinance I have assigned them to you and to your sons as your priestly share.

⁹You shall have the right to share in the oblations that are most sacred, in whatever they offer me as cereal offerings or sin offerings or guilt offerings; these shares shall accrue to you and to your sons.

¹⁰In eating them you shall treat them as most sacred; every male among you may partake of them. As sacred, they belong to you.

¹¹"You shall also have what is removed from the gift in every wave offering of the Israelites; by perpetual ordinance I have assigned it to you and to your sons and daughters. All in your family who are clean may partake of it.

¹²I have also assigned to you all the best of the new oil and of the new wine and grain that they give to the LORD as their first fruits;

¹³and likewise, of whatever grows on their land, the first products that they bring in to the LORD shall be yours; all of your family who are clean may partake of them.

¹⁴Whatever is doomed in Israel shall be yours.

¹⁵Every living thing that opens the womb, whether of man or of beast, such as are to be offered to the LORD, shall be yours; but you must let the first-born of man, as well as of unclean animals, be redeemed.

¹⁶The ransom for a boy is to be paid when he is a month old; it is fixed at five silver shekels according to the sanctuary standard, twenty gerahs to the shekel.

¹⁷But the first-born of cattle, sheep or goats shall not be redeemed; they are sacred. Their blood you must splash on the altar and their fat you must burn as a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD.

¹⁸Their meat, however, shall be yours, just as the breast and the right leg of the wave offering belong to you.

¹⁹By perpetual ordinance I have assigned to you and to your sons and daughters all the contributions from the sacred gifts which the Israelites make to the LORD; this is an inviolable covenant to last forever before the LORD, for you and for your descendants."

²⁰Then the LORD said to Aaron, "You shall not have any heritage in the land of the Israelites nor hold any portion among them; I will be your portion and your heritage among them.

²¹"To the Levites, however, I hereby assign all tithes in Israel as their heritage in recompense for the service they perform in the meeting tent.

²²The Israelites may no longer approach the meeting tent; else they will incur guilt deserving death.

²³Only the Levites are to perform the service of the meeting tent, and they alone shall be held responsible; this is a perpetual ordinance for all your generations. The Levites, therefore, shall not have any heritage among the Israelites,

²⁴for I have assigned to them as their heritage the tithes which the Israelites give as a contribution to the LORD. That is why I have ordered that they are not to have any heritage among the Israelites."

²⁵The LORD said to Moses,

²⁶"Give the Levites these instructions: When you receive from the Israelites the tithes I have assigned you from them as your heritage, you are to make a contribution from them to the LORD, a tithe of the tithes;

²⁷and your contribution will be credited to you as if it were grain from the threshing floor or new wine from the press.

²⁸Thus you too shall make a contribution from all the tithes you receive from the Israelites, handing over to Aaron the priest the part to be contributed to the LORD.

²⁹From all the gifts that you receive, and from the best parts, you are to consecrate to the LORD your own full contribution.

³⁰"Tell them also: Once you have made your contribution from the best part, the rest of the tithes will be credited to you Levites as if it were produce of the threshing floor or of the winepress.

³¹Your families, as well as you, may eat them anywhere, since they are your recompense for service at the meeting tent.

³²You will incur no guilt so long as you make a contribution of the best part. Do not profane the sacred gifts of the Israelites and so bring death on yourselves."

19The LORD said to Moses and Aaron:

²"This is the regulation which the law of the LORD prescribes. Tell the Israelites to procure for you a red heifer that is free from every blemish and defect and on which no yoke has ever been laid.

³This is to be given to Eleazar the priest, to be led outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.

⁴Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the meeting tent.

⁵Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight, with its hide and flesh, its blood and offal;

⁶and the priest shall take some cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet yarn and throw them into the fire in which the heifer is being burned.

⁷The priest shall then wash his garments and bathe his body in water. He remains unclean until the evening, and only afterward may he return to the camp.

⁸Likewise, he who burned the heifer shall wash his garments, bathe his body in water, and be unclean until evening.

⁹Finally, a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them in a clean place outside the camp. There they are to be kept for preparing lustral water for the Israelite community. The heifer is a sin offering.

¹⁰He who has gathered up the ashes of the heifer shall also wash his garments and be unclean until evening. This is a perpetual ordinance, both for the Israelites and for the aliens residing among them.

¹¹"Whoever touches the dead body of any human being shall be unclean for seven days;

¹²he shall purify himself with the water on the third and on the seventh day, and then he will be clean again. But if he fails to purify himself on the third and on the seventh day, he will not become clean.

¹³Everyone who fails to purify himself after touching the body of any deceased person, defiles the Dwelling of the LORD and shall be cut off from Israel. Since the lustral water has not been splashed over him, he remains unclean: his uncleanness still clings to him.

¹⁴"This is the law: When a man dies in a tent, everyone who enters the tent, as well as everyone already in it, shall be unclean for seven days;

¹⁵likewise, every vessel that is open, or with its lid unfastened, shall be unclean.

¹⁶Moreover, everyone who in the open country touches a dead person, whether he was slain by the sword or died naturally, or who touches a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean for seven days.

¹⁷For anyone who is thus unclean, ashes from the sin offering shall be put in a vessel, and spring water shall be poured on them.

¹⁸Then a man who is clean shall take some hyssop, dip it in this water, and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the vessels and persons that were in it, or on him who touched a bone, a slain person or other dead body, or a grave.

¹⁹The clean man shall sprinkle the unclean on the third and on the seventh day; thus purified on the seventh day, he shall wash his garments and bathe his body in water, and in the evening he will be clean again.

²⁰Any unclean man who fails to have himself purified shall be cut off from the community, because he defiles the sanctuary of the LORD. As long as the lustral water has not been splashed over him, he remains unclean.

²¹This shall be a perpetual ordinance for you. "One who sprinkles the lustral water shall wash his garments, and anyone who comes in contact with this water shall be unclean until evening.

²²Moreover, whatever the unclean person touches becomes unclean itself, and anyone who touches it becomes unclean until evening."

20The whole Israelite community arrived in the desert of Zin in the first month, and the people settled at Kadesh. It was here that Miriam died, and here that she was buried.

²As the community had no water, they held a council against Moses and Aaron.

³The people contended with Moses, exclaiming, "Would that we too had perished with our kinsmen in the LORD'S presence!

⁴Why have you brought the LORD'S community into this desert where we and our livestock are dying?

⁵Why did you lead us out of Egypt, only to bring us to this wretched place which has neither grain nor figs nor vines nor pomegranates? Here there is not even water to drink!"

⁶But Moses and Aaron went away from the assembly to the entrance of the meeting tent, where they fell prostrate. Then the glory of the LORD appeared to them,

⁷and the LORD said to Moses,

⁸"Take the staff and assemble the community, you and your brother Aaron, and in their presence order the rock to yield its waters. From the rock you shall bring forth water for the community and their livestock to drink."

⁹So Moses took the staff from its place before the LORD, as he was ordered.

¹⁰He and Aaron assembled the community in front of the rock, where he said to them, "Listen to me, you rebels! Are we to bring water for you out of this rock?"

¹¹Then, raising his hand, Moses struck the rock twice with his staff, and water gushed out in abundance for the community and their livestock to drink.

¹²But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you were not faithful to me in showing forth my sanctity before the Israelites, you shall not lead this community into the land I will give them."

¹³These are the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites contended against the LORD, and where he revealed his sanctity among them.

¹⁴From Kadesh Moses sent men to the king of Edom with the message: "Your brother Israel has this to say: You know of all the hardships that have befallen us,

¹⁵how our fathers went down to Egypt, where we stayed a long time, how the Egyptians maltreated us and our fathers,

¹⁶and how, when we cried to the LORD, he heard our cry and sent an angel who led us out of Egypt. Now here we are at the town of Kadesh at the edge of your territory.

¹⁷Kindly let us pass through your country. We will not cross any fields or vineyards, nor drink any well water, but we will go straight along the royal road without turning to the right or to the left, until we have passed through your territory."

¹⁸But Edom answered him, "You shall not pass through here; if you do, I will advance against you with the sword."

¹⁹The Israelites insisted, "We want only to go up along the highway. If we or our livestock drink any of your water, we will pay for it. Surely there is no harm in merely letting us march through."

²⁰But Edom still said, "No, you shall not pass through," and advanced against them with a large and heavily armed force.

²¹Therefore, since Edom refused to let them pass through their territory, Israel detoured around them.

²²Setting out from Kadesh, the whole Israelite community came to Mount Hor.

²³There at Mount Hor, on the border of the land of Edom, the LORD said to Moses and Aaron,

²⁴"Aaron is about to be taken to his people; he shall not enter the land I am giving to the Israelites, because you both rebelled against my commandment at the waters of Meribah.

²⁵Take Aaron and his son Eleazar and bring them up on Mount Hor.

²⁶Then strip Aaron of his garments and put them on his son Eleazar; for there Aaron shall be taken in death."

²⁷Moses did as the LORD commanded. When they had climbed Mount Hor in view of the whole community,

²⁸Moses stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on his son Eleazar. Then Aaron died there on top of the mountain. When Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain,

²⁹all the community understood that Aaron had passed away; and for thirty days the whole house of Israel mourned him.

21When the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negeb, heard that the Israelites were coming along the way of Atharim, he engaged them in battle and took some of them captive.

²Israel then made this vow to the LORD: "If you deliver this people into my hand, I will doom their cities."

³Later, when the LORD heeded Israel's prayer and delivered up the Canaanites, they doomed them and their cities. Hence that place was named Hormah.

⁴From Mount Hor they set out on the Red Sea road, to by-pass the land of Edom. But with their patience worn out by the journey,

⁵the people complained against God and Moses, "Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!"

⁶In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of them died.

⁷Then the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you. Pray the LORD to take the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people,

⁸and the LORD said to Moses, "Make a saraph and mount it on a pole, and if anyone who has been bitten looks at it, he will recover."

⁹Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he recovered.

¹⁰The Israelites moved on and encamped in Oboth.

¹¹Setting out from Oboth, they encamped in Iye-abarim in the desert fronting Moab on the east.

¹²Setting out from there, they encamped in the Wadi Zered.

¹³Setting out from there, they encamped on the other side of the Arnon, in the desert that extends from the territory of the Amorites; for the Arnon forms Moab's boundary with the Amorites.

¹⁴Hence it is said in the "Book of the Wars of the LORD": "Waheb in Suphah and the wadies,

¹⁵Arnon and the wadi gorges That reach back toward the site of Ar and slant to the border of Moab."

¹⁶From there they went to Beer, where there was the well of which the LORD said to Moses, "Bring the people together, and I will give them water."

¹⁷Then it was that Israel sang this song: "Spring up, O well!--so sing to it--

¹⁸The well that the princes sank, that the nobles of the people dug, with their scepters and their staffs." From Beer they went to Mattanah,

¹⁹from Mattanah to Nahaliel, from Nahaliel to Bamoth,

²⁰from Bamoth to the cleft in the plateau of Moab at the headland of Pisgah that overlooks Jeshimon.

²¹Now Israel sent men to Sihon, king of the Amorites, with the message,

²²"Let us pass through your country. We will not turn aside into any field or vineyard, nor will we drink any well water, but we will go straight along the royal road until we have passed through your territory."

²³Sihon, however, would not let Israel pass through his territory, but mustered all his forces and advanced into the desert against Israel. When he reached Jahaz, he engaged Israel in battle.

²⁴But Israel defeated him at the point of the sword, and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok and as far as the country of the Ammonites, whose boundary was at Jazer.

²⁵Israel seized all the towns here and settled in these towns of the Amorites, in Heshbon and all its dependencies.

²⁶Now Heshbon was the capital of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and had seized all his land from Jazer to the Arnon.

²⁷That is why the poets say: "Come to Heshbon, let it be rebuilt, let Sihon's capital be firmly constructed.

²⁸For fire went forth from Heshbon and a blaze from the city of Sihon; It consumed the cities of Moab and swallowed up the high places of the Arnon.

²⁹Woe to you, O Moab! You are ruined, O people of Chemosh! He let his sons become fugitives and his daughters be taken captive by the Amorite king Sihon.

³⁰Their plowland is ruined from Heshbon to Dibon; Ar is laid waste; fires blaze as far as Medeba."

³¹When Israel had settled in the land of the Amorites,

³²Moses sent spies to Jazer; Israel then captured it with its dependencies and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.

³³Then they turned and went up along the road to Bashan. But Og, king of Bashan, advanced against them with all his people to give battle at Edrei.

³⁴The LORD, however, said to Moses, "Do not be afraid of him; for into your hand I will deliver him with all his people and his land. Do to him as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon."

³⁵So they struck him down with his sons and all his people, until not a survivor was left to him, and they took possession of his land.

22Then the Israelites moved on and encamped in the plains of Moab on the other side of the Jericho stretch of the Jordan.

²Now Balak, son of Zippor, saw all that Israel did to the Amorites.

³Indeed, Moab feared the Israelites greatly because of their numbers, and detested them.

⁴So Moab said to the elders of Midian, "Soon this horde will devour all the country around us as an ox devours the grass of the field." And Balak, Zippor's son, who was king of Moab at that time,

⁵sent messengers to Balaam, son of Beor, at Pethor on the Euphrates, in the land of the Amawites, summoning him with these words, "A people has come here from Egypt who now cover the face of the earth and are settling down opposite us!

⁶Please come and curse this people for us; they are stronger than we are. We may then be able to defeat them and drive them out of the country. For I know that whoever you bless is blessed and whoever you curse is cursed."

⁷Then the elders of Moab and of Midian left with the divination fee in hand and went to Balaam. When they had given him Balak's message,

⁸he said to them in reply, "Stay here overnight, and I will give you whatever answer the LORD gives me." So the princes of Moab lodged with Balaam.

⁹Then God came to Balaam and said, "Who are these men visiting you?"

¹⁰Balaam answered God, "Balak, son of Zippor, king of Moab, sent me the message:

¹¹'This people that came here from Egypt now cover the face of the earth. Please come and lay a curse on them for us; we may then be able to give them battle and drive them out.'"

¹²But God said to Balaam, "Do not go with them and do not curse this people, for they are blessed."

¹³The next morning Balaam arose and told the princes of Balak, "Go back to your own country, for the LORD has refused to let me go with you."

¹⁴So the princes of Moab went back to Balak with the report, "Balaam refused to come with us."

¹⁵Balak again sent princes, who were more numerous and more distinguished than the others.

¹⁶On coming to Balaam they told him, "This is what Balak, son of Zippor, has to say: Please do not refuse to come to me.

¹⁷I will reward you very handsomely and will do anything you ask of me. Please come and lay a curse on this people for me."

¹⁸But Balaam replied to Balak's officials, "Even if Balak gave me his house full of silver and gold, I could not do anything, small or great, contrary to the command of the LORD, my God.

¹⁹But, you too shall stay here overnight, till I learn what else the LORD may tell me."

²⁰That night God came to Balaam and said to him, "If these men have come to summon you, you may go with them; yet only on the condition that you do exactly as I tell you."

²¹So the next morning when Balaam arose, he saddled his ass, and went off with the princes of Moab.

²²But now the anger of God flared up at him for going, and the angel of the LORD stationed himself on the road to hinder him as he was riding along on his ass, accompanied by two of his servants.

²³When the ass saw the angel of the LORD standing on the road with sword drawn, she turned off the road and went into the field, and Balaam had to beat her to bring her back on the road.

²⁴Then the angel of the LORD took his stand in a narrow lane between vineyards with a stone wall on each side.

²⁵When the ass saw the angel of the LORD there, she shrank against the wall; and since she squeezed Balaam's leg against it, he beat her again.

²⁶The angel of the LORD then went ahead, and stopped next in a passage so narrow that there was no room to move either to the right or to the left.

²⁷When the ass saw the angel of the LORD there, she cowered under Balaam. So, in anger, he again beat the ass with his stick.

²⁸But now the LORD opened the mouth of the ass, and she asked Balaam, "What have I done to you that you should beat me these three times?"

²⁹"You have acted so willfully against me," said Balaam to the ass, "that if I but had a sword at hand, I would kill you here and now."

³⁰But the ass said to Balaam, "Am I not your own beast, and have you not always ridden upon me until now? Have I been in the habit of treating you this way before?" "No," replied Balaam.

³¹Then the LORD removed the veil from Balaam's eyes, so that he too saw the angel of the LORD standing on the road with sword drawn; and he fell on his knees and bowed to the ground.

³²But the angel of the LORD said to him, "Why have you beaten your ass these three times? It is I who have come armed to hinder you because this rash journey of yours is directly opposed to me.

³³When the ass saw me, she turned away from me these three times. If she had not turned away from me, I would have killed you; her I would have spared."

³⁴Then Balaam said to the angel of the LORD, "I have sinned. Yet I did not know that you stood against me to oppose my journey. Since it has displeased you, I will go back home."

³⁵But the angel of the LORD said to Balaam, "Go with the men; but you may say only what I tell you." So Balaam went on with the princes of Balak.

³⁶When Balak heard that Balaam was coming, he went out to meet him at the boundary city Ir-Moab on the Arnon at the end of the Moabite territory.

³⁷And he said to Balaam, "I sent an urgent summons to you! Why did you not come to me? Did you think I could not reward you?"

³⁸Balaam answered him, "Well, I have come to you after all. But what power have I to say anything? I can speak only what God puts in my mouth."

³⁹Then Balaam went with Balak, and they came to Kiriath-huzoth.

⁴⁰Here Balak slaughtered oxen and sheep, and sent portions to Balaam and to the princes who were with him.

⁴¹The next morning Balak took Balaam up on Bamoth-baal, and from there he saw some of the clans.

23Then Balaam said to Balak, "Build me seven altars, and prepare seven bullocks and seven rams for me here."

²So he did as Balaam had ordered, offering a bullock and a ram on each altar. And Balak said to him, "I have erected the seven altars, and have offered a bullock and a ram on each."

³Balaam then said to him, "Stand here by your holocaust while I go over there. Perhaps the LORD will meet me, and then I will tell you whatever he lets me see." He went out on the barren height,

⁴and God met him.

⁵When he had put an utterance in Balaam's mouth, the LORD said to him, "Go back to Balak, and speak accordingly."

⁶So he went back to Balak, who was still standing by his holocaust together with all the princes of Moab.

⁷Then Balaam gave voice to his oracle: From Aram has Balak brought me here, Moab's king, from the Eastern Mountains: "Come and lay a curse for me on Jacob, come and denounce Israel."

⁸How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How denounce whom the LORD has not denounced?

⁹For from the top of the crags I see him, from the heights I behold him. Here is a people that lives apart and does not reckon itself among the nations.

¹⁰Who has ever counted the dust of Jacob, or numbered Israel's wind-borne particles? May I die the death of the just, may my descendants be as many as theirs!

¹¹"What have you done to me?" cried Balak to Balaam. "It was to curse my foes that I brought you here; instead, you have even blessed them."

¹²Balaam replied, "Is it not what the LORD puts in my mouth that I must repeat with care?"

¹³Then Balak said to him, "Please come with me to another place from which you can see only some and not all of them, and from there curse them for me."

¹⁴So he brought him to the lookout field on the top of Pisgah, where he built seven altars and offered a bullock and a ram on each of them.

¹⁵Balaam then said to Balak, "Stand here by your holocaust, while I seek a meeting over there."

¹⁶Then the LORD met Balaam, and having put an utterance in his mouth, he said to him, "Go back to Balak, and speak accordingly."

¹⁷So he went back to Balak, who was still standing by his holocaust together with the princes of Moab. When Balak asked him, "What did the LORD say?"

¹⁸Balaam gave voice to his oracle: Be aroused, O Balak, and hearken; give ear to my testimony, O son of Zippor!

¹⁹God is not man that he should speak falsely, nor human, that he should change his mind. Is he one to speak and not act, to decree and not fulfill?

²⁰It is a blessing I have been given to pronounce; a blessing which I cannot restrain.

²¹Misfortune is not observed in Jacob, nor misery seen in Israel. The LORD, his God, is with him; with him is the triumph of his King.

²²It is God who brought him out of Egypt, a wild bull of towering might.

²³No, there is no sorcery against Jacob, nor omen against Israel. It shall yet be said of Jacob, and of Israel, "Behold what God has wrought!"

²⁴Here is a people that springs up like a lioness, and stalks forth like a lion; It rests not till it has devoured its prey and has drunk the blood of the slain.

²⁵"Even though you cannot curse them," said Balak to Balaam, "at least do not bless them."

²⁶But Balaam answered Balak, "Did I not warn you that I must do all that the LORD tells me?"

²⁷Then Balak said to Balaam, "Come, let me bring you to another place; perhaps God will approve of your cursing them for me from there."

²⁸So he took Balaam to the top of Peor, that overlooks Jeshimon.

²⁹Balaam then said to him, "Here build me seven altars; and here prepare for me seven bullocks and seven rams."

³⁰And Balak did as Balaam had ordered, offering a bullock and a ram on each altar.

24Balaam, however, perceiving that the LORD was pleased to bless Israel, did not go aside as before to seek omens, but turned his gaze toward the desert.

²When he raised his eyes and saw Israel encamped, tribe by tribe, the spirit of God came upon him,

³and he gave voice to his oracle: The utterance of Balaam, son of Beor, the utterance of the man whose eye is true,

⁴The utterance of one who hears what God says, and knows what the Most High knows, Of one who sees what the Almighty sees, enraptured, and with eyes unveiled:

⁵How goodly are your tents, O Jacob; your encampments, O Israel!

⁶They are like gardens beside a stream, like the cedars planted by the LORD.

⁷His wells shall yield free-flowing waters, he shall have the sea within reach; His king shall rise higher than. . . . and his royalty shall be exalted.

⁸It is God who brought him out of Egypt, a wild bull of towering might. He shall devour the nations like grass, their bones he shall strip bare.

⁹He lies crouching like a lion, or like a lioness; who shall arouse him? Blessed is he who blesses you, and cursed is he who curses you!

¹⁰Balak beat his palms together in a blaze of anger at Balaam and said to him, "It was to curse my foes that I summoned you here; yet three times now you have even blessed them instead!

¹¹Be off at once, then, to your home. I promised to reward you richly, but the LORD has withheld the reward from you!"

¹²Balaam replied to Balak, "Did I not warn the very messengers whom you sent to me,

¹³'Even if Balak gave me his house full of silver and gold, I could not of my own accord to anything, good or evil, contrary to the command of the LORD'? Whatever the LORD says I must repeat.

¹⁴"But now that I am about to go to my own people, let me first warn you what this people will do to your people in the days to come."

¹⁵Then Balaam gave voice to his oracle: The utterance of Balaam, son of Beor, the utterance of the man whose eye is true,

¹⁶The utterance of one who hears what God says, and knows what the Most High knows, Of one who sees what the Almighty sees, enraptured and with eyes unveiled.

¹⁷I see him, though not now; I behold him, though not near: A star shall advance from Jacob, and a staff shall rise from Israel, That shall smite the brows of Moab, and the skulls of all the Shuthites,

¹⁸Till Edom is dispossessed, and no fugitive is left in Seir. Israel shall do valiantly,

¹⁹and Jacob shall overcome his foes.

²⁰Upon seeing Amalek, Balaam gave voice to his oracle: First of the peoples was Amalek, but his end is to perish forever.

²¹Upon seeing the Kenites, he gave voice to his oracle: Your abode is enduring, O smith, and your nest is set on a cliff;

²²Yet destined for burning-- even as I watch--are your inhabitants.

²³Upon seeing. . . . he gave voice to his oracle: Alas, who shall survive of Ishmael,

²⁴to deliver his people from the hands of the Kittim? When they have conquered Asshur and conquered Eber, He too shall perish forever.

²⁵Then Balaam set out on his journey home; and Balak also went his way.

25While Israel was living at Shittim, the people degraded themselves by having illicit relations with the Moabite women.

²These then invited the people to the sacrifices of their god, and the people ate of the sacrifices and worshiped their god.

³When Israel thus submitted to the rites of Baal of Peor, the LORD'S anger flared up against Israel,

⁴and he said to Moses, "Gather all the leaders of the people, and hold a public execution of the guilty ones before the LORD, that his blazing wrath may be turned away from Israel."

⁵So Moses told the Israelite judges, "Each of you shall kill those of his men who have submitted to the rites of Baal of Peor."

⁶Yet a certain Israelite came and brought in a Midianite woman to his clansmen in the view of Moses and of the whole Israelite community, while they were weeping at the entrance of the meeting tent.

⁷When Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, and taking a lance in hand,

⁸followed the Israelite into his retreat where he pierced the pair of them, the Israelite and the woman. Thus the slaughter of Israelites was checked;

⁹but only after twenty-four thousand had died.

¹⁰Then the LORD said to Moses,

¹¹"Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned my anger from the Israelites by his zeal for my honor among them; that is why I did not put an end to the Israelites for the offense to my honor.

¹²Announce, therefore, that I hereby give him my pledge of friendship,

¹³which shall be for him and for his descendants after him the pledge of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous on behalf of his God and thus made amends for the Israelites."

¹⁴The Israelite slain with the Midianite woman was Zimri, son of Salu, prince of an ancestral house of the Simeonites.

¹⁵The slain Midianite woman was Cozbi, daughter of Zur, who was head of a clan, an ancestral house, in Midian.

¹⁶The LORD then said to Moses,

¹⁷"Treat the Midianites as enemies and crush them,

¹⁸for they have been your enemies by their wily dealings with you as regards Peor and as regards their kinswoman Cozbi, the daughter of a Midianite prince, who was killed at the time of the slaughter because of Peor."

¹⁹After the slaughter

26the LORD said to Moses and Eleazar; son of Aaron the priest,

²"Take a census, by ancestral houses, throughout the community of the Israelites of all those of twenty years or more who are fit for military service in Israel."

³So on the plains of Moab along the Jericho stretch of the Jordan, Moses and the priest Eleazar registered

⁴those of twenty years or more, as the LORD had commanded Moses. The Israelites who came out of the land of Egypt were as follows:

⁵Of Reuben, the first-born of Israel, the Reubenites by clans were: through Hanoch the clan of the Hanochites, through Pallu the clan of the Palluites,

⁶through Hezron the clan of the Hezronites, through Carmi the clan of the Carmites.

⁷These were the clans of the Reubenites, of whom forty-three thousand seven hundred and thirty men were registered.

⁸From Pallu descended Eliab,

⁹and the descendants of Eliab were Dathan and Abiram-the same Dathan and Abiram, councilors of the community, who revolted against Moses and Aaron (like Korah's band when it rebelled against the LORD).

¹⁰The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them as a warning (Korah too and the band that died when the fire consumed two hundred and fifty men.

¹¹The descendents of Korah, however, did not die out).

¹²The Simeonites by clans were: through Nemuel the clan of the Nemuelites, through Jamin the clan of the Jaminites, through Jachin the clan of the Jachinites,

¹³through Sohar the clan of the Soharites, through Shaul the clan of the Shaulites.

¹⁴These were the clans of the Simeonites, of whom twenty-two thousand two hundred men were registered.

¹⁵The Gadites by clans were: through Zephon the clan of the Zephonites, through Haggi the clan of the Haggites, through Shuni the clan of the Shunites,

¹⁶through Ozni the clan of the Oznites, through Eri the clan of the Erites,

¹⁷through Arod the clan of the Arodites, through Areli the clan of the Arelites.

¹⁸These were the clans of the Gadites, of whom forty thousand five hundred men were registered.

¹⁹The sons of Judah who died in the land of Canaan were Er and Onan.

²⁰The Judahites by clans were: through Shelah the clan of the Shelahites, through Perez the clan of the Perezites, through Zerah the clan of the Zerahites.

²¹The Perezites were: through Hezron the clan of the Hezronites, through Hamul the clan of the Hamulites.

²²These were the clans of Judah, of whom seventy-six thousand five hundred men were registered.

²³The Issacharites by clans were: through Tola the clan of the Tolaites, through Puvah the clan of the Puvahites,

²⁴through Jashub the clan of the Jashubites, through Shimron the clan of the Shimronites.

²⁵These were the clans of Issachar, of whom sixty-four thousand three hundred men were registered.

²⁶The Zebulunites by clans were: through Sered the clan of the Seredites, through Elon the clan of the Elonites, through Jahleel the clan of the Jahleelites.

²⁷These were the clans of the Zebulunites, of whom sixty thousand five hundred men were registered.

²⁸The sons of Joseph were Manasseh and Ephraim.

²⁹The Manassehites by clans were: through Machir the clan of the Machirites, through Gilead, a descendant of Machir, the clan of the Gileadites.

³⁰The Gileadites were: through Abiezer the clan of the Abiezrites, through Helek the clan of the Helekites,

³¹through Asriel the clan of the Asrielites, through Shechem the clan of the Shechemites,

³²through Shemida the clan of the Shemidaites, through Hepher the clan of the Hepherites.

³³Zelophehad, son of Hepher, had no sons, but only daughters, whose names were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah.

³⁴These were the clans of Manasseh, of whom fifty-two thousand seven hundred men were registered.

³⁵The Ephraimites by clans were: through Shuthelah the clan of the Shuthelahites, through Becher the clan of the Bechrites, through Tahan the clan of the Tahanites.

³⁶The Shuthelahites were: through Eran the clan of the Eranites.

³⁷These were the clans of the Ephraimites, of whom thirty-two thousand five hundred men were registered. These were the descendants of Joseph by clans.

³⁸The Benjaminites by clans were: through Bela the clan of the Belaites, through Ashbel the clan of the Ashbelites, through Ahiram the clan of the Ahiramites,

³⁹through Shupham the clan of the Shuphamites, through Hupham the clan of the Huphamites.

⁴⁰The descendants of Bela were Arad and Naaman: through Arad the clan of the Aradites, through Naaman the clan of the Naamanites.

⁴¹These were the Benjaminites by clans, of whom forty-five thousand six hundred men were registered.

⁴²The Danites by clans were: through Shuham the clan of the Shuhamites. These were the clans of Dan,

⁴³of whom sixty-four thousand four hundred men were registered.

⁴⁴The Asherites by clans were: through Imnah the clan of the Imnites, through Ishvi the clan of the Ishvites, through Beriah the clan of the Beriites,

⁴⁵through Heber the clan of the Heberites, through Malchiel the clan of the Malchielites.

⁴⁶The name of Asher's daughter was Serah.

⁴⁷These were the clans of Asher, of whom fifty-three thousand four hundred men were registered.

⁴⁸The Naphtalites by clans were: through Jahzeel the clan of the Jahzeelites, through Guni the clan of the Gunites,

⁴⁹through Jezer the clan of the Jezerites, through Shillem the clan of the Shillemites.

⁵⁰These were the clans of Naphtali, of whom forty-five thousand four hundred men were registered.

⁵¹These six hundred and one thousand seven hundred and thirty were the Israelites who were registered.

⁵²The LORD said to Moses,

⁵³"Among these groups the land shall be divided as their heritage in keeping with the number of individuals in each group.

⁵⁴To a large group you shall assign a large heritage, to a small group a small heritage, each group receiving its heritage in proportion to the number of men registered in it.

⁵⁵But the land shall be divided by lot, as the heritage of the various ancestral tribes.

⁵⁶As the lot falls shall each group, large or small, be assigned its heritage."

⁵⁷The Levites registered by clans were: through Gershon the clan of the Gershonites, through Kohath the clan of the Kohathites, through Merari the clan of the Merarites.

⁵⁸These also were clans of Levi: the clan of the Libnites, the clan of the Hebronites, the clan of the Mahlites, the clan of the Mushites, the clan of the Korahites. Among the descendants of Kohath was Amram,

⁵⁹whose wife was named Jochebed. She also was of the tribe of Levi, born to the tribe in Egypt. To Amram she bore Aaron and Moses and their sister Miriam.

⁶⁰To Aaron were born Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

⁶¹But Nadab and Abihu died when they offered profane fire before the LORD.

⁶²The total number of male Levites one month or more of age, who were registered, was twenty-three thousand. They were not registered with the other Israelites, however, for no heritage was given them among the Israelites.

⁶³These, then, were the men registered by Moses and the priest Eleazar in the census of the Israelites taken on the plains of Moab along the Jericho stretch of the Jordan.

⁶⁴Among them there was not a man of those who had been registered by Moses and the priest Aaron in the census of the Israelites taken in the desert of Sinai.

⁶⁵For the LORD had told them that they would surely die in the desert, and not one of them was left except Caleb, son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, son of Nun.

27Zelophehad, son of Hepher, son of Gilead, son of Machir, son of Manasseh, son of Joseph, had daughters named Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah. They came forward,

²and standing in the presence of Moses, the priest Eleazar, the princes, and the whole community at the entrance of the meeting tent, said:

³"Our father died in the desert. Although he did not join those who banded together against the LORD (in Korah's band), he died for his own sin without leaving any sons.

⁴But why should our father's name be withdrawn from his clan merely because he had no son? Let us, therefore, have property among our father's kinsmen."

⁵When Moses laid their case before the LORD,

⁶the LORD said to him,

⁷"The plea of Zelophehad's daughters is just; you shall give them hereditary property among their father's kinsmen, letting their father's heritage pass on to them.

⁸Therefore, tell the Israelites: If a man dies without leaving a son, you shall let his heritage pass on to his daughter;

⁹if he has no daughter, you shall give his heritage to his brothers;

¹⁰if he has no brothers, you shall give his heritage to his father's brothers;

¹¹if his father had no brothers, you shall give his heritage to his nearest relative in his clan, who shall then take possession of it." This is the legal norm for the Israelites, as the LORD commanded Moses.

¹²The LORD said to Moses, "Go up here into the Abarim Mountains and view the land that I am giving to the Israelites.

¹³When you have viewed it, you too shall be taken to your people, as was your brother Aaron,

¹⁴because in the rebellion of the community in the desert of Zin you both rebelled against my order to manifest my sanctity to them by means of the water." (This is the water of Meribah of Kadesh in the desert of Zin.)

¹⁵Then Moses said to the LORD,

¹⁶"May the LORD, the God of the spirits of all mankind, set over the community a man

¹⁷who shall act as their leader in all things, to guide them in all their actions; that the LORD'S community may not be like sheep without a shepherd."

¹⁸And the LORD replied to Moses, "Take Joshua, son of Nun, a man of spirit, and lay your hand upon him.

¹⁹Have him stand in the presence of the priest Eleazar and of the whole community, and commission him before their eyes.

²⁰Invest him with some of your own dignity, that the whole Israelite community may obey him.

²¹He shall present himself to the priest Eleazar, to have him seek out for him the decisions of the Urim in the LORD'S presence; and as he directs, Joshua, all the Israelites with him, and the community as a whole shall perform all their actions."

²²Moses did as the LORD had commanded him. Taking Joshua and having him stand in the presence of the priest Eleazar and of the whole community,

²³he laid his hands on him and gave him his commission, as the LORD had directed through Moses.

28The LORD said to Moses,

²"Give the Israelites this commandment: At the times I have appointed, you shall be careful to present to me the food offerings that are offered to me as sweet-smelling oblations.

³"You shall tell them therefore: This is the oblation which you shall offer to the LORD: two unblemished yearling lambs each day as the established holocaust,

⁴offering one lamb in the morning and the other during the evening twilight,

⁵each with a cereal offering of one tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a fourth of a hin of oil of crushed olives.

⁶This is the established holocaust that was offered at Mount Sinai as a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD.

⁷And as the libation for the first lamb, you shall pour out to the LORD in the sanctuary a fourth of a hin of wine.

⁸The other lamb, to be offered during the evening twilight, you shall offer with the same cereal offering and the same libation as in the morning, as a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD.

⁹"On the sabbath day you shall offer two unblemished yearling lambs, with their cereal offering, two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, and with their libations.

¹⁰Each sabbath there shall be the sabbath holocaust in addition to the established holocaust and its libation.

¹¹"On the first of each month you shall offer as a holocaust to the LORD two bullocks, one ram, and seven unblemished yearling lambs,

¹²with three tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil as the cereal offering for each bullock, two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil as the cereal offering for the ram,

¹³and one tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil as the cereal offering for each lamb, that the holocaust may be a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD.

¹⁴Their libations shall be half a hin of wine for each bullock, a third of a hin for the ram, and a fourth of a hin for each lamb. This is the new moon holocaust for every new moon of the year.

¹⁵Moreover, one goat shall be sacrificed as a sin offering to the LORD. These are to be offered in addition to the established holocaust and its libation.

¹⁶"On the fourteenth day of the first month falls the Passover of the LORD,

¹⁷and the fifteenth day of this month is the pilgrimage feast. For seven days unleavened bread is to be eaten.

¹⁸On the first of these days you shall hold a sacred assembly, and do no sort of work.

¹⁹As an oblation you shall offer a holocaust to the LORD, which shall consist of two bullocks, one ram, and seven yearling lambs that you are sure are unblemished,

²⁰with their cereal offerings of fine flour mixed with oil; offering three tenths of an ephah for each bullock, two tenths for the ram,

²¹and one tenth for each of the seven lambs;

²²and offer one goat as a sin offering in atonement for yourselves.

²³These offerings you shall make in addition to the established morning holocaust:

²⁴you shall make exactly the same offerings each day for seven days as food offerings, in addition to the established holocaust with its libation, for a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD.

²⁵On the seventh day you shall hold a sacred assembly, and do no sort of work.

²⁶"On the day of first fruits, on your feast of Weeks, when you present to the LORD the new cereal offering, you shall hold a sacred assembly, and do no sort of work.

²⁷You shall offer as a sweet-smelling holocaust to the LORD two bullocks, one ram, and seven yearling lambs that you are sure are unblemished,

²⁸with their cereal offerings of fine flour mixed with oil; offering three tenths of an ephah for each bullock, two tenths for the ram,

²⁹and one tenth for each of the seven lambs.

³⁰Moreover, one goat shall be offered as a sin offering in atonement for yourselves.

³¹You shall make these offerings, together with their libations, in addition to the established holocaust with its cereal offering.

29"On the first day of the seventh month you shall hold a sacred assembly, and do no sort of work; it shall be a day on which you sound the trumpet.

²You shall offer as a sweet-smelling holocaust to the LORD one bullock, one ram, and seven unblemished yearling lambs,

³with their cereal offerings of fine flour mixed with oil; offering three tenths of an ephah for the bullock, two tenths for the ram,

⁴and one tenth for each of the seven lambs.

⁵Moreover, one goat shall be offered as a sin offering in atonement for yourselves.

⁶These are to be offered in addition to the ordinary new-moon holocaust with its cereal offering, and in addition to the established holocaust with its cereal offering, together with the libations prescribed for them, as a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD.

⁷"On the tenth day of this seventh month you shall hold a sacred assembly, and mortify yourselves, and do no sort of work.

⁸You shall offer as a sweet-smelling holocaust to the LORD one bullock, one ram, and seven yearling lambs that you are sure are unblemished,

⁹with their cereal offerings of fine flour mixed with oil; offering three tenths of an ephah for the bullock, two tenths for the ram,

¹⁰and one tenth for each of the seven lambs.

¹¹Moreover, one goat shall be sacrificed as a sin offering. These are to be offered in addition to the atonement sin offering, the established holocaust with its cereal offering, and their libations.

¹²"On the fifteenth day of the seventh month you shall hold a sacred assembly, and do no sort of work; then, for seven days following, you shall celebrate a pilgrimage feast to the LORD.

¹³You shall offer as a sweet-smelling holocaust to the LORD thirteen bullocks, two rams, and fourteen yearling lambs that are unblemished,

¹⁴with their cereal offerings of fine flour mixed with oil; offering three tenths of an ephah for each of the thirteen bullocks, two tenths for each of the two rams,

¹⁵and one tenth for each of the fourteen lambs.

¹⁶Moreover, one goat shall be sacrificed as a sin offering. These are to be offered in addition to the established holocaust with its cereal offering and libation.

¹⁷"On the second day you shall offer twelve bullocks, two rams, and fourteen unblemished yearling lambs,

¹⁸with their cereal offerings and libations as prescribed for the bullocks, rams and lambs in proportion to their number,

¹⁹as well as one goat for a sin offering, besides the established holocaust with its cereal offering and libation.

²⁰"On the third day you shall offer eleven bullocks, two rams, and fourteen unblemished yearling lambs,

²¹with their cereal offerings and libations as prescribed for the bullocks, rams and lambs in proportion to their number,

²²as well as one goat for a sin offering, besides the established holocaust with its cereal offering and libation.

²³"On the fourth day you shall offer ten bullocks, two rams, and fourteen unblemished yearling lambs,

²⁴with their cereal offerings and libations as prescribed for the bullocks, rams and lambs in proportion to their number,

²⁵as well as one goat for a sin offering, besides the established holocaust with its cereal offering and libation.

²⁶"On the fifth day you shall offer nine bullocks, two rams, and fourteen unblemished yearling lambs,

²⁷with their cereal offerings and libations as prescribed for the bullocks, rams and lambs in proportion to their number,

²⁸as well as one goat for a sin offering, besides the established holocaust with its cereal offering and libation.

²⁹"On the sixth day you shall offer eight bullocks, two rams, and fourteen unblemished yearling lambs,

³⁰with their cereal offerings and libations as prescribed for the bullocks, rams and lambs in proportion to their number,

³¹as well as one goat for a sin offering, besides the established holocaust with its cereal offering and libation.

³²"On the seventh day you shall offer seven bullocks, two rams, and fourteen unblemished yearling lambs,

³³with their cereal offerings and libations as prescribed for the bullocks, rams and lambs in proportion to their number,

³⁴as well as one goat for a sin offering, besides the established holocaust with its cereal offering and libation.

³⁵"On the eighth day you shall hold a solemn meeting, and do no sort of work.

³⁶You shall offer up in holocaust as a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD one bullock, one ram, and seven unblemished yearling lambs,

³⁷with their cereal offerings and libations as prescribed for the bullocks, rams and lambs in proportion to their number,

³⁸as well as one goat for a sin offering, besides the established holocaust with its cereal offering and libation.

³⁹"These are the offerings you shall make to the LORD on your festivals, besides whatever holocausts, cereal offerings, libations, and peace offerings you present as your votive or freewill offerings."

30Moses then gave the Israelites these instructions, just as the LORD had ordered him.

²Moses said to the heads of the Israelite tribes, "This is what the LORD has commanded:

³When a man makes a vow to the LORD or binds himself under oath to a pledge of abstinence, he shall not violate his word, but must fulfill exactly the promise he has uttered.

⁴"When a woman, while still a maiden in her father's house, makes a vow to the LORD, or binds herself to a pledge,

⁵if her father learns of her vow or the pledge to which she bound herself and says nothing to her about it, then any vow or any pledge she has made remains valid.

⁶But if on the day he learns of it her father expresses to her his disapproval, then any vow or any pledge she has made becomes null and void; and the LORD releases her from it, since her father has expressed to her his disapproval.

⁷"If she marries while under a vow or under a rash pledge to which she bound herself,

⁸and her husband learns of it, yet says nothing to her that day about it, then the vow or pledge she had made remains valid.

⁹But if on the day he learns of it her husband expresses to her his disapproval, he thereby annuls the vow she had made or the rash pledge to which she had bound herself, and the LORD releases her from it.

¹⁰The vow of a widow or of a divorced woman, or any pledge to which such a woman binds herself, is valid.

¹¹"If it is in her husband's house that she makes a vow or binds herself under oath to a pledge,

¹²and her husband learns of it yet says nothing to express to her his disapproval, then any vow or any pledge she has made remains valid.

¹³But if on the day he learns of them her husband annuls them, then whatever she has expressly promised in her vow or in her pledge becomes null and void; since her husband has annulled them, the LORD releases her from them.

¹⁴"Any vow or any pledge that she makes under oath to mortify herself, her husband can either allow to remain valid or render null and void.

¹⁵But if her husband, day after day, says nothing at all to her about them, he thereby allows as valid any vow or any pledge she has made; he has allowed them to remain valid, because on the day he learned of them he said nothing to her about them.

¹⁶If, however, he countermands them some time after he first learned of them, he is responsible for her guilt."

¹⁷These are the statutes which the LORD prescribed through Moses concerning the relationship between a husband and his wife, as well as between a father and his daughter while she is still a maiden in her father's house.

31The LORD said to Moses,

²"Avenge the Israelites on the Midianites, and then you shall be taken to your people."

³So Moses told the people, "Select men from your midst and arm them for war, to attack the Midianites and execute the LORD'S vengeance on them.

⁴From each of the tribes of Israel you shall send a band of one thousand men to war."

⁵From the clans of Israel, therefore, a thousand men of each tribe were levied, so that there were twelve thousand men armed for war.

⁶Moses sent them out on the campaign, a thousand from each tribe, with Phinehas, son of Eleazar, the priest for the campaign, who had with him the sacred vessels and the trumpets for sounding the alarm.

⁷They waged war against the Midianites, as the LORD had commanded Moses, and killed every male among them.

⁸Besides those slain in battle, they killed the five Midianite kings: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba; and they also executed Balaam, son of Beor, with the sword.

⁹But the Israelites kept the women of the Midianites with their little ones as captives, and all their herds and flocks and wealth as spoil,

¹⁰while they set on fire all the towns where they had settled and all their encampments.

¹¹Then they took all the booty, with the people and beasts they had captured, and brought the captives, together with the spoils and booty,

¹²to Moses and the priest Eleazar and to the Israelite community at their camp on the plains of Moab, along the Jericho stretch of the Jordan.

¹³When Moses and the priest Eleazar, with all the princes of the community, went outside the camp to meet them,

¹⁴Moses became angry with the officers of the army, the clan and company commanders, who were returning from combat.

¹⁵"So you have spared all the women!" he exclaimed.

¹⁶"Why, they are the very ones who on Balaam's advice prompted the unfaithfulness of the Israelites toward the LORD in the Peor affair, which began the slaughter of the LORD'S community.

¹⁷Slay, therefore, every male child and every woman who has had intercourse with a man.

¹⁸But you may spare and keep for yourselves all girls who had no intercourse with a man.

¹⁹"Moreover, you shall stay outside the camp for seven days, and those of you who have slain anyone or touched anyone slain in battle shall purify yourselves on the third and on the seventh day. This applies both to you and to your captives.

²⁰You shall also purify every article of cloth, leather, goats' hair, or wood."

²¹Eleazar the priest told the soldiers who had returned from combat: "This is what the law, as prescribed by the LORD to Moses, ordains:

²²Whatever can stand fire, such as gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin and lead,

²³you shall put into the fire, that it may become clean; however, it must also be purified with lustral water. But whatever cannot stand fire you shall put into the water.

²⁴On the seventh day you shall wash your clothes, and then you will again be clean. After that you may enter the camp."

²⁵The LORD said to Moses:

²⁶"With the help of the priest Eleazar and of the heads of the ancestral houses, count up all the human captives and the beasts that have been taken;

²⁷then divide them evenly, giving half to those who took active part in the war by going out to combat, and half to the rest of the community.

²⁸You shall levy a tax for the LORD on the warriors who went out to combat: one out of every five hundred persons, oxen, asses and sheep

²⁹in their half of the spoil you shall turn over to the priest Eleazar as a contribution to the LORD.

³⁰From the Israelites' half you shall take one out of every fifty persons, and the same from the different beasts, oxen, asses and sheep, and give them to the Levites, who have charge of the LORD'S Dwelling."

³¹So Moses and the priest Eleazar did this, as the LORD had commanded Moses.

³²This booty, what was left of the loot which the soldiers had taken, amounted to six hundred and seventy-five thousand sheep,

³³seventy-two thousand oxen,

³⁴sixty-one thousand asses,

³⁵and thirty-two thousand girls who were still virgins.

³⁶The half that fell to those who had gone out to combat was: three hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep,

³⁷of which six hundred and seventy-five fell as tax to the LORD;

³⁸thirty-six thousand oxen, of which seventy-two fell as tax to the LORD;

³⁹thirty thousand five hundred asses, of which sixty-one fell as tax to the LORD;

⁴⁰and sixteen thousand persons, of whom thirty-two fell as tax to the LORD.

⁴¹The taxes contributed to the LORD, Moses gave to the priest Eleazar, as the LORD had commanded him.

⁴²The half for the other Israelites, which fell to the community when Moses had taken it from the soldiers, was:

⁴³three hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep,

⁴⁴thirty-six thousand oxen,

⁴⁵thirty thousand five hundred asses,

⁴⁶and sixteen thousand persons.

⁴⁷From this, the Israelites' share, Moses, as the LORD had ordered, took one out of every fifty, both of persons and of beasts, and gave them to the Levites, who had charge of the LORD'S Dwelling.

⁴⁸Then the officers who had been clan and company commanders of the army came up to Moses

⁴⁹and said to him, "Your servants have counted up the soldiers under our command, and not one is missing.

⁵⁰So, to make atonement for ourselves before the LORD, each of us will bring as an offering to the LORD some gold article he has picked up, such as an anklet, a bracelet, a ring, an earring, or a necklace."

⁵¹Moses and the priest Eleazar accepted this gold from them, all of it in well-wrought articles.

⁵²The gold that they gave as a contribution to the LORD amounted in all to sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels. This was from the clan and company commanders;

⁵³what the common soldiers had looted each one kept for himself.

⁵⁴Moses, then, and the priest Eleazar accepted the gold from the clan and company commanders, and put it in the meeting tent as a memorial for the Israelites before the LORD.

32Now the Reubenites and Gadites had a very large number of livestock. Noticing that the land of Jazer and of Gilead was grazing country,

²they came to Moses and the priest Eleazar and to the princes of the community and said,

³"The region of Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo and Baal-meon,

⁴which the LORD has laid low before the community of Israel, is grazing country. Now, since your servants have livestock,"

⁵they continued, "if we find favor with you, let this land be given to your servants as their property. Do not make us cross the Jordan."

⁶But Moses answered the Gadites and Reubenites: "Are your kinsmen, then, to engage in war, while you remain here?

⁷Why do you wish to discourage the Israelites from crossing to the land the LORD has given them?

⁸That is just what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to reconnoiter the land.

⁹They went up to the Wadi Eshcol and reconnoitered the land, then so discouraged the Israelites that they would not enter the land the LORD had given them.

¹⁰At that time the wrath of the LORD flared up, and he swore,

¹¹'Because they have not followed me unreservedly, none of these men of twenty years or more who have come up from Egypt shall ever see this country I promised under oath to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob,

¹²except the Kenizzite Caleb, son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, son of Nun, who have followed the LORD unreservedly.'

¹³So in his anger with the Israelites the LORD made them wander in the desert forty years, until the whole generation that had done evil in the sight of the LORD had died out.

¹⁴And now here you are, a brood of sinners, rising up in your fathers' place to add still more to the LORD'S blazing wrath against the Israelites.

¹⁵If you turn away from following him, he will make them stay still longer in the desert, and so you will bring about the ruin of this whole nation."

¹⁶But they were insistent with him: "We wish only to build sheepfolds here for our flocks, and towns for our families;

¹⁷but we ourselves will march as troops in the van of the Israelites, until we have led them to their destination. Meanwhile our families can remain here in the fortified towns, safe from attack by the natives.

¹⁸We will not return to our homes until every one of the Israelites has taken possession of his heritage,

¹⁹and will not claim any heritage with them once we cross the Jordan, so long as we receive a heritage for ourselves on this eastern side of the Jordan."

²⁰Moses said to them in reply: "If you keep your word to march as troops in the LORD'S vanguard

²¹and to cross the Jordan in full force before the LORD until he has driven his enemies out of his way

²²and the land is subdued before him, then you may return here, quit of every obligation to the LORD and to Israel, and this region shall be your possession before the LORD.

²³But if you do not do this, you will sin against the LORD, and you can be sure that you will not escape the consequences of your sin.

²⁴Build the towns, then, for your families, and the folds for your flocks, but also fulfill your express promise."

²⁵The Gadites and Reubenites answered Moses, "Your servants will do as you command, my lord.

²⁶While our wives and children, our herds and other livestock remain in the towns of Gilead,

²⁷all your servants will go across as armed troops to battle before the LORD, just as your lordship says."

²⁸Moses, therefore, gave this order in their regard to the priest Eleazar, to Joshua, son of Nun, and to the heads of the ancestral tribes of the Israelites:

²⁹"If all the Gadites and Reubenites cross the Jordan with you as combat troops before the LORD, you shall give them Gilead as their property when the land has been subdued before you.

³⁰But if they will not go across with you as combat troops before the LORD, you shall bring their wives and children and livestock across before you into Canaan, and they shall have their property with you in the land of Canaan."

³¹To this the Gadites and Reubenites replied, "We will do what the LORD has commanded us, your servants.

³²We ourselves will go across into the land of Canaan as troops before the LORD, but we will retain our hereditary property on this side of the Jordan."

³³So Moses gave them (the Gadites and Reubenites, as well as half the tribe of Manasseh, son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og, king of Bashan,) the land with its towns and the districts that surrounded them.

³⁴The Gadites rebuilt the fortified towns of Dibon, Ataroth, Aroer,

³⁵Atroth-shophan, Jazer, Jogbehah,

³⁶Beth-nimrah and Beth-haran, and they built sheepfolds.

³⁷The Reubenites rebuilt Heshbon, Elealeh, Kiriathaim,

³⁸Nebo, Baal-meon (names to be changed!), and Sibmah. These towns, which they rebuilt, they called by their old names.

³⁹The descendants of Machir, son of Manasseh, invaded Gilead and captured it, driving out the Amorites who were there.

⁴⁰(Moses gave Gilead to Machir, son of Manasseh, and he settled there.)

⁴¹Jair, a Manassehite clan, campaigned against the tent villages, captured them and called them Havvoth-jair.

⁴²Nobah also campaigned against Kenath, captured it with its dependencies and called it Nobah after his own name.

33The following are the stages by which the Israelites journeyed up by companies from the land of Egypt under the guidance of Moses and Aaron.

²By the LORD'S command Moses recorded the starting places of the various stages. The starting places of the successive stages were:

³They set out from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month. On the Passover morrow the Israelites went forth in triumph, in view of all Egypt,

⁴While the Egyptians buried their first-born all of whom the LORD had struck down; on their gods, too, the LORD executed judgments.

⁵Setting out from Rameses, the Israelites camped at Succoth.

⁶Setting out from Succoth, they camped at Etham near the edge of the desert.

⁷Setting out from Etham, they turned back to Pi-hahiroth, which is opposite Baal-zephon, and they camped opposite Migdol.

⁸Setting out from Pi-hahiroth, they crossed over through the sea into the desert, and after a three days' journey in the desert of Etham, they camped at Marah.

⁹Setting out from Marah, they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they camped there.

¹⁰Setting out from Elim, they camped beside the Red Sea.

¹¹Setting out from the Red Sea, they camped in the desert of Sin.

¹²Setting out from the desert of Sin, they camped at Dophkah.

¹³Setting out from Dophkah, they camped at Alush.

¹⁴Setting out from Alush, they camped at Rephidim, where there was no water for the people to drink.

¹⁵Setting out from Rephidim, they camped in the desert of Sinai.

¹⁶Setting out from the desert of Sinai, they camped at Kibroth-hattaavah.

¹⁷Setting out from Kibroth-hattaavah, they camped at Hazeroth.

¹⁸Setting out from Hazeroth, they camped at Rithmah.

¹⁹Setting out from Rithmah, they camped at Rimmon-perez.

²⁰Setting out from Rimmon-perez, they camped at Libnah.

²¹Setting out from Libnah, they camped at Rissah.

²²Setting out from Rissah, they camped at Kehelathah.

²³Setting out from Kehelathah, they camped at Mount Shepher.

²⁴Setting out from Mount Shepher, they camped at Haradah.

²⁵Setting out from Haradah, they camped at Makheloth.

²⁶Setting out from Makheloth, they camped at Tahath.

²⁷Setting out from Tahath, they camped at Terah.

²⁸Setting out from Terah, they camped at Mithkah.

²⁹Setting out from Mithkah, they camped at Hashmonah.

³⁰Setting out from Hashmonah,-They camped at Moseroth.

³¹Setting out from Moseroth, they camped at Bene-jaakan.

³²Setting out from Bene-jaakan, they camped at Mount Gidgad.

³³Setting out from Mount Gidgad, they camped at Jotbathah.

³⁴Setting out from Jotbathah, they camped at Abronah.

³⁵Setting out from Abronah, they camped at Ezion-geber.

³⁶Setting out from Ezion-geber,-They camped in the desert of Zin, at Kadesh.

³⁷Setting out from Kadesh, they camped at Mount Hor on the border of the land of Edom.

³⁸(Aaron the priest ascended Mount Hor at the LORD'S command, and there he died in the fortieth year from the departure of the Israelites from the land of Egypt, on the first day of the fifth month.

³⁹Aaron was a hundred and twenty-three years old when he died on Mount Hor.

⁴⁰Now, when the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negeb in the land of Canaan, heard that the Israelites were coming. . . . )

⁴¹Setting out from Mount Hor,-They camped at Zalmonah.

⁴²Setting out from Zalmonah, they camped at Punon.

⁴³Setting out from Punon, they camped at Oboth.

⁴⁴Setting out from Oboth, they camped at Iye-abarim on the border of Moab.

⁴⁵Setting out from Iye-abarim, they camped at Dibon-gad.

⁴⁶Setting out from Dibon-gad, they camped at Almon-diblathaim.

⁴⁷Setting out from Almon-diblathaim, they camped in the Abarim Mountains opposite Nebo.

⁴⁸Setting out from the Abarim Mountains, they camped on the plains of Moab along the Jericho stretch of the Jordan.

⁴⁹Their camp along the Jordan on the plains of Moab extended from Beth-jeshimoth to Abelshittim.

⁵⁰The LORD spoke to Moses on the plains of Moab beside the Jericho stretch of the Jordan and said to him:

⁵¹"Tell the Israelites: When you go across the Jordan into the land of Canaan,

⁵²drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you; destroy all their stone figures and molten images, and demolish all their high places.

⁵³"You shall take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land as your property.

⁵⁴You shall apportion the land among yourselves by lot, clan by clan, assigning a large heritage to a large group and a small heritage to a small group. Wherever anyone's lot falls, there shall his property be within the heritage of his ancestral tribe.

⁵⁵"But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, those whom you allow to remain will become as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they will harass you in the country where you live,

⁵⁶and I will treat you as I had intended to treat them."

34The LORD said to Moses,

²"Give the Israelites this order: When you enter the land of Canaan, this is the territory that shall fall to you as your heritage--the land of Canaan with its boundaries:

³"Your southern boundary shall be at the desert of Zin along the border of Edom; on the east it shall begin at the end of the Salt Sea,

⁴and turning south of the Akrabbim Pass, it shall cross Zin, and extend south of Kadesh-barnea to Hazar-addar; thence it shall cross to Azmon,

⁵and turning from Azmon to the Wadi of Egypt, shall terminate at the Sea.

⁶"For your western boundary you shall have the Great Sea with its coast; this shall be your western boundary.

⁷"The following shall be your boundary on the north: from the Great Sea you shall draw a line to Mount Hor,

⁸and shall continue it from Mount Hor to Labo in the land of Hamath, with the boundary extending through Zedad.

⁹Thence the boundary shall reach to Ziphron and terminate at Hazar-enan. This shall be your northern boundary.

¹⁰"For your eastern boundary you shall draw a line from Hazar-enan to Shepham.

¹¹From Shepham the boundary shall go down to Ar-Baal, east of Ain, and descending further, shall strike the ridge on the east side of the Sea of Chinnereth;

¹²thence the boundary shall continue along the Jordan and terminate with the Salt Sea. "This is the land that shall be yours, with the boundaries that surround it."

¹³Moses also gave this order to the Israelites: "This is the land, to be apportioned among you by lot, which the LORD has commanded to be given to the nine and one half tribes.

¹⁴For all the ancestral houses of the tribe of Reuben, and the ancestral houses of the tribe of Gad, as well as half of the tribe of Manasseh, have already received their heritage;

¹⁵these two and one half tribes have received their heritage on the eastern side of the Jericho stretch of the Jordan, toward the sunrise."

¹⁶The LORD said to Moses,

¹⁷"These are the names of the men who shall apportion the land among you: Eleazar the priest, and Joshua, son of Nun,

¹⁸and one prince from each of the tribes whom you shall designate for this task.

¹⁹These shall be as follows: from the tribe of Judah: Caleb, son of Jephunneh,

²⁰from the tribe of Simeon: Samuel, son of Ammihud;

²¹from the tribe of Benjamin: Elidad, son of Chislon;

²²from the tribe of Dan: Bukki, son of Jogli;

²³from the tribe of Manasseh: Hanniel, son of Ephod; and

²⁴from the tribe of Ephraim: Kemuel, son of Shiphtan, for the descendants of Joseph;

²⁵from the tribe of Zebulun: Elizaphan, son of Parnach;

²⁶from the tribe of Issachar: Paltiel, son of Azzan;

²⁷from the tribe of Asher: Ahihud, son of Shelomi;

²⁸from the tribe of Naphtali: Pedahel, son of Ammihud."

²⁹These are they whom the LORD commanded to assign the Israelites their heritage in the land of Canaan.

35The LORD gave these instructions to Moses on the plains of Moab beside the Jericho stretch of the Jordan:

²"Tell the Israelites that out of their hereditary property they shall give the Levites cities for homes, as well as pasture lands around the cities.

³The cities shall serve them to dwell in, and the pasture lands shall serve their herds and flocks and other animals.

⁴The pasture lands of the cities to be assigned the Levites shall extend a thousand cubits from the city walls in each direction.

⁵Thus you shall measure out two thousand cubits outside the city along each side-east, south, west and north-with the city lying in the center. This shall serve them as the pasture lands of their cities.

⁶"Now these are the cities you shall give to the Levites: the six cities of asylum which you must establish as places where a homicide can take refuge, and in addition forty-two other cities--

⁷a total of forty-eight cities with their pasture lands to be assigned the Levites.

⁸In assigning the cities from the property of the Israelites, take more from a larger group and fewer from a smaller one, so that each group will cede cities to the Levites in proportion to its own heritage."

⁹The LORD said to Moses,

¹⁰"Tell the Israelites: When you go across the Jordan into the land of Canaan,

¹¹select for yourselves cities to serve as cities of asylum, where a homicide who has killed someone unintentionally may take refuge.

¹²These cities shall serve you as places of asylum from the avenger of blood, so that a homicide shall not be put to death unless he is first tried before the community.

¹³Six cities of asylum shall you assign:

¹⁴three beyond the Jordan, and three in the land of Canaan.

¹⁵These six cities of asylum shall serve not only the Israelites but all the resident or transient aliens among them, so that anyone who has killed another unintentionally may take refuge there.

¹⁶"If a man strikes another with an iron instrument and causes his death, he is a murderer and shall be put to death.

¹⁷If a man strikes another with a death-dealing stone in his hand and causes his death, he is a murderer and shall be put to death.

¹⁸If a man strikes another with a death-dealing club in his hand and causes his death, he is a murderer and shall be put to death.

¹⁹The avenger of blood may execute the murderer, putting him to death on sight.

²⁰"If a man pushes another out of hatred, or after lying in wait for him throws something at him, and causes his death,

²¹or if he strikes another out of enmity and causes his death, he shall be put to death as a murderer. The avenger of blood may execute the murderer on sight.

²²"However, if a man pushes another accidentally and not out of enmity, or if without lying in wait for him he throws some object at him,

²³or without seeing him throws a death-dealing stone which strikes him and causes his death, although he was not his enemy nor seeking to harm him:

²⁴then the community, deciding the case between the slayer and the avenger of blood in accordance with these norms,

²⁵shall free the homicide from the avenger of blood and shall remand him to the city of asylum where he took refuge; and he shall stay there until the death of the high priest who has been anointed with sacred oil.

²⁶If the homicide of his own accord leaves the bounds of the city of asylum where he has taken refuge,

²⁷and the avenger of blood finds him beyond these bounds and kills him, the avenger incurs no bloodguilt;

²⁸the homicide was bound to stay in his city of asylum until the death of the high priest. Only after the death of the high priest may the homicide return to his own district.

²⁹"These shall be norms for you and all your descendants, wherever you live, for rendering judgment.

³⁰"Whenever someone kills another, the evidence of witnesses is required for the execution of the murderer. The evidence of a single witness is not sufficient for putting a person to death.

³¹"You shall not accept indemnity in place of the life of a murderer who deserves the death penalty; he must be put to death.

³²Nor shall you accept indemnity to allow a refugee to leave his city of asylum and again dwell elsewhere in the land before the death of the high priest.

³³You shall not desecrate the land where you live. Since bloodshed desecrates the land, the land can have no atonement for the blood shed on it except through the blood of him who shed it.

³⁴Do not defile the land in which you live and in the midst of which I dwell; for I am the LORD who dwells in the midst of the Israelites."

36The heads of the ancestral houses in the clan of descendants of Gilead, son of Machir, son of Manasseh-one of the Josephite clans-came up and laid this plea before Moses and the priest Eleazar and before the princes who were the heads of the ancestral houses of the other Israelites.

²They said: "The LORD commanded you, my lord, to apportion the land by lot among the Israelites; and you, my lord, were also commanded by the LORD to give the heritage of our kinsman Zelophehad to his daughters.

³But if they marry into one of the other Israelite tribes, their heritage will be withdrawn from our ancestral heritage and will be added to that of the tribe into which they marry; thus the heritage that fell to us by lot will be diminished.

⁴When the Israelites celebrate the jubilee year, the heritage of these women will be permanently added to that of the tribe into which they marry and will be withdrawn from that of our ancestral tribe."

⁵So Moses gave this regulation to the Israelites according to the instructions of the LORD: "The tribe of the Josephites are right in what they say.

⁶This is what the LORD commands with regard to the daughters of Zelophehad: They may marry anyone they please, provided they marry into a clan of their ancestral tribe,

⁷so that no heritage of the Israelites will pass from one tribe to another, but all the Israelites will retain their own ancestral heritage.

⁸Therefore, every daughter who inherits property in any of the Israelite tribes shall marry someone belonging to a clan of her own ancestral tribe, in order that all the Israelites may remain in possession of their own ancestral heritage.

⁹Thus, no heritage can pass from one tribe to another, but all the Israelite tribes will retain their own ancestral heritage."

¹⁰The daughters of Zelophehad obeyed the command which the LORD had given to Moses.

¹¹Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah and Noah, Zelophehad's daughters, married relatives on their father's side

¹²within the clans of the descendants of Manasseh, son of Joseph; hence their heritage remained in the tribe of their father's clan.

¹³These are the commandments and decisions which the LORD prescribed for the Israelites through Moses, on the plains of Moab beside the Jericho stretch of the Jordan.

1These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan ( in the desert, in the Arabah, opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab;

²it is a journey of eleven days from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea by way of the highlands of Seir).

³In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the Israelites all the commands that the LORD had given him in their regard.

⁴After he had defeated Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and in Edrei,

⁵Moses began to explain the law in the land of Moab beyond the Jordan, as follows:

⁶"The LORD, our God, said to us at Horeb, 'You have stayed long enough at this mountain.

⁷Leave here and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all the surrounding regions, the land of the Canaanites in the Arabah, the mountains, the foothills, the Negeb and the seacoast; to Lebanon, and as far as the Great River (the Euphrates).

⁸I have given that land over to you. Go now and occupy the land I swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, I would give to them and to their descendants.'

⁹"At that time I said to you, 'Alone, I am unable to carry you.

¹⁰The LORD, your God, has so multiplied you that you are now as numerous as the stars in the sky.

¹¹May the LORD, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand times over, and bless you as he promised!

¹²But how can I alone bear the crushing burden that you are, along with your bickering?

¹³Choose wise, intelligent and experienced men from each of your tribes, that I may appoint them as your leaders.'

¹⁴You answered me, 'We agree to do as you have proposed.'

¹⁵So I took outstanding men of your tribes, wise and experienced, and made them your leaders as officials over thousands, over hundreds, over fifties and over tens, and other tribal officers.

¹⁶I charged your judges at that time, 'Listen to complaints among your kinsmen, and administer true justice to both parties even if one of them is an alien.

¹⁷In rendering judgment, do not consider who a person is; give ear to the lowly and to the great alike, fearing no man, for judgment is God's. Refer to me any case that is too hard for you and I will hear it.'

¹⁸Thereupon I gave you all the commands you were to fulfill.

¹⁹"Then, in obedience to the command of the LORD, our God, we set out from Horeb and journeyed through the whole desert, vast and fearful as you have seen, in the direction of the hill country of the Amorites. We had reached Kadesh-barnea

²⁰when I said to you, 'You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the LORD, our God, is giving us.

²¹The LORD, your God, has given this land over to you. Go up and occupy it, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, commands you. Do not fear or lose heart.'

²²Then all of you came up to me and said, 'Let us send men ahead to reconnoiter the land for us and report to us on the road we must follow and the cities we must take.'

²³Agreeing with the proposal, I chose twelve men from your number, one from each tribe.

²⁴They set out into the hill country as far as the Wadi Eshcol, and explored it.

²⁵Then, taking along some of the fruit of the land, they brought it down to us and reported, 'The land which the LORD, our God, gives us is good.'

²⁶"But you refused to go up, and after defying the command of the LORD, your God,

²⁷you set to murmuring in your tents, 'Out of hatred for us the LORD has brought us up out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites and destroy us.

²⁸What shall we meet with up there? Our kinsmen have made us fainthearted by reporting that the people are stronger and taller than we, and their cities are large and fortified to the sky; besides, they saw the Anakim there.'

²⁹"But I said to you, 'Have no dread or fear of them.

³⁰The LORD, your God, who goes before you, will himself fight for you, just as he took your part before your very eyes in Egypt,

³¹as well as in the desert, where you saw how the LORD, your God, carried you, as a man carries his child, all along your journey until you arrived at this place.'

³²Despite this, you would not trust the LORD, your God,

³³who journeys before you to find you a resting place--by day in the cloud, and by night in the fire, to show the way you must go.

³⁴When the LORD heard your words, he was angry;

³⁵and he swore, 'Not one man of this evil generation shall look upon the good land I swore to give to your fathers,

³⁶except Caleb, son of Jephunneh; he shall see it. For to him and to his sons I will give the land he trod upon, because he has followed the LORD unreservedly.'

³⁷"The LORD was angered against me also on your account, and said, 'Not even you shall enter there,

³⁸but your aide Joshua, son of Nun, shall enter. Encourage him, for he is to give Israel its heritage.

³⁹Your little ones, who you said would become booty, and your children, who as yet do not know good from bad--they shall enter; to them I will give it, and they shall occupy it.

⁴⁰But as for yourselves: turn about and proceed into the desert on the Red Sea road.'

⁴¹"In reply you said to me, 'We have sinned against the LORD. We will go up ourselves and fight, just as the LORD, our God, commanded us.' And each of you girded on his weapons, making light of going up into the hill country.

⁴²But the LORD said to me, 'Warn them: Do not go up and fight, lest you be beaten down before your enemies, for I will not be in your midst.'

⁴³I gave you this warning but you would not listen. In defiance of the LORD'S command you arrogantly marched off into the hill country.

⁴⁴Then the Amorites living there came out against you and, like bees, chased you, cutting you down in Seir as far as Hormah.

⁴⁵On your return you wept before the LORD, but he did not listen to your cry or give ear to you.

⁴⁶That is why you had to stay as long as you did at Kadesh.

2"When we did turn and proceed into the desert on the Red Sea road, as the LORD had commanded me, we circled around the highlands of Seir for a long time.

²Finally the LORD said to me,

³'You have wandered round these highlands long enough; turn and go north.

⁴Give this order to the people: You are now about to pass through the territory of your kinsmen, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. Though they are afraid of you, be very careful

⁵not to come in conflict with them, for I will not give you so much as a foot of their land, since I have already given Esau possession of the highlands of Seir.

⁶You shall purchase from them with silver the food you eat and the well water you drink.

⁷The LORD, your God, has blessed you in all your undertakings; he has been concerned about your journey through this vast desert. It is now forty years that he has been with you, and you have never been in want.'

⁸"Then we left behind us the Arabah route, Elath, Ezion-geber, and Seir, where our kinsmen, the descendants of Esau, live; and we went on toward the desert of Moab.

⁹And the LORD said to me, 'Do not show hostility to the Moabites or engage them in battle, for I will not give you possession of any of their land, since I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as their own.

¹⁰(Formerly the Emim lived there, a people strong and numerous and tall like the Anakim;

¹¹like them they were considered Rephaim. It was the Moabites who called them Emim.

¹²In Seir, however, the former inhabitants were the Horites; the descendants of Esau dispossessed them, clearing them out of the way and taking their place, just as the Israelites have done in the land of their heritage which the LORD has given them.)

¹³Get ready, then, to cross the Wadi Zered.' So we crossed it.

¹⁴Thirty-eight years had elapsed between our departure from Kadesh-barnea and that crossing; in the meantime the whole generation of soldiers had perished from the camp, as the LORD had sworn they should.

¹⁵For it was the LORD'S hand that was against them, till he wiped them out of the camp completely.

¹⁶"When at length death had put an end to all the soldiers among the people,

¹⁷the LORD said to me,

¹⁸'You are now about to leave Ar and the territory of Moab behind.

¹⁹As you come opposite the Ammonites, do not show hostility or come in conflict with them, for I will not give you possession of any land of the Ammonites, since I have given it to the descendants of Lot as their own.

²⁰(This also was considered a country of the Rephaim from its former inhabitants, whom the Ammonites called Zamzummim,

²¹a people strong and numerous and tall like the Anakim. But these, too, the LORD cleared out of the way for the Ammonites, who ousted them and took their place.

²²He had done the same for the descendants of Esau, who dwell in Seir, by clearing the Horites out of their way, so that the descendants of Esau have taken their place down to the present.

²³So also the Caphtorim, migrating from Caphtor, cleared away the Avvim, who once dwelt in villages as far as Gaza, and took their place.)

²⁴"'Advance now across the Wadi Arnon. I now deliver into your hands Sihon, the Amorite king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin the occupation; engage him in battle.

²⁵This day I will begin to put a fear and dread of you into every nation under the heavens, so that at the mention of your name they will quake and tremble before you.'

²⁶"So I sent messengers from the desert of Kedemoth to Sihon, king of Heshbon, with this offer of peace:

²⁷'Let me pass through your country by the highway; I will go along it without turning aside to the right or to the left.

²⁸For the food I eat which you will supply, and for the water you give me to drink, you shall be paid in silver. Only let me march through,

²⁹as the descendants of Esau who dwell in Seir and the Moabites who dwell in Ar have done, until I cross the Jordan into the land which the LORD, our God, is about to give us.'

³⁰But Sihon, king of Heshbon, refused to let us pass through his land, because the LORD, your God, made him stubborn in mind and obstinate in heart that he might deliver him up to you, as indeed he has now done.

³¹"Then the LORD said to me, 'Now that I have already begun to hand over to you Sihon and his land, begin the actual occupation.'

³²So Sihon and all his people advanced against us to join battle at Jahaz;

³³but since the LORD, our God, had delivered him to us, we defeated him and his sons and all his people.

³⁴At that time we seized all his cities and doomed them all, with their men, women and children; we left no survivor.

³⁵Our only booty was the livestock and the loot of the captured cities.

³⁶From Aroer on the edge of the Wadi Arnon and from the city in the wadi itself, as far as Gilead, no city was too well fortified for us to whom the LORD had delivered them up.

³⁷However, in obedience to the command of the LORD, our God, you did not encroach upon any of the Ammonite land, neither the region bordering on the Wadi Jabbok, nor the cities of the highlands.

3"Then we turned and proceeded toward Bashan. But Og, king of Bashan, advanced against us with all his people to give battle at Edrei.

²The LORD, however, said to me, 'Do not be afraid of him, for I have delivered him into your hand with all his people and his land. Do to him as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.'

³And thus the LORD, our God, delivered into our hands Og, king of Bashan, with all his people. We defeated him so completely that we left him no survivor.

⁴At that time we captured all his cities, none of them eluding our grasp, the whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan: sixty cities in all,

⁵to say nothing of the great number of unwalled towns. All the cities were fortified with high walls and gates and bars.

⁶As we had done to Sihon, king of Heshbon, so also here we doomed all the cities, with their men, women and children;

⁷but all the livestock and the loot of each city we took as booty for ourselves.

⁸"And so at that time we took from the two kings of the Amorites beyond the Jordan the territory from the Wadi Arnon to Mount Hermon

⁹(which is called Sirion by the Sidonians and Senir by the Amorites),

¹⁰comprising all the cities of the plateau and all Gilead and all the cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan including Salecah and Edrei.

¹¹(Og, king of Bashan, was the last remaining survivor of the Rephaim. He had a bed of iron, nine regular cubits long and four wide, which is still preserved in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)

¹²"When we occupied the land at that time, I gave Reuben and Gad the territory from Aroer, on the edge of the Wadi Arnon, halfway up into the highlands of Gilead, with the cities therein.

¹³The rest of Gilead and all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og, the whole Argob region, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh. (All this region of Bashan was once called a land of the Rephaim.

¹⁴Jair, a Manassehite clan, took all the region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites, and called it after his own name Bashan Havvoth-jair, the name it bears today.)

¹⁵To Machir I gave Gilead,

¹⁶and to Reuben and Gad the territory from Gilead to the Wadi Arnon--including the wadi bed and its banks--and to the Wadi Jabbok, which is the border of the Ammonites,

¹⁷as well as the Arabah with the Jordan and its eastern banks from Chinnereth to the Salt Sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.

¹⁸"At that time I charged them as follows 'The LORD, your God, has given you this land as your own. But all you troops equipped for battle must cross over in the vanguard of your brother Israelites.

¹⁹Only your wives and children, as well as your livestock, of which I know you have a large number, shall remain behind in the towns I have given you,

²⁰until the LORD has settled your kinsmen as well, and they too possess the land which the LORD, your God, will give them on the other side of the Jordan. Then you may all return to the possessions I have given you.'

²¹"It was then that I instructed Joshua, 'Your eyes have seen all that the LORD, your God, has done to both these kings; so, too, will the LORD do to all the kingdoms which you will encounter over there.

²²Fear them not, for the LORD, your God, will fight for you.'

²³"And it was then that I besought the LORD,

²⁴'O Lord GOD, you have begun to show to your servant your greatness and might. For what god in heaven or on earth can perform deeds as mighty as yours?

²⁵Ah, let me cross over and see this good land beyond the Jordan, this fine hill country, and the Lebanon!'

²⁶But the LORD was angry with me on your account and would not hear me. 'Enough!' the LORD said to me. 'Speak to me no more of this.

²⁷Go up to the top of Pisgah and look out to the west, and to the north, and to the south, and to the east. Look well, for you shall not cross this Jordan.

²⁸Commission Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, for he shall cross at the head of this people and shall put them in possession of the land you are to see.'

²⁹This was while we were in the ravine opposite Beth-peor.

4"Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees which I am teaching you to observe, that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

²In your observance of the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin upon you, you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it.

³You have seen with your own eyes what the LORD did at Baal-peor: the LORD, your God, destroyed from your midst everyone that followed the Baal of Peor;

⁴but you, who clung to the LORD, your God, are all alive today.

⁵Therefore, I teach you the statutes and decrees as the LORD, my God, has commanded me, that you may observe them in the land you are entering to occupy.

⁶Observe them carefully, for thus will you give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations, who will hear of all these statutes and say, 'This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.'

⁷For what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the LORD, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him?

⁸Or what great nation has statutes and decrees that are as just as this whole law which I am setting before you today?

⁹"However, take care and be earnestly on your guard not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live, but teach them to your children and to your children's children.

¹⁰There was the day on which you stood before the LORD, your God, at Horeb, and he said to me, 'Assemble the people for me; I will have them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me as long as they live in the land and may so teach their children.'

¹¹You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, which blazed to the very sky with fire and was enveloped in a dense black cloud.

¹²Then the LORD spoke to you from the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form; there was only a voice.

¹³He proclaimed to you his covenant, which he commanded you to keep: the ten commandments, which he wrote on two tablets of stone.

¹⁴The LORD charged me at that time to teach you the statutes and decrees which you are to observe over in the land you will occupy.

¹⁵"You saw no form at all on the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire. Be strictly on your guard, therefore,

¹⁶not to degrade yourselves by fashioning an idol to represent any figure, whether it be the form of a man or a woman,

¹⁷of any animal on the earth or of any bird that flies in the sky,

¹⁸of anything that crawls on the ground or of any fish in the waters under the earth.

¹⁹And when you look up to the heavens and behold the sun or the moon or any star among the heavenly hosts, do not be led astray into adoring them and serving them. These the LORD, your God, has let fall to the lot of all other nations under the heavens;

²⁰but you he has taken and led out of that iron foundry, Egypt, that you might be his very own people, as you are today.

²¹Since the LORD was angered against me on your account and swore that I should not cross the Jordan nor enter the good land which he is giving you as a heritage,

²²I myself shall die in this country without crossing the Jordan; but you will cross over and take possession of that good land.

²³Take heed, therefore, lest, forgetting the covenant which the LORD, your God, has made with you, you fashion for yourselves against his command an idol in any form whatsoever.

²⁴For the LORD, your God, is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

²⁵"When you have children and grandchildren, and have grown old in the land, should you then degrade yourselves by fashioning an idol in any form and by this evil done in his sight provoke the LORD, your God,

²⁶I call heaven and earth this day to witness against you, that you shall all quickly perish from the land which you will occupy when you cross the Jordan. You shall not live in it for any length of time but shall be promptly wiped out.

²⁷The LORD will scatter you among the nations, and there shall remain but a handful of you among the nations to which the LORD will lead you.

²⁸There you shall serve gods fashioned by the hands of man out of wood and stone, gods which can neither see nor hear, neither eat nor smell.

²⁹Yet there too you shall seek the LORD, your God; and you shall indeed find him when you search after him with your whole heart and your whole soul.

³⁰In your distress, when all these things shall have come upon you, you shall finally return to the LORD, your God, and heed his voice.

³¹Since the LORD, your God, is a merciful God, he will not abandon and destroy you, nor forget the covenant which under oath he made with your fathers.

³²"Ask now of the days of old, before your time, ever since God created man upon the earth; ask from one end of the sky to the other: Did anything so great ever happen before? Was it ever heard of?

³³Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live?

³⁴Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, with his strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terrors, all of which the LORD, your God, did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

³⁵All this you were allowed to see that you might know the LORD is God and there is no other.

³⁶Out of the heavens he let you hear his voice to discipline you; on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard him speaking out of the fire.

³⁷For love of your fathers he chose their descendants and personally led you out of Egypt by his great power,

³⁸driving out of your way nations greater and mightier than you, so as to bring you in and to make their land your heritage, as it is today.

³⁹This is why you must now know, and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other.

⁴⁰You must keep his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you today, that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may have long life on the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you forever."

⁴¹Then Moses set apart three cities in the region east of the Jordan,

⁴²that a homicide might take refuge there if he unwittingly killed his neighbor to whom he had previously borne no malice, and that he might save his life by fleeing to one of these cities:

⁴³Bezer in the desert, in the region of the plateau, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassehites.

⁴⁴This is the law which Moses set before the Israelites.

⁴⁵These are the ordinances, statutes and decrees which he proclaimed to them when they had come out of Egypt

⁴⁶and were beyond the Jordan in the ravine opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon and whom Moses and the Israelites defeated after coming out of Egypt.

⁴⁷They occupied his land and the land of Og, king of Bashan, as well--the land of these two kings of the Amorites in the region east of the Jordan:

⁴⁸from Aroer on the edge of the Wadi Arnon to Mount Sion (that is Hermon)

⁴⁹and all the Arabah east of the Jordan, as far as the Arabah Sea under the slopes of Pisgah.

5Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, "Hear, O Israel, the statutes and decrees which I proclaim in your hearing this day, that you may learn them and take care to observe them.

²The LORD, our God, made a covenant with us at Horeb;

³not with our fathers did he make this covenant, but with us, all of us who are alive here this day.

⁴The LORD spoke with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire.

⁵Since you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain, I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to announce to you these words of the LORD:

⁶'I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.

⁷You shall not have other gods besides me.

⁸You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth;

⁹you shall not bow down before them or worship them. For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishments for their fathers' wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation

¹⁰but bestowing mercy, down to the thousandth generation, on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments.

¹¹'You shall not take the name of the LORD, your God, in vain. For the LORD will not leave unpunished him who takes his name in vain.

¹²'Take care to keep holy the sabbath day as the LORD, your God, commanded you.

¹³Six days you may labor and do all your work;

¹⁴but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD, your God. No work may be done then, whether by you, or your son or daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or ass or any of your beasts, or the alien who lives with you. Your male and female slave should rest as you do.

¹⁵For remember that you too were once slaves in Egypt, and the LORD, your God, brought you from there with his strong hand and outstretched arm. That is why the LORD, your God, has commanded you to observe the sabbath day.

¹⁶'Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD, your God, has commanded you, that you may have a long life and prosperity in the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you.

¹⁷'You shall not kill.

¹⁸'You shall not commit adultery.

¹⁹'You shall not steal.

²⁰'You shall not bear dishonest witness against your neighbor.

²¹'You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. 'You shall not desire your neighbor's house or field, nor his male or female slave, nor his ox or ass, nor anything that belongs to him.'

²²"These words, and nothing more, the LORD spoke with a loud voice to your entire assembly on the mountain from the midst of the fire and the dense cloud. He wrote them upon two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

²³But when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire, you came to me in the person of all your tribal heads and elders,

²⁴and said, 'The LORD, our God, has indeed let us see his glory and his majesty! We have heard his voice from the midst of the fire and have found out today that a man can still live after God has spoken with him.

²⁵But why should we die now? Surely this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the LORD, our God, any more, we shall die.

²⁶For what mortal has heard, as we have, the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of fire, and survived?

²⁷Go closer, you, and hear all that the LORD, our God, will say, and then tell us what the LORD, our God, tells you; we will listen and obey.'

²⁸"The LORD heard your words as you were speaking to me and said to me, 'I have heard the words these people have spoken to you, which are all well said.

²⁹Would that they might always be of such a mind, to fear me and to keep all my commandments! Then they and their descendants would prosper forever.

³⁰Go, tell them to return to their tents.

³¹Then you wait here near me and I will give you all the commandments, the statutes and decrees you must teach them, that they may observe them in the land which I am giving them to possess.'

³²"Be careful, therefore, to do as the LORD, your God, has commanded you, not turning aside to the right or to the left,

³³but following exactly the way prescribed for you by the LORD, your God, that you may live and prosper, and may have long life in the land which you are to occupy.

6"These then are the commandments, the statutes and decrees which the LORD, your God, has ordered that you be taught to observe in the land into which you are crossing for conquest,

²so that you and your son and your grandson may fear the LORD, your God, and keep, throughout the days of your lives, all his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you, and thus have long life.

³Hear then, Israel, and be careful to observe them, that you may grow and prosper the more, in keeping with the promise of the LORD, the God of your fathers, to give you a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁴"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!

⁵Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.

⁶Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today.

⁷Drill them into your children. Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest.

⁸Bind them at your wrist as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead.

⁹Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.

¹⁰"When the LORD, your God, brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that he would give you, a land with fine, large cities that you did not build,

¹¹with houses full of goods of all sorts that you did not garner, with cisterns that you did not dig, with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant; and when, therefore, you eat your fill,

¹²take care not to forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.

¹³The LORD, your God, shall you fear; him shall you serve, and by his name shall you swear.

¹⁴You shall not follow other gods, such as those of the surrounding nations,

¹⁵lest the wrath of the LORD, your God, flare up against you and he destroy you from the face of the land; for the LORD, your God, who is in your midst, is a jealous God.

¹⁶"You shall not put the LORD, your God, to the test, as you did at Massah.

¹⁷But keep the commandments of the LORD, your God, and the ordinances and statutes he has enjoined on you.

¹⁸Do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, that you may, according to his word, prosper, and may enter in and possess the good land which the LORD promised on oath to your fathers,

¹⁹thrusting all your enemies out of your way.

²⁰"Later on, when your son asks you what these ordinances, statutes and decrees mean which the LORD, our God, has enjoined on you,

²¹you shall say to your son, 'We were once slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with his strong hand

²²and wrought before our eyes signs and wonders, great and dire, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and his whole house.

²³He brought us from there to lead us into the land he promised on oath to our fathers, and to give it to us.

²⁴Therefore, the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes in fear of the LORD, our God, that we may always have as prosperous and happy a life as we have today;

²⁵and our justice before the LORD, our God, is to consist in carefully observing all these commandments he has enjoined on us.'

7"When the LORD, your God, brings you into the land which you are to enter and occupy, and dislodges great nations before you--the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites: seven nations more numerous and powerful than you--

²and when the LORD, your God, delivers them up to you and you defeat them, you shall doom them. Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy.

³You shall not intermarry with them, neither giving your daughters to their sons nor taking their daughters for your sons.

⁴For they would turn your sons from following me to serving other gods, and then the wrath of the LORD would flare up against you and quickly destroy you.

⁵"But this is how you must deal with them: Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, chop down their sacred poles, and destroy their idols by fire.

⁶For you are a people sacred to the LORD, your God; he has chosen you from all the nations on the face of the earth to be a people peculiarly his own.

⁷It was not because you are the largest of all nations that the LORD set his heart on you and chose you, for you are really the smallest of all nations.

⁸It was because the LORD loved you and because of his fidelity to the oath he had sworn to your fathers, that he brought you out with his strong hand from the place of slavery, and ransomed you from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

⁹Understand, then, that the LORD, your God, is God indeed, the faithful God who keeps his merciful covenant down to the thousandth generation toward those who love him and keep his commandments,

¹⁰but who repays with destruction the person who hates him; he does not dally with such a one, but makes him personally pay for it.

¹¹You shall therefore carefully observe the commandments, the statutes and the decrees which I enjoin on you today.

¹²"As your reward for heeding these decrees and observing them carefully, the LORD, your God, will keep with you the merciful covenant which he promised on oath to your fathers.

¹³He will love and bless and multiply you; he will bless the fruit of your womb and the produce of your soil, your grain and wine and oil, the issue of your herds and the young of your flocks, in the land which he swore to your fathers he would give you.

¹⁴You will be blessed above all peoples; no man or woman among you shall be childless nor shall your livestock be barren.

¹⁵The LORD will remove all sickness from you; he will not afflict you with any of the malignant diseases that you know from Egypt, but will leave them with all your enemies.

¹⁶"You shall consume all the nations which the LORD, your God, will deliver up to you. You are not to look on them with pity, lest you be ensnared into serving their gods.

¹⁷Perhaps you will say to yourselves, 'These nations are greater than we. How can we dispossess them?'

¹⁸But do not be afraid of them. Rather, call to mind what the LORD, your God, did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt:

¹⁹the great testings which your own eyes have seen, the signs and wonders, his strong hand and outstretched arm with which the LORD, your God, brought you out. The same also will he do to all the nations of whom you are now afraid.

²⁰Moreover, the LORD, your God, will send hornets among them, until the survivors who have hidden from you are destroyed.

²¹Therefore, do not be terrified by them, for the LORD, your God, who is in your midst, is a great and awesome God.

²²He will dislodge these nations before you little by little. You cannot exterminate them all at once, lest the wild beasts become too numerous for you.

²³The LORD, your God, will deliver them up to you and will rout them utterly until they are annihilated.

²⁴He will deliver their kings into your hand, that you may make their names perish from under the heavens. No man will be able to stand up against you, till you have put an end to them.

²⁵The images of their gods you shall destroy by fire. Do not covet the silver or gold on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it; for it is an abomination to the LORD, your God.

²⁶You shall not bring any abominable thing into your house, lest you be doomed with it; loathe and abhor it utterly as a thing that is doomed.

8"Be careful to observe all the commandments I enjoin on you today, that you may live and increase, and may enter in and possess the land which the LORD promised on oath to your fathers.

²Remember how for forty years now the LORD, your God, has directed all your journeying in the desert, so as to test you by affliction and find out whether or not it was your intention to keep his commandments.

³He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers, in order to show you that not by bread alone does man live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD.

⁴The clothing did not fall from you in tatters, nor did your feet swell these forty years.

⁵So you must realize that the LORD, your God, disciplines you even as a man disciplines his son.

⁶"Therefore, keep the commandments of the LORD, your God, by walking in his ways and fearing him.

⁷For the LORD, your God, is bringing you into a good country, a land with streams of water, with springs and fountains welling up in the hills and valleys,

⁸a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, of olive trees and of honey,

⁹a land where you can eat bread without stint and where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones contain iron and in whose hills you can mine copper.

¹⁰But when you have eaten your fill, you must bless the LORD, your God, for the good country he has given you.

¹¹Be careful not to forget the LORD, your God, by neglecting his commandments and decrees and statutes which I enjoin on you today:

¹²lest, when you have eaten your fill, and have built fine houses and lived in them,

¹³and have increased your herds and flocks, your silver and gold, and all your property,

¹⁴you then become haughty of heart and unmindful of the LORD, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery;

¹⁵who guided you through the vast and terrible desert with its saraph serpents and scorpions, its parched and waterless ground; who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock

¹⁶and fed you in the desert with manna, a food unknown to your fathers, that he might afflict you and test you, but also make you prosperous in the end.

¹⁷Otherwise, you might say to yourselves, 'It is my own power and the strength of my own hand that has obtained for me this wealth.'

¹⁸Remember then, it is the LORD, your God, who gives you the power to acquire wealth, by fulfilling, as he has now done, the covenant which he swore to your fathers.

¹⁹But if you forget the LORD, your God, and follow other gods, serving and worshiping them, I forewarn you this day that you will perish utterly.

²⁰Like the nations which the LORD destroys before you, so shall you too perish for not heeding the voice of the LORD, your God.

9"Hear, O Israel! You are now about to cross the Jordan to enter in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than yourselves, having large cities fortified to the sky,

²the Anakim, a people great and tall. You know of them and have heard it said of them, 'Who can stand up against the Anakim?'

³Understand, then, today that it is the LORD, your God, who will cross over before you as a consuming fire; he it is who will reduce them to nothing and subdue them before you, so that you can drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the LORD promised you.

⁴After the LORD, your God, has thrust them out of your way, do not say to yourselves, 'It is because of my merits that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land'; for it is really because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out before you.

⁵No, it is not because of your merits or the integrity of your heart that you are going in to take possession of their land; but the LORD, your God, is driving these nations out before you on account of their wickedness and in order to keep the promise which he made on oath to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

⁶Understand this, therefore: it is not because of your merits that the LORD, your God, is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.

⁷"Bear in mind and do not forget how you angered the LORD, your God, in the desert. From the day you left the land of Egypt until you arrived in this place, you have been rebellious toward the LORD.

⁸At Horeb you so provoked the LORD that he was angry enough to destroy you,

⁹when I had gone up the mountain to receive the stone tablets of the covenant which the LORD made with you. Meanwhile I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights without eating or drinking,

¹⁰till the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone inscribed, by God's own finger, with a copy of all the words that the LORD spoke to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly.

¹¹Then, at the end of the forty days and forty nights, when the LORD had given me the two stone tablets of the covenant,

¹²he said to me, 'Go down from here now, quickly, for your people whom you have brought out of Egypt have become depraved; they have already turned aside from the way I pointed out to them and have made for themselves a molten idol.

¹³I have seen now how stiff-necked this people is,' the LORD said to me.

¹⁴'Let me be, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under the heavens. I will then make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.'

¹⁵"When I had come down again from the blazing, fiery mountain, with the two tablets of the covenant in both my hands,

¹⁶I saw how you had sinned against the LORD, your God: you had already turned aside from the way which the LORD had pointed out to you by making for yourselves a molten calf!

¹⁷Raising the two tablets with both hands I threw them from me and broke them before your eyes.

¹⁸Then, as before, I lay prostrate before the LORD for forty days and forty nights without eating or drinking, because of all the sin you had committed in the sight of the LORD and the evil you had done to provoke him.

¹⁹For I dreaded the fierce anger of the LORD against you: his wrath would destroy you. Yet once again the LORD listened to me.

²⁰With Aaron, too, the LORD was deeply angry, and would have killed him had I not prayed for him also at that time.

²¹Then, taking the calf, the sinful object you had made, and fusing it with fire, I ground it down to powder as fine as dust, which I threw into the wadi that went down the mountainside.

²²"At Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah likewise, you provoked the LORD to anger.

²³And when he sent you up from Kadesh-barnea to take possession of the land he was giving you, you rebelled against this command of the LORD, your God, and would not trust or obey him.

²⁴Ever since I have known you, you have been rebels against the LORD.

²⁵"Those forty days, then, and forty nights, I lay prostrate before the LORD, because he had threatened to destroy you.

²⁶This was my prayer to him: O Lord GOD, destroy not your people, the heritage which your majesty has ransomed and brought out of Egypt with your strong hand.

²⁷Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Look not upon the stubbornness of this people nor upon their wickedness and sin,

²⁸lest the people from whose land you have brought us say, 'The LORD was not able to bring them into the land he promised them'; or 'Out of hatred for them, he brought them out to slay them in the desert.'

²⁹They are, after all, your people and your heritage, whom you have brought out by your great power and with your outstretched arm.

10"At that time the LORD said to me, 'Cut two tablets of stone like the former; then come up the mountain to me. Also make an ark of wood.

²I will write upon the tablets the commandments that were on the former tablets that you broke, and you shall place them in the ark.'

³So I made an ark of acacia wood, and cut two tablets of stone like the former, and went up the mountain carrying the two tablets.

⁴The LORD then wrote on them, as he had written before, the ten commandments which he spoke to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. After the LORD had given them to me,

⁵I turned and came down the mountain, and placed the tablets in the ark I had made. There they have remained, in keeping with the command the LORD gave me.

⁶(The Israelites set out from Beeroth Bene-jaakan for Moserah, where Aaron died and was buried, his son Eleazar succeeding him in the priestly office.

⁷From there they set out for Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah for Jotbathah, a region where there is water in the wadies.)

⁸"At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to be in attendance before the LORD and minister to him, and to give blessings in his name, as they have done to this day.

⁹For this reason, Levi has no share in the heritage with his brothers; the LORD himself is his heritage, as the LORD, your God, has told him.

¹⁰"After I had spent these other forty days and forty nights on the mountain, and the LORD had once again heard me and decided not to destroy you,

¹¹he said to me, 'Go now and set out at the head of your people, that they may enter in and occupy the land which I swore to their fathers I would give them.'

¹²"And now, Israel, what does the LORD, your God, ask of you but to fear the LORD, your God, and follow his ways exactly, to love and serve the LORD, your God, with all your heart and all your soul,

¹³to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD which I enjoin on you today for your own good?

¹⁴Think! The heavens, even the highest heavens, belong to the LORD, your God, as well as the earth and everything on it.

¹⁵Yet in his love for your fathers the LORD was so attached to them as to choose you, their descendants, in preference to all other peoples, as indeed he has now done.

¹⁶Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and be no longer stiff-necked.

¹⁷For the LORD, your God, is the God of gods, the LORD of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who has no favorites, accepts no bribes;

¹⁸who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and befriends the alien, feeding and clothing him.

¹⁹So you too must befriend the alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.

²⁰The LORD, your God, shall you fear, and him shall you serve; hold fast to him and swear by his name.

²¹He is your glory, he, your God, who has done for you those great and terrible things which your own eyes have seen.

²²Your ancestors went down to Egypt seventy strong, and now the LORD, your God, has made you as numerous as the stars of the sky.

11"Love the LORD, your God, therefore, and always heed his charge: his statutes, decrees and commandments.

²It is not your children, who have not known it from experience, but you yourselves who must now understand the discipline of the LORD, your God; his majesty, his strong hand and outstretched arm;

³the signs and deeds he wrought among the Egyptians, on Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and on all his land;

⁴what he did to the Egyptian army and to their horses and chariots, engulfing them in the water of the Red Sea as they pursued you, and bringing ruin upon them even to this day;

⁵what he did for you in the desert until you arrived in this place;

⁶and what he did to the Reubenites Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, when the ground opened its mouth and swallowed them up out of the midst of Israel, with their families and tents and every living thing that belonged to them.

⁷With your own eyes you have seen all these great deeds that the LORD has done.

⁸Keep all the commandments, then, which I enjoin on you today, that you may be strong enough to enter in and take possession of the land into which you are crossing,

⁹and that you may have long life on the land which the LORD swore to your fathers he would give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

¹⁰"For the land which you are to enter and occupy is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you would sow your seed and then water it by hand, as in a vegetable garden.

¹¹No, the land into which you are crossing for conquest is a land of hills and valleys that drinks in rain from the heavens,

¹²a land which the LORD, your God, looks after; his eyes are upon it continually from the beginning of the year to the end.

¹³If, then, you truly heed my commandments which I enjoin on you today, loving and serving the LORD, your God, with all your heart and all your soul,

¹⁴I will give the seasonal rain to your land, the early rain and the late rain, that you may have your grain, wine and oil to gather in;

¹⁵and I will bring forth grass in your fields for your animals. Thus you may eat your fill.

¹⁶But be careful lest your heart be so lured away that you serve other gods and worship them.

¹⁷For then the wrath of the LORD will flare up against you and he will close up the heavens, so that no rain will fall, and the soil will not yield its crops, and you will soon perish from the good land he is giving you.

¹⁸"Therefore, take these words of mine into your heart and soul. Bind them at your wrist as a sign, and let them be a pendant on your forehead.

¹⁹Teach them to your children, speaking of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest.

²⁰And write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates,

²¹so that, as long as the heavens are above the earth, you and your children may live on in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers he would give them.

²²"For if you are careful to observe all these commandments I enjoin on you, loving the LORD, your God, and following his ways exactly, and holding fast to him,

²³the LORD will drive all these nations out of your way, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves.

²⁴Every place where you set foot shall be yours: from the desert and from Lebanon, from the Euphrates River to the Western Sea, shall be your territory.

²⁵None shall stand up against you; the LORD, your God, will spread the fear and dread of you through any land where you set foot, as he promised you.

²⁶"I set before you here, this day, a blessing and a curse:

²⁷a blessing for obeying the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin on you today;

²⁸a curse if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD, your God, but turn aside from the way I ordain for you today, to follow other gods, whom you have not known.

²⁹When the LORD, your God, brings you into the land which you are to enter and occupy, then you shall pronounce the blessing on Mount Gerizim, the curse on Mount Ebal.

³⁰(Are they not beyond the Jordan, on the other side of the western road in the country of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite the Gilgal beside the terebinth of Moreh?)

³¹For you are about to cross the Jordan to enter and occupy the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you. When, therefore, you take possession of it and settle there,

³²be careful to observe all the statutes and decrees that I set before you today.

12"These are the statutes and decrees which you must be careful to observe in the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to occupy, as long as you live on its soil.

²Destroy without fail every place on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every leafy tree where the nations you are to dispossess worship their gods.

³Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, destroy by fire their sacred poles, and shatter the idols of their gods, that you may stamp out the remembrance of them in any such place.

⁴"That is not how you are to worship the LORD, your God.

⁵Instead, you shall resort to the place which the LORD, your God, chooses out of all your tribes and designates as his dwelling

⁶and there you shall bring your holocausts and sacrifices, your tithes and personal contributions, your votive and freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks.

⁷There, too, before the LORD, your God, you and your families shall eat and make merry over all your undertakings, because the LORD, your God, has blessed you.

⁸You shall not do as we are now doing; here, everyone does what seems right to himself,

⁹since you have not yet reached your resting place, the heritage which the LORD, your God, will give you.

¹⁰But after you have crossed the Jordan and dwell in the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you as a heritage, when he has given you rest from all your enemies round about and you live there in security,

¹¹then to the place which the LORD, your God, chooses as the dwelling place for his name you shall bring all the offerings I command you: your holocausts and sacrifices, your tithes and personal contributions, and every special offering you have vowed to the LORD.

¹²You shall make merry before the LORD, your God, with your sons and daughters, your male and female slaves, as well as with the Levite who belongs to your community but has no share of his own in your heritage.

¹³Take care not to offer up your holocausts in any place you fancy,

¹⁴but offer them up in the place which the LORD chooses from among your tribes; there you shall make whatever offerings I enjoin upon you.

¹⁵"However, in any of your communities you may slaughter and eat to your heart's desire as much meat as the LORD, your God, has blessed you with; and the unclean as well as the clean may eat it, as they do the gazelle or the deer.

¹⁶Only, you shall not partake of the blood, but must pour it out on the ground like water.

¹⁷Moreover, you shall not, in your own communities, partake of your tithe of grain or wine or oil, of the first-born of your herd or flock, of any offering you have vowed, of your freewill offerings, or of your personal contributions.

¹⁸These you must eat before the LORD, your God, in the place he chooses, along with your son and daughter, your male and female slave, and the Levite who belongs to your community; and there, before the LORD, you shall make merry over all your undertakings.

¹⁹Take care, also, that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in the land.

²⁰"After the LORD, your God, has enlarged your territory, as he promised you, when you wish meat for food, you may eat it at will, to your heart's desire;

²¹and if the place which the LORD, your God, chooses for the abode of his name is too far, you may slaughter in the manner I have told you any of your herd or flock that the LORD has given you, and eat it to your heart's desire in your own community.

²²You may eat it as you would the gazelle or the deer: the unclean and the clean eating it alike.

²³But make sure that you do not partake of the blood; for blood is life, and you shall not consume this seat of life with the flesh.

²⁴Do not partake of the blood, therefore, but pour it out on the ground like water.

²⁵Abstain from it, that you and your children after you may prosper for doing what is right in the sight of the LORD.

²⁶However, any sacred gifts or votive offerings that you may have, you shall bring with you to the place which the LORD chooses,

²⁷and there you must offer both the flesh and the blood of your holocausts on the altar of the LORD, your God; of your other sacrifices the blood indeed must be poured out against the altar of the LORD, your God, but their flesh may be eaten.

²⁸Be careful to heed all these commandments I enjoin on you, that you and your descendants may always prosper for doing what is good and right in the sight of the LORD, your God.

²⁹"When the LORD, your God, removes the nations from your way as you advance to dispossess them, be on your guard! Otherwise, once they have been wiped out before you and you have replaced them and are settled in their land,

³⁰you will be lured into following them. Do not inquire regarding their gods, 'How did these nations worship their gods? I, too, would do the same.'

³¹You shall not thus worship the LORD, your God, because they offered to their gods every abomination that the LORD detests, even burning their sons and daughters to their gods.

13"Every command that I enjoin on you, you shall be careful to observe, neither adding to it nor subtracting from it.

²"If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer who promises you a sign or wonder,

³urging you to follow other gods, whom you have not known, and to serve them: even though the sign or wonder he has foretold you comes to pass,

⁴pay no attention to the words of that prophet or that dreamer; for the LORD, your God, is testing you to learn whether you really love him with all your heart and with all your soul.

⁵The LORD, your God, shall you follow, and him shall you fear; his commandment shall you observe, and his voice shall you heed, serving him and holding fast to him alone.

⁶But that prophet or that dreamer shall be put to death, because, in order to lead you astray from the way which the LORD, your God, has directed you to take, he has preached apostasy from the LORD, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and ransomed you from that place of slavery. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst.

⁷"If your own full brother, or your son or daughter, or your beloved wife, or your intimate friend, entices you secretly to serve other gods, whom you and your fathers have not known,

⁸gods of any other nations, near at hand or far away, from one end of the earth to the other:

⁹do not yield to him or listen to him, nor look with pity upon him, to spare or shield him,

¹⁰but kill him. Your hand shall be the first raised to slay him; the rest of the people shall join in with you.

¹¹You shall stone him to death, because he sought to lead you astray from the LORD, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.

¹²And all Israel, hearing of it, shall fear and never again do such evil as this in your midst.

¹³"If, in any of the cities which the LORD, your God, gives you to dwell in, you hear it said

¹⁴that certain scoundrels have sprung up among you and have led astray the inhabitants of their city to serve other gods whom you have not known,

¹⁵you must inquire carefully into the matter and investigate it thoroughly. If you find that it is true and an established fact that this abomination has been committed in your midst,

¹⁶you shall put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, dooming the city and all life that is in it, even its cattle, to the sword.

¹⁷Having heaped up all its spoils in the middle of its square, you shall burn the city with all its spoils as a whole burnt offering to the LORD, your God. Let it be a heap of ruins forever, never to be rebuilt.

¹⁸You shall not retain anything that is doomed, that the blazing wrath of the LORD may die down and he may show you mercy and in his mercy for you may multiply you as he promised your fathers on oath;

¹⁹because you have heeded the voice of the LORD, your God, keeping all his commandments which I enjoin on you today, doing what is right in his sight.

14"You are children of the LORD, your God. You shall not gash yourselves nor shave the hair above your foreheads for the dead.

²For you are a people sacred to the LORD, your God, who has chosen you from all the nations on the face of the earth to be a people peculiarly his own.

³"You shall not eat any abominable thing.

⁴These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,

⁵the red deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the ibex, the addax, the oryx, and the mountain sheep.

⁶Any animal that has hoofs you may eat, provided it is cloven-footed and chews the cud.

⁷But you shall not eat any of the following that only chew the cud or only have cloven hoofs: the camel, the hare and the rock badger, which indeed chew the cud, but do not have hoofs and are therefore unclean for you;

⁸and the pig, which indeed has hoofs and is cloven-footed, but does not chew the cud and is therefore unclean for you. Their flesh you shall not eat, and their dead bodies you shall not touch.

⁹"Of the various creatures that live in the water, whatever has both fins and scales you may eat,

¹⁰but all those that lack either fins or scales you shall not eat; they are unclean for you.

¹¹"You may eat all clean birds.

¹²But you shall not eat any of the following: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey,

¹³the various kites and falcons,

¹⁴all the various species of crows,

¹⁵the ostrich, the nightjar, the gull, the various species of hawks,

¹⁶the owl, the screech owl, the ibis,

¹⁷the desert owl, the buzzard, the cormorant,

¹⁸the stork, the various species of herons, the hoopoe, and the bat.

¹⁹All winged insects, too, are unclean for you and shall not be eaten.

²⁰But you may eat any clean winged creatures.

²¹"You must not eat any animal that has died of itself, for you are a people sacred to the LORD, your God. But you may give it to an alien who belongs to your community, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. "You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.

²²"Each year you shall tithe all the produce that grows in the field you have sown;

²³then in the place which the LORD, your God, chooses as the dwelling place of his name you shall eat in his presence your tithe of the grain, wine and oil, as well as the firstlings of your herd and flock, that you may learn always to fear the LORD, your God.

²⁴If, however, the journey is too much for you and you are not able to bring your tithe, because the place which the LORD, your God, chooses for the abode of his name is too far for you, considering how the LORD has blessed you,

²⁵you may exchange the tithe for money and, with the purse of money in hand, go to the place which the LORD, your God, chooses.

²⁶You may then exchange the money for whatever you desire, oxen or sheep, wine or strong drink, or anything else you would enjoy, and there before the LORD, your God, you shall partake of it and make merry with your family.

²⁷But do not neglect the Levite who belongs to your community, for he has no share in the heritage with you.

²⁸"At the end of every third year you shall bring out all the tithes of your produce for that year and deposit them in community stores,

²⁹that the Levite who has no share in the heritage with you, and also the alien, the orphan and the widow who belong to your community, may come and eat their fill; so that the LORD, your God, may bless you in all that you undertake.

15"At the end of every seven-year period you shall have a relaxation of debts,

²which shall be observed as follows. Every creditor shall relax his claim on what he has loaned his neighbor; he must not press his neighbor, his kinsman, because a relaxation in honor of the LORD has been proclaimed.

³You may press a foreigner, but you shall relax the claim on your kinsman for what is yours.

⁴Nay, more! since the LORD, your God, will bless you abundantly in the land he will give you to occupy as your heritage, there should be no one of you in need.

⁵If you but heed the voice of the LORD, your God, and carefully observe all these commandments which I enjoin on you today,

⁶you will lend to many nations, and borrow from none; you will rule over many nations, and none will rule over you, since the LORD, your God, will bless you as he promised.

⁷If one of your kinsmen in any community is in need in the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor close your hand to him in his need.

⁸Instead, you shall open your hand to him and freely lend him enough to meet his need.

⁹Be on your guard lest, entertaining the mean thought that the seventh year, the year of relaxation, is near, you grudge help to your needy kinsman and give him nothing; else he will cry to the LORD against you and you will be held guilty.

¹⁰When you give to him, give freely and not with ill will; for the LORD, your God, will bless you for this in all your works and undertakings.

¹¹The needy will never be lacking in the land; that is why I command you to open your hand to your poor and needy kinsman in your country.

¹²"If your kinsman, a Hebrew man or woman, sells himself to you, he is to serve you for six years, but in the seventh year you shall dismiss him from your service, a free man.

¹³When you do so, you shall not send him away empty-handed,

¹⁴but shall weight him down with gifts from your flock and threshing floor and wine press, in proportion to the blessing the LORD, your God, has bestowed on you.

¹⁵For remember that you too were once slaves in the land of Egypt, and the LORD, your God, ransomed you. That is why I am giving you this command today.

¹⁶If, however, he tells you that he does not wish to leave you, because he is devoted to you and your household, since he fares well with you,

¹⁷you shall take an awl and thrust it through his ear into the door, and he shall then be your slave forever. Your female slave, also, you shall treat in the same way.

¹⁸You must not be reluctant to let your slave go free, since the service he has given you for six years was worth twice a hired man's salary; then also the LORD, your God, will bless you in everything you do.

¹⁹"You shall consecrate to the LORD, your God, all the male firstlings of your herd and of your flock. You shall not work the firstlings of your cattle, nor shear the firstlings of your flock.

²⁰Year after year you and your family shall eat them before the LORD, your God, in the place he chooses.

²¹If, however, a firstling is lame or blind or has any other serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD, your God,

²²but in your own communities you may eat it, the unclean and the clean eating it alike, as you would a gazelle or a deer.

²³Only, you shall not partake of its blood, which must be poured out on the ground like water.

16"Observe the month of Abib by keeping the Passover of the LORD, your God, since it was in the month of Abib that he brought you by night out of Egypt.

²You shall offer the Passover sacrifice from your flock or your herd to the LORD, your God, in the place which he chooses as the dwelling place of his name.

³You shall not eat leavened bread with it. For seven days you shall eat with it only unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, that you may remember as long as you live the day of your departure from the land of Egypt; for in frightened haste you left the land of Egypt.

⁴Nothing leavened may be found in all your territory for seven days, and none of the meat which you sacrificed on the evening of the first day shall be kept overnight for the next day.

⁵"You may not sacrifice the Passover in any of the communities which the LORD, your God, gives you;

⁶only at the place which he chooses as the dwelling place of his name, and in the evening at sunset, on the anniversary of your departure from Egypt, shall you sacrifice the Passover.

⁷You shall cook and eat it at the place the LORD, your God, chooses; then in the morning you may return to your tents.

⁸For six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh there shall be a solemn meeting in honor of the LORD, your God; on that day you shall not do any sort of work.

⁹"You shall count off seven weeks, computing them from the day when the sickle is first put to the standing grain.

¹⁰You shall then keep the feast of Weeks in honor of the LORD, your God, and the measure of your own freewill offering shall be in proportion to the blessing the LORD, your God, has bestowed on you.

¹¹In the place which the LORD, your God, chooses as the dwelling place of his name, you shall make merry in his presence together with your son and daughter, your male and female slave, and the Levite who belongs to your community, as well as the alien, the orphan and the widow among you.

¹²Remember that you too were once slaves in Egypt, and carry out these statutes carefully.

¹³"You shall celebrate the feast of Booths for seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and wine press.

¹⁴You shall make merry at your feast, together with your son and daughter, your male and female slave, and also the Levite, the alien, the orphan and the widow who belong to your community.

¹⁵For seven days you shall celebrate this pilgrim feast in honor of the LORD, your God, in the place which he chooses; since the LORD, your God, has blessed you in all your crops and in all your undertakings, you shall do nought but make merry.

¹⁶"Three times a year, then, every male among you shall appear before the LORD, your God, in the place which he chooses: at the feast of Unleavened Bread, at the feast of Weeks, and at the feast of Booths. No one shall appear before the LORD empty-handed,

¹⁷but each of you with as much as he can give, in proportion to the blessings which the LORD, your God, has bestowed on you.

¹⁸"You shall appoint judges and officials throughout your tribes to administer true justice for the people in all the communities which the LORD, your God, is giving you.

¹⁹You shall not distort justice; you must be impartial. You shall not take a bribe; for a bribe blinds the eyes even of the wise and twists the words even of the just.

²⁰Justice and justice alone shall be your aim, that you may have life and may possess the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you.

²¹"You shall not plant a sacred pole of any kind of wood beside the altar of the LORD, your God, which you will build;

²²nor shall you erect a sacred pillar, such as the LORD, your God, detests.

17"You shall not sacrifice to the LORD, your God, from the herd or from the flock an animal with any serious defect; that would be an abomination to the LORD, your God.

²"If there is found among you, in any one of the communities which the LORD, your God, gives you, a man or a woman who does evil in the sight of the LORD, your God, and transgresses his covenant,

³by serving other gods, or by worshiping the sun or the moon or any of the host of the sky, against my command;

⁴and if, on being informed of it, you find by careful investigation that it is true and an established fact that this abomination has been committed in Israel:

⁵you shall bring the man (or woman) who has done the evil deed out to your city gates and stone him to death.

⁶The testimony of two or three witnesses is required for putting a person to death; no one shall be put to death on the testimony of only one witness.

⁷At the execution, the witnesses are to be the first to raise their hands against him; afterward all the people are to join in. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst.

⁸"If in your own community there is a case at issue which proves too complicated for you to decide, in a matter of bloodshed or of civil rights or of personal injury, you shall then go up to the place which the LORD, your God, chooses,

⁹to the levitical priests or to the judge who is in office at that time. They shall study the case and then hand down to you their decision.

¹⁰According to this decision that they give you in the place which the LORD chooses, you shall act, being careful to do exactly as they direct.

¹¹You shall carry out the directions they give you and the verdict they pronounce for you, without turning aside to the right or to the left from the decision they hand down to you.

¹²Any man who has the insolence to refuse to listen to the priest who officiates there in the ministry of the LORD, your God, or to the judge, shall die. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst.

¹³And all the people, on hearing of it, shall fear, and never again be so insolent.

¹⁴"When you have come into the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you, and have occupied it and settled in it, should you then decide to have a king over you like all the surrounding nations,

¹⁵you shall set that man over you as your king whom the LORD, your God, chooses. He whom you set over you as king must be your kinsman; a foreigner, who is no kin of yours, you may not set over you.

¹⁶But he shall not have a great number of horses; nor shall he make his people go back again to Egypt to acquire them, against the LORD'S warning that you must never go back that way again.

¹⁷Neither shall he have a great number of wives, lest his heart be estranged, nor shall he accumulate a vast amount of silver and gold.

¹⁸When he is enthroned in his kingdom, he shall have a copy of this law made from the scroll that is in the custody of the levitical priests.

¹⁹He shall keep it with him and read it all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the LORD, his God, and to heed and fulfill all the words of this law and these statutes.

²⁰Let him not become estranged from his countrymen through pride, nor turn aside to the right or to the left from these commandments. Then he and his descendants will enjoy a long reign in Israel.

18"The whole priestly tribe of Levi shall have no share in the heritage with Israel; they shall live on the oblations of the LORD and the portions due to him.

²Levi shall have no heritage among his brothers; the LORD himself is his heritage, as he has told him.

³The priests shall have a right to the following things from the people: from those who are offering a sacrifice, whether the victim is from the herd or from the flock, the priest shall receive the shoulder, the jowls and the stomach.

⁴You shall also give him the first fruits of your grain and wine and oil, as well as the first fruits of the shearing of your flock;

⁵for the LORD, your God, has chosen him and his sons out of all your tribes to be always in attendance to minister in the name of the LORD.

⁶"When a Levite goes from one of your communities anywhere in Israel in which he ordinarily resides, to visit, as his heart may desire, the place which the LORD chooses,

⁷he may minister there in the name of the LORD, his God, like all his fellow Levites who are in attendance there before the LORD.

⁸He shall then receive the same portions to eat as the rest, along with his monetary offerings and heirlooms.

⁹"When you come into the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you, you shall not learn to imitate the abominations of the peoples there.

¹⁰Let there not be found among you anyone who immolates his son or daughter in the fire, nor a fortune-teller, soothsayer, charmer, diviner,

¹¹or caster of spells, nor one who consults ghosts and spirits or seeks oracles from the dead.

¹²Anyone who does such things is an abomination to the LORD, and because of such abominations the LORD, your God, is driving these nations out of your way.

¹³You, however, must be altogether sincere toward the LORD, your God.

¹⁴Though these nations whom you are to dispossess listen to their soothsayers and fortune-tellers, the LORD, your God, will not permit you to do so.

¹⁵"A prophet like me will the LORD, your God, raise up for you from among your own kinsmen; to him you shall listen.

¹⁶This is exactly what you requested of the LORD, your God, at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, 'Let us not again hear the voice of the LORD, our God, nor see this great fire any more, lest we die.'

¹⁷And the LORD said to me, 'This was well said.

¹⁸I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kinsmen, and will put my words into his mouth; he shall tell them all that I command him.

¹⁹If any man will not listen to my words which he speaks in my name, I myself will make him answer for it.

²⁰But if a prophet presumes to speak in my name an oracle that I have not commanded him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods, he shall die.'

²¹"If you say to yourselves, 'How can we recognize an oracle which the LORD has spoken?',

²²know that, even though a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if his oracle is not fulfilled or verified, it is an oracle which the LORD did not speak. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously, and you shall have no fear of him.

19"When the LORD, your God, removes the nations whose land he is giving you, and you have taken their place and are settled in their cities and houses,

²you shall set apart three cities in the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you to occupy.

³You shall thereby divide into three regions the land which the LORD, your God, will give you as a heritage, and so arrange the routes that every homicide will be able to find a refuge.

⁴"It is in the following case that a homicide may take refuge in such a place to save his life: when someone unwittingly kills his neighbor to whom he had previously borne no malice.

⁵For example, if he goes with his neighbor to a forest to cut wood, and as he swings his ax to fell a tree, its head flies off the handle and hits his neighbor a mortal blow, he may take refuge in one of these cities to save his life.

⁶Should the distance be too great, the avenger of blood may in the heat of his anger pursue the homicide and overtake him and strike him dead, even though he does not merit death since he had previously borne the slain man no malice.

⁷That is why I order you to set apart three cities.

⁸"But if the LORD, your God, enlarges your territory, as he swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land he promised your fathers he would give

⁹in the event that you carefully observe all these commandments which I enjoin on you today, loving the LORD, your God, and ever walking in his ways: then add three cities to these three.

¹⁰Thus, in the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you as a heritage, innocent blood will not be shed and you will not become guilty of bloodshed.

¹¹"However, if someone lies in wait for his neighbor out of hatred for him, and rising up against him, strikes him mortally, and then takes refuge in one of these cities,

¹²the elders of his own city shall send for him and have him taken from there, and shall hand him over to be slain by the avenger of blood.

¹³Do not look on him with pity, but purge from Israel the stain of shedding innocent blood, that you may prosper.

¹⁴"You shall not move your neighbor's landmarks erected by your forefathers in the heritage you receive in the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you to occupy.

¹⁵"One witness alone shall not take the stand against a man in regard to any crime or any offense of which he may be guilty; a judicial fact shall be established only on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

¹⁶"If an unjust witness takes the stand against a man to accuse him of a defection from the law,

¹⁷the two parties in the dispute shall appear before the LORD in the presence of the priests or judges in office at that time;

¹⁸and if after a thorough investigation the judges find that the witness is a false witness and has accused his kinsman falsely,

¹⁹you shall do to him as he planned to do to his kinsman. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst.

²⁰The rest, on hearing of it, shall fear, and never again do a thing so evil among you.

²¹Do not look on such a man with pity. Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot!

20"When you go out to war against your enemies and you see horses and chariots and an army greater than your own, do not be afraid of them, for the LORD, your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, will be with you.

²"When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and say to the soldiers:

³'Hear, O Israel! Today you are going into battle against your enemies. Be not weakhearted or afraid; be neither alarmed nor frightened by them.

⁴For it is the LORD, your God, who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies and give you victory.'

⁵"Then the officials shall say to the soldiers, 'Is there anyone who has built a new house and not yet had the housewarming? Let him return home, lest he die in battle and another dedicate it.

⁶Is there anyone who has planted a vineyard and never yet enjoyed its fruits? Let him return home, lest he die in battle and another enjoy its fruits in his stead.

⁷Is there anyone who has betrothed a woman and not yet taken her as his wife? Let him return home, lest he die in battle and another take her to wife.'

⁸In fine, the officials shall say to the soldiers, 'Is there anyone who is afraid and weakhearted? Let him return home, lest he make his fellows as fainthearted as himself.'

⁹"When the officials have finished speaking to the soldiers, military officers shall be appointed over the army.

¹⁰"When you march up to attack a city, first offer it terms of peace.

¹¹If it agrees to your terms of peace and opens its gates to you, all the people to be found in it shall serve you in forced labor.

¹²But if it refuses to make peace with you and instead offers you battle, lay siege to it,

¹³and when the LORD, your God, delivers it into your hand, put every male in it to the sword;

¹⁴but the women and children and livestock and all else in it that is worth plundering you may take as your booty, and you may use this plunder of your enemies which the LORD, your God, has given you.

¹⁵"That is how you shall deal with any city at a considerable distance from you, which does not belong to the peoples of this land.

¹⁶But in the cities of those nations which the LORD, your God, is giving you as your heritage, you shall not leave a single soul alive.

¹⁷You must doom them all-the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites-as the LORD, your God, has commanded you,

¹⁸lest they teach you to make any such abominable offerings as they make to their gods, and you thus sin against the LORD, your God.

¹⁹"When you are at war with a city and have to lay siege to it for a long time before you capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them. You may eat their fruit, but you must not cut down the trees. After all, are the trees of the field men, that they should be included in your siege?

²⁰However, those trees which you know are not fruit trees you may destroy, cutting them down to build siegeworks with which to reduce the city that is resisting you.

21"If the corpse of a slain man is found lying in the open on the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you to occupy, and it is not known who killed him,

²your elders and judges shall go out and measure the distances to the cities that are in the neighborhood of the corpse.

³When it is established which city is nearest the corpse, the elders of that city shall take a heifer that has never been put to work as a draft animal under a yoke,

⁴and bringing it down to a wadi with an everflowing stream at a place that has not been plowed or sown, they shall cut the heifer's throat there in the wadi.

⁵The priests, the descendants of Levi, shall also be present, for the LORD, your God, has chosen them to minister to him and to give blessings in his name, and every case of dispute or violence must be settled by their decision.

⁶Then all the elders of that city nearest the corpse shall wash their hands over the heifer whose throat was cut in the wadi,

⁷and shall declare, 'Our hands did not shed this blood, and our eyes did not see the deed.

⁸Absolve, O LORD, your people Israel, whom you have ransomed, and let not the guilt of shedding innocent blood remain in the midst of your people Israel.' Thus they shall be absolved from the guilt of bloodshed,

⁹and you shall purge from your midst the guilt of innocent blood, that you may prosper for doing what is right in the sight of the LORD.

¹⁰"When you go out to war against your enemies and the LORD, your God, delivers them into your hand, so that you take captives,

¹¹if you see a comely woman among the captives and become so enamored of her that you wish to have her as wife,

¹²you may take her home to your house. But before she may live there, she must shave her head and pare her nails

¹³and lay aside her captive's garb. After she has mourned her father and mother for a full month, you may have relations with her, and you shall be her husband and she shall be your wife.

¹⁴However, if later on you lose your liking for her, you shall give her her freedom, if she wishes it; but you shall not sell her or enslave her, since she was married to you under compulsion.

¹⁵"If a man with two wives loves one and dislikes the other; and if both bear him sons, but the first-born is of her whom he dislikes:

¹⁶when he comes to bequeath his property to his sons he may not consider as his first-born the son of the wife he loves, in preference to his true first-born, the son of the wife whom he dislikes.

¹⁷On the contrary, he shall recognize as his first-born the son of her whom he dislikes, giving him a double share of whatever he happens to own, since he is the first fruits of his manhood, and to him belong the rights of the first-born.

¹⁸"If a man has a stubborn and unruly son who will not listen to his father or mother, and will not obey them even though they chastise him,

¹⁹his father and mother shall have him apprehended and brought out to the elders at the gate of his home city,

²⁰where they shall say to those city elders, 'This son of ours is a stubborn and unruly fellow who will not listen to us; he is a glutton and a drunkard.'

²¹Then all his fellow citizens shall stone him to death. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel, on hearing of it, shall fear.

²²"If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his corpse hung on a tree,

²³it shall not remain on the tree overnight. You shall bury it the same day; otherwise, since God's curse rests on him who hangs on a tree, you will defile the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you as an inheritance.

22"You shall not see your kinsman's ox or sheep driven astray without showing concern about it; see to it that it is returned to your kinsman.

²If this kinsman does not live near you, or you do not know who he may be, take it to your own place and keep it with you until he claims it; then give it back to him.

³You shall do the same with his ass, or his garment, or anything else which your kinsman loses and you happen to find; you may not be unconcerned about them.

⁴You shall not see your kinsman's ass or ox foundering on the road without showing concern about it; see to it that you help him lift it up.

⁵"A woman shall not wear an article proper to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman's dress; for anyone who does such things is an abomination to the LORD, your God.

⁶"If, while walking along, you chance upon a bird's nest with young birds or eggs in it, in any tree or on the ground, and the mother bird is sitting on them, you shall not take away the mother bird along with her brood;

⁷you shall let her go, although you may take her brood away. It is thus that you shall have prosperity and a long life.

⁸"When you build a new house, put a parapet around the roof; otherwise, if someone falls off, you will bring bloodguilt upon your house.

⁹"You shall not sow your vineyard with two different kinds of seed; if you do, its produce shall become forfeit, both the crop you have sown and the yield of the vineyard.

¹⁰You shall not plow with an ox and an ass harnessed together.

¹¹You shall not wear cloth of two different kinds of thread, wool and linen, woven together.

¹²"You shall put twisted cords on the four corners of the cloak that you wrap around you.

¹³"If a man, after marrying a woman and having relations with her, comes to dislike her,

¹⁴and makes monstrous charges against her and defames her by saying, 'I married this woman, but when I first had relations with her I did not find her a virgin,'

¹⁵the father and mother of the girl shall take the evidence of her virginity and bring it to the elders at the city gate.

¹⁶There the father of the girl shall say to the elders, 'I gave my daughter to this man in marriage, but he has come to dislike her,

¹⁷and now brings monstrous charges against her, saying: I did not find your daughter a virgin. But here is the evidence of my daughter's virginity!' And they shall spread out the cloth before the elders of the city.

¹⁸Then these city elders shall take the man and chastise him,

¹⁹besides fining him one hundred silver shekels, which they shall give to the girl's father, because the man defamed a virgin in Israel. Moreover, she shall remain his wife, and he may not divorce her as long as he lives.

²⁰"But if this charge is true, and evidence of the girl's virginity is not found,

²¹they shall bring the girl to the entrance of her father's house and there her townsmen shall stone her to death, because she committed a crime against Israel by her unchasteness in her father's house. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst.

²²"If a man is discovered having relations with a woman who is married to another, both the man and the woman with whom he has had relations shall die. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst.

²³"If within the city a man comes upon a maiden who is betrothed, and has relations with her,

²⁴you shall bring them both out to the gate of the city and there stone them to death: the girl because she did not cry out for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor's wife. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst.

²⁵"If, however, it is in the open fields that a man comes upon such a betrothed maiden, seizes her and has relations with her, the man alone shall die.

²⁶You shall do nothing to the maiden, since she is not guilty of a capital offense. This case is like that of a man who rises up against his neighbor and murders him:

²⁷it was in the open fields that he came upon her, and though the betrothed maiden may have cried out for help, there was no one to come to her aid.

²⁸"If a man comes upon a maiden that is not betrothed, takes her and has relations with her, and their deed is discovered,

²⁹the man who had relations with her shall pay the girl's father fifty silver shekels and take her as his wife, because he has deflowered her. Moreover, he may not divorce her as long as he lives.

23"A man shall not marry his father's wife, nor shall he dishonor his father's bed.

²"No one whose testicles have been crushed or whose penis has been cut off may be admitted into the community of the LORD.

³No child of an incestuous union may be admitted into the community of the LORD, nor any descendant of his even to the tenth generation.

⁴No Ammonite or Moabite may ever be admitted into the community of the LORD, nor any descendants of theirs even to the tenth generation,

⁵because they would not succor you with food and water on your journey after you left Egypt, and because Moab hired Balaam, son of Beor, from Pethor in Aram Naharaim, to curse you;

⁶though the LORD, your God, would not listen to Balaam and turned his curse into a blessing for you, because he loves you.

⁷Never promote their peace and prosperity as long as you live.

⁸But do not abhor the Edomite, since he is your brother, nor the Egyptian, since you were an alien in his country.

⁹Children born to them may in the third generation be admitted into the community of the LORD.

¹⁰"When you are in camp during an expedition against your enemies, you shall keep yourselves from everything offensive.

¹¹If one of you becomes unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he shall go outside the camp, and not return until,

¹²toward evening, he has bathed in water; then, when the sun has set, he may come back into the camp.

¹³Outside the camp you shall have a place set aside to be used as a latrine.

¹⁴You shall also keep a trowel in your equipment and with it, when you go outside to ease nature, you shall first dig a hole and afterward cover up your excrement.

¹⁵Since the LORD, your God, journeys along within your camp to defend you and to put your enemies at your mercy, your camp must be holy; otherwise, if he sees anything indecent in your midst, he will leave your company.

¹⁶"You shall not hand over to his master a slave who has taken refuge from him with you.

¹⁷Let him live with you wherever he chooses, in any one of your communities that pleases him. Do not molest him.

¹⁸"There shall be no temple harlot among the Israelite women, nor a temple prostitute among the Israelite men.

¹⁹You shall not offer a harlot's fee or a dog's price as any kind of votive offering in the house of the LORD, your God; both these things are an abomination to the LORD, your God.

²⁰"You shall not demand interest from your countrymen on a loan of money or of food or of anything else on which interest is usually demanded.

²¹You may demand interest from a foreigner, but not from your countryman, so that the LORD, your God, may bless you in all your undertakings on the land you are to enter and occupy.

²²"When you make a vow to the LORD, your God, you shall not delay in fulfilling it; otherwise you will be held guilty, for the LORD, your God, is strict in requiring it of you.

²³Should you refrain from making a vow, you will not be held guilty.

²⁴But you must keep your solemn word and fulfill the votive offering you have freely promised to the LORD.

²⁵"When you go through your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat as many of his grapes as you wish, but do not put them in your basket.

²⁶When you go through your neighbor's grainfield, you may pluck some of the ears with your hand, but do not put a sickle to your neighbor's grain.

24"When a man, after marrying a woman and having relations with her, is later displeased with her because he finds in her something indecent, and therefore he writes out a bill of divorce and hands it to her, thus dismissing her from his house:

²if on leaving his house she goes and becomes the wife of another man,

³and the second husband, too, comes to dislike her and dismisses her from his house by handing her a written bill of divorce; or if this second man who has married her, dies;

⁴then her former husband, who dismissed her, may not again take her as his wife after she has become defiled. That would be an abomination before the LORD, and you shall not bring such guilt upon the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you as a heritage.

⁵"When a man is newly wed, he need not go out on a military expedition, nor shall any public duty be imposed on him. He shall be exempt for one year for the sake of his family, to bring joy to the wife he has married.

⁶"No one shall take a hand mill or even its upper stone as a pledge for debt, for he would be taking the debtor's sustenance as a pledge.

⁷"If any man is caught kidnaping a fellow Israelite in order to enslave him and sell him, the kidnaper shall be put to death. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst.

⁸"In an attack of leprosy you shall be careful to observe exactly and to carry out all the directions of the levitical priests. Take care to act in accordance with the instructions I have given them.

⁹Remember what the LORD, your God, did to Miriam on the journey after you left Egypt.

¹⁰"When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, you shall not enter his house to receive a pledge from him,

¹¹but shall wait outside until the man to whom you are making the loan brings his pledge outside to you.

¹²If he is a poor man, you shall not sleep in the mantle he gives as a pledge,

¹³but shall return it to him at sunset that he himself may sleep in it. Then he will bless you, and it will be a good deed of yours before the LORD, your God.

¹⁴"You shall not defraud a poor and needy hired servant, whether he be one of your own countrymen or one of the aliens who live in your communities.

¹⁵You shall pay him each day's wages before sundown on the day itself, since he is poor and looks forward to them. Otherwise he will cry to the LORD against you, and you will be held guilty.

¹⁶"Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children for their fathers; only for his own guilt shall a man be put to death.

¹⁷"You shall not violate the rights of the alien or of the orphan, nor take the clothing of a widow as a pledge.

¹⁸For, remember, you were once slaves in Egypt, and the LORD, your God, ransomed you from there; that is why I command you to observe this rule.

¹⁹"When you reap the harvest in your field and overlook a sheaf there, you shall not go back to get it; let it be for the alien, the orphan or the widow, that the LORD, your God, may bless you in all your undertakings.

²⁰When you knock down the fruit of your olive trees, you shall not go over the branches a second time; let what remains be for the alien, the orphan and the widow.

²¹When you pick your grapes, you shall not go over the vineyard a second time; let what remains be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow.

²²For remember that you were once slaves in Egypt; that is why I command you to observe this rule.

25"When men have a dispute and bring it to court, and a decision is handed down to them acquitting the innocent party and condemning the guilty party,

²if the latter deserves stripes, the judge shall have him lie down and in his presence receive the number of stripes his guilt deserves.

³Forty stripes may be given him, but no more; lest, if he were beaten with more stripes than these, your kinsman should be looked upon as disgraced because of the severity of the beating.

⁴"You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out grain.

⁵"When brothers live together and one of them dies without a son, the widow of the deceased shall not marry anyone outside the family; but her husband's brother shall go to her and perform the duty of a brother-in-law by marrying her.

⁶The first-born son she bears shall continue the line of the deceased brother, that his name may not be blotted out from Israel.

⁷If, however, a man does not care to marry his brother's wife, she shall go up to the elders at the gate and declare, 'My brother-in-law does not intend to perform his duty toward me and refuses to perpetuate his brother's name in Israel.'

⁸Thereupon the elders of his city shall summon him and admonish him. If he persists in saying, 'I am not willing to marry her,'

⁹his sister-in-law, in the presence of the elders, shall go up to him and strip his sandal from his foot and spit in his face, saying publicly, 'This is how one should be treated who will not build up his brother's family!'

¹⁰And his lineage shall be spoken of in Israel as 'the family of the man stripped of his sandal.'

¹¹"When two men are fighting and the wife of one intervenes to save her husband from the blows of his opponent, if she stretches out her hand and seizes the latter by his private parts,

¹²you shall chop off her hand without pity.

¹³"You shall not keep two differing weights in your bag, one large and the other small;

¹⁴nor shall you keep two different measures in your house, one large and the other small.

¹⁵But use a true and just weight, and a true and just measure, that you may have a long life on the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you.

¹⁶Everyone who is dishonest in any of these matters is an abomination to the LORD, your God.

¹⁷"Bear in mind what Amalek did to you on the journey after you left Egypt,

¹⁸how without fear of any god he harassed you along the way, weak and weary as you were, and cut off at the rear all those who lagged behind.

¹⁹Therefore, when the LORD, your God, gives you rest from all your enemies round about in the land which he is giving you to occupy as your heritage, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the heavens. Do not forget!

26"When you have come into the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you as a heritage, and have occupied it and settled in it,

²you shall take some first fruits of the various products of the soil which you harvest from the land which the LORD, your God, gives you, and putting them in a basket, you shall go to the place which the LORD, your God, chooses for the dwelling place of his name.

³There you shall go to the priest in office at that time and say to him, 'Today I acknowledge to the LORD, my God, that I have indeed come into the land which he swore to our fathers he would give us.'

⁴The priest shall then receive the basket from you and shall set it in front of the altar of the LORD, your God.

⁵Then you shall declare before the LORD, your God, 'My father was a wandering Aramean who went down to Egypt with a small household and lived there as an alien. But there he became a nation great, strong and numerous.

⁶When the Egyptians maltreated and oppressed us, imposing hard labor upon us,

⁷we cried to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and he heard our cry and saw our affliction, our toil and our oppression.

⁸He brought us out of Egypt with his strong hand and outstretched arm, with terrifying power, with signs and wonders;

⁹and bringing us into this country, he gave us this land flowing with milk and honey.

¹⁰Therefore, I have now brought you the first fruits of the products of the soil which you, O LORD, have given me.' And having set them before the LORD, your God, you shall bow down in his presence.

¹¹Then you and your family, together with the Levite and the aliens who live among you, shall make merry over all these good things which the LORD, your God, has given you.

¹²"When you have finished setting aside all the tithes of your produce in the third year, the year of the tithes, and you have given them to the Levite, the alien, the orphan and the widow, that they may eat their fill in your own community,

¹³you shall declare before the LORD, your God, 'I have purged my house of the sacred portion and I have given it to the Levite, the alien, the orphan and the widow, just as you have commanded me. In this I have not broken or forgotten any of your commandments:

¹⁴I have not eaten any of the tithe as a mourner; I have not brought any of it out as one unclean; I have not offered any of it to the dead. I have thus hearkened to the voice of the LORD, my God, doing just as you have commanded me.

¹⁵Look down, then, from heaven, your holy abode, and bless your people Israel and the soil you have given us in the land flowing with milk and honey which you promised on oath to our fathers.'

¹⁶"This day the LORD, your God, commands you to observe these statutes and decrees. Be careful, then, to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.

¹⁷Today you are making this agreement with the LORD: he is to be your God and you are to walk in his ways and observe his statutes, commandments and decrees, and to hearken to his voice.

¹⁸And today the LORD is making this agreement with you: you are to be a people peculiarly his own, as he promised you; and provided you keep all his commandments,

¹⁹he will then raise you high in praise and renown and glory above all other nations he has made, and you will be a people sacred to the LORD, your God, as he promised."

27Then Moses, with the elders of Israel, gave the people this order: "Keep all these commandments which I enjoin on you today.

²On the day you cross the Jordan into the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you, set up some large stones and coat them with plaster.

³Also write on them, at the time you cross, all the words of this law, that you may thus enter into the land flowing with milk and honey, which the LORD, your God, and the God of your fathers, is giving you as he promised you.

⁴When, moreover, you have crossed the Jordan, besides setting up on Mount Ebal these stones concerning which I command you today, and coating them with plaster,

⁵you shall also build to the LORD, your God, an altar made of stones that no iron tool has touched.

⁶You shall make this altar of the LORD, your God, with undressed stones, and shall offer on it holocausts to the LORD, your God.

⁷You shall also sacrifice peace offerings and eat them there, making merry before the LORD, your God.

⁸On the stones you shall inscribe all the words of this law very clearly."

⁹Moses, with the levitical priests, then said to all Israel: "Be silent, O Israel, and listen! This day you have become the people of the LORD, your God.

¹⁰You shall therefore hearken to the voice of the LORD, your God, and keep his commandments and statutes which I enjoin on you today."

¹¹That same day Moses gave the people this order:

¹²"When you cross the Jordan, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin shall stand on Mount Gerizim to pronounce blessings over the people,

¹³while Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali shall stand on Mount Ebal to pronounce curses.

¹⁴"The Levites shall proclaim aloud to all the men of Israel:

¹⁵'Cursed be the man who makes a carved or molten idol--an abomination to the LORD, the product of a craftsman's hands--and sets it up in secret!' And all the people shall answer, 'Amen!'

¹⁶'Cursed be he who dishonors his father or his mother!' And all the people shall answer, 'Amen!'

¹⁷'Cursed be he who moves his neighbor's landmarks!' And all the people shall answer, 'Amen!'

¹⁸'Cursed be he who misleads a blind man on his way!' And all the people shall answer, 'Amen!'

¹⁹'Cursed be he who violates the rights of the alien, the orphan or the widow!' And all the people shall answer, 'Amen!'

²⁰'Cursed be he who has relations with his father's wife, for he dishonors his father's bed!' And all the people shall answer, 'Amen!'

²¹'Cursed be he who has relations with any animal!' And all the people shall answer, 'Amen!'

²²'Cursed be he who has relations with his sister or his half-sister!' And all the people shall answer, 'Amen!'

²³'Cursed be he who has relations with his mother-in-law!' And all the people shall answer, 'Amen!'

²⁴'Cursed be he who slays his neighbor in secret!' And all the people shall answer, 'Amen!'

²⁵'Cursed be he who accepts payment for slaying an innocent man!' And all the people shall answer, 'Amen!'

²⁶'Cursed be he who fails to fulfill any of the provisions of this law!' And all the people shall answer, 'Amen!'

28"Thus, then, shall it be: if you continue to heed the voice of the LORD, your God, and are careful to observe all his commandments which I enjoin on you today, the LORD, your God, will raise you high above all the nations of the earth.

²When you hearken to the voice of the LORD, your God, all these blessings will come upon you and overwhelm you:

³"May you be blessed in the city, and blessed in the country!

⁴"Blessed be the fruit of your womb, the produce of your soil and the offspring of your livestock, the issue of your herds and the young of your flocks!

⁵"Blessed be your grain bin and your kneading bowl!

⁶"May you be blessed in your coming in, and blessed in your going out!

⁷"The LORD will beat down before you the enemies that rise up against you; though they come out against you from but one direction, they will flee before you in seven.

⁸The LORD will affirm his blessing upon you, on your barns and on all your undertakings, blessing you in the land that the LORD, your God, gives you.

⁹Provided that you keep the commandments of the LORD, your God, and walk in his ways, he will establish you as a people sacred to himself, as he swore to you;

¹⁰so that, when all the nations of the earth see you bearing the name of the LORD, they will stand in awe of you.

¹¹The LORD will increase in more than goodly measure the fruit of your womb, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil, in the land which he swore to your fathers he would give you.

¹²The LORD will open up for you his rich treasure house of the heavens, to give your land rain in due season, blessing all your undertakings, so that you will lend to many nations and borrow from none.

¹³The LORD will make you the head, not the tail, and you will always mount higher and not decline, as long as you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I order you today to observe carefully;

¹⁴not turning aside to the right or to the left from any of the commandments which I now give you, in order to follow other gods and serve them.

¹⁵"But if you do not hearken to the voice of the LORD, your God, and are not careful to observe all his commandments which I enjoin on you today, all these curses shall come upon you and overwhelm you:

¹⁶"May you be cursed in the city, and cursed in the country!

¹⁷"Cursed be your grain bin and your kneading bowl!

¹⁸"Cursed be the fruit of your womb, the produce of your soil and the offspring of your livestock, the issue of your herds and the young of your flocks!

¹⁹"May you be cursed in your coming in, and cursed in your going out!

²⁰"The LORD will put a curse on you, defeat and frustration in every enterprise you undertake, until you are speedily destroyed and perish for the evil you have done in forsaking me.

²¹The LORD will bring a pestilence upon you that will persist until he has exterminated you from the land you are entering to occupy.

²²The LORD will strike you with wasting and fever, with scorching, fiery drought, with blight and searing wind, that will plague you until you perish.

²³The sky over your heads will be like bronze and the earth under your feet like iron.

²⁴For rain the LORD will give your land powdery dust, which will come down upon you from the sky until you are destroyed.

²⁵The LORD will let you be beaten down before your enemies; though you advance against them from one direction, you will flee before them in seven, so that you will become a terrifying example to all the kingdoms of the earth.

²⁶Your carcasses will become food for all the birds of the air and for the beasts of the field, with no one to frighten them off.

²⁷The LORD will strike you with Egyptian boils and with tumors, eczema and the itch, until you cannot be cured.

²⁸And the LORD will strike you with madness, blindness and panic,

²⁹so that even at midday you will grope like a blind man in the dark, unable to find your way. "You will be oppressed and robbed continually, with no one to come to your aid.

³⁰Though you betroth a wife, another man will have her. Though you build a house, you will not live in it. Though you plant a vineyard, you will not enjoy its fruits.

³¹Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, and you will not eat of its flesh. Your ass will be stolen in your presence, but you will not recover it. Your flocks will be given to your enemies, with no one to come to your aid.

³²Your sons and daughters will be given to a foreign nation while you look on and grieve for them in constant helplessness.

³³A people whom you do not know will consume the fruit of your soil and of all your labor, and you will be oppressed and crushed at all times without surcease,

³⁴until you are driven mad by what your eyes must look upon.

³⁵The LORD will strike you with malignant boils of which you cannot be cured, on your knees and legs, and from the soles of your feet to the crown of your head.

³⁶"The LORD will bring you, and your king whom you have set over you, to a nation which you and your fathers have not known, and there you will serve strange gods of wood and stone,

³⁷and will call forth amazement, reproach and barbed scorn from all the nations to which the LORD will lead you.

³⁸"Though you spend much seed on your field, you will harvest but little, for the locusts will devour the crop.

³⁹Though you plant and cultivate vineyards, you will not drink or store up the wine, for the grubs will eat the vines clean.

⁴⁰Though you have olive trees throughout your country, you will have no oil for ointment, for your olives will drop off unripe.

⁴¹Though you beget sons and daughters, they will not remain with you, but will go into captivity.

⁴²Buzzing insects will infest all your trees and the crops of your soil.

⁴³The alien residing among you will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink lower and lower.

⁴⁴He will lend to you, not you to him. He will become the head, you the tail.

⁴⁵"All these curses will come upon you, pursuing you and overwhelming you, until you are destroyed, because you would not hearken to the voice of the LORD, your God, nor keep the commandments and statutes he gave you.

⁴⁶They will light on you and your descendants as a sign and a wonder for all time.

⁴⁷Since you would not serve the LORD, your God, with joy and gratitude for abundance of every kind,

⁴⁸therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and utter poverty, you will serve the enemies whom the LORD will send against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck, until he destroys you.

⁴⁹"The LORD will raise up against you a nation from afar, from the end of the earth, that swoops down like an eagle, a nation whose tongue you do not understand,

⁵⁰a nation of stern visage, that shows neither respect for the aged nor pity for the young.

⁵¹They will consume the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your soil, until you are destroyed; they will leave you no grain or wine or oil, no issue of your herds or young of your flocks, until they have brought about your ruin.

⁵²They will besiege you in each of your communities, until the great, unscalable walls you trust in come tumbling down all over your land. They will so besiege you in every community throughout the land which the LORD, your God, has given you,

⁵³that in the distress of the siege to which your enemy subjects you, you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your own sons and daughters whom the LORD, your God, has given you.

⁵⁴The most refined and fastidious man among you will begrudge his brother and his beloved wife and his surviving children,

⁵⁵any share in the flesh of his children that he himself is using for food when nothing else is left him in the straits of the siege to which your enemy will subject you in all your communities.

⁵⁶The most refined and delicate woman among you, so delicate and refined that she would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge her beloved husband and her son and daughter

⁵⁷the afterbirth that issues from her womb and the infant she brings forth when she secretly uses them for food for want of anything else, in the straits of the siege to which your enemy will subject you in your communities.

⁵⁸"If you are not careful to observe every word of the law which is written in this book, and to revere the glorious and awesome name of the LORD, your God,

⁵⁹he will smite you and your descendants with severe and constant blows, malignant and lasting maladies.

⁶⁰He will again afflict you with all the diseases of Egypt which you dread, and they will persist among you.

⁶¹Should there be any kind of sickness or calamity not mentioned in this book of the law, that too the LORD will bring upon you until you are destroyed.

⁶²Of you who were numerous as the stars in the sky, only a few will be left, because you would not hearken to the voice of the LORD, your God.

⁶³"Just as the LORD once took delight in making you grow and prosper, so will he now take delight in ruining and destroying you, and you will be plucked out of the land you are now entering to occupy.

⁶⁴The LORD will scatter you among all the nations from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will serve strange gods of wood and stone, such as you and your fathers have not known.

⁶⁵Among these nations you will find no repose, not a foot of ground to stand upon, for there the LORD will give you an anguished heart and wasted eyes and a dismayed spirit.

⁶⁶You will live in constant suspense and stand in dread both day and night, never sure of your existence.

⁶⁷In the morning you will say, 'Would that it were evening!' and in the evening you will say, 'Would that it were morning!' for the dread that your heart must feel and the sight that your eyes must see.

⁶⁸The LORD will send you back in galleys to Egypt, to the region I told you that you were never to see again; and there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer."

⁶⁹These are the words of the covenant which the LORD ordered Moses to make with the Israelites in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant which he made with them at Horeb.

29Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, "You have seen all that the LORD did in the land of Egypt before your very eyes to Pharaoh and all his servants and to all his land;

²the great testings your own eyes have seen, and those great signs and wonders.

³But not even at the present day has the LORD yet given you a mind to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear.

⁴'I led you for forty years in the desert. Your clothes did not fall from you in tatters nor your sandals from your feet;

⁵bread was not your food, nor wine or beer your drink. Thus you should know that I, the LORD, am your God.'

⁶When we came to this place, Sihon, king of Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan, came out to engage us in battle, but we defeated them

⁷and took over their land, which we then gave as a heritage to the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh.

⁸Keep the terms of this covenant, therefore, and fulfill them, that you may succeed in whatever you do.

⁹"You are all now standing before the LORD, your God--your chiefs and judges, your elders and officials, and all of the men of Israel,

¹⁰together with your wives and children and the aliens who live in your camp, down to those who hew wood and draw water for you--

¹¹that you may enter into the covenant of the LORD, your God, which he concluded with you today under this sanction of a curse;

¹²so that he may now establish you as his people and he may be your God, as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

¹³But it is not with you alone that I am making this covenant, under this sanction of a curse;

¹⁴it is just as much with those who are not here among us today as it is with those of us who are now here present before the LORD, our God.

¹⁵"You know in what surroundings we lived in the land of Egypt and what we passed by in the nations we traversed,

¹⁶and you saw the loathsome idols of wood and stone, of gold and silver, that they possess.

¹⁷Let there be, then, no man or woman, no clan or tribe among you, who would now turn away their hearts from the LORD, our God, to go and serve these pagan gods! Let there be no root that would bear such poison and wormwood among you.

¹⁸If any such person, upon hearing the words of this curse, should beguile himself into thinking that he can safely persist in his stubbornness of heart, as though to sweep away both the watered soil and the parched ground,

¹⁹the LORD will never consent to pardon him. Instead, the LORD'S wrath and jealousy will flare up against that man, and every curse mentioned in this book will alight on him. The LORD will blot out his name from under the heavens

²⁰and will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for doom, in keeping with all the curses of the covenant inscribed in this book of the law.

²¹"Future generations, your own descendants who will rise up after you, as well as the foreigners who will come here from far-off lands, when they see the calamities of this land and the ills with which the LORD has smitten it--

²²all its soil being nothing but sulphur and salt, a burnt-out waste, unsown and unfruitful, without a blade of grass, destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in his furious wrath--

²³they and all the nations will ask, 'Why has the LORD dealt thus with this land? Why this fierce outburst of wrath?'

²⁴And the answer will be, 'Because they forsook the covenant which the LORD, the God of their fathers, had made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt,

²⁵and they went and served other gods and adored them, gods whom they did not know and whom he had not let fall to their lot:

²⁶that is why the LORD was angry with this land and brought on it all the imprecations listed in this book;

²⁷in his furious wrath and tremendous anger the LORD uprooted them from their soil and cast them out into a strange land, where they are today.'

²⁸(Both what is still hidden and what has already been revealed concern us and our descendants forever, that we may carry out all the words of this law.)

30"When all these things which I have set before you, the blessings and the curses, are fulfilled in you, and from among whatever nations the LORD, your God, may have dispersed you, you ponder them in your heart:

²then, provided that you and your children return to the LORD, your God, and heed his voice with all your heart and all your soul, just as I now command you,

³the LORD, your God, will change your lot; and taking pity on you, he will again gather you from all the nations wherein he has scattered you.

⁴Though you may have been driven to the farthest corner of the world, even from there will the LORD, your God, gather you; even from there will he bring you back.

⁵The LORD, your God, will then bring you into the land which your fathers once occupied, that you too may occupy it, and he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers.

⁶The LORD, your God, will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, that you may love the LORD, your God, with all your heart and all your soul, and so may live.

⁷But all those curses the LORD, your God, will assign to your enemies and the foes who persecuted you.

⁸You, however, must again heed the LORD'S voice and carry out all his commandments which I now enjoin on you.

⁹Then the LORD, your God, will increase in more than goodly measure the returns from all your labors, the fruit of your womb, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil; for the LORD, your God, will again take delight in your prosperity, even as he took delight in your fathers',

¹⁰if only you heed the voice of the LORD, your God, and keep his commandments and statutes that are written in this book of the law, when you return to the LORD, your God, with all your heart and all your soul.

¹¹"For this command which I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you.

¹²It is not up in the sky, that you should say, 'Who will go up in the sky to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?'

¹³Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, 'Who will cross the sea to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?'

¹⁴No, it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out.

¹⁵"Here, then, I have today set before you life and prosperity, death and doom.

¹⁶If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin on you today, loving him, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the LORD, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy.

¹⁷If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen, but are led astray and adore and serve other gods,

¹⁸I tell you now that you will certainly perish; you will not have a long life on the land which you are crossing the Jordan to enter and occupy.

¹⁹I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live,

²⁰by loving the LORD, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him. For that will mean life for you, a long life for you to live on the land which the LORD swore he would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."

31When Moses had finished speaking these words to all Israel,

²he said to them, "I am now one hundred and twenty years old and am no longer able to move about freely; besides, the LORD has told me that I shall not cross this Jordan.

³It is the LORD, your God, who will cross before you; he will destroy these nations before you, that you may supplant them. (It is Joshua who will cross before you, as the LORD promised.)

⁴The LORD will deal with them just as he dealt with Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites whom he destroyed, and with their country.

⁵When, therefore, the LORD delivers them up to you, you must deal with them exactly as I have ordered you.

⁶Be brave and steadfast; have no fear or dread of them, for it is the LORD, your God, who marches with you; he will never fail you or forsake you."

⁷Then Moses summoned Joshua and in the presence of all Israel said to him, "Be brave and steadfast, for you must being this people into the land which the LORD swore to their fathers he would give them; you must put them in possession of their heritage.

⁸It is the LORD who marches before you; he will be with you and will never fail you or forsake you. So do not fear or be dismayed."

⁹When Moses had written down this law, he entrusted it to the levitical priests who carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel,

¹⁰giving them this order: "On the feast of Booths, at the prescribed time in the year of relaxation which comes at the end of every seven-year period,

¹¹when all Israel goes to appear before the LORD, your God, in the place which he chooses, you shall read this law aloud in the presence of all Israel.

¹²Assemble the people--men, women and children, as well as the aliens who live in your communities--that they may hear it and learn it, and so fear the LORD, your God, and carefully observe all the words of this law.

¹³Their children also, who do not know it yet, must hear it and learn it, that they too may fear the LORD, your God, as long as you live on the land which you will cross the Jordan to occupy."

¹⁴The LORD said to Moses, "The time is now approaching for you to die. Summon Joshua, and present yourselves at the meeting tent that I may give him his commission." So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves at the meeting tent.

¹⁵And the LORD appeared at the tent in a column of cloud, which stood still at the entrance of the tent.

¹⁶The LORD said to Moses, "Soon you will be at rest with your fathers, and then this people will take to rendering wanton worship to the strange gods among whom they will live in the land they are about to enter. They will forsake me and break the covenant which I have made with them.

¹⁷At that time my anger will flare up against them; I will forsake them and hide my face from them, so that they will become a prey to be devoured, and many evils and troubles will befall them. At that time they will indeed say, 'Is it not because our God is not among us that these evils have befallen us?'

¹⁸Yet I will be hiding my face from them at that time only because of all the evil they have done in turning to other gods.

¹⁹Write out this song, then, for yourselves. Teach it to the Israelites and have them recite it, so that this song may be a witness for me against the Israelites.

²⁰For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey which I promised on oath to their fathers, and they have eaten their fill and grown fat, if they turn to other gods and serve them, despising me and breaking my covenant;

²¹then, when many evils and troubles befall them, this song, which their descendants will not have forgotten to recite, will bear witness against them. For I know what they are inclined to do even at the present time, before I have brought them into the land which I promised on oath to their fathers."

²²So Moses wrote this song that same day, and he taught it to the Israelites.

²³Then the LORD commissioned Joshua, son of Nun, and said to him, "Be brave and steadfast, for it is you who must bring the Israelites into the land which I promised them on oath. I myself will be with you."

²⁴When Moses had finished writing out on a scroll the words of the law in their entirety,

²⁵he gave the Levites who carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD this order:

²⁶"Take this scroll of the law and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD, your God, that there it may be a witness against you.

²⁷For I already know how rebellious and stiff-necked you will be. Why, even now, while I am alive among you, you have been rebels against the LORD! How much more, then, after I am dead!

²⁸Therefore, assemble all your tribal elders and your officials before me, that I may speak these words for them to hear, and so may call heaven and earth to witness against them.

²⁹For I know that after my death you are sure to become corrupt and to turn aside from the way along which I directed you, so that evil will befall you in some future age because you have done evil in the LORD'S sight, and provoked him by your deeds."

³⁰Then Moses recited the words of this song from beginning to end, for the whole assembly of Israel to hear:

32Give ear, O heavens, while I speak; let the earth hearken to the words of my mouth!

²May my instruction soak in like the rain, and my discourse permeate like the dew, Like a downpour upon the grass, like a shower upon the crops.

³For I will sing the LORD'S renown. Oh, proclaim the greatness of our God!

⁴The Rock--how faultless are his deeds, how right all his ways! A faithful God, without deceit, how just and upright he is!

⁵Yet basely has he been treated by his degenerate children, a perverse and crooked race!

⁶Is the LORD to be thus repaid by you, O stupid and foolish people? Is he not your father who created you? Has he not made you and established you?

⁷Think back on the days of old, reflect on the years of age upon age. Ask your father and he will inform you, ask your elders and they will tell you:

⁸When the Most High assigned the nations their heritage, when he parceled out the descendants of Adam, He set up the boundaries of the peoples after the number of the sons of God;

⁹While the LORD'S own portion was Jacob, His hereditary share was Israel.

¹⁰He found them in a wilderness, a wasteland of howling desert. He shielded them and cared for them, guarding them as the apple of his eye.

¹¹As an eagle incites its nestlings forth by hovering over its brood, So he spread his wings to receive them and bore them up on his pinions.

¹²The LORD alone was their leader, no strange god was with him.

¹³He had them ride triumphant over the summits of the land and live off the products of its fields, Giving them honey to suck from its rocks and olive oil from its hard, stony ground;

¹⁴Butter from its cows and milk from its sheep, with the fat of its lambs and rams; Its Bashan bulls and its goats, with the cream of its finest wheat; and the foaming blood of its grapes you drank.

¹⁵(So Jacob ate his fill,) the darling grew fat and frisky; you became fat and gross and gorged. They spurned the God who made them and scorned their saving Rock.

¹⁶They provoked him with strange gods and angered him with abominable idols.

¹⁷They offered sacrifice to demons, to "no-gods," to gods whom they had not known before, To newcomers just arrived, of whom their fathers had never stood in awe.

¹⁸You were unmindful of the Rock that begot you, You forgot the God who gave you birth.

¹⁹When the LORD saw this, he was filled with loathing and anger toward his sons and daughters.

²⁰'I will hide my face from them," he said, "and see what will then become of them. What a fickle race they are, sons with no loyalty in them!

²¹"Since they have provoked me with their 'no-god' and angered me with their vain idols, I will provoke them with a 'no-people'; with a foolish nation I will anger them.

²²"For by my wrath a fire is enkindled that shall rage to the depths of the nether world, Consuming the earth with its yield, and licking with flames the roots of the mountains.

²³I will spend on them woe upon woe and exhaust all my arrows against them:

²⁴"Emaciating hunger and consuming fever and bitter pestilence, And the teeth of wild beasts I will send among them, with the venom of reptiles gliding in the dust.

²⁵"Snatched away by the sword in the street and by sheer terror at home Shall be the youth and the maiden alike, the nursing babe as well as the hoary old man.

²⁶"I would have said, 'I will make an end of them and blot out their name from men's memories,'

²⁷Had I not feared the insolence of their enemies, feared that these foes would mistakenly boast, 'Our own hand won the victory; the LORD had nothing to do with it.'"

²⁸For they are a people devoid of reason, having no understanding.

²⁹If they had insight they would realize what happened, they would understand their future and say,

³⁰"How could one man rout a thousand, or two men put ten thousand to flight, Unless it was because their Rock sold them and the LORD delivered them up?"

³¹Indeed, their "rock" is not like our Rock, and our foes are under condemnation.

³²They are a branch of Sodom's vinestock, from the vineyards of Gomorrah. Poisonous are their grapes and bitter their clusters.

³³Their wine is the venom of dragons and the cruel poison of cobras.

³⁴"Is not this preserved in my treasury, sealed up in my storehouse,

³⁵Against the day of vengeance and requital, against the time they lose their footing?" Close at hand is the day of their disaster and their doom is rushing upon them!

³⁶Surely, the LORD shall do justice for his people; on his servants he shall have pity. When he sees their strength failing, and their protected and unprotected alike disappearing,

³⁷He will say, "Where are their gods whom they relied on as their 'rock'?

³⁸Let those who ate the fat of your sacrifices and drank the wine of your libations Rise up now and help you! Let them be your protection!

³⁹"Learn then that I, I alone, am God, and there is no god besides me. It is I who bring both death and life, I who inflict wounds and heal them, and from my hand there is no rescue.

⁴⁰"To the heavens I raise my hand and swear: As surely as I live forever,

⁴¹I will sharpen my flashing sword, and my hand shall lay hold of my quiver. "With vengeance I will repay my foes and requite those who hate me.

⁴²I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall gorge itself with flesh-- With the blood of the slain and the captured, Flesh from the heads of the enemy leaders."

⁴³Exult with him, you heavens, glorify him, all you angels of God; For he avenges the blood of his servants and purges his people's land.

⁴⁴So Moses, together with Joshua, son of Nun, went and recited all the words of this song for the people to hear.

⁴⁵When Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel,

⁴⁶he said, "Take to heart all the warning which I have now given you and which you must impress on your children, that you may carry out carefully every word of this law.

⁴⁷For this is no trivial matter for you; rather, it means your very life, since it is by this means that you are to enjoy a long life on the land which you will cross the Jordan to occupy."

⁴⁸On that very day the LORD said to Moses,

⁴⁹"Go up on Mount Nebo, here in the Abarim Mountains (it is in the land of Moab facing Jericho), and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites as their possession.

⁵⁰Then you shall die on the mountain you have climbed, and shall be taken to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and there was taken to his people;

⁵¹because both of you broke faith with me among the Israelites at the waters of Meribath-kadesh in the desert of Zin by failing to manifest my sanctity among the Israelites.

⁵²You may indeed view the land at a distance, but you shall not enter that land which I am giving to the Israelites."

33This is the blessing which Moses, the man of God, pronounced upon the Israelites before he died.

²He said: "The LORD came from Sinai and dawned on his people from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran and advanced from Meribath-kadesh, While at his right hand a fire blazed forth and his wrath devastated the nations.

³But all his holy ones were in his hand; they followed at his feet and he bore them up on his pinions.

⁴A law he gave to us; he made the community of Jacob his domain,

⁵and he became king of his darling. When the chiefs of the people assembled and the tribes of Israel came together.

⁶"May Reuben live and not die out, but let his men be few."

⁷The following is for Judah. He said: "The LORD hears the cry of Judah; you will bring him to his people. His own hands defend his cause and you will be his help against his foes."

⁸Of Levi he said: "To Levi belong your Thummim, to the man of your favor your Urim; For you put him to the test at Massah and you contended with him at the waters of Meribah.

⁹He said of his father, 'I regard him not'; his brothers he would not acknowledge, and his own children he refused to recognize. Thus the Levites keep your words, and your covenant they uphold.

¹⁰They promulgate your decisions to Jacob and your law to Israel. They bring the smoke of sacrifice to your nostrils, and burnt offerings to your altar.

¹¹Bless, O LORD, his possessions and accept the ministry of his hands. Break the backs of his adversaries and of his foes, that they may not rise."

¹²Of Benjamin he said: "Benjamin is the beloved of the LORD, who shelters him all the day, while he abides securely at his breast."

¹³Of Joseph he said: "Blessed by the LORD is his land with the best of the skies above and of the abyss crouching beneath;

¹⁴With the best of the produce of the year, and the choicest sheaves of the months;

¹⁵With the finest gifts of the age-old mountains and the best from the timeless hills;

¹⁶With the best of the earth and its fullness, and the favor of him who dwells in the bush. These shall come upon the head of Joseph and upon the brow of the prince among his brothers,

¹⁷The majestic bull, his father's first-born, whose horns are those of the wild ox With which to gore the nations, even those at the ends of the earth." (These are the myriads of Ephraim, and these the thousands of Manasseh.)

¹⁸Of Zebulun he said: "Rejoice, O Zebulun, in your pursuits, and you, Issachar, in your tents!

¹⁹You who invite the tribes to the mountains where feasts are duly held, Because you suck up the abundance of the seas and the hidden treasures of the sand."

²⁰Of Gad he said: "Blessed be he who has made Gad so vast! He lies there like a lion that has seized the arm and head of the prey.

²¹He saw that the best should be his when the princely portion was assigned, while the heads of the people were gathered. He carried out the justice of the LORD and his decrees respecting Israel."

²²Of Dan he said: "Dan is a lion's whelp, that springs forth from Bashan!"

²³Of Naphtali he said: "Naphtali is enriched with favors and filled with the blessings of the LORD; The lake and south of it are his possession!"

²⁴Of Asher he said: "More blessed than the other sons be Asher! May he be the favorite among his brothers, as the oil of his olive trees runs over his feet!

²⁵May your bolts be of iron and bronze; may your strength endure through all your days!"

²⁶"There is no god like the God of the darling, who rides the heavens in his power, and rides the skies in his majesty;

²⁷He spread out the primeval tent; he extended the ancient canopy. He drove the enemy out of your way and the Amorite he destroyed.

²⁸Israel has dwelt securely, and the fountain of Jacob has been undisturbed In a land of grain and wine, where the heavens drip with dew.

²⁹How fortunate you are, O Israel! Where else is a nation victorious in the LORD? The LORD is your saving shield, and his sword is your glory. Your enemies fawn upon you, as you stride upon their heights."

34Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, the headland of Pisgah which faces Jericho, and the LORD showed him all the land-Gilead, and as far as Dan,

²all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea,

³the Negeb, the circuit of the Jordan with the lowlands at Jericho, city of palms, and as far as Zoar.

⁴The LORD then said to him, "This is the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that I would give to their descendants. I have let you feast your eyes upon it, but you shall not cross over."

⁵So there, in the land of Moab, Moses, the servant of the LORD, died as the LORD had said;

⁶and he was buried in the ravine opposite Beth-peor in the land of Moab, but to this day no one knows the place of his burial.

⁷Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were undimmed and his vigor unabated.

⁸For thirty days the Israelites wept for Moses in the plains of Moab, till they had completed the period of grief and mourning for Moses.

⁹Now Joshua, son of Nun, was filled with the spirit of wisdom, since Moses had laid his hands upon him; and so the Israelites gave him their obedience, thus carrying out the LORD'S command to Moses.

¹⁰Since then no prophet has arisen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face.

¹¹He had no equal in all the signs and wonders the LORD sent him to perform in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh and all his servants and against all his land,

¹²and for the might and the terrifying power that Moses exhibited in the sight of all Israel.

1After Moses, the servant of the LORD, had died, the LORD said to Moses' aide Joshua, son of Nun:

²"My servant Moses is dead. So prepare to cross the Jordan here, with all the people into the land I will give the Israelites.

³As I promised Moses, I will deliver to you every place where you set foot.

⁴Your domain is to be all the land of the Hittites, from the desert and from Lebanon east to the great river Euphrates and west to the Great Sea.

⁵No one can withstand you while you live. I will be with you as I was with Moses: I will not leave you nor forsake you.

⁶Be firm and steadfast, so that you may give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers I would give them.

⁷Above all, be firm and steadfast, taking care to observe the entire law which my servant Moses enjoined on you. Do not swerve from it either to the right or to the left, that you may succeed wherever you go.

⁸Keep this book of the law on your lips. Recite it by day and by night, that you may observe carefully all that is written in it; then you will successfully attain your goal.

⁹I command you: be firm and steadfast! Do not fear nor be dismayed, for the LORD, your God, is with you wherever you go."

¹⁰So Joshua commanded the officers of the people:

¹¹"Go through the camp and instruct the people, 'Prepare your provisions, for three days from now you shall cross the Jordan here, to march in and take possession of the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you.'"

¹²Joshua reminded the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh:

¹³"Remember what Moses, the servant of the LORD, commanded you when he said, 'The LORD, your God, will permit you to settle in this land.'

¹⁴Your wives, your children, and your livestock shall remain in the land Moses gave you here beyond the Jordan. But all the warriors among you must cross over armed ahead of your kinsmen and you must help them

¹⁵until the LORD has settled your kinsmen, and they like you possess the land which the LORD, your God, is giving them. Afterward you may return and occupy your own land, which Moses, the servant of the LORD, has given you east of the Jordan."

¹⁶"We will do all you have commanded us," they answered Joshua, "and we will go wherever you send us. We will obey you as completely as we obeyed Moses.

¹⁷But may the LORD, your God, be with you as he was with Moses.

¹⁸If anyone rebels against your orders and does not obey every command you give him, he shall be put to death. But be firm and steadfast."

2Then Joshua, son of Nun, secretly sent out two spies from Shittim, saying, "Go, reconnoiter the land and Jericho." When the two reached Jericho, they went into the house of a harlot named Rahab, where they lodged.

²But a report was brought to the king of Jericho that some Israelites had come there that night to spy out the land.

³So the king of Jericho sent Rahab the order, "Put out the visitors who have entered your house, for they have come to spy out the entire land."

⁴The woman had taken the two men and hidden them, so she said, "True, the men you speak of came to me, but I did not know where they came from.

⁵At dark, when it was time for the gate to be shut, they left, and I do not know where they went. You will have to pursue them immediately to overtake them."

⁶Now, she had led them to the roof, and hidden them among her stalks of flax spread out there.

⁷But the pursuers set out along the way to the fords of the Jordan, and once they had left, the gate was shut.

⁸Before the spies fell asleep, Rahab came to them on the roof

⁹and said: "I know that the LORD has given you the land, that a dread of you has come upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are overcome with fear of you.

¹⁰For we have heard how the LORD dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and how you dealt with Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites beyond the Jordan, whom you doomed to destruction.

¹¹At these reports, we are disheartened; everyone is discouraged because of you, since the LORD, your God, is God in heaven above and on earth below.

¹²Now then, swear to me by the LORD that, since I am showing kindness to you, you in turn will show kindness to my family; and give me an unmistakable token

¹³that you are to spare my father and mother, brothers and sisters, and all their kin, and save us from death."

¹⁴"We pledge our lives for yours," the men answered her. "If you do not betray this errand of ours, we will be faithful in showing kindness to you when the LORD gives us the land."

¹⁵Then she let them down through the window with a rope; for she lived in a house built into the city wall.

¹⁶"Go up into the hill country," she suggested to them, "that your pursuers may not find you. Hide there for three days, until they return; then you may proceed on your way."

¹⁷The men answered her, "This is how we will fulfill the oath you made us take:

¹⁸When we come into the land, tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you are letting us down; and gather your father and mother, your brothers and all your family into your house.

¹⁹Should any of them pass outside the doors of your house, he will be responsible for his own death, and we shall be guiltless. But we shall be responsible if anyone in the house with you is harmed.

²⁰If, however, you betray this errand of ours, we shall be quit of the oath you have made us take."

²¹"Let it be as you say," she replied, and bade them farewell. When they were gone, she tied the scarlet cord in the window.

²²They went up into the hills, where they stayed three days until their pursuers, who had sought them all along the road without finding them, returned.

²³Then the two came back down from the hills, crossed the Jordan to Joshua, son of Nun, and reported all that had befallen them.

²⁴They assured Joshua, "The LORD has delivered all this land into our power; indeed, all the inhabitants of the land are overcome with fear of us."

3Early the next morning, Joshua moved with all the Israelites from Shittim to the Jordan, where they lodged before crossing over.

²Three days later the officers went through the camp

³and issued these instructions to the people: "When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD, your God, which the levitical priests will carry, you must also break camp and follow it,

⁴that you may know the way to take, for you have not gone over this road before. But let there be a space of two thousand cubits between you and the ark. Do not come nearer to it."

⁵Joshua also said to the people, "Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will perform wonders among you."

⁶And he directed the priests to take up the ark of the covenant and go on ahead of the people; and they did so.

⁷Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know I am with you, as I was with Moses.

⁸Now command the priests carrying the ark of the covenant to come to a halt in the Jordan when they reach the edge of the waters."

⁹So Joshua said to the Israelites, "Come here and listen to the words of the LORD, your God."

¹⁰He continued: "This is how you will know that there is a living God in your midst, who at your approach will dispossess the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites.

¹¹The ark of the covenant of the LORD of the whole earth will precede you into the Jordan.

¹²(Now choose twelve men, one from each of the tribes of Israel.)

¹³When the soles of the feet of the priests carrying the ark of the LORD, the Lord of the whole earth, touch the water of the Jordan, it will cease to flow; for the water flowing down from upstream will halt in a solid bank."

¹⁴The people struck their tents to cross the Jordan, with the priests carrying the ark of the covenant ahead of them.

¹⁵No sooner had these priestly bearers of the ark waded into the waters at the edge of the Jordan, which overflows all its banks during the entire season of the harvest,

¹⁶than the waters flowing from upstream halted, backing up in a solid mass for a very great distance indeed, from Adam, a city in the direction of Zarethan; while those flowing downstream toward the Salt Sea of the Arabah disappeared entirely. Thus the people crossed over opposite Jericho.

¹⁷While all Israel crossed over on dry ground, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD remained motionless on dry ground in the bed of the Jordan until the whole nation had completed the passage.

4After the entire nation had crossed the Jordan,

²the LORD said to Joshua, "Choose twelve men from the people, one from each tribe,

³and instruct them to take up twelve stones from this spot in the bed of the Jordan where the priests have been standing motionless. Carry them over with you, and place them where you are to stay tonight."

⁴Summoning the twelve men whom he had selected from among the Israelites, one from each tribe,

⁵Joshua said to them: "Go to the bed of the Jordan in front of the ark of the LORD, your God; lift to your shoulders one stone apiece, so that they will equal in number the tribes of the Israelites.

⁶In the future, these are to be a sign among you. When your children ask you what these stones mean to you,

⁷you shall answer them, 'The waters of the Jordan ceased to flow before the ark of the covenant of the LORD when it crossed the Jordan.' Thus these stones are to serve as a perpetual memorial to the Israelites."

⁸The twelve Israelites did as Joshua had commanded: they took up as many stones from the bed of the Jordan as there were tribes of the Israelites, and carried them along to the camp site, where they placed them, according to the LORD'S direction.

⁹Joshua also had twelve stones set up in the bed of the Jordan on the spot where the priests stood who were carrying the ark of the covenant. They are there to this day.

¹⁰The priests carrying the ark remained in the bed of the Jordan until everything had been done that the LORD had commanded Joshua to tell the people. The people crossed over quickly,

¹¹and when all had reached the other side, the ark of the LORD, borne by the priests, also crossed to its place in front of them.

¹²The Reubenites, Gadites, and half-tribe of Manasseh, armed, marched in the vanguard of the Israelites, as Moses had ordered.

¹³About forty thousand troops equipped for battle passed over before the LORD to the plains of Jericho.

¹⁴That day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and thenceforth during his whole life they respected him as they had respected Moses.

¹⁵Then the LORD said to Joshua,

¹⁶"Command the priests carrying the ark of the commandments to come up from the Jordan."

¹⁷Joshua did so,

¹⁸and when the priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD had come up from the bed of the Jordan, as the soles of their feet regained the dry ground, the waters of the Jordan resumed their course and as before overflowed all its banks.

¹⁹The people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and camped in Gilgal on the eastern limits of Jericho.

²⁰At Gilgal Joshua set up the twelve stones which had been taken from the Jordan,

²¹saying to the Israelites, "In the future, when the children among you ask their fathers what these stones mean,

²²you shall inform them, 'Israel crossed the Jordan here on dry ground.'

²³For the LORD, your God, dried up the waters of the Jordan in front of you until you crossed over, just as the LORD, your God, had done at the Red Sea, which he dried up in front of us until we crossed over;

²⁴in order that all the peoples of the earth may learn that the hand of the LORD is mighty, and that you may fear the LORD, your God, forever."

5When all the kings of the Amorites to the west of the Jordan and all the kings of the Canaanites by the sea heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the Israelites until they crossed over, they were disheartened and lost courage at their approach.

²On this occasion the LORD said to Joshua, "Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelite nation for the second time."

³So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath-haaraloth,

⁴under these circumstances: Of all the people who came out of Egypt, every man of military age had died in the desert during the journey after they left Egypt.

⁵Though all the men who came out were circumcised, none of those born in the desert during the journey after the departure from Egypt were circumcised.

⁶Now the Israelites had wandered forty years in the desert, until all the warriors among the people that came forth from Egypt died off because they had not obeyed the command of the LORD. For the LORD swore that he would not let them see the land flowing with milk and honey which he had promised their fathers he would give us.

⁷It was the children whom he raised up in their stead whom Joshua circumcised, for these were yet with foreskins, not having been circumcised on the journey.

⁸When the rite had been performed, the whole nation remained in camp where they were, until they recovered.

⁹Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Today I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you." Therefore the place is called Gilgal to the present day.

¹⁰While the Israelites were encamped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they celebrated the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth of the month.

¹¹On the day after the Passover they ate of the produce of the land in the form of unleavened cakes and parched grain. On that same day

¹²after the Passover on which they ate of the produce of the land, the manna ceased. No longer was there manna for the Israelites, who that year ate of the yield of the land of Canaan.

¹³While Joshua was near Jericho, he raised his eyes and saw one who stood facing him, drawn sword in hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you one of us or of our enemies?"

¹⁴He replied, "Neither. I am the captain of the host of the LORD and I have just arrived." Then Joshua fell prostrate to the ground in worship, and said to him, "What has my lord to say to his servant?"

¹⁵The captain of the host of the LORD replied to Joshua, "Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy." And Joshua obeyed.

6Now Jericho was in a state of siege because of the presence of the Israelites, so that no one left or entered.

²And to Joshua the LORD said, "I have delivered Jericho and its king into your power.

³Have all the soldiers circle the city, marching once around it. Do this for six days,

⁴with seven priests carrying ram's horns ahead of the ark. On the seventh day march around the city seven times, and have the priests blow the horns.

⁵When they give a long blast on the ram's horns and you hear that signal, all the people shall shout aloud. The wall of the city will collapse, and they will be able to make a frontal attack."

⁶Summoning the priests, Joshua, son of Nun, then ordered them to take up the ark of the covenant with seven of the priests carrying ram's horns in front of the ark of the LORD.

⁷And he ordered the people to proceed in a circle around the city, with the picked troops marching ahead of the ark of the LORD.

⁸At this order they proceeded, with the seven priests who carried the ram's horns before the LORD blowing their horns, and the ark of the covenant of the LORD following them.

⁹In front of the priests with the horns marched the picked troops; the rear guard followed the ark, and the blowing of horns was kept up continually as they marched.

¹⁰But the people had been commanded by Joshua not to shout or make any noise or outcry until he gave the word: only then were they to shout.

¹¹So he had the ark of the LORD circle the city, going once around it, after which they returned to camp for the night.

¹²Early the next morning, Joshua had the priests take up the ark of the LORD.

¹³The seven priests bearing the ram's horns marched in front of the ark of the LORD, blowing their horns. Ahead of these marched the picked troops, while the rear guard followed the ark of the LORD, and the blowing of horns was kept up continually.

¹⁴On this second day they again marched around the city once before returning to camp; and for six days in all they did the same.

¹⁵On the seventh day, beginning at daybreak, they marched around the city seven times in the same manner; on that day only did they march around the city seven times.

¹⁶The seventh time around, the priests blew the horns and Joshua said to the people, "Now shout, for the LORD has given you the city

¹⁷and everything in it. It is under the LORD'S ban. Only the harlot Rahab and all who are in the house with her are to be spared, because she hid the messengers we sent.

¹⁸But be careful not to take, in your greed, anything that is under the ban; else you will bring upon the camp of Israel this ban and the misery of it.

¹⁹All silver and gold, and the articles of bronze or iron, are sacred to the LORD. They shall be put in the treasury of the LORD."

²⁰As the horns blew, the people began to shout. When they heard the signal horn, they raised a tremendous shout. The wall collapsed, and the people stormed the city in a frontal attack and took it.

²¹They observed the ban by putting to the sword all living creatures in the city: men and women, young and old, as well as oxen, sheep and asses.

²²Joshua directed the two men who had spied out the land, "Go into the harlot's house and bring out the woman with all her kin, as you swore to her you would do."

²³The spies entered and brought out Rahab, with her father, mother, brothers, and all her kin. Her entire family they led forth and placed them outside the camp of Israel.

²⁴The city itself they burned with all that was in it, except the silver, gold, and articles of bronze and iron, which were placed in the treasury of the house of the LORD.

²⁵Because Rahab the harlot had hidden the messengers whom Joshua had sent to reconnoiter Jericho, Joshua spared her with her family and all her kin, who continue in the midst of Israel to this day.

²⁶On that occasion Joshua imposed the oath: Cursed before the LORD be the man who attempts to rebuild this city, Jericho. He shall lose his first-born when he lays its foundation, and he shall lose his youngest son when he sets up its gates.

²⁷Thus the LORD was with Joshua so that his fame spread throughout the land.

7But the Israelites violated the ban; Achan, son of Carmi, son of Zerah, son of Zara of the tribe of Judah, took goods that were under the ban, and the anger of the LORD flared up against the Israelites.

²Joshua next sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Bethel on its eastern side, with instructions to go up and reconnoiter the land. When they had explored Ai,

³they returned to Joshua and advised, "Do not send all the people up; if only about two or three thousand go up, they can overcome Ai. The enemy there are few; you need not call for an effort from all the people."

⁴About three thousand of the people made the attack, but they were defeated by those at Ai,

⁵who killed some thirty-six of them. They pressed them back across the clearing in front of the city gate till they broke ranks, and defeated them finally on the descent, so that the confidence of the people melted away like water.

⁶Joshua, together with the elders of Israel, rent his garments and lay prostrate before the ark of the LORD until evening; and they threw dust on their heads.

⁷"Alas, O Lord GOD," Joshua prayed, "why did you ever allow this people to pass over the Jordan, delivering us into the power of the Amorites, that they might destroy us? Would that we had been content to dwell on the other side of the Jordan.

⁸Pray, Lord, what can I say, now that Israel has turned its back to its enemies?

⁹When the Canaanites and the other inhabitants of the land hear of it, they will close in around us and efface our name from the earth. What will you do for your great name?"

¹⁰The LORD replied to Joshua: "Stand up. Why are you lying prostrate?

¹¹Israel has sinned: they have violated the covenant which I enjoined on them. They have stealthily taken goods subject to the ban, and have deceitfully put them in their baggage.

¹²If the Israelites cannot stand up to their enemies, but must turn their back to them, it is because they are under the ban. I will not remain with you unless you remove from among you whoever has incurred the ban.

¹³Rise, sanctify the people. Tell them to sanctify themselves before tomorrow, for the LORD, the God of Israel, says: You are under the ban, O Israel. You cannot stand up to your enemies until you remove from among you whoever has incurred the ban.

¹⁴In the morning you must present yourselves by tribes. The tribe which the LORD designates shall come forward by clans; the clan which the LORD designates shall come forward by families; the family which the LORD designates shall come forward one by one.

¹⁵He who is designated as having incurred the ban shall be destroyed by fire, with all that is his, because he has violated the covenant of the LORD and has committed a shameful crime in Israel."

¹⁶Early the next morning Joshua had Israel come forward by tribes, and the tribe of Judah was designated.

¹⁷Then he had the clans of Judah come forward, and the clan of Zerah was designated. He had the clan of Zerah come forward by families, and Zabdi was designated.

¹⁸Finally he had that family come forward one by one, and Achan, son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah, was designated.

¹⁹Joshua said to Achan, "My son, give to the LORD, the God of Israel, glory and honor by telling me what you have done; do not hide it from me."

²⁰Achan answered Joshua, "I have indeed sinned against the LORD, the God of Israel. This is what I have done:

²¹Among the spoils, I saw a beautiful Babylonian mantle, two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold fifty shekels in weight; in my greed I took them. They are now hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath."

²²The messengers whom Joshua sent hastened to the tent and found them hidden there, with the silver underneath.

²³They took them from the tent, brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites, and spread them out before the LORD.

²⁴Then Joshua and all Israel took Achan, son of Zerah, with the silver, the mantle, and the bar of gold, and with his sons and daughters, his ox, his ass and his sheep, his tent, and all his possessions, and led them off to the Valley of Achor.

²⁵Joshua said, "The LORD bring upon you today the misery with which you have afflicted us!" And all Israel stoned him to death

²⁶and piled a great heap of stones over him, which remains to the present day. Then the anger of the LORD relented. That is why the place is called the Valley of Achor to this day.

8The LORD then said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid or dismayed. Take all the army with you and prepare to attack Ai. I have delivered the king of Ai into your power, with his people, city, and land.

²Do to Ai and its king what you did to Jericho and its king; except that you may take its spoil and livestock as booty. Set an ambush behind the city."

³So Joshua and all the soldiers prepared to attack Ai. Picking out thirty thousand warriors, Joshua sent them off by night

⁴with these orders: "See that you ambush the city from the rear, at no great distance; then all of you be on the watch.

⁵The rest of the people and I will come up to the city, and when they make a sortie against us as they did the last time, we will flee from them.

⁶They will keep coming out after us until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will think we are fleeing from them as we did the last time. When this occurs,

⁷rise from ambush and take possession of the city, which the LORD, your God, will deliver into your power.

⁸When you have taken the city, set it afire in obedience to the LORD'S command. These are my orders to you."

⁹Then Joshua sent them away. They went to the place of ambush, taking up their position to the west of Ai, toward Bethel. Joshua, however, spent that night in the plain.

¹⁰Early the next morning Joshua mustered the army and went up to Ai at its head, with the elders of Israel.

¹¹When all the troops he led were drawn up in position before the city, they pitched camp north of Ai, on the other side of the ravine.

¹²(He took about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, west of the city.)

¹³Thus the people took up their stations, with the main body north of the city and the ambush west of it, and Joshua waited overnight among his troops.

¹⁴The king of Ai saw this, and he and all his army came out very early in the morning to engage Israel in battle at the descent toward the Arabah, not knowing that there was an ambush behind the city.

¹⁵Joshua and the main body of the Israelites fled in seeming defeat toward the desert,

¹⁶till the last of the soldiers in the city had been called out to pursue them.

¹⁷Since they were drawn away from the city, with every man engaged in this pursuit of Joshua and the Israelites, not a soldier remained in Ai (or Bethel), and the city was open and unprotected.

¹⁸Then the LORD directed Joshua, "Stretch out the javelin in your hand toward Ai, for I will deliver it into your power." Joshua stretched out the javelin in his hand toward the city,

¹⁹and as soon as he did so, the men in ambush rose from their post, rushed in, captured the city, and immediately set it on fire.

²⁰By the time the men of Ai looked back, the smoke from the city was already sky-high. Escape in any direction was impossible, because the Israelites retreating toward the desert now turned on their pursuers;

²¹for when Joshua and the main body of Israelites saw that the city had been taken from ambush and was going up in smoke, they struck back at the men of Ai.

²²Since those in the city came out to intercept them, the men of Ai were hemmed in by Israelites on either side, who cut them down without any fugitives or survivors

²³except the king, whom they took alive and brought to Joshua.

²⁴All the inhabitants of Ai who had pursued the Israelites into the desert were slain by the sword there in the open, down to the last man. Then all Israel returned and put to the sword those inside the city.

²⁵There fell that day a total of twelve thousand men and women, the entire population of Ai.

²⁶Joshua kept the javelin in his hand stretched out until he had fulfilled the doom on all the inhabitants of Ai.

²⁷However, the Israelites took for themselves as booty the livestock and the spoil of that city, according to the command of the LORD issued to Joshua.

²⁸Then Joshua destroyed the place by fire, reducing it to an everlasting mound of ruins, as it remains today.

²⁹He had the king of Ai hanged on a tree until evening; then at sunset Joshua ordered the body removed from the tree and cast at the entrance of the city gate, where a great heap of stones was piled up over it, which remains to the present day.

³⁰Later Joshua built an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal,

³¹of unhewn stones on which no iron tool had been used, in keeping with the command to the Israelites of Moses, the servant of the LORD, as recorded in the book of the law. On this altar they offered holocausts and peace offerings to the LORD.

³²There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua inscribed upon the stones a copy of the law written by Moses.

³³And all Israel, stranger and native alike, with their elders, officers and judges, stood on either side of the ark facing the levitical priests who were carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD. Half of them were facing Mount Gerizim and half Mount Ebal, thus carrying out the instructions of Moses, the servant of the LORD, for the blessing of the people of Israel on this first occasion.

³⁴Then were read aloud all the words of the law, the blessings and the curses, exactly as written in the book of the law.

³⁵Every single word that Moses had commanded, Joshua read aloud to the entire community, including the women and children, and the strangers who had accompanied Israel.

9When the news reached the kings west of the Jordan, in the mountain regions and in the foothills, and all along the coast of the Great Sea as far as Lebanon: Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites,

²they all formed an alliance to launch a common attack against Joshua and Israel.

³On learning what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, the inhabitants of Gibeon

⁴put into effect a device of their own. They chose provisions for a journey, making use of old sacks for their asses, and old wineskins, torn and mended.

⁵They wore old, patched sandals and shabby garments; and all the bread they took was dry and crumbly.

⁶Thus they journeyed to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal, where they said to him and to the men of Israel, "We have come from a distant land to propose that you make an alliance with us."

⁷But the men of Israel replied to the Hivites, "You may be living in land that is ours. How, then, can we make an alliance with you?"

⁸But they answered Joshua, "We are your servants." Then Joshua asked them, "Who are you? Where do you come from?"

⁹They answered him, "Your servants have come from a far-off land, because of the fame of the LORD, your God. For we have heard reports of all that he did in Egypt

¹⁰and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites beyond the Jordan, Sihon, king of Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth.

¹¹So our elders and all the inhabitants of our country said to us, 'Take along provisions for the journey and go to meet them. Say to them: We are your servants; we propose that you make an alliance with us.'

¹²This bread of ours was still warm when we brought it from home as provisions the day we left to come to you, but now it is dry and crumbled.

¹³Here are our wineskins, which were new when we filled them, but now they are torn. Look at our garments and sandals, which are worn out from the very long journey."

¹⁴Then the Israelite princes partook of their provisions, without seeking the advice of the LORD.

¹⁵So Joshua made an alliance with them and entered into an agreement to spare them, which the princes of the community sealed with an oath.

¹⁶Three days after the agreement was entered into, the Israelites learned that these people were from nearby, and would be living in Israel.

¹⁷The third day on the road, the Israelites came to their cities of Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth and Kiriath-jearim,

¹⁸but did not attack them, because the princes of the community had sworn to them by the LORD, the God of Israel. When the entire community grumbled against the princes,

¹⁹these all remonstrated with the people, "We have sworn to them by the LORD, the God of Israel, and so we cannot harm them.

²⁰Let us therefore spare their lives and so deal with them that we shall not be punished for the oath we have sworn to them."

²¹Thus the princes recommended that they be let live, as hewers of wood and drawers of water for the entire community; and the community did as the princes advised them.

²²Joshua summoned the Gibeonites and said to them, "Why did you lie to us and say that you lived at a great distance from us, when you will be living in our very midst?

²³For this are you accursed: every one of you shall always be a slave (hewers of wood and drawers of water) for the house of my God."

²⁴They answered Joshua, "Your servants were fully informed of how the LORD, your God, commanded his servant Moses that you be given the entire land and that all its inhabitants be destroyed before you. Since, therefore, at your advance, we were in great fear for our lives, we acted as we did.

²⁵And now that we are in your power, do with us what you think fit and right."

²⁶Joshua did what he had decided: while he saved them from being killed by the Israelites,

²⁷at the same time he made them, as they still are, hewers of wood and drawers of water for the community and for the altar of the LORD, in the place of the LORD'S choice.

10Now Adonizedek, king of Jerusalem, heard that, in the capture and destruction of Ai, Joshua had done to that city and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king. He heard also that the inhabitants of Gibeon had made their peace with Israel, remaining among them,

²and that there was great fear abroad, because Gibeon was large enough for a royal city, larger even than the city of Ai, and all its men were brave.

³So Adonizedek, king of Jerusalem, sent for Hoham, king of Hebron, Piram, king of Jarmuth, Japhia, king of Lachish, and Debir, king of Eglon,

⁴to come to his aid for an attack on Gibeon, since it had concluded peace with Joshua and the Israelites.

⁵The five Amorite kings, of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish and Eglon, united all their forces and marched against Gibeon, where they took up siege positions.

⁶Thereupon, the men of Gibeon sent an appeal to Joshua in his camp at Gilgal: "Do not abandon your servants. Come up here quickly and save us. Help us, because all the Amorite kings of the mountain country have joined forces against us."

⁷So Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his picked troops and the rest of his soldiers.

⁸Meanwhile the LORD said to Joshua, "Do not fear them, for I have delivered them into your power. Not one of them will be able to withstand you."

⁹And when Joshua made his surprise attack upon them after an all-night march from Gilgal,

¹⁰the LORD threw them into disorder before him. The Israelites inflicted a great slaughter on them at Gibeon and pursued them down the Beth-horon slope, harrassing them as far as Azekah and Makkedah.

¹¹While they fled before Israel along the descent from Beth-horon, the LORD hurled great stones from the sky above them all the way to Azekah, killing many. More died from these hailstones than the Israelites slew with the sword.

¹²On this day, when the LORD delivered up the Amorites to the Israelites,
Joshua prayed to the LORD,
and said in the presence of Israel:
Stand still, O sun, at Gibeon,
O moon, in the valley of Aijalon!

¹³And the sun stood still,
and the moon stayed,
while the nation took vengeance on its foes.
Is this not recorded in the Book of Jashar? The sun halted in the middle of the sky; not for a whole day did it resume its swift course.

¹⁴Never before or since was there a day like this, when the LORD obeyed the voice of a man; for the LORD fought for Israel.

¹⁵(Then Joshua and all Israel returned to the camp at Gilgal.)

¹⁶Meanwhile the five kings who had fled, hid in a cave at Makkedah.

¹⁷When Joshua was told that the five kings had been discovered hiding in a cave at Makkedah,

¹⁸he said, "Roll large stones to the mouth of the cave and post men over it to guard them.

¹⁹But do not remain there yourselves. Pursue your enemies, and harry them in the rear. Do not allow them to escape to their cities, for the LORD, your God, has delivered them into your power."

²⁰Once Joshua and the Israelites had finally inflicted the last blows in this very great slaughter, and the survivors had escaped from them into the fortified cities,

²¹all the army returned safely to Joshua and the camp at Makkedah, no man uttering a sound against the Israelites.

²²Then Joshua said, "Open the mouth of the cave and bring out those five kings to me."

²³Obediently, they brought out to him from the cave the five kings, of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish and Eglon.

²⁴When they had done so, Joshua summoned all the men of Israel and said to the commanders of the soldiers who had marched with him, "Come forward and put your feet on the necks of these kings." They came forward and put their feet upon their necks.

²⁵Then Joshua said to them, "Do not be afraid or dismayed, be firm and steadfast. This is what the LORD will do to all the enemies against whom you fight."

²⁶Thereupon Joshua struck and killed them, and hanged them on five trees, where they remained hanging until evening.

²⁷At sunset they were removed from the trees at the command of Joshua and cast into the cave where they had hidden; over the mouth of the cave large stones were placed, which remain until this very day.

²⁸Makkedah, too, Joshua captured and put to the sword at that time. He fulfilled the doom on the city, on its king, and on every person in it, leaving no survivors. Thus he did to the king of Makkedah what he had done to the king of Jericho.

²⁹Joshua then passed on with all Israel from Makkedah to Libnah, which he attacked.

³⁰Libnah also, with its king, the LORD delivered into the power of Israel. He put it to the sword with every person there, leaving no survivors. Thus he did to its king what he had done to the king of Jericho.

³¹Joshua next passed on with all Israel from Libnah to Lachish, where they set up a camp during the attack.

³²The LORD delivered Lachish into the power of Israel, so that on the second day Joshua captured it and put it to the sword with every person in it, just as he had done to Libnah.

³³At that time Horam, king of Gezer, came up to help Lachish, but Joshua defeated him and his people, leaving him no survivors.

³⁴From Lachish, Joshua passed on with all Israel to Eglon; encamping near it, they attacked it

³⁵and captured it the same day, putting it to the sword. He fulfilled the doom that day on every person in it, just as he had done at Lachish.

³⁶From Eglon, Joshua went up with all Israel to Hebron, which they attacked

³⁷and captured. They put it to the sword with its king, all its towns, and every person there, leaving no survivors, just as Joshua had done to Eglon. He fulfilled the doom on it and on every person there.

³⁸Then Joshua and all Israel turned back to Debir and attacked it,

³⁹capturing it with its king and all its towns. They put them to the sword and fulfilled the doom on every person there, leaving no survivors. Thus was done to Debir and its king what had been done to Hebron, as well as to Libnah and its king.

⁴⁰Joshua conquered the entire country; the mountain regions, the Negeb, the foothills, and the mountain slopes, with all their kings. He left no survivors, but fulfilled the doom on all who lived there, just as the LORD, the God of Israel, had commanded.

⁴¹Joshua conquered from Kadesh-barnea to Gaza, and all the land of Goshen to Gibeon.

⁴²All these kings and their lands Joshua captured in a single campaign, for the LORD, the God of Israel, fought for Israel.

⁴³Thereupon Joshua with all Israel returned to the camp at Gilgal.

11When Jabin, king of Hazor, learned of this, he sent a message to Jobab, king of Madon, to the king of Shimron, to the king of Achshaph,

²and to the northern kings in the mountain regions and in the Arabah near Chinneroth, in the foothills, and in Naphath-dor to the west.

³These were Canaanites to the east and west, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites and Jebusites in the mountain regions, and Hivites at the foot of Hermon in the land of Mizpah.

⁴They came out with all their troops, an army numerous as the sands on the seashore, and with a multitude of horses and chariots.

⁵All these kings joined forces and marched to the waters of Merom, where they encamped together to fight against Israel.

⁶The LORD said to Joshua, "Do not fear them, for by this time tomorrow I will stretch them slain before Israel. You must hamstring their horses and burn their chariots."

⁷Joshua with his whole army came upon them at the waters of Merom in a surprise attack.

⁸The LORD delivered them into the power of the Israelites, who defeated them and pursued them to Greater Sidon, to Misrephoth-maim, and eastward to the valley of Mizpeh. They struck them all down, leaving no survivors.

⁹Joshua did to them as the LORD had commanded: he hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots.

¹⁰At that time Joshua, turning back, captured Hazor and slew its king with the sword; for Hazor formerly was the chief of all those kingdoms.

¹¹He also fulfilled the doom by putting every person there to the sword, till none was left alive. Hazor itself he burned.

¹²Joshua thus captured all those kings with their cities and put them to the sword, fulfilling the doom on them, as Moses, the servant of the LORD, had commanded.

¹³However, Israel did not destroy by fire any of the cities built on raised sites, except Hazor, which Joshua burned.

¹⁴The Israelites took all the spoil and livestock of these cities as their booty; but the people they put to the sword, until they had exterminated the last of them, leaving none alive.

¹⁵As the LORD had commanded his servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua, and Joshua acted accordingly. He left nothing undone that the LORD had commanded Moses should be done.

¹⁶So Joshua captured all this land: the mountain regions, the entire Negeb, all the land of Goshen, the foothills, the Arabah, as well as the mountain regions and foothills of Israel,

¹⁷from Mount Halak that rises toward Seir as far as Baal-gad in the Lebanon valley at the foot of Mount Hermon. All their kings he captured and put to death.

¹⁸Joshua waged war against all these kings for a long time.

¹⁹With the exception of the Hivites who lived in Gibeon, no city made peace with the Israelites; all were taken in battle.

²⁰For it was the design of the LORD to encourage them to wage war against Israel, that they might be doomed to destruction and thus receive no mercy, but be exterminated, as the LORD had commanded Moses.

²¹At that time Joshua penetrated the mountain regions and exterminated the Anakim in Hebron, Debir, Anab, the entire mountain region of Judah, and the entire mountain region of Israel. Joshua fulfilled the doom on them and on their cities,

²²so that no Anakim were left in the land of the Israelites. However, some survived in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod.

²³Thus Joshua captured the whole country, just as the LORD had foretold to Moses. Joshua gave it to Israel as their heritage, apportioning it among the tribes. And the land enjoyed peace.

12The kings of the land east of the Jordan, from the River Arnon to Mount Hermon, including all the eastern section of the Arabah, whom the Israelites conquered and whose lands they occupied, were:

²First, Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon. His domain extended from Aroer, which is on the bank of the Wadi Arnon, to include the wadi itself, and the land northward through half of Gilead to the Wadi Jabbok,

³as well as the Arabah from the eastern side of the Sea of Chinnereth, as far south as the eastern side of the Salt Sea of the Arabah in the direction of Beth-jeshimoth, to a point under the slopes of Pisgah.

⁴Secondly, Og, king of Bashan, a survivor of the Rephaim, who lived at Ashtaroth and Edrei.

⁵He ruled over Mount Hermon, Salecah, and all Bashan as far as the boundary of the Geshurites and Maacathites, and over half of Gilead as far as the territory of Sihon, king of Heshbon.

⁶After Moses, the servant of the LORD, and the Israelites conquered them, he assigned their land to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, as their property.

⁷This is a list of the kings whom Joshua and the Israelites conquered west of the Jordan and whose land, from Baal-gad in the Lebanon valley to Mount Halak which rises toward Seir, Joshua apportioned to the tribes of Israel.

⁸It included the mountain regions and foothills, the Arabah, the slopes, the desert, and the Negeb, belonging to the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

⁹They were the kings of Jericho, Ai (which is near Bethel),

¹⁰Jerusalem, Hebron,

¹¹Jarmuth, Lachish,

¹²Eglon, Gezer,

¹³Debir, Geder,

¹⁴Hormah, Arad,

¹⁵Libnah, Adullam,

¹⁶Makkedah, Bethel,

¹⁷Tappuah, Hepher,

¹⁸Aphek, Lasharon,

¹⁹Madon, Hazor,

²⁰Shimron, Achshaph,

²¹Taanach, Megiddo,

²²Kedesh, Jokneam (at Carmel),

²³and Dor (in Naphath-dor), the foreign king at Gilgal,

²⁴and the king of Tirzah: thirty-one kings in all.

13When Joshua was old and advanced in years, the LORD said to him: "Though now you are old and advanced in years, a very large part of the land still remains to be conquered.

²This additional land includes all Geshur and all the districts of the Philistines

³(from the stream adjoining Egypt to the boundary of Ekron in the north is reckoned Canaanite territory, though held by the five lords of the Philistines in Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron); also where the Avvim are in the south;

⁴all the land of the Canaanites from Mearah of the Sidonians to Aphek, and the boundaries of the Amorites;

⁵and the Gebalite territory; and all the Lebanon on the east, from Baal-gad at the foot of Mount Hermon to Labo in the land of Hamath.

⁶At the advance of the Israelites I will drive out all the Sidonian inhabitants of the mountain regions between Lebanon and Misrephoth-maim; at least include these areas in the division of the Israelite heritage, just as I have commanded you.

⁷Now, therefore, apportion among the nine tribes and the half-tribe of Manasseh the land which is to be their heritage."

⁸Now the other half of the tribe of Manasseh as well as the Reubenites and Gadites, had received their heritage which Moses, the servant of the LORD, had given them east of the Jordan:

⁹from Aroer on the bank of the Wadi Arnon and the city in the wadi itself, through the tableland of Medeba and Dibon,

¹⁰with the rest of the cities of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, to the boundary of the Ammonites;

¹¹also Gilead and the territory of the Geshurites and Maacathites, all Mount Hermon, and all Bashan as far as Salecah,

¹²the entire kingdom in Bashan of Og, a survivor of the Rephaim, who reigned at Ashtaroth and Edrei. Though Moses conquered and occupied these territories,

¹³the Israelites did not dislodge the Geshurites and Maacathites, so that Geshur and Maacath survive in the midst of Israel to this day.

¹⁴However, to the tribe of Levi Moses assigned no heritage since, as the LORD had promised them, the LORD, the God of Israel, is their heritage.

¹⁵What Moses gave to the Reubenite clans:

¹⁶Their territory reached from Aroer, on the bank of the Wadi Arnon, and the city in the wadi itself, through the tableland about Medeba,

¹⁷to include Heshbon and all its towns which are on the tableland, Dibon, Bamoth-baal, Beth-baal-meon,

¹⁸Jahaz, Kedemoth, Mephaath,

¹⁹Kiriathaim, Sibmah, Zereth-shahar on the knoll within the valley,

²⁰Beth-peor, the slopes of Pisgah, Beth-jeshimoth,

²¹and the other cities of the tableland and, generally, of the kingdom of Sihon. This Amorite king, who reigned in Heshbon, Moses had killed, with his vassals, the princes of Midian, who were settled in the land: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba;

²²and among their slain followers the Israelites put to the sword also the soothsayer Balaam, son of Beor.

²³The boundary of the Reubenites was the bank of the Jordan. These cities and their villages were the heritage of the clans of the Reubenites.

²⁴What Moses gave to the Gadite clans:

²⁵Their territory included Jazer, all the cities of Gilead, and half the land of the Ammonites as far as Aroer, toward Rabbah (that is,

²⁶from Heshbon to Ramath-mizpeh and Betonim, and from Mahanaim to the boundary of Lodebar);

²⁷and in the Jordan valley: Beth-haram, Beth-nimrah, Succoth, Zaphon, the other part of the kingdom of Sihon, king of Heshbon, with the bank of the Jordan to the southeastern tip of the Sea of Chinnereth.

²⁸These cities and their villages were the heritage of the clans of the Gadites.

²⁹What Moses gave to the clans of the half-tribe of Manasseh:

³⁰Their territory included Mahanaim, all of Bashan, the entire kingdom of Og, king of Bashan, and all the villages of Jair, which are sixty cities in Bashan.

³¹Half of Gilead, with Ashtaroth and Edrei, once the royal cities of Og in Bashan, fell to the descendants of Machir, son of Manasseh, for half the clans descended from Machir.

³²These are the portions which Moses gave when he was in the plains of Moab, beyond the Jordan east of Jericho.

³³However, Moses gave no heritage to the tribe of Levi, since the LORD himself, the God of Israel, is their heritage, as he promised.

14Here follow the portions which the Israelites received in the land of Canaan. Eleazar the priest, Joshua, son of Nun, and the heads of families in the tribes of the Israelites determined

²their heritage by lot, in accordance with the instructions the LORD had given through Moses concerning the remaining nine and a half tribes.

³For to two and a half tribes Moses had already given a heritage beyond the Jordan; and though the Levites were given no heritage among the tribes,

⁴the descendants of Joseph formed two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim. The Levites themselves received no share of the land except cities to live in, with their pasture lands for the cattle and flocks.

⁵Thus, in apportioning the land, did the Israelites carry out the instructions of the LORD to Moses.

⁶When the Judahites came up to Joshua in Gilgal, the Kenizzite Caleb, son of Jephunneh, said to him: "You know what the LORD said to the man of God, Moses, about you and me in Kadesh-barnea.

⁷I was forty years old when the servant of the LORD, Moses, sent me from Kadesh-barnea to reconnoiter the land; and I brought back to him a conscientious report.

⁸My fellow scouts who went up with me discouraged the people, but I was completely loyal to the LORD, my God.

⁹On that occasion Moses swore this oath, 'The land where you have set foot shall become your heritage and that of your descendants forever, because you have been completely loyal to the LORD, my God.'

¹⁰Now, as he promised, the LORD has preserved me while Israel was journeying through the desert, for the forty-five years since the LORD spoke thus to Moses; and although I am now eighty-five years old,

¹¹I am still as strong today as I was the day Moses sent me forth, with no less vigor whether for war or for ordinary tasks.

¹²Give me, therefore, this mountain region which the LORD promised me that day, as you yourself heard. True, the Anakim are there, with large fortified cities, but if the LORD is with me I shall be able to drive them out, as the LORD promised."

¹³Joshua blessed Caleb, son of Jephunneh, and gave him Hebron as his heritage.

¹⁴Therefore Hebron remains the heritage of the Kenizzite Caleb, son of Jephunneh, to the present day, because he was completely loyal to the LORD, the God of Israel.

¹⁵Hebron was formerly called Kiriath-arba, for Arba, the greatest among the Anakim. And the land enjoyed peace.

15The lot for the clans of the Judahite tribe fell in the extreme south toward the boundary of Edom, the desert of Zin in the Negeb.

²The boundary there ran from the bay that forms the southern end of the Salt Sea,

³southward below the pass of Akrabbim, across through Zin, up to a point south of Kadesh-barnea, across to Hezron, and up to Addar; from there, looping around Karka,

⁴it crossed to Azmon and then joined the Wadi of Egypt before coming out at the sea. (This is your southern boundary.)

⁵The eastern boundary was the Salt Sea as far as the mouth of the Jordan.

⁶The northern boundary climbed from the bay where the Jordan meets the sea, up to Beth-hoglah, and ran north of Beth-arabah, up to Eben-Bohan-ben-Reuben.

⁷Thence it climbed to Debir, north of the vale of Achor, in the direction of the Gilgal that faces the pass of Adummim, on the south side of the wadi; from there it crossed to the waters of En-shemesh and emerged at En-rogel.

⁸Climbing again to the Valley of Ben-hinnom on the southern flank of the Jebusites (that is, Jerusalem), the boundary rose to the top of the mountain at the northern end of the Valley of Rephaim, which bounds the Valley of Hinnom on the west.

⁹From the top of the mountain it ran to the fountain of waters of Nephtoah, extended to the cities of Mount Ephron, and continued to Baalah, or Kiriath-jearim.

¹⁰From Baalah the boundary curved westward to Mount Seir and passed north of the ridge of Mount Jearim (that is, Chesalon); thence it descended to Beth-shemesh, and ran across to Timnah.

¹¹It then extended along the northern flank of Ekron, continued through Shikkeron, and across to Mount Baalah, thence to include Jabneel, before it came out at the sea.

¹²The western boundary was the Great Sea and its coast. This was the complete boundary of the clans of the Judahites.

¹³As the LORD had commanded, Joshua gave Caleb, son of Jephunneh, a portion among the Judahites, namely, Kiriath-arba (Arba was the father of Anak), that is, Hebron.

¹⁴And Caleb drove out from there the three Anakim, the descendants of Anak: Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai.

¹⁵From there he marched up against the inhabitants of Debir, which was formerly called Kiriath-sepher.

¹⁶Caleb said, "I will give my daughter Achsah in marriage to the one who attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it."

¹⁷Othniel, son of Caleb's brother Kenaz, captured it, and so Caleb gave him his daughter Achsah in marriage.

¹⁸On the day of her marriage to Othniel, she induced him to ask her father for some land. Then, as she alighted from the ass, Caleb asked her, "What is troubling you?"

¹⁹She answered, "Give me an additional gift! Since you have assigned to me land in the Negeb, give me also pools of water." So he gave her the upper and the lower pools.

²⁰This is the heritage of the clans of the tribe of Judahites:

²¹The cities of the tribe of the Judahites in the extreme southern district toward Edom were: Kabzeel, Eder, Jagur,

²²Kinah, Dimonah, Adadah,

²³Kedesh, Hazor and Ithnan;

²⁴Ziph, Telem, Bealoth,

²⁵Hazor-hadattah, and Kerioth-hezron (that is, Hazor);

²⁶Amam, Shema, Moladah,

²⁷Hazar-gaddah, Heshmon, Beth-pelet,

²⁸Hazar-shual, Beer-sheba and Biziothiah;

²⁹Baalah, Iim, Ezem,

³⁰Eltolad, Chesil, Hormah,

³¹Ziklag, Madmannah, Sansannah,

³²Lebaoth, Shilhim and En-rimmon; a total of twenty-nine cities with their villages.

³³In the foothills: Eshtaol, Zorah, Ashnah,

³⁴Zanoah, Engannim, Tappuah, Enam,

³⁵Jarmuth, Adullam, Socoh, Azekah,

³⁶Shaaraim, Adithaim, Gederah, and Gederothaim; fourteen cities and their villages.

³⁷Zenan, Hadashah, Migdal-gad,

³⁸Dilean, Mizpeh, Joktheel,

³⁹Lachish, Bozkath, Eglon,

⁴⁰Cabbon, Lahmam, Chitlish,

⁴¹Gederoth, Beth-dagon, Naamah and Makkedah; sixteen cities and their villages.

⁴²Libnah, Ether, Ashan,

⁴³Iphtah, Ashnah, Nezib,

⁴⁴Keilah, Achzib and Mareshah; nine cities and their villages.

⁴⁵Ekron and its towns and villages;

⁴⁶from Ekron to the sea, all the towns that lie alongside Ashdod, and their villages;

⁴⁷Ashdod and its towns and villages; Gaza and its towns and villages, as far as the Wadi of Egypt and the coast of the Great Sea.

⁴⁸In the mountain regions: Shamir, Jattir, Socoh,

⁴⁹Dannah, Kiriath-sannah (that is, Debir),

⁵⁰Anab, Eshtemoh, Anim,

⁵¹Goshen, Holon and Giloh; eleven cities and their villages.

⁵²Arab, Dumah, Eshan,

⁵³Janim, Beth-tappuah, Aphekah,

⁵⁴Humtah, Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), and Zior; nine cities and their villages.

⁵⁵Maon, Carmel, Ziph, Juttah,

⁵⁶Jezreel, Jokdeam, Zanoah,

⁵⁷Kain, Gibbeah and Timnah; ten cities and their villages.

⁵⁸Halhul, Beth-zur, Gedor,

⁵⁹Maarath, Beth-anoth and Eltekon; six cities and their villages. Tekoa, Ephrathah (that is, Bethlehem), Peor, Etam, Kulom, Tatam, Zores, Karim, Gallim, Bether and Manoko; eleven cities and their villages.

⁶⁰Kiriath-baal (that is, Kiriath-jearim) and Rabbah; two cities and their villages.

⁶¹In the desert: Beth-arabah, Middin, Secacah,

⁶²Nibshan, Ir-hamelah and En-gedi; six cities and their villages.

⁶³(But the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem the Judahites could not drive out; so the Jebusites dwell in Jerusalem beside the Judahites to the present day.)

16The lot that fell to the Josephites extended from the Jordan at Jericho to the waters of Jericho east of the desert; then the boundary went up from Jericho to the heights at Bethel.

²Leaving Bethel for Luz, it crossed the ridge to the border of the Archites at Ataroth,

³and descended westward to the border of the Japhletites, to that of the Lower Beth-horon, and to Gezer, ending thence at the sea.

⁴Within the heritage of Manasseh and Ephraim, sons of Joseph,

⁵the dividing line for the heritage of the clans of the Ephraimites ran from east of Ataroth-addar to Upper Bethhoron

⁶and thence to the sea. From Michmethath on the north, their boundary curved eastward around Taanath-shiloh, and continued east of it to Janoah;

⁷from there it descended to Ataroth and Naarah, and skirting Jericho, it ended at the Jordan.

⁸From Tappuah the boundary ran westward to the Wadi Kanah and ended at the sea. This was the heritage of the clans of the Ephraimites,

⁹including the villages that belonged to each city set aside for the Ephraimites within the territory of the Manassehites.

¹⁰But they did not drive out the Canaanites living in Gezer, who live on within Ephraim to the present day, though they have been impressed as laborers.

17Now as for the lot that fell to the tribe of Manasseh as the first-born of Joseph: since his eldest son, Machir, the father of Gilead, was a warrior, who had already obtained Gilead and Bashan,

²the allotment was now made to the other descendants of Manasseh, the clans of Abiezer, Helek, Asriel, Shechem, Hepher and Shemida, the other male children of Manasseh, son of Joseph.

³Furthermore, Zelophehad, son of Hepher, son of Gilead, son of Machir, son of Manasseh, had had no sons, but only daughters, whose names were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

⁴These presented themselves to Eleazar the priest, to Joshua, son of Nun, and to the princes, saying, "The LORD commanded Moses to give us a heritage among our kinsmen." So in obedience to the command of the LORD a heritage was given to each of them among their father's kinsmen.

⁵Thus ten shares fell to Manasseh apart from the land of Gilead and Bashan beyond the Jordan,

⁶since these female descendants of Manasseh received each a portion among his sons. The land of Gilead fell to the rest of the Manassehites.

⁷Manasseh bordered on Asher. From Michmethath near Shechem, another boundary ran southward to include the natives of En-Tappuah,

⁸because the district of Tappuah belonged to Manasseh, although Tappuah itself was an Ephraimite city on the border of Manasseh.

⁹This same boundary continued down to the Wadi Kanah. The cities that belonged to Ephraim from among the cities in Manasseh were those to the south of that wadi; thus the territory of Manasseh ran north of the wadi and ended at the sea.

¹⁰The land on the south belonged to Ephraim and that on the north to Manasseh; with the sea as their common boundary, they reached Asher on the north and Issachar on the east.

¹¹Moreover, in Issachar and in Asher Manasseh was awarded Beth-shean and its towns, Ibleam and its towns, Dor and its towns and the natives there, Endor and its towns and natives, Taanach and its towns and natives, and Megiddo and its towns and natives (the third is Naphath-dor).

¹²Since the Manassehites could not conquer these cities, the Canaanites persisted in this region.

¹³When the Israelites grew stronger they impressed the Canaanites as laborers, but they did not drive them out.

¹⁴The descendants of Joseph said to Joshua, "Why have you given us only one lot and one share as our heritage? Our people are too many, because of the extent to which the LORD has blessed us."

¹⁵Joshua answered them, "If you are too many, go up to the forest and clear out a place for yourselves there in the land of the Perizzites and Rephaim, since the mountain regions of Ephraim are so narrow."

¹⁶For the Josephites said, "Our mountain regions are not enough for us; on the other hand, the Canaanites living in the valley region all have iron chariots, in particular those in Beth-shean and its towns, and those in the valley of Jezreel."

¹⁷Joshua therefore said to Ephraim and Manasseh, the house of Joseph, "You are a numerous people and very strong. You shall have not merely one share,

¹⁸for the mountain region which is now forest shall be yours when you clear it. Its adjacent land shall also be yours if, despite their strength and iron chariots, you drive out the Canaanites."

18After they had subdued the land, the whole community of the Israelites assembled at Shiloh, where they set up the meeting tent.

²Seven tribes among the Israelites had not yet received their heritage.

³Joshua therefore said to the Israelites, "How much longer will you put off taking steps to possess the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you?

⁴Choose three men from each of your tribes; I will commission them to begin a survey of the land, which they shall describe for purposes of inheritance. When they return to me

⁵you shall divide it into seven parts. Judah is to retain its territory in the south, and the house of Joseph its territory in the north.

⁶You shall bring here to me the description of the land in seven sections. I will then cast lots for you here before the LORD, our God.

⁷For the Levites have no share among you, because the priesthood of the LORD is their heritage; while Gad, Reuben, and the half-tribe of Manasseh have already received the heritage east of the Jordan which Moses, the servant of the LORD, gave them."

⁸When those who were to map out the land were ready for the journey, Joshua instructed them to survey the land, prepare a description of it, and return to him; then he would cast lots for them there before the LORD in Shiloh.

⁹So they went through the land, listed its cities in writing in seven sections, and returned to Joshua in the camp at Shiloh.

¹⁰Joshua then divided up the land for the Israelites into their separate shares, casting lots for them before the LORD in Shiloh.

¹¹One lot fell to the clans of the tribe of Benjaminites. The territory allotted them lay between the descendants of Judah and those of Joseph.

¹²Their northern boundary began at the Jordan and went over the northern flank of Jericho, up westward into the mountains, till it reached the desert of Beth-aven.

¹³From there it crossed over to the southern flank of Luz (that is, Bethel). Then it ran down to Ataroth-addar, on the mountaintop south of Lower Beth-horon.

¹⁴For the western border, the boundary line swung south from the mountaintop opposite Bethhoron till it reached Kiriath-baal (that is, Kiriath-jearim), which city belonged to the Judahites. This was the western boundary.

¹⁵The southern boundary began at the limits of Kiriath-jearim and projected to the spring at Nephtoah.

¹⁶It went down to the edge of the mountain on the north of the Valley of Rephaim, where it faces the Valley of Ben-hinnom; and continuing down the Valley of Hinnom along the southern flank of the Jebusites, reached En-rogel.

¹⁷Inclining to the north, it extended to En-shemesh, and thence to Geliloth, opposite the pass of Adummim. Then it dropped to Eben-Bohan-ben-Reuben,

¹⁸across the northern flank of the Arabah overlook, down into the Aarabah.

¹⁹From there the boundary continued across the northern flank of Beth-hoglah and extended to the northern tip of the Salt Sea, at the southern end of the Jordan. This was the southern boundary.

²⁰The Jordan bounded it on the east. This was how the heritage of the clans of the Benjaminites was bounded on all sides.

²¹Now the cities belonging to the clans of the tribe of the Benjaminites were: Jericho, Beth-hoglah, Emek-keziz,

²²Beth-arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel,

²³Avvim, Parah, Ophrah,

²⁴Chephar-ammoni, Ophni and Geba; twelve cities and their villages.

²⁵Also Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth,

²⁶Mizpeh, Chephirah, Mozah,

²⁷Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah,

²⁸Zela, Haeleph, the Jebusite city (that is, Jerusalem), Gibeah and Kiriath; fourteen cities and their villages. This was the heritage of the clans of Benjaminites.

19The second lot fell to Simeon. The heritage of the clans of the tribe of Simeonites lay within that of the Judahites.

²For their heritage they received Beer-sheba, Shema, Moladah,

³Hazar-shual, Balah, Ezem,

⁴Eltolad, Bethul, Hormah,

⁵Ziklag, Bethmar-caboth, Hazar-susah,

⁶Beth-lebaoth and Sharuhen; thirteen cities and their villages.

⁷Also En-rimmon, Ether and Ashan; four cities and their villages,

⁸besides all the villages around these cities as far as Baalath-beer (that is, Ramoth-negeb). This was the heritage of the clans of the tribe of the Simeonites.

⁹This heritage of the Simeonites was within the confines of the Judahites; for since the portion of the latter was too large for them, the Simeonites obtained their heritage within it.

¹⁰The third lot fell to the clans of the Zebulunites. The limit of their heritage was at Sarid.

¹¹Their boundary went up west. . . and through Mareal, reaching Dabbesheth and the wadi that is near Jokneam.

¹²From Sarid eastward it ran to the district of Chisloth-tabor, on to Daberath, and up to Japhia.

¹³From there it continued eastward to Gath-hepher and to Eth-kazin, extended to Rimmon, and turned to Neah.

¹⁴Skirting north of Hannathon, the boundary ended at the valley of Iphtahel.

¹⁵Thus, with Kattath, Nahalal, Shimron, Idalah and Bethlehem, there were twelve cities and their villages

¹⁶to comprise the heritage of the clans of the Zebulunites.

¹⁷The fourth lot fell to Issachar. The territory of the clans of the Issacharites

¹⁸included Jezreel, Chesulloth, Shunem,

¹⁹Hapharaim, Shion, Anaharath,

²⁰Rabbith, Kishion, Ebez,

²¹Remeth, En-gannim, En-haddah and Beth-pazzez.

²²The boundary reached Tabor, Shahazumah and Beth-shemesh, ending at the Jordan. These sixteen cities and their villages

²³were the heritage of the clans of the Issacharites.

²⁴The fifth lot fell to the clans of the tribe of the Asherites.

²⁵Their territory included Helkath, Hali, Beten, Achshaph,

²⁶Allammelech, Amad and Mishal, and reached Carmel on the west, and Shihor-libnath.

²⁷In the other direction, it ran eastward of Beth-dagon, reached Zebulun and the valley of Iphtahel; then north of Beth-emek and Neiel, it extended to Cabul,

²⁸Mishal, Abdon, Rehob, Hammon and Kanah, near Greater Sidon.

²⁹Then the boundary turned back to Ramah and to the fortress city of Tyre; thence it cut back to Hosah and ended at the sea. Thus, with Mahalab, Achzib,

³⁰Ummah, Acco, Aphek and Rehob, there were twenty-two cities and their villages

³¹to comprise the heritage of the clans of the tribe of the Asherites.

³²The sixth lot fell to the Naphtalites. The boundary of the clans of the Naphtalites

³³extended from Heleph, from the oak at Zaanannim to Lakkum, including Adami-nekeb and Jabneel, and ended at the Jordan.

³⁴In the opposite direction, westerly, it ran through Aznoth-tabor and from there extended to Hukkok; it touched Zebulun on the south, Asher on the west, and the Jordan on the east.

³⁵The fortified cities were Ziddim, Zer, Hammath, Rakkath, Chinnereth,

³⁶Adamah, Ramah, Hazor,

³⁷Kedesh, Edrei, En-hazor,

³⁸Yiron, Migdal-el, Horem, Beth-anath and Beth-shemesh; nineteen cities and their villages,

³⁹to comprise the heritage of the clans of the tribe of the Naphtalites.

⁴⁰The seventh lot fell to the clans of the tribe of Danites.

⁴¹Their heritage was the territory of Zorah, Eshtaol, Ir-shemesh,

⁴²Shaalabbin, Aijalon, Ithlah,

⁴³Elon, Timnah, Ekron,

⁴⁴Eltekoh, Gibbethon, Baalath,

⁴⁵Jehud, Bene-berak, Gath-rimmon,

⁴⁶Me-jarkon and Rakkon, with the coast at Joppa.

⁴⁷But the territory of the Danites was too small for them; so the Danites marched up and attacked Leshem, which they captured and put to the sword. Once they had taken possession of Leshem, they renamed the settlement after their ancestor Dan.

⁴⁸These cities and their villages were the heritage of the clans of the tribe of the Danites.

⁴⁹When the last of them had received the portions of the land they were to inherit, the Israelites assigned a heritage in their midst to Joshua, son of Nun.

⁵⁰In obedience to the command of the LORD, they gave him the city which he requested, Timnah-serah in the mountain region of Ephraim. He rebuilt the city and made it his home.

⁵¹These are the final portions into which Eleazar the priest, Joshua, son of Nun, and the heads of families in the tribes of the Israelites divided the land by lot in the presence of the LORD, at the door of the meeting tent in Shiloh.

20The LORD said to Joshua:

²"Tell the Israelites to designate the cities of which I spoke to them through Moses,

³to which one guilty of accidental and unintended homicide may flee for asylum from the avenger of blood.

⁴To one of these cities the killer shall flee, and standing at the entrance of the city gate, he shall plead his case before the elders, who must receive him and assign him a place in which to live among them.

⁵Though the avenger of blood pursues him, they are not to deliver up the homicide who slew his fellow man unintentionally and not out of previous hatred.

⁶Once he has stood judgment before the community, he shall live on in that city till the death of the high priest who is in office at the time. Then the killer may go back home to his own city from which he fled."

⁷So they set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the mountain region of Naphtali, Shechem in the mountain region of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the mountain region of Judah.

⁸And beyond the Jordan east of Jericho they designated Bezer on the open tableland in the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead in the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan in the tribe of Manasseh.

⁹These were the designated cities to which any Israelite or stranger living among them who had killed a person accidentally might flee to escape death at the hand of the avenger of blood, until he could appear before the community.

21The heads of the Levite families came up to Eleazar the priest, to Joshua, son of Nun, and to the heads of families of the other tribes of the Israelites

²at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, and said to them, "The LORD commanded, through Moses, that cities be given us to dwell in, with pasture lands for our livestock."

³Out of their own heritage, in obedience to this command of the LORD, the Israelites gave the Levites the following cities with their pasture lands.

⁴When the first lot among the Levites fell to the clans of the Kohathites, the descendants of Aaron the priest obtained thirteen cities by lot from the tribes of Judah, Simeon and Benjamin.

⁵The rest of the Kohathites obtained ten cities by lot from the clans of the tribe of Ephraim, from the tribe of Dan, and from the half-tribe of Manasseh.

⁶The Gershonites obtained thirteen cities by lot from the clans of the tribe of Issachar, from the tribe of Asher, from the tribe of Naphtali, and from the half-tribe of Manasseh.

⁷The clans of the Merarites obtained twelve cities from the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Zebulun.

⁸These cities with their pasture lands the Israelites allotted to the Levites in obedience to the LORD'S command through Moses.

⁹From the tribes of the Judahites and Simeonites they designated the following cities,

¹⁰and assigned them to the descendants of Aaron in the Kohathite clan of the Levites, since the first lot fell to them:

¹¹first, Kiriath-arba (Arba was the father of Anak), that is, Hebron, in the mountain region of Judah, with the adjacent pasture lands,

¹²although the open country and villages belonging to the city had been given to Caleb, son of Jephunneh, as his property.

¹³Thus to the descendants of Aaron the priest were given the city of asylum for homicides at Hebron, with its pasture lands; also, Libnah with its pasture lands,

¹⁴Jattir with its pasture lands, Eshtemoa with its pasture lands,

¹⁵Holon with its pasture lands, Debir with its pasture lands,

¹⁶Ashan with its pasture lands, Juttah with its pasture lands, and Beth-shemesh with its pasture lands: nine cities from the two tribes mentioned.

¹⁷From the tribe of Benjamin they obtained the four cities of Gibeon with its pasture lands, Geba with its pasture lands,

¹⁸Anathoth with its pasture lands, and Almon with its pasture lands.

¹⁹These cities which with their pasture lands belonged to the priestly descendants of Aaron, were thirteen in all.

²⁰The rest of the Kohathite clans among the Levites obtained by lot, from the tribe of Ephraim, four cities.

²¹They were assigned, with its pasture lands, the city of asylum for homicides at Shechem in the mountain region of Ephraim; also Gezer with its pasture lands,

²²Kibzaim with its pasture lands, and Beth-horon with its pasture lands.

²³From the tribe of Dan they obtained the four cities of Elteke with its pasture lands, Gibbethon with its pasture lands,

²⁴Aijalon with its pasture lands, and Gath-rimmon with its pasture lands;

²⁵and from the half-tribe of Manasseh the two cities of Taanach with its pasture lands and Ibleam with its pasture lands.

²⁶These cities which with their pasture lands belonged to the rest of the Kohathite clans were ten in all.

²⁷The Gershonite clan of the Levites received from the half-tribe of Manasseh two cities: the city of asylum for homicides at Golan, with its pasture lands; and also Beth-ashtaroth with its pasture lands.

²⁸From the tribe of Issachar they obtained the four cities of Kishion with its pasture lands, Daberath with its pasture lands,

²⁹Jarmuth with its pasture lands, and En-gannim with its pasture lands; from the tribe of Asher,

³⁰the four cities of Mishal with its pasture lands, Abdon with its pasture lands,

³¹Helkath with its pasture lands, and Rehob with its pasture lands;

³²and from the tribe of Naphtali, three cities: the city of asylum for homicides at Kedesh in Galilee, with its pasture lands; also Hammath with its pasture lands, and Rakkath with its pasture lands.

³³These cities which with their pasture lands belonged to the Gershonite clans were thirteen in all.

³⁴The Merarite clans, the last of the Levites, received from the tribe of Zebulun the four cities of Jokneam with its pasture lands, Kartah with its pasture lands,

³⁵Rimmon with its pasture lands, and Nahalal with its pasture lands;

³⁶also, across the Jordan, from the tribe of Reuben, four cities: the city of asylum for homicides at Bezer with its pasture lands, Jahaz with its pasture lands,

³⁷Kedemoth with its pasture lands, and Mephaath with its pasture lands;

³⁸and from the tribe of Gad a total of four cities: the city of asylum for homicides at Ramoth in Gilead with its pasture lands, also Mahanaim with its pasture lands,

³⁹Heshbon with its pasture lands, and Jazer with its pasture lands.

⁴⁰The cities which were allotted to the Merarite clans, the last of the Levites, were therefore twelve in all.

⁴¹Thus the total number of cities within the territory of the Israelites which, with their pasture lands, belonged to the Levites, was forty-eight.

⁴²With each and every one of these cities went the pasture lands round about it.

⁴³And so the LORD gave Israel all the land he had sworn to their fathers he would give them. Once they had conquered and occupied it,

⁴⁴the LORD gave them peace on every side, just as he had promised their fathers. Not one of their enemies could withstand them; the LORD brought all their enemies under their power.

⁴⁵Not a single promise that the LORD made to the house of Israel was broken; every one was fulfilled.

22At that time Joshua summoned the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh

²and said to them: "You have done all that Moses, the servant of the LORD, commanded you, and have obeyed every command I gave you.

³For many years now you have not once abandoned your kinsmen, but have faithfully carried out the commands of the LORD, your God.

⁴Since, therefore, the LORD, your God, has settled your kinsmen as he promised them, you may now return to your tents beyond the Jordan; to your own land, which Moses, the servant of the LORD, gave you.

⁵But be very careful to observe the precept and law which Moses, the servant of the LORD, enjoined upon you: love the LORD, your God; follow him faithfully; keep his commandments; remain loyal to him; and serve him with your whole heart and soul."

⁶Joshua then blessed them and sent them away to their own tents.

⁷(For, to half the tribe of Manasseh Moses had assigned land in Bashan; and to the other half Joshua had given a portion along with their kinsmen west of the Jordan.) What Joshua said to them when he sent them off to their tents with his blessing was,

⁸"Now that you are returning to your own tents with great wealth, with very numerous livestock, with silver, gold, bronze and iron, and with a very large supply of clothing, divide these spoils of your enemies with your kinsmen there."

⁹So the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh left the other Israelites at Shiloh in the land of Canaan and returned to the land of Gilead, their own property, which they had received according to the LORD'S command through Moses.

¹⁰When the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh came to the region of the Jordan in the land of Canaan, they built there at the Jordan a conspicuously large altar.

¹¹The other Israelites heard the report that the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh had built an altar in the region of the Jordan facing the land of Canaan, across from them,

¹²and therefore they assembled their whole community at Shiloh to declare war on them.

¹³First, however, they sent to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead an embassy consisting of Phinehas, son of Eleazar the priest,

¹⁴and ten princes, one from every tribe of Israel, each one being both prince and military leader of his ancestral house.

¹⁵When these came to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead, they said to them:

¹⁶"The whole community of the LORD sends this message: What act of treachery is this you have committed against the God of Israel? You have seceded from the LORD this day, and rebelled against him by building an altar of your own!

¹⁷For the sin of Peor, a plague came upon the community of the LORD.

¹⁸We are still not free of that; must you now add to it? You are rebelling against the LORD today and by tomorrow he will be angry with the whole community of Israel!

¹⁹If you consider the land you now possess unclean, cross over to the land the LORD possesses, where the Dwelling of the LORD stands, and share that with us. But do not rebel against the LORD, nor involve us in rebellion, by building an altar of your own in addition to the altar of the LORD, our God.

²⁰When Achan, son of Zerah, violated the ban, did not wrath fall upon the entire community of Israel? Though he was but a single man, he did not perish alone for his guilt!"

²¹The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh replied to the military leaders of the Israelites: "The LORD is the God of gods.

²²The LORD, the God of gods, knows and Israel shall know. If now we have acted out of rebellion or treachery against the LORD, our God,

²³and if we have built an altar of our own to secede from the LORD, or to offer holocausts, grain offerings or peace offerings upon it, the LORD himself will exact the penalty.

²⁴We did it rather out of our anxious concern lest in the future your children should say to our children: 'What have you to do with the LORD, the God of Israel?

²⁵For the LORD has placed the Jordan as a boundary between you and us. You descendants of Reuben and Gad have no share in the LORD.' Thus your children would prevent ours from revering the LORD.

²⁶So we decided to guard our interests by building this altar of our own: not for holocausts or for sacrifices,

²⁷but as evidence for you on behalf of ourselves and our descendants, that we have the right to worship the LORD in his presence with our holocausts, sacrifices, and peace offerings. Now in the future your children cannot say to our children, 'You have no share in the LORD.'

²⁸Our thought was, that if in the future they should speak thus to us or to our descendants, we could answer: 'Look at the model of the altar of the LORD which our fathers made, not for holocausts or for sacrifices, but to witness between you and us.'

²⁹Far be it from us to rebel against the LORD or to secede now from the LORD by building an altar for holocaust, grain offering, or sacrifice in addition to the altar of the LORD, our God, which stands before his Dwelling."

³⁰When Phinehas the priest and the princes of the community, the military leaders of the Israelites, heard what the Reubenites, the Gadites and the Manassehites had to say, they were satisfied.

³¹Phinehas, son of Eleazar the priest, said to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the Manassehites, "Now we know that the LORD is with us. Since you have not committed this act of treachery against the LORD, you have kept the Israelites free from punishment by the LORD."

³²Phinehas, son of Eleazar the priest, and the princes returned from the Reubenites and the Gadites in the land of Gilead to the Israelites in the land of Canaan, and reported the matter to them.

³³The report satisfied the Israelites, who blessed God and decided against declaring war on the Reubenites and Gadites or ravaging the land they occupied.

³⁴The Reubenites and the Gadites gave the altar its name as a witness among them that the LORD is God.

23Many years later, after the LORD had given the Israelites rest from all their enemies round about them, and when Joshua was old and advanced in years,

²he summoned all Israel (including their elders, leaders, judges and officers) and said to them: "I am old and advanced in years.

³You have seen all that the LORD, your God, has done for you against all these nations; for it has been the LORD, your God, himself who fought for you.

⁴Bear in mind that I have apportioned among your tribes as their heritage the nations that survive (as well as those I destroyed) between the Jordan and the Great Sea in the west.

⁵The LORD, your God, will drive them out and dislodge them at your approach, so that you will take possession of their land as the LORD, your God, promised you.

⁶Therefore strive hard to observe and carry out all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, not straying from it in any way,

⁷or mingling with these nations while they survive among you. You must not invoke their gods, or swear by them, or serve them, or worship them,

⁸but you must remain loyal to the LORD, your God, as you have been to this day.

⁹At your approach the LORD has driven out large and strong nations, and to this day no one has withstood you.

¹⁰One of you puts to flight a thousand, because it is the LORD, your God, himself who fights for you, as he promised you.

¹¹Take great care, however, to love the LORD, your God.

¹²For if you ever abandon him and ally yourselves with the remnant of these nations while they survive among you, by intermarrying and intermingling with them,

¹³know for certain that the LORD, your God, will no longer drive these nations out of your way. Instead they will be a snare and a trap for you, a scourge for your sides and thorns for your eyes, until you perish from this good land which the LORD, your God, has given you.

¹⁴"Today, as you see, I am going the way of all men. So now acknowledge with your whole heart and soul that not one of all the promises the LORD, your God, made to you has remained unfulfilled. Every promise has been fulfilled for you, with not one single exception.

¹⁵But just as every promise the LORD, your God, made to you has been fulfilled for you, so will he fulfill every threat, even so far as to exterminate you from this good land which the LORD, your God, has given you.

¹⁶If you transgress the covenant of the LORD, your God, which he enjoined on you, serve other gods and worship them, the anger of the LORD will flare up against you and you will quickly perish from the good land which he has given you."

24Joshua gathered together all the tribes of Israel at Shechem, summoning their elders, their leaders, their judges and their officers. When they stood in ranks before God,

²Joshua addressed all the people: "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: In times past your fathers, down to Terah, father of Abraham and Nahor, dwelt beyond the River and served other gods.

³But I brought your father Abraham from the region beyond the River and led him through the entire land of Canaan. I made his descendants numerous, and gave him Isaac.

⁴To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau I assigned the mountain region of Seir in which to settle, while Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.

⁵"Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and smote Egypt with the prodigies which I wrought in her midst.

⁶Afterward I led you out of Egypt, and when you reached the sea, the Egyptians pursued your fathers to the Red Sea with chariots and horsemen.

⁷Because they cried out to the LORD, he put darkness between your people and the Egyptians, upon whom he brought the sea so that it engulfed them. After you witnessed what I did to Egypt, and dwelt a long time in the desert,

⁸I brought you into the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I delivered them into your power. You took possession of their land, and I destroyed them (the two kings of the Amorites) before you.

⁹Then Balak, son of Zippor, king of Moab, prepared to war against Israel. He summoned Balaam, son of Beor, to curse you;

¹⁰but I would not listen to Balaam. On the contrary, he had to bless you, and I saved you from him.

¹¹Once you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho, the men of Jericho fought against you, but I delivered them also into your power.

¹²And I sent the hornets ahead of you which drove them (the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites) out of your way; it was not your sword or your bow.

¹³"I gave you a land which you had not tilled and cities which you had not built, to dwell in; you have eaten of vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.

¹⁴"Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve him completely and sincerely. Cast out the gods your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.

¹⁵If it does not please you to serve the LORD, decide today whom you will serve, the gods your fathers served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are dwelling. As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

¹⁶But the people answered, "Far be it from us to forsake the LORD for the service of other gods.

¹⁷For it was the LORD, our God, who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, out of a state of slavery. He performed those great miracles before our very eyes and protected us along our entire journey and among all the peoples through whom we passed.

¹⁸At our approach the LORD drove out (all the peoples, including) the Amorites who dwelt in the land. Therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God."

¹⁹Joshua in turn said to the people, "You may not be able to serve the LORD, for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God who will not forgive your transgressions or your sins.

²⁰If, after the good he has done for you, you forsake the LORD and serve strange gods, he will do evil to you and destroy you."

²¹But the people answered Joshua, "We will still serve the LORD."

²²Joshua therefore said to the people, "You are your own witnesses that you have chosen to serve the LORD." They replied, "We are, indeed!"

²³"Now, therefore, put away the strange gods that are among you and turn your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel."

²⁴Then the people promised Joshua, "We will serve the LORD, our God, and obey his voice."

²⁵So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and made statutes and ordinances for them at Shechem,

²⁶which he recorded in the book of the law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was in the sanctuary of the LORD.

²⁷And Joshua said to all the people, "This stone shall be our witness, for it has heard all the words which the LORD spoke to us. It shall be a witness against you, should you wish to deny your God."

²⁸Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to his own heritage.

²⁹After these events, Joshua, son of Nun, servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred and ten.

³⁰He was buried within the limits of his heritage at Timnath-serah in the mountain region of Ephraim north of Mount Gaash.

³¹Israel served the LORD during the entire lifetime of Joshua and that of the elders who outlived Joshua and knew all that the LORD had done for Israel.

³²The bones of Joseph, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried in Shechem in the plot of ground Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor, father of Shechem, for a hundred pieces of money. This was a heritage of the descendants of Joseph.

³³When Eleazar, son of Aaron, also died, he was buried on the hill which had been given to his son Phinehas in the mountain region of Ephraim.

1After the death of Joshua the Israelites consulted the LORD, asking, "Who shall be first among us to attack the Canaanites and to do battle with them?"

²The LORD answered, "Judah shall attack: I have delivered the land into his power."

³Judah then said to his brother Simeon, "Come up with me into the territory allotted to me, and let us engage the Canaanites in battle. I will likewise accompany you into the territory allotted to you." So Simeon went with him.

⁴When the forces of Judah attacked, the LORD delivered the Canaanites and Perizzites into their power, and they slew ten thousand of them in Bezek.

⁵It was in Bezek that they came upon Adonibezek and fought against him. When they defeated the Canaanites and Perizzites,

⁶Adonibezek fled. They set out in pursuit, and when they caught him, cut off his thumbs and his big toes.

⁷At this Adonibezek said, "Seventy kings, with their thumbs and big toes cut off, used to pick up scraps under my table. As I have done, so has God repaid me." He was brought to Jerusalem, and there he died.

⁸(The Judahites fought against Jerusalem and captured it, putting it to the sword; then they destroyed the city by fire.)

⁹Afterward the Judahites went down to fight against the Canaanites who lived in the mountain region, in the Negeb, and in the foothills.

¹⁰Judah also marched against the Canaanites who dwelt in Hebron, which was formerly called Kiriath-arba, and defeated Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai.

¹¹From there they marched against the inhabitants of Debir, which was formerly called Kiriath-sepher.

¹²And Caleb said, "I will give my daughter Achsah in marriage to the one who attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it."

¹³Othniel, son of Caleb's younger brother Kenaz, captured it; so Caleb gave him his daughter Achsah in marriage.

¹⁴On the day of her marriage to Othniel she induced him to ask her father for some land. Then, as she alighted from the ass, Caleb asked her, "What is troubling you?"

¹⁵Give me an additional gift," she answered. "Since you have assigned land in the Negeb to me, give me also pools of water." So Caleb gave her the upper and the lower pool.

¹⁶The descendants of the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, came up with the Judahites from the city of palms to the desert at Arad (which is in the Negeb). But they later left and settled among the Amalekites.

¹⁷Judah then went with his brother Simeon, and they defeated the Canaanites who dwelt in Zephath. After having doomed the city to destruction, they renamed it Hormah.

¹⁸Judah, however, did not occupy Gaza with its territory, Ashkelon with its territory, or Ekron with its territory.

¹⁹Since the LORD was with Judah, he gained possession of the mountain region. Yet he could not dislodge those who lived on the plain, because they had iron chariots.

²⁰As Moses had commanded, Hebron was given to Caleb, who then drove from it the three sons of Anak.

²¹The Benjaminites did not dislodge the Jebusites who dwelt in Jerusalem, with the result that the Jebusites live in Jerusalem beside the Benjaminites to the present day.

²²The house of Joseph, too, marched up against Bethel, and the LORD was with them.

²³The house of Joseph had a reconnaissance made of Bethel, which formerly was called Luz.

²⁴The scouts saw a man coming out of the city and said to him, "Show us a way into the city, and we will spare you."

²⁵He showed them a way into the city, which they then put to the sword; but they let the man and his whole clan go free.

²⁶He then went to the land of the Hittites, where he built a city and called it Luz, as it is still called.

²⁷Manasseh did not take possession of Beth-shean with its towns or of Taanach with its towns. Neither did he dislodge the inhabitants of Dor and its towns, those of Ibleam and its towns, or those of Megiddo and its towns. The Canaanites kept their hold in this district.

²⁸When the Israelites grew stronger, they impressed the Canaanites as laborers, but did not drive them out.

²⁹Similarly, the Ephraimites did not drive out the Canaanites living in Gezer, and so the Canaanites live in Gezer in their midst.

³⁰Zebulun did not dislodge the inhabitants of Kitron or those of Nahalol; the Canaanites live among them, but have become forced laborers.

³¹Nor did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Acco or those of Sidon, or take possession of Mahaleb, Achzib, Helbah, Aphik or Rehob.

³²The Asherites live among the Canaanite natives of the land, whom they have not dislodged.

³³Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh or those of Beth-anath, and so they live among the Canaanite natives of the land. However, the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath have become forced laborers for them.

³⁴The Amorites hemmed in the Danites in the mountain region, not permitting them to go down into the plain.

³⁵The Amorites had a firm hold in Harheres, Aijalon and Shaalbim, but as the house of Joseph gained the upper hand, they were impressed as laborers.

³⁶The territory of the Amorites extended from the Akrabbim pass to Sela and beyond.

2An angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, "It was I who brought you up from Egypt and led you into the land which I promised on oath to your fathers. I said that I would never break my covenant with you,

²but that you were not to make a pact with the inhabitants of this land, and you were to pull down their altars. Yet you have not obeyed me. What did you mean by this?

³For now I tell you, I will not clear them out of your way; they shall oppose you and their gods shall become a snare for you."

⁴When the angel of the LORD had made these threats to all the Israelites, the people wept aloud;

⁵and so that place came to be called Bochim. They offered sacrifice there to the LORD.

⁶When Joshua dismissed the people, each Israelite went to take possession of his own hereditary land.

⁷The people served the LORD during the entire lifetime of Joshua, and of those elders who outlived Joshua and who had seen all the great work which the LORD had done for Israel.

⁸Joshua, son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, was a hundred and ten years old when he died;

⁹and they buried him within the borders of his heritage at Timnath-heres in the mountain region of Ephraim north of Mount Gaash.

¹⁰But once the rest of that generation were gathered to their fathers, and a later generation arose that did not know the LORD, or what he had done for Israel,

¹¹the Israelites offended the LORD by serving the Baals.

¹²Abandoning the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had led them out of the land of Egypt, they followed the other gods of the various nations around them, and by their worship of these gods provoked the LORD.

¹³Because they had thus abandoned him and served Baal and the Ashtaroth,

¹⁴the anger of the LORD flared up against Israel, and he delivered them over to plunderers who despoiled them. He allowed them to fall into the power of their enemies round about whom they were no longer able to withstand.

¹⁵Whatever they undertook, the LORD turned into disaster for them, as in his warning he had sworn he would do, till they were in great distress.

¹⁶Even when the LORD raised up judges to deliver them from the power of their despoilers,

¹⁷they did not listen to their judges, but abandoned themselves to the worship of other gods. They were quick to stray from the way their fathers had taken, and did not follow their example of obedience to the commandments of the LORD.

¹⁸Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, he would be with the judge and save them from the power of their enemies as long as the judge lived; it was thus the LORD took pity on their distressful cries of affliction under their oppressors.

¹⁹But when the judge died, they would relapse and do worse than their fathers, following other gods in service and worship, relinquishing none of their evil practices or stubborn conduct.

²⁰In his anger toward Israel the LORD said, "Inasmuch as this nation has violated my covenant which I enjoined on their fathers, and has disobeyed me,

²¹I for my part will not clear away for them any more of the nations which Joshua left when he died."

²²Through these nations the Israelites were to be made to prove whether or not they would keep to the way of the LORD and continue in it as their fathers had done;

²³therefore the LORD allowed them to remain instead of expelling them immediately, or delivering them into the power of Israel.

3The following are the nations which the LORD allowed to remain, so that through them he might try all those Israelites who had no experience of the battles with Canaan

²training them in battle, those generations only of the Israelites who would not have had that previous experience):

³the five lords of the Philistines; and all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who dwell in the mountain region of Lebanon between Baal-hermon and the entrance to Hamath.

⁴These served to put Israel to the test, to determine whether they would obey the commandments the LORD had enjoined on their fathers through Moses.

⁵Besides, the Israelites were living among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

⁶In fact, they took their daughters in marriage, and gave their own daughters to their sons in marriage, and served their gods.

⁷Because the Israelites had offended the LORD by forgetting the LORD, their God, and serving the Baals and the Asherahs,

⁸the anger of the LORD flared up against them, and he allowed them to fall into the power of Cushan-rishathaim, king of Aram Naharaim, whom they served for eight years.

⁹But when the Israelites cried out to the LORD, he raised up for them a savior, Othniel, son of Caleb's younger brother Kenaz, who rescued them.

¹⁰The spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he judged Israel. When he went out to war, the LORD delivered Cushan-risha-thaim, king of Aram, into his power, so that he made him subject.

¹¹The land then was at rest for forty years, until Othniel, son of Kenaz, died.

¹²Again the Israelites offended the LORD, who because of this offense strengthened Eglon, king of Moab, against Israel.

¹³In alliance with the Ammonites and Amalekites, he attacked and defeated Israel, taking possession of the city of palms.

¹⁴The Israelites then served Eglon, king of Moab, for eighteen years.

¹⁵But when the Israelites cried out to the LORD, he raised up for them a savior, the Benjaminite Ehud, son of Gera, who was left-handed. It was by him that the Israelites sent their tribute to Eglon, king of Moab.

¹⁶Ehud made himself a two-edged dagger a foot long, and wore it under his clothes over his right thigh.

¹⁷He presented the tribute to Eglon, king of Moab, who was very fat,

¹⁸and after the presentation went off with the tribute bearers.

¹⁹He returned, however, from where the idols are, near Gilgal, and said, "I have a private message for you, O king." And the king said, "Silence!" Then when all his attendants had left his presence,

²⁰and Ehud went in to him where he sat alone in his cool upper room, Ehud said, "I have a message from God for you." So the king rose from his chair,

²¹and then Ehud with his left hand drew the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into Eglon's belly.

²²The hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade because he did not withdraw the dagger from his body.

²³Then Ehud went out into the hall, shutting the doors of the upper room on him and locking them.

²⁴When Ehud had left and the servants came, they saw that the doors of the upper room were locked, and thought, "He must be easing himself in the cool chamber."

²⁵They waited until they finally grew suspicious. Since he did not open the doors of the upper room, they took the key and opened them. There on the floor, dead, lay their lord!

²⁶During their delay Ehud made good his escape and, passing the idols, took refuge in Seirah.

²⁷On his arrival he sounded the horn in the mountain region of Ephraim, and the Israelites went down from the mountains with him as their leader.

²⁸"Follow me," he said to them, "for the LORD has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your power." So they followed him down and seized the fords of the Jordan leading to Moab, permitting no one to cross.

²⁹On that occasion they slew about ten thousand Moabites, all of them strong and valiant men. Not a man escaped.

³⁰Thus was Moab brought under the power of Israel at that time; and the land had rest for eighty years.

³¹After him there was Shamgar, son of Anath, who slew six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad. He, too, rescued Israel.

4After Ehud's death, however, the Israelites again offended the LORD.

²So the LORD allowed them to fall into the power of the Canaanite king, Jabin, who reigned in Hazor. The general of his army was Sisera, who dwelt in Harosheth-ha-goiim.

³But the Israelites cried out to the LORD; for with his nine hundred iron chariots he sorely oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.

⁴At this time the prophetess Deborah, wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel.

⁵She used to sit under Deborah's palm tree, situated between Ramah and Bethel in the mountain region of Ephraim, and there the Israelites came up to her for judgment.

⁶She sent and summoned Barak, son of Abinoam, from Kedesh of Naphtali. "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, commands," she said to him; "go, march on Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand Naphtalites and Zebulunites.

⁷I will lead Sisera, the general of Jabin's army, out to you at the Wadi Kishon, together with his chariots and troops, and will deliver them into your power."

⁸But Barak answered her, "If you come with me, I will go; if you do not come with me, I will not go."

⁹"I will certainly go with you," she replied, "but you shall not gain the glory in the expedition on which you are setting out, for the LORD will have Sisera fall into the power of a woman." So Deborah joined Barak and journeyed with him to Kedesh.

¹⁰Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh, and ten thousand men followed him. Deborah also went up with him.

¹¹Now the Kenite Heber had detached himself from his own people, the descendants of Hobab, Moses' brother-in-law, and had pitched his tent by the tere-binth of Zaanannim, which was near Kedesh.

¹²It was reported to Sisera that Barak, son of Abinoam, had gone up to Mount Tabor.

¹³So Sisera assembled from Harosheth-ha-goiim at the Wadi Kishon all nine hundred of his iron chariots and all his forces.

¹⁴Deborah then said to Barak, "Be off, for this is the day on which the LORD has delivered Sisera into your power. The LORD marches before you." So Barak went down Mount Tabor, followed by his ten thousand men.

¹⁵And the LORD put Sisera and all his chariots and all his forces to rout before Barak. Sisera himself dismounted from his chariot and fled on foot.

¹⁶Barak, however, pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth-ha-goiim. The entire army of Sisera fell beneath the sword, not even one man surviving.

¹⁷Sisera, in the meantime, had fled on foot to the tent of Jael, wife of the Kenite Heber, since Jabin, king of Hazor, and the family of the Kenite Heber were at peace with one another.

¹⁸Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, "Come in, my lord, come in with me; do not be afraid." So he went into her tent, and she covered him with a rug.

¹⁹He said to her, "Please give me a little water to drink. I am thirsty." But she opened a jug of milk for him to drink, and then covered him over.

²⁰"Stand at the entrance of the tent," he said to her. "If anyone comes and asks, 'Is there someone here?' say, 'No!'"

²¹Instead Jael, wife of Heber, got a tent peg and took a mallet in her hand. While Sisera was sound asleep, she stealthily approached him and drove the peg through his temple down into the ground, so that he perished in death.

²²Then when Barak came in pursuit of Sisera, Jael went out to meet him and said to him, "Come, I will show you the man you seek." So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera dead, with the tent peg through his temple.

²³Thus on that day God humbled the Canaanite king, Jabin, before the Israelites;

²⁴their power weighed ever heavier upon him, till at length they destroyed the Canaanite king, Jabin.

5On that day Deborah (and Barak, son of Abinoam,) sang this song:

²Of chiefs who took the lead in Israel, of noble deeds by the people who bless the LORD,

³Hear, O kings! Give ear, O princes!
I to the LORD will sing my song,
my hymn to the LORD, the God of Israel.

⁴O LORD, when you went out from Seir,
when you marched from the land of Edom,
The earth quaked and the heavens were shaken,
while the clouds sent down showers.

⁵Mountains trembled
in the presence of the LORD, the One of Sinai,
in the presence of the LORD, the God of Israel.

⁶In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath,
in the days of slavery caravans ceased:
Those who traveled the roads
went by roundabout paths.

⁷Gone was freedom beyond the walls,
gone indeed from Israel.
When I, Deborah, rose,
when I rose, a mother in Israel,

⁸New gods were their choice; then the war was at their gates. Not a shield could be seen, nor a lance, among forty thousand in Israel!

⁹My heart is with the leaders of Israel,
nobles of the people who bless the LORD;

¹⁰They who ride on white asses,
seated on saddlecloths as they go their way;

¹¹Sing of them to the strains of the harpers at the wells,
where men recount the just deeds of the LORD,
his just deeds that brought freedom to Israel.

¹²Awake, awake, Deborah!
awake, awake, strike up a song.
Strength! arise, Barak,
make despoilers your spoil, son of Abinoam.

¹³Then down came the fugitives with the mighty,
the people of the LORD came down for me as warriors.

¹⁴From Ephraim, princes were in the valley;
behind you was Benjamin, among your troops.
From Machir came down commanders,
from Zebulun wielders of the marshal's staff.

¹⁵With Deborah were the princes of Issachar;
Barak, too, was in the valley, his course unchecked.
Among the clans of Reuben
great were the searchings of heart.

¹⁶Why do you stay beside your hearths
listening to the lowing of the herds?
Among the clans of Reuben
great were the searchings of heart!

¹⁷Gilead, beyond the Jordan, rests;
why does Dan spend his time in ships?
Asher, who dwells along the shore,
is resting in his coves.

¹⁸Zebulun is the people defying death;
Naphtali, too, on the open heights!

¹⁹The kings came and fought;
then they fought, those kings of Canaan,
At Taanach by the waters of Megiddo;
no silver booty did they take.

²⁰From the heavens the stars, too, fought;
from their courses they fought against Sisera.

²¹The Wadi Kishon swept them away;
a wadi. . . , the Kishon.

²²Then the hoofs of the horses pounded,
with the dashing, dashing of his steeds.

²³"Curse Meroz," says the LORD,
"hurl a curse at its inhabitants!
For they came not to my help,
as warriors to the help of the LORD."

²⁴Blessed among women be Jael,
blessed among tent-dwelling women.

²⁵He asked for water, she gave him milk;
in a princely bowl she offered curds.

²⁶With her left hand she reached for the peg,
with her right, for the workman's mallet.
She hammered Sisera, crushed his head;
she smashed, stove in his temple.

²⁷At her feet he sank down, fell, lay still;
down at her feet he sank and fell;
where he sank down, there he fell, slain.

²⁸From the window peered down and wailed
the mother of Sisera, from the lattice:
"Why is his chariot so long in coming?
why are the hoofbeats of his chariots delayed?"

²⁹The wisest of her princesses answers her,
and she, too, keeps answering herself:

³⁰"They must be dividing the spoil they took:
there must be a damsel or two for each man,
Spoils of dyed cloth as Sisera's spoil,
an ornate shawl or two for me in the spoil."

³¹May all your enemies perish thus, O LORD!
but your friends be as the sun rising in its might!
And the land was at rest for forty years.

6The Israelites offended the LORD, who therefore delivered them into the power of Midian for seven years,

²so that Midian held Israel subject. For fear of Midian the Israelites established the fire signals on the mountains, the caves for refuge, and the strongholds.

³And it used to be that when the Israelites had completed their sowing, Midian, Amalek and the Kedemites would come up,

⁴encamp opposite them, and destroy the produce of the land as far as the outskirts of Gaza, leaving no sustenance in Israel, nor sheep, oxen or asses.

⁵For they would come up with their livestock, and their tents would become as numerous as locusts; and neither they nor their camels could be numbered, when they came into the land to lay it waste.

⁶Thus was Israel reduced to misery by Midian, and so the Israelites cried out to the LORD.

⁷When Israel cried out to the LORD because of Midian,

⁸he sent a prophet to the Israelites who said to them, "The LORD, the God of Israel, says: I led you up from Egypt; I brought you out of the place of slavery.

⁹I rescued you from the power of Egypt and of all your other oppressors. I drove them out before you and gave you their land.

¹⁰And I said to you: I, the LORD, am your God; you shall not venerate the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are dwelling. But you did not obey me."

¹¹Then the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. While his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press to save it from the Midianites,

¹²the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, "The LORD is with you, O champion!"

¹³"My Lord," Gideon said to him, "if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are his wondrous deeds of which our fathers told us when they said, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' For now the LORD has abandoned us and has delivered us into the power of Midian."

¹⁴The LORD turned to him and said, "Go with the strength you have and save Israel from the power of Midian. It is I who send you."

¹⁵But he answered him, "Please, my lord, how can I save Israel? My family is the meanest in Manasseh, and I am the most insignificant in my father's house."

¹⁶"I shall be with you," the LORD said to him, "and you will cut down Midian to the last man."

¹⁷He answered him, "If I find favor with you, give me a sign that you are speaking with me.

¹⁸Do not depart from here, I pray you, until I come back to you and bring out my offering and set it before you." He answered, "I will await your return."

¹⁹So Gideon went off and prepared a kid and an ephah of flour in the form of unleavened cakes. Putting the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, he brought them out to him under the terebinth and presented them.

²⁰The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and unleavened cakes and lay them on this rock; then pour out the broth." When he had done so,

²¹the angel of the LORD stretched out the tip of the staff he held, and touched the meat and unleavened cakes. Thereupon a fire came up from the rock which consumed the meat and unleavened cakes, and the angel of the LORD disappeared from sight.

²²Gideon, now aware that it had been the angel of the LORD, said, "Alas, Lord GOD, that I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!"

²³The LORD answered him, "Be calm, do not fear. You shall not die."

²⁴So Gideon built there an altar to the LORD and called it Yahweh-shalom. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

²⁵That same night the LORD said to him, "Take the seven-year-old spare bullock and destroy your father's altar to Baal and cut down the sacred pole that is by it.

²⁶You shall build, instead, the proper kind of altar to the LORD, your God, on top of this stronghold. Then take the spare bullock and offer it as a holocaust on the wood from the sacred pole you have cut down."

²⁷So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the LORD had commanded him. But through fear of his family and of the townspeople, he would not do it by day, but did it at night.

²⁸Early the next morning the townspeople found that the altar of Baal had been destroyed, the sacred pole near it cut down, and the spare bullock offered on the altar that was built.

²⁹They asked one another, "Who did this?" Their inquiry led them to the conclusion that Gideon, son of Joash, had done it.

³⁰So the townspeople said to Joash, "Bring out your son that he may die, for he has destroyed the altar of Baal and has cut down the sacred pole that was near it."

³¹But Joash replied to all who were standing around him, "Do you intend to act in Baal's stead, or be his champion? If anyone acts for him, he shall be put to death by morning. If he whose altar has been destroyed is a god, let him act for himself!"

³²So on that day Gideon was called Jerubbaal, because of the words, "Let Baal take action against him, since he destroyed his altar."

³³Then all Midian and Amalek and the Kedemites mustered and crossed over into the valley of Jezreel, where they encamped.

³⁴The spirit of the LORD enveloped Gideon; he blew the horn that summoned Abiezer to follow him.

³⁵He sent messengers, too, throughout Manasseh, which also obeyed his summons; through Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali, likewise, he sent messengers and these tribes advanced to meet the others.

³⁶Gideon said to God, "If indeed you are going to save Israel through me, as you promised,

³⁷I am putting this woolen fleece on the threshing floor. If dew comes on the fleece alone, while all the ground is dry, I shall know that you will save Israel through me, as you promised."

³⁸That is what took place. Early the next morning he wrung the dew from the fleece, squeezing out of it a bowlful of water.

³⁹Gideon then said to God, "Do not be angry with me if I speak once more. Let me make just one more test with the fleece. Let the fleece alone be dry, but let there be dew on all the ground."

⁴⁰That night God did so; the fleece alone was dry, but there was dew on all the ground.

7Early the next morning Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) encamped by Enharod with all his soldiers. The camp of Midian was in the valley north of Gibeath-hammoreh.

²The LORD said to Gideon, "You have too many soldiers with you for me to deliver Midian into their power, lest Israel vaunt itself against me and say, 'My own power brought me the victory.'

³Now proclaim to all the soldiers, 'If anyone is afraid or fearful, let him leave.'" When Gideon put them to this test on the mountain, twenty-two thousand of the soldiers left, but ten thousand remained.

⁴The LORD said to Gideon, "There are still too many soldiers. Lead them down to the water and I will test them for you there. If I tell you that a certain man is to go with you, he must go with you. But no one is to go if I tell you he must not."

⁵When Gideon led the soldiers down to the water, the LORD said to him, "You shall set to one side everyone who laps up the water as a dog does with its tongue; to the other, everyone who kneels down to drink."

⁶Those who lapped up the water raised to their mouths by hand numbered three hundred, but all the rest of the soldiers knelt down to drink the water.

⁷The LORD said to Gideon, "By means of the three hundred who lapped up the water I will save you and will deliver Midian into your power. So let all the other soldiers go home."

⁸Their horns, and such supplies as the soldiers had with them, were taken up, and Gideon ordered the rest of the Israelites to their tents, but kept the three hundred men. Now the camp of Midian was beneath him in the valley.

⁹That night the LORD said to Gideon, "Go, descend on the camp, for I have delivered it up to you.

¹⁰If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your aide Purah.

¹¹When you hear what they are saying, you will have the courage to descend on the camp." So he went down with his aide Purah to the outposts of the camp.

¹²The Midianites, Amalekites, and all the Kedemites lay in the valley, as numerous as locusts. Nor could their camels be counted, for these were as many as the sands on the seashore.

¹³When Gideon arrived, one man was telling another about a dream. "I had a dream," he said, "that a round loaf of barley bread was rolling into the camp of Midian. It came to our tent and struck it, and as it fell it turned the tent upside down."

¹⁴"This can only be the sword of the Israelite Gideon, son of Joash," the other replied. "God has delivered Midian and all the camp into his power."

¹⁵When Gideon heard the description and explanation of the dream, he prostrated himself. Then returning to the camp of Israel, he said, "Arise, for the LORD has delivered the camp of Midian into your power."

¹⁶He divided the three hundred men into three companies, and provided them all with horns and with empty jars and torches inside the jars.

¹⁷"Watch me and follow my lead," he told them. "I shall go to the edge of the camp, and as I do, you must do also.

¹⁸When I and those with me blow horns, you too must blow horns all around the camp and cry out, 'For the LORD and for Gideon!'"

¹⁹So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after the posting of the guards. They blew the horns and broke the jars they were holding.

²⁰All three companies blew horns and broke their jars. They held the torches in their left hands, and in their right the horns they were blowing, and cried out, "A sword for the LORD and Gideon!"

²¹They all remained standing in place around the camp, while the whole camp fell to running and shouting and fleeing.

²²But the three hundred men kept blowing the horns, and throughout the camp the LORD set the sword of one against another. The army fled as far as Beth-shittah in the direction of Zarethan, near the border of Abel-meholah at Tabbath.

²³The Israelites were called to arms from Naphtali, from Asher, and from all Manasseh, and they pursued Midian.

²⁴Gideon also sent messengers throughout the mountain region of Ephraim to say, "Go down to confront Midian, and seize the water courses against them as far as Beth-barah, as well as the Jordan." So all the Ephraimites were called to arms, and they seized the water courses as far as Beth-barah, and the Jordan as well.

²⁵They captured the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, killing Oreb at the rock of Oreb and Zeeb at the wine press of Zeeb. Then they pursued Midian and carried the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon beyond the Jordan.

8But the Ephraimites said to him, "What have you done to us, not calling us when you went to fight against Midian?" And they quarreled bitterly with him.

²"What have I accomplished now in comparison with you?" he answered them. "Is not the gleaning of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?

³Into your power God delivered the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. What have I been able to do in comparison with you?" When he said this, their anger against him subsided.

⁴When Gideon reached the Jordan and crossed it with his three hundred men, they were exhausted and famished.

⁵So he said to the men of Succoth, "Will you give my followers some loaves of bread? They are exhausted, and I am pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian."

⁶But the princes of Succoth replied, "Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your possession, that we should give food to your army?"

⁷Gideon said, "Very well; when the LORD has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my power, I will grind your flesh in with the thorns and briers of the desert."

⁸He went up from there to Penuel and made the same request of them, but the men of Penuel answered him as had the men of Succoth.

⁹So to the men of Penuel, too, he said, "When I return in triumph, I will demolish this tower."

¹⁰Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their force of about fifteen thousand men; these were all who were left of the whole Kedemite army, a hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen having fallen.

¹¹Gideon went up by the route of the nomads east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and attacked the camp when it felt secure.

¹²Zebah and Zalmunna fled. He pursued them and took the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, captive, throwing the entire army into panic.

¹³Then Gideon, son of Joash, returned from battle by the pass of Heres.

¹⁴He captured a young man of Succoth, who upon being questioned listed for him the seventy-seven princes and elders of Succoth.

¹⁵So he went to the men of Succoth and said, "Here are Zebah and Zalmunna, with whom you taunted me, 'Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your possession, that we should give food to your weary followers?'"

¹⁶He took the elders of the city, and thorns and briers of the desert, and ground these men of Succoth into them.

¹⁷He also demolished the tower of Penuel and slew the men of the city.

¹⁸Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, "Where now are the men you killed at Tabor?" "They all resembled you," they replied. "They appeared to be princes."

¹⁹"They were my brothers, my mother's sons," he said. "As the LORD lives, if you had spared their lives, I should not kill you."

²⁰Then he said to his first-born, Jether, "Go, kill them." Since Jether was still a boy, he was afraid and did not draw his sword.

²¹Zebah and Zalmunna said, "Come, kill us yourself, for a man's strength is like the man." So Gideon stepped forward and killed Zebah and Zalmunna. He also took the crescents that were on the necks of their camels.

²²The Israelites then said to Gideon, "Rule over us--you, your son, and your son's son--for you rescued us from the power of Midian."

²³But Gideon answered them, "I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you. The LORD must rule over you."

²⁴Gideon went on to say, "I should like to make a request of you. Will each of you give me a ring from his booty?" (For being Ishmaelites, the enemy had gold rings.)

²⁵"We will gladly give them," they replied, and spread out a cloak into which everyone threw a ring from his booty.

²⁶The gold rings that he requested weighed seventeen hundred gold shekels, in addition to the crescents and pendants, the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, and the trappings that were on the necks of their camels.

²⁷Gideon made an ephod out of the gold and placed it in his city Ophrah. However, all Israel paid idolatrous homage to it there, and caused the ruin of Gideon and his family.

²⁸Thus was Midian brought into subjection by the Israelites; no longer did they hold their heads high. And the land had rest for forty years, during the lifetime of Gideon.

²⁹Then Jerubbaal, son of Joash, went back home to stay.

³⁰Now Gideon had seventy sons, his direct descendants, for he had many wives.

³¹His concubine who lived in Shechem also bore him a son, whom he named Abimelech.

³²At a good old age Gideon, son of Joash, died and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

³³But after Gideon was dead, the Israelites again abandoned themselves to the Baals, making Baal of Berith their god

³⁴and forgetting the LORD, their God, who had delivered them from the power of their enemies all around them.

³⁵Nor were they grateful to the family of Jerubbaal (Gideon) for all the good he had done for Israel.

9Abimelech, son of Jerubbaal, went to his mother's kinsmen in Shechem, and said to them and to the whole clan to which his mother's family belonged,

²"Put this question to all the citizens of Shechem: 'Which is better for you: that seventy men, or all Jerubbaal's sons, rule over you, or that one man rule over you?' You must remember that I am your own flesh and bone."

³When his mother's kin repeated these words to them on his behalf, all the citizens of Shechem sympathized with Abimelech, thinking, "He is our kinsman."

⁴They also gave him seventy silver shekels from the temple of Baal of Berith, with which Abimelech hired shiftless men and ruffians as his followers.

⁵He then went to his ancestral house in Ophrah, and slew his brothers, the seventy sons of Jerubbaal, on one stone. Only the youngest son of Jerubbaal, Jotham, escaped, for he was hidden.

⁶Then all the citizens of Shechem and all Beth-millo came together and proceeded to make Abimelech king by the terebinth at the memorial pillar in Shechem.

⁷When this was reported to him, Jotham went to the top of Mount Gerizim, and standing there, cried out to them in a loud voice: "Hear me, citizens of Shechem, that God may then hear you!

⁸Once the trees went to anoint a king over themselves. So they said to the olive tree, 'Reign over us.'

⁹But the olive tree answered them, 'Must I give up my rich oil, whereby men and gods are honored, and go to wave over the trees?'

¹⁰Then the trees said to the fig tree, 'Come; you reign over us!'

¹¹But the fig tree answered them, 'Must I give up my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to wave over the trees?'

¹²Then the trees said to the vine, 'Come you, and reign over us.'

¹³But the vine answered them, 'Must I give up my wine that cheers gods and men, and go to wave over the trees?'

¹⁴Then all the trees said to the buckthorn, 'Come; you reign over us!'

¹⁵But the buckthorn replied to the trees, 'If you wish to anoint me king over you in good faith, come and take refuge in my shadow. Otherwise, let fire come from the buckthorn and devour the cedars of Lebanon.'

¹⁶"Now then, if you have acted in good faith and honorably in appointing Abimelech your king, if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and with his family, and if you have treated him as he deserved--

¹⁷for my father fought for you at the risk of his life when he saved you from the power of Midian;

¹⁸but you have risen against his family this day and have killed his seventy sons upon one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his handmaid, king over the citizens of Shechem, because he is your kinsman--

¹⁹if, then, you have acted in good faith and with honor toward Jerubbaal and his family this day, rejoice in Abimelech and may he in turn rejoice in you.

²⁰But if not, let fire come forth from Abimelech to devour the citizens of Shechem and Beth-millo, and let fire come forth from the citizens and from Beth-millo to devour Abimelech."

²¹Then Jotham went in flight to Beer, where he remained for fear of his brother Abimelech.

²²When Abimelech had ruled Israel for three years,

²³God put bad feelings between Abimelech and the citizens of Shechem, who rebelled against Abimelech.

²⁴This was to repay the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal and to avenge their blood upon their brother Abimelech, who killed them, and upon the citizens of Shechem, who encouraged him to kill his brothers.

²⁵The citizens of Shechem then set men in ambush for him on the mountaintops, and these robbed all who passed them on the road. But it was reported to Abimelech.

²⁶Now Gaal, son of Ebed, came over to Shechem with his kinsmen. The citizens of Shechem put their trust in him,

²⁷and went out into the fields, harvested their grapes and trod them out. Then they held a festival and went to the temple of their god, where they ate and drank and cursed Abimelech.

²⁸Gaal, son of Ebed, said, "Who is Abimelech? And why should we of Shechem serve him? Were not the son of Jerubbaal and his lieutenant Zebul once subject to the men of Hamor, father of Shechem? Why should we serve him?

²⁹Would that this people were entrusted to my command! I would depose Abimelech. I would say to Abimelech, 'Get a larger army and come out!'"

³⁰At the news of what Gaal, son of Ebed, had said, Zebul, the ruler of the city, was angry

³¹and sent messengers to Abimelech in Arumah with the information: "Gaal, son of Ebed, and his kinsmen have come to Shechem and are stirring up the city against you.

³²Now rouse yourself; set an ambush tonight in the fields, you and the men who are with you.

³³Promptly at sunrise tomorrow morning, make a raid on the city. When he and his followers come out against you, deal with him as best you can."

³⁴During the night Abimelech advanced with all his soldiers and set up an ambush for Shechem in four companies.

³⁵Gaal, son of Ebed, went out and stood at the entrance of the city gate. When Abimelech and his soldiers rose from their place of ambush,

³⁶Gaal saw them and said to Zebul, "There are men coming down from the hilltops!" But Zebul answered him, "You see the shadow of the hills as men."

³⁷But Gaal went on to say, "Men are coming down from the region of Tabbur-Haares, and one company is coming by way of Elon-Meonenim."

³⁸Zebul said to him, "Where now is the boast you uttered, 'Who is Abimelech that we should serve him?' Are these not the men for whom you expressed contempt? Go out now and fight with them."

³⁹So Gaal went out at the head of the citizens of Shechem and fought against Abimelech.

⁴⁰But Abimelech routed him, and he fled before him; and many fell slain right up to the entrance of the gate.

⁴¹Abimelech returned to Arumah, but Zebul drove Gaal and his kinsmen from Shechem, which they had occupied.

⁴²The next day, when the people were taking the field, it was reported to Abimelech,

⁴³who divided the men he had into three companies, and set up an ambush in the fields. He watched till he saw the people leave the city, and then rose against them for the attack.

⁴⁴Abimelech and the company with him dashed in and stood by the entrance of the city gate, while the other two companies rushed upon all who were in the field and attacked them.

⁴⁵That entire day Abimelech fought against the city, and captured it. He then killed its inhabitants and demolished the city, sowing the site with salt.

⁴⁶When they heard of this, all the citizens of Migdal-shechem went into the crypt of the temple of El-berith.

⁴⁷It was reported to Abimelech that all the citizens of Migdal-shechem were gathered together.

⁴⁸So he went up Mount Zalmon with all his soldiers, took his axe in his hand, and cut down some brushwood. This he lifted to his shoulder, then said to the men with him, "Hurry! Do just as you have seen me do."

⁴⁹So all the men likewise cut down brushwood, and following Abimelech, placed it against the crypt. Then they set the crypt on fire over their heads, so that every one of the citizens of Migdal-shechem, about a thousand men and women, perished.

⁵⁰Abimelech proceeded to Thebez, which he invested and captured.

⁵¹Now there was a strong tower in the middle of the city, and all the men and women, in a word all the citizens of the city, fled there, shutting themselves in and going up to the roof of the tower.

⁵²Abimelech came up to the tower and fought against it, advancing to the very entrance of the tower to set it on fire.

⁵³But a certain woman cast the upper part of a millstone down on Abimelech's head, and it fractured his skull.

⁵⁴He immediately called his armor-bearer and said to him, "Draw your sword and dispatch me, lest they say of me that a woman killed me." So his attendant ran him through and he died.

⁵⁵When the Israelites saw that Abimelech was dead, they all left for their homes.

⁵⁶Thus did God requite the evil Abimelech had done to his father in killing his seventy brothers.

⁵⁷God also brought all their wickedness home to the Shechemites, for the curse of Jotham, son of Jerubbaal, overtook them.

10After Abimelech there rose to save Israel the Issacharite Tola, son of Puah, son of Dodo, a resident of Shamir in the mountain region of Ephraim.

²When he had judged Israel twenty-three years, he died and was buried in Shamir.

³Jair the Gileadite came after him and judged Israel twenty-two years.

⁴He had thirty sons who rode on thirty saddle-asses and possessed thirty cities in the land of Gilead; these are called Havvoth-jair to the present day.

⁵Jair died and was buried in Kamon.

⁶The Israelites again offended the LORD, serving the Baals and Ashtaroths, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. Since they had abandoned the LORD and would not serve him,

⁷the LORD became angry with Israel and allowed them to fall into the power of (the Philistines and) the Ammonites.

⁸For eighteen years they afflicted and oppressed the Israelites in Bashan, and all the Israelites in the Amorite land beyond the Jordan in Gilead.

⁹The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin, and the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was in great distress.

¹⁰Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD, "We have sinned against you; we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals."

¹¹The LORD answered the Israelites: "Did not the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines,

¹²the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Midianites oppress you? Yet when you cried out to me, and I saved you from their grasp,

¹³you still forsook me and worshiped other gods. Therefore I will save you no more.

¹⁴Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen; let them save you now that you are in distress."

¹⁵But the Israelites said to the LORD, "We have sinned. Do to us whatever you please. Only save us this day."

¹⁶And they cast out the foreign gods from their midst and served the LORD, so that he grieved over the misery of Israel.

¹⁷The Ammonites had gathered for war and encamped in Gilead, while the Israelites assembled and encamped in Mizpah.

¹⁸And among the people the princes of Gilead said to one another, "The one who begins the war against the Ammonites shall be leader of all the inhabitants of Gilead."

11There was a chieftain, the Gileadite Jephthah, born to Gilead of a harlot.

²Gilead's wife had also borne him sons, and on growing up the sons of the wife had driven Jephthah away, saying to him, "You shall inherit nothing in our family, for you are the son of another woman."

³So Jephthah had fled from his brothers and had taken up residence in the land of Tob. A rabble had joined company with him, and went out with him on raids.

⁴Some time later, the Ammonites warred on Israel.

⁵When this occurred the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah from the land of Tob.

⁶"Come," they said to Jephthah, "be our commander that we may be able to fight the Ammonites."

⁷"Are you not the ones who hated me and drove me from my father's house?" Jephthah replied to the elders of Gilead. "Why do you come to me now, when you are in distress?"

⁸The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "In any case, we have now come back to you; if you go with us to fight against the Ammonites, you shall be the leader of all of us who dwell in Gilead."

⁹Jephthah answered the elders of Gilead, "If you bring me back to fight against the Ammonites and the LORD delivers them up to me, I shall be your leader."

¹⁰The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "The LORD is witness between us that we will do as you say."

¹¹So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him their leader and commander. In Mizpah, Jephthah settled all his affairs before the LORD.

¹²Then he sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites to say, "What have you against me that you come to fight with me in my land?"

¹³He answered the messengers of Jephthah, "Israel took away my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok and the Jordan when they came up from Egypt. Now restore the same peaceably."

¹⁴Again Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites,

¹⁵saying to him, "This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites.

¹⁶For when they came up from Egypt, Israel went through the desert to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh.

¹⁷Israel then sent messengers to the king of Edom saying, 'Let me pass through your land.' But the king of Edom did not give consent. They also sent to the king of Moab, but he too was unwilling. So Israel remained in Kadesh.

¹⁸Then they went through the desert, and by-passing the land of Edom and the land of Moab, went east of the land of Moab and encamped across the Arnon. Thus they did not go through the territory of Moab, for the Arnon is the boundary of Moab.

¹⁹Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, king of Heshbon. Israel said to him, 'Let me pass through your land to my own place.'

²⁰But Sihon refused to let Israel pass through his territory. On the contrary, he gathered all his soldiers, who encamped at Jahaz and fought Israel.

²¹But the LORD, the God of Israel, delivered Sihon and all his men into the power of Israel, who defeated them and occupied all the land of the Amorites dwelling in that region,

²²the whole territory from the Arnon to the Jabbok, from the desert to the Jordan.

²³If now the LORD, the God of Israel, has cleared the Amorites out of the way of his people, are you to dislodge Israel?

²⁴Should you not possess that which your god Chemosh gave you to possess, and should we not possess all that the LORD, our God, has cleared out for us?

²⁵Again, are you any better than Balak, son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever quarrel with Israel, or did he war against them

²⁶when Israel occupied Heshbon and its villages, Aroer and its villages, and all the cities on the banks of the Arnon? Three hundred years have passed; why did you not recover them during that time?

²⁷I have not sinned against you, but you wrong me by warring against me. Let the LORD, who is judge, decide this day between the Israelites and the Ammonites!"

²⁸But the king of the Ammonites paid no heed to the message Jephthah sent him.

²⁹The spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah. He passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and through Mizpah-Gilead as well, and from there he went on to the Ammonites.

³⁰Jephthah made a vow to the LORD. "If you deliver the Ammonites into my power," he said,

³¹"whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites shall belong to the LORD. I shall offer him up as a holocaust."

³²Jephthah then went on to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the LORD delivered them into his power,

³³so that he inflicted a severe defeat on them, from Aroer to the approach of Minnith (twenty cities in all) and as far as Abel-keramin. Thus were the Ammonites brought into subjection by the Israelites.

³⁴When Jephthah returned to his house in Mizpah, it was his daughter who came forth, playing the tambourines and dancing. She was an only child: he had neither son nor daughter besides her.

³⁵When he saw her, he rent his garments and said, "Alas, daughter, you have struck me down and brought calamity upon me. For I have made a vow to the LORD and I cannot retract."

³⁶"Father," she replied, "you have made a vow to the LORD. Do with me as you have vowed, because the LORD has wrought vengeance for you on your enemies the Ammonites."

³⁷Then she said to her father, "Let me have this favor. Spare me for two months, that I may go off down the mountains to mourn my virginity with my companions."

³⁸"Go," he replied, and sent her away for two months. So she departed with her companions and mourned her virginity on the mountains.

³⁹At the end of the two months she returned to her father, who did to her as he had vowed. She had not been intimate with man. It then became a custom in Israel

⁴⁰for Israelite women to go yearly to mourn the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite for four days of the year.

12The men of Ephraim gathered together and crossed over to Zaphon. They said to Jephthah, "Why do you go on to fight with the Ammonites without calling us to go with you? We will burn your house over you."

²Jephthah answered them, "My soldiers and I were engaged in a critical contest with the Ammonites. I summoned you, but you did not rescue me from their power.

³When I saw that you would not effect a rescue, I took my life in my own hand and went on to the Ammonites, and the LORD delivered them into my power. Why, then, do you come up against me this day to fight with me?"

⁴Then Jephthah called together all the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim, whom they defeated; for the Ephraimites had said, "You of Gilead are Ephraimite fugitives in territory belonging to Ephraim and Manasseh."

⁵The Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan toward Ephraim. When any of the fleeing Ephraimites said, "Let me pass," the men of Gilead would say to him, "Are you an Ephraimite?" If he answered, "No!"

⁶they would ask him to say "Shibboleth." If he said "Sibboleth," not being able to give the proper pronunciation, they would seize him and kill him at the fords of the Jordan. Thus forty-two thousand Ephraimites fell at that time.

⁷After having judged Israel for six years, Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in his city in Gilead.

⁸After him Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel.

⁹He had thirty sons. He also had thirty daughters married outside the family, and he brought in as wives for his sons thirty young women from outside the family. After having judged Israel for seven years,

¹⁰Ibzan died and was buried in Bethlehem.

¹¹After him the Zebulunite Elon judged Israel. When he had judged Israel for ten years,

¹²the Zebulunite Elon died and was buried in Elon in the land of Zebulun.

¹³After him the Pirathonite Abdon, son of Hillel, judged Israel.

¹⁴He had forty sons and thirty grandsons who rode on seventy saddle-asses. After having judged Israel for eight years,

¹⁵the Pirathonite Abdon, son of Hillel, died and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim on the mountain of the Amalekites.

13The Israelites again offended the LORD, who therefore delivered them into the power of the Philistines for forty years.

²There was a certain man from Zorah, of the clan of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. His wife was barren and had borne no children.

³An angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, "Though you are barren and have had no children, yet you will conceive and bear a son.

⁴Now, then, be careful to take no wine or strong drink and to eat nothing unclean.

⁵As for the son you will conceive and bear, no razor shall touch his head, for this boy is to be consecrated to God from the womb. It is he who will begin the deliverance of Israel from the power of the Philistines."

⁶The woman went and told her husband, "A man of God came to me; he had the appearance of an angel of God, terrible indeed. I did not ask him where he came from, nor did he tell me his name.

⁷But he said to me, 'You will be with child and will bear a son. So take neither wine nor strong drink, and eat nothing unclean. For the boy shall be consecrated to God from the womb, until the day of his death.'"

⁸Manoah then prayed to the LORD. "O LORD, I beseech you," he said, "may the man of God whom you sent, return to us to teach us what to do for the boy who will be born."

⁹God heard the prayer of Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she was sitting in the field. Since her husband Manoah was not with her,

¹⁰the woman ran in haste and told her husband. "The man who came to me the other day has appeared to me," she said to him;

¹¹so Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he reached the man, he said to him, "Are you the one who spoke to my wife?" "Yes," he answered.

¹²Then Manoah asked, "Now, when that which you say comes true, what are we expected to do for the boy?"

¹³The angel of the LORD answered Manoah, "Your wife is to abstain from all the things of which I spoke to her.

¹⁴She must not eat anything that comes from the vine, nor take wine or strong drink, nor eat anything unclean. Let her observe all that I have commanded her."

¹⁵Then Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "Can we persuade you to stay, while we prepare a kid for you?"

¹⁶But the angel of the LORD answered Manoah, "Although you press me, I will not partake of your food. But if you will, you may offer a holocaust to the LORD."Not knowing that it was the angel of the LORD,

¹⁷Manoah said to him, "What is your name, that we may honor you when your words come true?"

¹⁸The angel of the LORD answered him, "Why do you ask my name, which is mysterious?"

¹⁹Then Manoah took the kid with a cereal offering and offered it on the rock to the LORD, whose works are mysteries. While Manoah and his wife were looking on,

²⁰as the flame rose to the sky from the altar, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell prostrate to the ground;

²¹but the angel of the LORD was seen no more by Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah, realizing that it was the angel of the LORD,

²²said to his wife, "We will certainly die, for we have seen God."

²³But his wife pointed out to him, "If the LORD had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a holocaust and cereal offering from our hands! Nor would he have let us see all this just now, or hear what we have heard."

²⁴The woman bore a son and named him Samson. The boy grew up and the LORD blessed him;

²⁵the spirit of the LORD first stirred him in Mahaneh-dan, which is between Zorah and Eshtaol.

14Samson went down to Timnah and saw there one of the Philistine women.

²On his return he told his father and mother, "There is a Philistine woman I saw in Timnah whom I wish you to get as a wife for me."

³His father and mother said to him, "Can you find no wife among your kinsfolk or among all our people, that you must go and take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?" But Samson answered his father, "Get her for me, for she pleases me."

⁴Now his father and mother did not know that this had been brought about by the LORD, who was providing an opportunity against the Philistines; for at that time they had dominion over Israel.

⁵So Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother. When they had come to the vineyards of Timnah, a young lion came roaring to meet him.

⁶But the spirit of the LORD came upon Samson, and although he had no weapons, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a kid.

⁷However, on the journey to speak for the woman, he did not mention to his father or mother what he had done.

⁸Later, when he returned to marry the woman who pleased him, he stepped aside to look at the remains of the lion and found a swarm of bees and honey in the lion's carcass.

⁹So he scooped the honey out into his palms and ate it as he went along. When he came to his father and mother, he gave them some to eat, without telling them that he had scooped the honey from the lion's carcass.

¹⁰His father also went down to the woman, and Samson gave a banquet there, since it was customary for the young men to do this.

¹¹When they met him, they brought thirty men to be his companions.

¹²Samson said to them, "Let me propose a riddle to you. If within the seven days of the feast you solve it for me successfully, I will give you thirty linen tunics and thirty sets of garments.

¹³But if you cannot answer it for me, you must give me thirty tunics and thirty sets of garments." "Propose your riddle," they responded; "we will listen to it."

¹⁴So he said to them,
"Out of the eater came forth food,
and out of the strong came forth sweetness." After three
days' failure to answer the riddle,

¹⁵they said on the fourth day to Samson's wife, "Coax your husband to answer the riddle for us, or we will burn you and your family. Did you invite us here to reduce us to poverty?"

¹⁶At Samson's side, his wife wept and said, "You must hate me; you do not love me, for you have proposed a riddle to my countrymen, but have not told me the answer." He said to her, "If I have not told it even to my father or my mother, must I tell it to you?"

¹⁷But she wept beside him during the seven days the feast lasted. On the seventh day, since she importuned him, he told her the answer, and she explained the riddle to her countrymen.

¹⁸On the seventh day, before the sun set, the men of the city said to him,
"What is sweeter than honey,
and what is stronger than a lion?"
He replied to them,
"If you had not plowed with my heifer,
you would not have solved my riddle."

¹⁹The spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, where he killed thirty of their men and despoiled them; he gave their garments to those who had answered the riddle. Then he went off to his own family in anger,

²⁰and Samson's wife was married to the one who had been best man at his wedding.

15After some time, in the season of the wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife, bringing a kid. But when he said, "Let me be with my wife in private," her father would not let him enter,

²saying, "I thought it certain you wished to repudiate her; so I gave her to your best man. Her younger sister is more beautiful than she; you may have her instead."

³Samson said to them, "This time the Philistines cannot blame me if I harm them."

⁴So Samson left and caught three hundred foxes. Turning them tail to tail, he tied between each pair of tails one of the torches he had at hand.

⁵He then kindled the torches and set the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines, thus burning both the shocks and the standing grain, and the vineyards and olive orchards as well.

⁶When the Philistines asked who had done this, they were told, "Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because his wife was taken and given to his best man." So the Philistines went up and destroyed her and her family by fire.

⁷Samson said to them, "If this is how you act, I will not stop until I have taken revenge on you."

⁸And with repeated blows, he inflicted a great slaughter on them. Then he went down and remained in a cavern of the cliff of Etam.

⁹The Philistines went up and, from a camp in Judah, deployed against Lehi.

¹⁰When the men of Judah asked, "Why have you come up against us?" they answered, "To take Samson prisoner; to do to him as he has done to us."

¹¹Three thousand men of Judah went down to the cavern in the cliff of Etam and said to Samson, "Do you not know that the Philistines are our rulers? Why, then, have you done this to us?" He answered them, "As they have done to me, so have I done to them."

¹²They said to him, "We have come to take you prisoner, to deliver you over to the Philistines." Samson said to them, "Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves."

¹³"No," they replied,"we will certainly not kill you but will only bind you and deliver you over to them." So they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the cliff.

¹⁴When he reached Lehi, and the Philistines came shouting to meet him, the spirit of the LORD came upon him: the ropes around his arms became as flax that is consumed by fire and his bonds melted away from his hands.

¹⁵Near him was the fresh jawbone of an ass; he reached out, grasped it, and with it killed a thousand men.

¹⁶Then Samson said,
"With the jawbone of an ass
I have piled them in a heap;
With the jawbone of an ass
I have slain a thousand men."

¹⁷As he finished speaking he threw the jawbone from him; and so that place was named Ramath-lehi.

¹⁸Being very thirsty, he cried to the LORD and said, "You have granted this great victory by the hand of your servant. Must I now die of thirst or fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?"

¹⁹Then God split the cavity in Lehi, and water issued from it, which Samson drank till his spirit returned and he revived. Hence that spring in Lehi is called En-hakkore to this day.

²⁰Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

16Once Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a harlot and visited her.

²Informed that Samson had come there, the men of Gaza surrounded him with an ambush at the city gate all night long. And all the night they waited, saying, "Tomorrow morning we will kill him."

³Samson rested there until midnight. Then he rose, seized the doors of the city gate and the two gateposts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He hoisted them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the ridge opposite Hebron.

⁴After that he fell in love with a woman in the Wadi Sorek whose name was Delilah.

⁵The lords of the Philistines came to her and said, "Beguile him and find out the secret of his great strength, and how we may overcome and bind him so as to keep him helpless. We will each give you eleven hundred shekels of silver."

⁶So Delilah said to Samson, "Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you may be bound so as to be kept helpless."

⁷"If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings which have not dried," Samson answered her, "I shall be as weak as any other man."

⁸So the lords of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings which had not dried, and she bound him with them.

⁹She had men lying in wait in the chamber and so she said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" But he snapped the strings as a thread of tow is severed by a whiff of flame; and the secret of his strength remained unknown.

¹⁰Delilah said to Samson, "You have mocked me and told me lies. Now tell me how you may be bound."

¹¹"If they bind me tight with new ropes, with which no work has been done," he answered her, "I shall be as weak as any other man."

¹²So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them. Then she said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" For there were men lying in wait in the chamber. But he snapped them off his arms like thread.

¹³Delilah said to Samson again, "Up to now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me how you may be bound." He said to her, "If you weave my seven locks of hair into the web and fasten them with the pin, I shall be as weak as any other man."

¹⁴So while he slept, Delilah wove his seven locks of hair into the web, and fastened them in with the pin. Then she said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" Awakening from his sleep, he pulled out both the weaver's pin and the web.

¹⁵Then she said to him, "How can you say that you love me when you do not confide in me? Three times already you have mocked me, and not told me the secret of your great strength!"

¹⁶She importuned him continually and vexed him with her complaints till he was deathly weary of them.

¹⁷So he took her completely into his confidence and told her, "No razor has touched my head, for I have been consecrated to God from my mother's womb. If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I shall be as weak as any other man."

¹⁸When Delilah saw that he had taken her completely into his confidence, she summoned the lords of the Philistines, saying, "Come up this time, for he has opened his heart to me." So the lords of the Philistines came and brought up the money with them.

¹⁹She had him sleep on her lap, and called for a man who shaved off his seven locks of hair. Then she began to mistreat him, for his strength had left him.

²⁰When she said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!", and he woke from his sleep, he thought he could make good his escape as he had done time and again, for he did not realize that the LORD had left him.

²¹But the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. Then they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze fetters, and he was put to grinding in the prison.

²²But the hair of his head began to grow as soon as it was shaved off.

²³The lords of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon and to make merry. They said,
"Our god has delivered into our power
Samson our enemy."

²⁴When the people saw him, they praised their god.
For they said,
"Our god has delivered into our power
our enemy, the ravager of our land,
the one who has multiplied our slain."
Then they stationed him between the columns.

²⁵When their spirits were high, they said, "Call Samson that he may amuse us." So they called Samson from the prison, and he played the buffoon before them.

²⁶Samson said to the attendant who was holding his hand, "Put me where I may touch the columns that support the temple and may rest against them."

²⁷The temple was full of men and women: all the lords of the Philistines were there, and from the roof about three thousand men and women looked on as Samson provided amusement.

²⁸Samson cried out to the LORD and said, "O Lord GOD, remember me! Strengthen me, O God, this last time that for my two eyes I may avenge myself once and for all on the Philistines."

²⁹Samson grasped the two middle columns on which the temple rested and braced himself against them, one at his right hand, the other at his left.

³⁰And Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines!" He pushed hard, and the temple fell upon the lords and all the people who were in it. Those he killed at his death were more than those he had killed during his lifetime.

³¹All his family and kinsmen went down and bore him up for burial in the grave of his father Manoah between Zorah and Eshtaol. He had judged Israel for twenty years.

17There was a man in the mountain region of Ephraim whose name was Micah.

²He said to his mother, "The eleven hundred shekels of silver over which you pronounced a curse in my hearing when they were taken from you, are in my possession. It was I who took them; so now I will restore them to you."

³When he restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she took two hundred of them and gave them to the silversmith, who made of them a carved idol overlaid with silver.

⁴Then his mother said, "May the LORD bless my son! I have consecrated the silver to the LORD as my gift in favor of my son, by making a carved idol overlaid with silver." It remained in the house of Micah.

⁵Thus the layman Micah had a sanctuary. He also made an ephod and household idols, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.

⁶In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what he thought best.

⁷There was a young Levite who had resided within the tribe of Judah at Bethlehem of Judah.

⁸From that city he set out to find another place of residence. On his journey he came to the house of Micah in the mountain region of Ephraim.

⁹Micah said to him, "Where do you come from?" He answered him, "I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and am on my way to find some other place of residence."

¹⁰"Stay with me," Micah said to him. "Be father and priest to me, and I will give you ten silver shekels a year, a set of garments, and your food."

¹¹So the young Levite decided to stay with the man, to whom he became as one of his own sons.

¹²Micah consecrated the young Levite, who became his priest, remaining in his house.

¹³Therefore Micah said, "Now I know that the LORD will prosper me, since the Levite has become my priest."

18At that time there was no king in Israel. Moreover the tribe of Danites were in search of a district to dwell in, for up to that time they had received no heritage among the tribes of Israel.

²So the Danites sent from their clan a detail of five valiant men of Zorah and Eshtaol, to reconnoiter the land and scout it. With their instructions to go and scout the land, they traveled as far as the house of Micah in the mountain region of Ephraim, where they passed the night.

³Near the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite and turned in that direction. "Who brought you here and what are you doing here?" they asked him. "What is your interest here?"

⁴"This is how Micah treats me," he replied to them. "He pays me a salary and I am his priest."

⁵They said to him, "Consult God, that we may know whether the undertaking we are engaged in will succeed."

⁶The priest said to them, "Go and prosper: the LORD is favorable to the undertaking you are engaged in."

⁷So the five men went on and came to Laish. They saw that the people dwelling there lived securely after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and trusting, with no lack of any natural resources. They were distant from the Sidonians and had no contact with other people.

⁸When the five returned to their kinsmen in Zorah and Eshtaol and were asked for a report,

⁹they replied, "Come, let us attack them, for we have seen the land and it is very good. Are you going to hesitate? Do not be slothful about beginning your expedition to possess the land.

¹⁰Those against whom you go are a trusting people, and the land is ample. God has indeed given it into your power: a place where no natural resource is lacking."

¹¹So six hundred men of the clan of the Danites, fully armed with weapons of war, set out from where they were in Zorah and Eshtaol,

¹²and camped in Judah, up near Kiriath-jearim; hence to this day the place, which lies west of Kiriath-jearim, is called Mahaneh-dan.

¹³From there they went on to the mountain region of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah.

¹⁴The five men who had gone to reconnoiter the land of Laish said to their kinsmen, "Do you know that in these houses there are an ephod, household idols, and a carved idol overlaid with silver? Now decide what you must do!"

¹⁵So turning in that direction, they went to the house of the young Levite at the home of Micah and greeted him.

¹⁶The six hundred men girt with weapons of war, who were Danites, stood by the entrance of the gate, and the priest stood there also.

¹⁷Meanwhile the five men who had gone to reconnoiter the land went up and entered the house of Micah.

¹⁸When they had gone in and taken the ephod, the household idols, and the carved idol overlaid with silver, the priest said to them, "What are you doing?"

¹⁹They said to him, "Be still: put your hand over your mouth. Come with us and be our father and priest. Is it better for you to be priest for the family of one man or to be priest for a tribe and a clan in Israel?"

²⁰The priest, agreeing, took the ephod, household idols, and carved idol and went off in the midst of the band.

²¹As they turned to depart, they placed their little ones, their livestock, and their goods at the head of the column.

²²The Danites had already gone some distance, when those in the houses near that of Micah took up arms and overtook them.

²³They called to the Danites, who turned about and said to Micah, "What do you want, that you have taken up arms?"

²⁴"You have taken my god, which I made, and have gone off with my priest as well," he answered. "What is left for me? How, then, can you ask me what I want?"

²⁵The Danites said to him, "Let us hear no further sound from you, lest fierce men fall upon you and you and your family lose your lives."

²⁶The Danites then went on their way, and Micah, seeing that they were stronger than he, returned home.

²⁷Having taken what Micah had made, and the priest he had had, they attacked Laish, a quiet and trusting people; they put them to the sword and destroyed their city by fire.

²⁸No one came to their aid, since the city was far from Sidon and they had no contact with other people. The Danites then rebuilt the city, which was in the valley that belongs to Beth-rehob, and lived there.

²⁹They named it Dan after their ancestor Dan, son of Israel. However, the name of the city was formerly Laish.

³⁰The Danites set up the carved idol for themselves, and Jonathan, son of Gershom, son of Moses, and his descendants were priests for the tribe of the Danites until the time of the captivity of the land.

³¹They maintained the carved idol Micah had made as long as the house of God was in Shiloh.

19At that time, when there was no king in Israel, there was a Levite residing in remote parts of the mountain region of Ephraim who had taken for himself a concubine from Bethlehem of Judah.

²His concubine was unfaithful to him and left him for her father's house in Bethlehem of Judah, where she stayed for some four months.

³Her husband then set out with his servant and a pair of asses, and went after her to forgive her and take her back. She brought him into her father's house, and on seeing him, the girl's father joyfully made him welcome.

⁴He was detained by the girl's father, and so he spent three days with this father-in-law of his, eating and drinking and passing the night there.

⁵On the fourth day they rose early in the morning and he prepared to go. But the girl's father said to his son-in-law, "Fortify yourself with a little food; you can go later on."

⁶So they stayed and the two men ate and drank together. Then the girl's father said to the husband, "Why not decide to spend the night here and enjoy yourself?"

⁷The man still made a move to go, but when his father-in-law pressed him he went back and spent the night there.

⁸On the fifth morning he rose early to depart, but the girl's father said, "Fortify yourself and tarry until the afternoon." When he and his father-in-law had eaten,

⁹and the husband was ready to go with his concubine and servant, the girl's father said to him, "It is already growing dusk. Stay for the night. See, the day is coming to an end. Spend the night here and enjoy yourself. Early tomorrow you can start your journey home."

¹⁰The man, however, refused to stay another night; he and his concubine set out with a pair of saddled asses, and traveled till they came opposite Jebus, which is Jerusalem.

¹¹Since they were near Jebus with the day far gone, the servant said to his master, "Come, let us turn off to this city of the Jebusites and spend the night in it."

¹²But his master said to him, "We will not turn off to a city of foreigners, who are not Israelites, but will go on to Gibeah.

¹³Come," he said to his servant, "let us make for some other place, either Gibeah or Ramah, to spend the night."

¹⁴So they continued on their way till the sun set on them when they were abreast of Gibeah of Benjamin.

¹⁵There they turned off to enter Gibeah for the night. The man waited in the public square of the city he had entered, but no one offered them the shelter of his home for the night.

¹⁶In the evening, however, an old man came from his work in the field; he was from the mountain region of Ephraim, though he lived among the Benjaminite townspeople of Gibeah.

¹⁷When he noticed the traveler in the public square of the city, the old man asked where he was going, and whence he had come.

¹⁸He said to him, "We are traveling from Bethlehem of Judah far up into the mountain region of Ephraim, where I belong. I have been to Bethlehem of Judah and am now going back home; but no one has offered us the shelter of his house.

¹⁹We have straw and fodder for our asses, and bread and wine for the woman and myself and for our servant; there is nothing else we need."

²⁰"You are welcome," the old man said to him, "but let me provide for all your needs, and do not spend the night in the public square."

²¹So he led them to his house and provided fodder for the asses. Then they washed their feet, and ate and drank.

²²While they were enjoying themselves, the men of the city, who were corrupt, surrounded the house and beat on the door. They said to the old man whose house it was, "Bring out your guest, that we may abuse him."

²³The owner of the house went out to them and said, "No, my brothers; do not be so wicked. Since this man is my guest, do not commit this crime.

²⁴Rather let me bring out my maiden daughter or his concubine. Ravish them, or do whatever you want with them; but against the man you must not commit this wanton crime."

²⁵When the men would not listen to his host, the husband seized his concubine and thrust her outside to them. They had relations with her and abused her all night until the following dawn, when they let her go.

²⁶Then at daybreak the woman came and collapsed at the entrance of the house in which her husband was a guest, where she lay until the morning.

²⁷When her husband rose that day and opened the door of the house to start out again on his journey, there lay the woman, his concubine, at the entrance of the house with her hands on the threshold.

²⁸He said to her, "Come, let us go"; but there was no answer. So the man placed her on an ass and started out again for home.

²⁹On reaching home, he took a knife to the body of his concubine, cut her into twelve pieces, and sent them throughout the territory of Israel.

³⁰Everyone who saw this said, "Nothing like this has been done or seen from the day the Israelites came up from the land of Egypt to this day. Take note of it, and state what you propose to do."

20So all the Israelites came out as one man: from Dan to Beer-sheba, and from the land of Gilead, the community was gathered to the LORD at Mizpah.

²The leaders of all the people and all the tribesmen of Israel, four hundred thousand foot soldiers who were swordsmen, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God.

³Meanwhile, the Benjaminites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah. The Israelites asked to be told how the crime had taken place,

⁴and the Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, testified: "My concubine and I went into Gibeah of Benjamin for the night.

⁵But the citizens of Gibeah rose up against me by night and surrounded the house in which I was. Me they attempted to kill, and my concubine they abused so that she died.

⁶So I took my concubine and cut her up and sent her through every part of the territory of Israel, because of the monstrous crime they had committed in Israel.

⁷Now that you are all here, O Israelites, state what you propose to do."

⁸All the people rose as one man to say, "None of us is to leave for his tent or return to his home.

⁹Now as for Gibeah, this is what we will do: We will proceed against it by lot,

¹⁰taking from all the tribes of Israel ten men for every hundred, a hundred for every thousand, a thousand for every ten thousand, and procuring supplies for the soldiers who will go to deal fully and suitably with Gibeah of Benjamin for the crime it committed in Israel."

¹¹When, therefore, all the men of Israel without exception were leagued together against the city,

¹²the tribes of Israel sent men throughout the tribe of Benjamin to say, "What is this evil which has occurred among you?

¹³Now give up these corrupt men of Gibeah, that we may put them to death and thus purge the evil from Israel." But the Benjaminites refused to accede to the demand of their brothers, the Israelites.

¹⁴Instead, the Benjaminites assembled from their other cities to Gibeah, to do battle with the Israelites.

¹⁵The number of the Benjaminite swordsmen from the other cities on that occasion was twenty-six thousand, in addition to the inhabitants of Gibeah.

¹⁶Included in this total were seven hundred picked men who were left-handed, every one of them able to sling a stone at a hair without missing.

¹⁷Meanwhile the other Israelites who, without Benjamin, mustered four hundred thousand swordsmen ready for battle,

¹⁸moved on to Bethel and consulted God. When the Israelites asked who should go first in the attack on the Benjaminites, the LORD said, "Judah shall go first."

¹⁹The next day the Israelites advanced on Gibeah with their forces.

²⁰On the day the Israelites drew up in battle array at Gibeah for the combat with Benjamin,

²¹the Benjaminites came out of the city and felled twenty-two thousand men of Israel.

²²But though the Israelite soldiers took courage and again drew up for combat in the same place as on the previous day,

²³Then the Israelites went up and wept before the LORD until evening. "Shall I again engage my brother Benjamin in battle?" they asked the LORD; and the LORD answered that they should.

²⁴when they met the Benjaminites for the second time,

²⁵once again the Benjaminites who came out of Gibeah against them felled eighteen thousand Israelites, all of them swordsmen.

²⁶So the entire Israelite army went up to Bethel, where they wept and remained fasting before the LORD until evening of that day, besides offering holocausts and peace offerings before the LORD.

²⁷When the Israelites consulted the LORD (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,

²⁸and Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, was ministering to him in those days), and asked, "Shall I go out again to battle with Benjamin, my brother, or shall I desist?" the LORD said, "Attack! for tomorrow I will deliver him into your power."

²⁹So Israel set men in ambush around Gibeah.

³⁰The Israelites went up against the Benjaminites for the third time and formed their line of battle at Gibeah as on other occasions.

³¹The Benjaminites went out to meet them, and in the beginning they killed off about thirty of the Israelite soldiers in the open field, just as on the other occasions.

³²Therefore the Benjaminites thought, "We are defeating them as before"; not realizing that disaster was about to overtake them. The Israelites, however, had planned the flight so as to draw them away from the city onto the highways. They were drawn away from the city onto the highways, of which the one led to Bethel, the other to Gibeon.

³³And then all the men of Israel rose from their places. They re-formed their ranks at Baal-tamar, and the Israelites in ambush rushed from their place west of Gibeah,

³⁴ten thousand picked men from all Israel, and advanced against the city itself. In a fierce battle,

³⁵the LORD defeated Benjamin before Israel; and on that day the Israelites killed twenty-five thousand one hundred men of Benjamin, all of them swordsmen.

³⁶To the Benjaminites it had looked as though the enemy were defeated, for the men of Israel gave ground to Benjamin, trusting in the ambush they had set at Gibeah.

³⁷But then the men in ambush made a sudden dash into Gibeah, overran it, and put the whole city to the sword.

³⁸Now, the other Israelites had agreed with the men in ambush on a smoke signal they were to send up from the city.

³⁹And though the men of Benjamin had begun by killing off some thirty of the men of Israel, under the impression that they were defeating them as surely as in the earlier fighting, the Israelites wheeled about to resist

⁴⁰as the smoke of the signal column began to rise up from the city. It was when Benjamin looked back and saw the whole city in flames against the sky

⁴¹that the men of Israel wheeled about. Therefore the men of Benjamin were thrown into confusion, for they realized the disaster that had overtaken them.

⁴²They retreated before the men of Israel in the direction of the desert, with the fight being pressed against them. In their very midst, meanwhile, those who had been in the city were spreading destruction.

⁴³The men of Benjamin had been surrounded, and were now pursued to a point east of Gibeah,

⁴⁴while eighteen thousand of them fell, warriors to a man.

⁴⁵The rest turned and fled through the desert to the rock Rimmon. But on the highways the Israelites picked off five thousand men among them, and chasing them up to Gidom, killed another two thousand of them there.

⁴⁶Those of Benjamin who fell on that day were in all twenty-five thousand swordsmen, warriors to a man.

⁴⁷But six hundred others who turned and fled through the desert reached the rock Rimmon, where they remained for four months.

⁴⁸The men of Israel withdrew through the territory of the Benjaminites, putting to the sword the inhabitants of the cities, the livestock, and all they chanced upon. Moreover they destroyed by fire all the cities they came upon.

21Now the men of Israel had sworn at Mizpah that none of them would give his daughter in marriage to anyone from Benjamin.

²So the people went to Bethel and remained there before God until evening, raising their voices in bitter lament.

³They said, "LORD, God of Israel, why has it come to pass in Israel that today one tribe of Israel should be lacking?"

⁴Early the next day the people built an altar there and offered holocausts and peace offerings.

⁵Then the Israelites asked, "Are there any among all the tribes of Israel who did not come up to the LORD for the assembly?" For they had taken a solemn oath that anyone who did not go up to the LORD at Mizpah should be put to death without fail.

⁶The Israelites were disconsolate over their brother Benjamin and said, "Today one of the tribes of Israel has been cut off.

⁷What can we do about wives for the survivors, since we have sworn by the LORD not to give them any of our daughters in marriage?"

⁸And when they asked whether anyone among the tribes of Israel had not come up to the LORD in Mizpah, they found that none of the men of Jabesh-gilead had come to the encampment for the assembly.

⁹A roll call of the army established that none of the inhabitants of that city were present.

¹⁰The community, therefore, sent twelve thousand warriors with orders to go to Jabesh-gilead and put those who lived there to the sword, including the women and children.

¹¹They were told to include under the ban all males and every woman who was not still a virgin.

¹²Finding among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young virgins, who had had no relations with men, they brought them to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.

¹³Then the whole community sent a message to the Benjaminites at the rock Rimmon, offering them peace.

¹⁴When Benjamin returned at that time, they gave them as wives the women of Jabesh-gilead whom they had spared; but these proved to be not enough for them.

¹⁵The people were still disconsolate over Benjamin because the LORD had made a breach among the tribes of Israel.

¹⁶And the elders of the community said, "What shall we do for wives for the survivors? For every woman in Benjamin has been put to death."

¹⁷They said, "Those of Benjamin who survive must have heirs, else one of the Israelite tribes will be wiped out.

¹⁸Yet we cannot give them any of our daughters in marriage, because the Israelites have sworn, 'Cursed be he who gives a woman to Benjamin!'"

¹⁹Then they thought of the yearly feast of the LORD at Shiloh, north of Bethel, east of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.

²⁰And they instructed the Benjaminites, "Go and lie in wait in the vineyards.

²¹When you see the girls of Shiloh come out to do their dancing, leave the vineyards and each of you seize one of the girls of Shiloh for a wife, and go to the land of Benjamin.

²²When their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, we shall say to them, 'Release them to us as a kindness, since we did not take a woman apiece in the war. Had you yourselves given them these wives, you would now be guilty.'"

²³The Benjaminites did this; they carried off a wife for each of them from their raid on the dancers, and went back to their own territory, where they rebuilt and occupied the cities.

²⁴Also at that time the Israelites dispersed; each of them left for his own heritage in his own clan and tribe.

²⁵In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what he thought best.

1There was a certain man from Rama-thaim, Elkanah by name, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim. He was the son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.

²He had two wives, one named Hannah, the other Peninnah; Peninnah had children, but Hannah was childless.

³This man regularly went on pilgrimage from his city to worship the LORD of hosts and to sacrifice to him at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were ministering as priests of the LORD.

⁴When the day came for Elkanah to offer sacrifice, he used to give a portion each to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters,

⁵but a double portion to Hannah because he loved her, though the LORD had made her barren.

⁶Her rival, to upset her, turned it into a constant reproach to her that the LORD had left her barren.

⁷This went on year after year; each time they made their pilgrimage to the sanctuary of the LORD, Peninnah would approach her, and Hannah would weep and refuse to eat.

⁸Her husband Elkanah used to ask her: "Hannah, why do you weep, and why do you refuse to eat? Why do you grieve? Am I not more to you than ten sons?"

⁹Hannah rose after one such meal at Shiloh, and presented herself before the LORD; at the time, Eli the priest was sitting on a chair near the doorpost of the LORD'S temple.

¹⁰In her bitterness she prayed to the LORD, weeping copiously,

¹¹and she made a vow, promising: "O LORD of hosts, if you look with pity on the misery of your handmaid, if you remember me and do not forget me, if you give your handmaid a male child, I will give him to the LORD for as long as he lives; neither wine nor liquor shall he drink, and no razor shall ever touch his head."

¹²As she remained long at prayer before the LORD, Eli watched her mouth,

¹³for Hannah was praying silently; though her lips were moving, her voice could not be heard. Eli, thinking her drunk,

¹⁴said to her, "How long will you make a drunken show of yourself? Sober up from your wine!"

¹⁵"It isn't that, my lord," Hannah answered. "I am an unhappy woman. I have had neither wine nor liquor; I was only pouring out my troubles to the LORD.

¹⁶Do not think your handmaid a ne'er-do-well; my prayer has been prompted by my deep sorrow and misery."

¹⁷Eli said, "Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him."

¹⁸She replied, "Think kindly of your maidservant," and left. She went to her quarters, ate and drank with her husband, and no longer appeared downcast.

¹⁹Early the next morning they worshiped before the LORD, and then returned to their home in Ramah. When Elkanah had relations with his wife Hannah, the LORD remembered her.

²⁰She conceived, and at the end of her term bore a son whom she called Samuel, since she had asked the LORD for him.

²¹The next time her husband Elkanah was going up with the rest of his household to offer the customary sacrifice to the LORD and to fulfill his vows,

²²Hannah did not go, explaining to her husband, "Once the child is weaned, I will take him to appear before the LORD and to remain there forever; I will offer him as a perpetual nazirite."

²³Her husband Elkanah answered her: "Do what you think best; wait until you have weaned him. Only, may the LORD bring your resolve to fulfillment!" And so she remained at home and nursed her son until she had weaned him.

²⁴Once he was weaned, she brought him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, and presented him at the temple of the LORD in Shiloh.

²⁵After the boy's father had sacrificed the young bull, Hannah, his mother, approached Eli

²⁶and said: "Pardon, my lord! As you live my lord, I am the woman who stood near you here, praying to the LORD.

²⁷I prayed for this child, and the LORD granted my request.

²⁸Now I, in turn, give him to the LORD; as long as he lives, he shall be dedicated to the LORD." She left him there;

2and as she worshiped the LORD, she said:
"My heart exults in the LORD,
my horn is exalted in my God.
I have swallowed up my enemies;
I rejoice in my victory.

²There is no Holy One like the LORD;
there in no Rock like our God.

³"Speak boastfully no longer,
nor let arrogance issue from your mouths.
For an all-knowing God is the LORD,
a God who judges deeds.

⁴The bows of the mighty are broken,
while the tottering gird on strength.

⁵he well-fed hire themselves out for bread,
while the hungry batten on spoil.
The barren wife bears seven sons, while the mother of many languishes.

⁶"The LORD puts to death and gives life;
he casts down to the nether world; he raises up again.

⁷The LORD makes poor and makes rich,
he humbles, he also exalts.

⁸He raises the needy from the dust;
from the ash heap he lifts up the poor,
To seat them with nobles
and make a glorious throne their heritage.
He gives to the vower his vow,
and blesses the sleep of the just.
"For the pillars of the earth are the LORD'S,
and he has set the world upon them.

⁹He will guard the footsteps of his faithful ones,
but the wicked shall perish in the darkness.
For not by strength does man prevail;

¹⁰the LORD'S foes shall be shattered.
The Most High in heaven thunders;
The LORD judges the ends of the earth,
Now may he give strength to his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed!"

¹¹When Elkanah returned home to Ramah, the child remained in the service of the LORD under the priest Eli.

¹²Now the sons of Eli were wicked; they had respect neither for the LORD

¹³nor for the priests' duties toward the people. When someone offered a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come with a three-pronged fork, while the meat was still boiling,

¹⁴and would thrust it into the basin, kettle, caldron, or pot. Whatever the fork brought up, the priest would keep. That is how all the Israelites were treated who came to the sanctuary at Shiloh.

¹⁵In fact, even before the fat was burned, the priest's servant would come and say to the man offering the sacrifice, "Give me some meat to roast for the priest. He will not accept boiled meat from you, only raw meat."

¹⁶And if the man protested to him, "Let the fat be burned first as is the custom, then take whatever you wish," he would reply, "No, give it to me now, or else I will take it by force."

¹⁷Thus the young men sinned grievously in the presence of the LORD; they treated the offerings to the LORD with disdain.

¹⁸Meanwhile the boy Samuel, girt with a linen apron, was serving in the presence of the LORD.

¹⁹His mother used to make a little garment for him, which she would bring him each time she went up with her husband to offer the customary sacrifice.

²⁰And Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, as they were leaving for home. He would say, "May the LORD repay you with children from this woman for the gift she has made to the LORD!"

²¹The LORD favored Hannah so that she conceived and gave birth to three more sons and two daughters, while young Samuel grew up in the service of the LORD.

²²When Eli was very old, he heard repeatedly how his sons were treating all Israel (and that they were having relations with the women serving at the entry of the meeting tent).

²³So he said to them: "Why are you doing such things?

²⁴No, my sons, you must not do these things! It is not a good report that I hear the people of the LORD spreading about you.

²⁵If a man sins against another man, one can intercede for him with the LORD; but if a man sins against the LORD, who can intercede for him?" But they disregarded their father's warning, since the LORD had decided on their death.

²⁶Meanwhile, young Samuel was growing in stature and in worth in the estimation of the LORD and of men.

²⁷A man of God came to Eli and said to him: "This is what the LORD says: 'I went so far as to reveal myself to your father's family when they were in Egypt as slaves to the house of Pharaoh.

²⁸I chose them out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priests, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, and to wear the ephod before me; and I assigned all the oblations of the Israelites to your father's family.

²⁹Why do you keep a greedy eye on my sacrifices and on the offerings which I have prescribed? And why do you honor your sons in preference to me, fattening yourselves with the choicest part of every offering of my people Israel?'

³⁰This, therefore, is the oracle of the LORD, the God of Israel: 'I said in the past that your family and your father's family should minister in my presence forever. But now,' the LORD declares, 'away with this! for I will honor those who honor me, but those who spurn me shall be accursed.

³¹Yes, the time is coming when I will break your strength and the strength of your father's family, so that no man in your family shall reach old age.

³²You shall witness as a disappointed rival all the benefits enjoyed by Israel, but there shall never be an old man in your family.

³³I will permit some of your family to remain at my altar, to wear out their eyes in consuming greed; but the rest of the men of your family shall die by the sword.

³⁴You shall have a sign in what will happen to your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: both shall die on the same day.

³⁵I will choose a faithful priest who shall do what I have in heart and mind. I will establish a lasting house for him which shall function in the presence of my anointed forever.

³⁶Then whoever is left of your family will come to grovel before him for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread, and will say: Appoint me, I beg you, to a priestly function, that I may have a morsel of bread to eat.'"

3During the time young Samuel was minister to the LORD under Eli, a revelation of the LORD was uncommon and vision infrequent.

²One day Eli was asleep in his usual place. His eyes had lately grown so weak that he could not see.

³The lamp of God was not yet extinguished, and Samuel was sleeping in the temple of the LORD where the ark of God was.

⁴The LORD called to Samuel, who answered, "Here I am."

⁵He ran to Eli and said, "Here I am. You called me." "I did not call you," Eli said. "Go back to sleep." So he went back to sleep.

⁶Again the LORD called Samuel, who rose and went to Eli. "Here I am," he said. "You called me." But he answered, "I did not call you, my son. Go back to sleep."

⁷At that time Samuel was not familiar with the LORD, because the LORD had not revealed anything to him as yet.

⁸The LORD called Samuel again, for the third time. Getting up and going to Eli, he said, "Here I am. You called me." Then Eli understood that the LORD was calling the youth.

⁹So he said to Samuel, "Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply, 'Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.'" When Samuel went to sleep in his place,

¹⁰the LORD came and revealed his presence, calling out as before, "Samuel, Samuel!" Samuel answered, "Speak, for your servant is listening."

¹¹The LORD said to Samuel: "I am about to do something in Israel that will cause the ears of everyone who hears it to ring.

¹²On that day I will carry out in full against Eli everything I threatened against his family.

¹³I announce to him that I am condemning his family once and for all, because of this crime: though he knew his sons were blaspheming God, he did not reprove them.

¹⁴Therefore, I swear to the family of Eli that no sacrifice or offering will ever expiate its crime."

¹⁵Samuel then slept until morning, when he got up early and opened the doors of the temple of the LORD. He feared to tell Eli the vision,

¹⁶but Eli called to him, "Samuel, my son!" He replied, "Here I am."

¹⁷Then Eli asked, "What did he say to you? Hide nothing from me! May God do thus and so to you if you hide a single thing he told you."

¹⁸So Samuel told him everything, and held nothing back. Eli answered, "He is the LORD. He will do what he judges best."

¹⁹Samuel grew up, and the LORD was with him, not permitting any word of his to be without effect.

²⁰Thus all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba came to know that Samuel was an accredited prophet of the LORD.

²¹The LORD continued to appear at Shiloh; he manifested himself to Samuel at Shiloh through his word,

4and Samuel spoke to all Israel.
At that time, the Philistines gathered for an attack on Israel. Israel went out to engage them in battle and camped at Ebenezer, while the Philistines camped at Aphek.

²The Philistines then drew up in battle formation against Israel. After a fierce struggle Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who slew about four thousand men on the battlefield.

³When the troops retired to the camp, the elders of Israel said, "Why has the LORD permitted us to be defeated today by the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the LORD from Shiloh that it may go into battle among us and save us from the grasp of our enemies."

⁴So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the ark of the LORD of hosts, who is enthroned upon the cherubim. The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were with the ark of God.

⁵When the ark of the LORD arrived in the camp, all Israel shouted so loudly that the earth resounded.

⁶The Philistines, hearing the noise of shouting, asked, "What can this loud shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean?" On learning that the ark of the LORD had come into the camp,

⁷the Philistines were frightened. They said, "Gods have come to their camp." They said also, "Woe to us! This has never happened before.

⁸Woe to us! Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods? These are the gods that struck the Egyptians with various plagues and with pestilence.

⁹Take courage and be manly, Philistines; otherwise you will become slaves to the Hebrews, as they were your slaves. So fight manfully!"

¹⁰The Philistines fought and Israel was defeated; every man fled to his own tent. It was a disastrous defeat, in which Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers.

¹¹The ark of God was captured, and Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were among the dead.

¹²A Benjaminite fled from the battlefield and reached Shiloh that same day, with his clothes torn and his head covered with dirt.

¹³When he arrived, Eli was sitting in his chair beside the gate, watching the road, for he was troubled at heart about the ark of God. The man, however, went into the city to divulge his news, which put the whole city in an uproar.

¹⁴Hearing the outcry of the men standing near him, Eli inquired, "What does this commotion mean?"

¹⁵(Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyes would not focus, so that he could not see.)

¹⁶The man quickly came up to Eli and said, "It is I who have come from the battlefield; I fled from there today." He asked, "What happened, my son?"

¹⁷And the messenger answered: "Israel fled from the Philistines; in fact, the troops suffered heavy losses. Your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are among the dead, and the ark of God has been captured."

¹⁸At this mention of the ark of God, Eli fell backward from his chair into the gateway; since he was an old man and heavy, he died of a broken neck. He had judged Israel for forty years.

¹⁹His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was with child and at the point of giving birth. When she heard the news concerning the capture of the ark and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband, she was seized with the pangs of labor, and gave birth.

²⁰She was about to die when the women standing around her said to her, "Never fear! You have given birth to a son." Yet she neither answered nor paid any attention.

²¹(She named the child Ichabod, saying, "Gone is the glory from Israel," with reference to the capture of the ark of God and to her father-in-law and her husband.)

²²She said, "Gone is the glory from Israel," because the ark of God had been captured.

5The Philistines, having captured the ark of God, transferred it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.

²They then took the ark of God and brought it into the temple of Dagon, placing it beside Dagon.

³When the people of Ashdod rose early the next morning, Dagon was lying prone on the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they picked Dagon up and replaced him.

⁴But the next morning early, when they arose, Dagon lay prone on the ground before the ark of the LORD, his head and hands broken off and lying on the threshold, his trunk alone intact.

⁵For this reason, neither the priests of Dagon nor any others who enter the temple of Dagon tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this very day; they always step over it.

⁶Now the LORD dealt severely with the people of Ashdod. He ravaged and afflicted the city and its vicinity with hemorrhoids; he brought upon the city a great and deadly plague of mice that swarmed in their ships and overran their fields.

⁷On seeing how matters stood, the men of Ashdod decided, "The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for he is handling us and our god Dagon severely."

⁸So they summoned all the Philistine lords and inquired of them, "What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?" The men of Gath replied, "Let them move the ark of the God of Israel on to us."

⁹So they moved the ark of the God of Israel to Gath! But after it had been brought there, the LORD threw the city into utter turmoil: he afflicted its inhabitants, young and old, and hemorrhoids broke out on them.

¹⁰The ark of God was next sent to Ekron; but as it entered that city, the people there cried out, "Why have they brought the ark of the God of Israel here to kill us and our kindred?"

¹¹Then they, too, sent a summons to all the Philistine lords and pleaded: "Send away the ark of the God of Israel. Let it return to its own place, that it may not kill us and our kindred." A deadly panic had seized the whole city, since the hand of God had been very heavy upon it.

¹²Those who escaped death were afflicted with hemorrhoids, and the outcry from the city went up to the heavens.

6The ark of the LORD had been in the land of the Philistines seven months

²when they summoned priests and fortune-tellers to ask, "What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us what we should send back with it."

³They replied: "If you intend to send away the ark of the God of Israel, you must not send it alone, but must, by all means, make amends to him through a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and will learn why he continues to afflict you."

⁴When asked further, "What guilt offering should be our amends to him?", they replied: "Five golden hemorrhoids and five golden mice to correspond to the number of Philistine lords, since the same plague has struck all of you and your lords.

⁵Therefore, make images of the hemorrhoids and of the mice that are infesting your land and give them as a tribute to the God of Israel. Perhaps then he will cease to afflict you, your gods, and your land.

⁶Why should you become stubborn, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh were stubborn? Was it not after he had dealt ruthlessly with them that the Israelites were released and departed?

⁷So now set to work and make a new cart. Then take two milch cows that have not borne the yoke; hitch them to the cart, but drive their calves indoors away from them.

⁸You shall next take the ark of the LORD and place it on the cart, putting in a box beside it the golden articles that you are offering, as amends for your guilt. Start it on its way, and let it go.

⁹Then watch! If it goes to Beth-shemesh along the route to his own territory, he has brought this great calamity upon us; if not, we will know it was not he who struck us, but that an accident happened to us."

¹⁰They acted upon this advice. Taking two milch cows, they hitched them to the cart but shut up their calves indoors.

¹¹Then they placed the ark of the LORD on the cart, along with the box containing the golden mice and the images of the hemorrhoids.

¹²The cows went straight for the route to Beth-shemesh and continued along this road, mooing as they went, without turning right or left. The Philistine lords followed them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh.

¹³The people of Beth-shemesh were harvesting the wheat in the valley. When they looked up and spied the ark, they greeted it with rejoicing.

¹⁴The cart came to the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite and stopped there. At a large stone in the field, the wood of the cart was split up and the cows were offered as a holocaust to the LORD.

¹⁵The Levites, meanwhile, had taken down the ark of God and the box beside it, in which the golden articles were, and had placed them on the great stone. The men of Beth-shemesh also offered other holocausts and sacrifices to the LORD that day.

¹⁶After witnessing this, the five Philistine lords returned to Ekron the same day.

¹⁷The golden hemorrhoids the Philistines sent back as a guilt offering to the LORD were as follows: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, and one for Ekron.

¹⁸The golden mice, however, corresponded to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, including fortified cities and open villages. The large stone on which the ark of the LORD was placed is still in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite at the present time.

¹⁹The descendants of Jeconiah did not join in the celebration with the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh when they greeted the ark of the LORD, and seventy of them were struck down. The people went into mourning at this great calamity with which the LORD had afflicted them.

²⁰The men of Beth-shemesh asked, "Who can stand in the presence of this Holy One? To whom shall he go from us?"

²¹They then sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying, "The Philistines have returned the ark of the LORD; come down and get it."

7So the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim came for the ark of the LORD and brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill, appointing his son Eleazar as guardian of the ark of the LORD.

²From the day the ark came to rest in Kiriath-jearim a long time-twenty years-elapsed, and the whole Israelite population turned to the LORD.

³Samuel said to them: "If you wish with your whole heart to return to the LORD, put away your foreign gods and your Ashtaroth, devote yourselves to the LORD, and worship him alone. Then he will deliver you from the power of the Philistines."

⁴So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtaroth, and worshiped the LORD alone.

⁵Samuel then gave orders, "Gather all Israel to Mizpah, that I may pray to the LORD for you."

⁶When they were gathered at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out on the ground before the LORD, and they fasted that day, confessing, "We have sinned against the LORD." It was at Mizpah that Samuel began to judge the Israelites.

⁷When the Philistines heard that the Israelites had gathered at Mizpah, their lords went up against Israel. Hearing this, the Israelites became afraid of the Philistines

⁸and said to Samuel, "Implore the LORD our God unceasingly for us, to save us from the clutches of the Philistines."

⁹Samuel therefore took an unweaned lamb and offered it entire as a holocaust to the LORD. He implored the LORD for Israel, and the LORD heard him.

¹⁰While Samuel was offering the holocaust, the Philistines advanced to join battle with Israel. That day, however, the LORD thundered loudly against the Philistines, and threw them into such confusion that they were defeated by Israel.

¹¹Thereupon the Israelites sallied forth from Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, harrying them down beyond Beth-car.

¹²Samuel then took a stone and placed it between Mizpah and Jeshanah; he named it Ebenezer, explaining, "To this point the LORD helped us."

¹³Thus were the Philistines subdued, never again to enter the territory of Israel, for the LORD was severe with them as long as Samuel lived.

¹⁴The cities from Ekron to Gath which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to them. Israel also freed the territory of these cities from the dominion of the Philistines. Moreover there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.

¹⁵Samuel judged Israel as long as he lived.

¹⁶He made a yearly journey, passing through Bethel, Gilgal and Mizpah and judging Israel at each of these sanctuaries.

¹⁷Then he used to return to Ramah, for that was his home. There, too, he judged Israel and built an altar to the LORD.

8In his old age Samuel appointed his sons judges over Israel.

²His first-born was named Joel, his second son, Abijah; they judged at Beer-sheba.

³His sons did not follow his example but sought illicit gain and accepted bribes, perverting justice.

⁴Therefore all the elders of Israel came in a body to Samuel at Ramah

⁵and said to him, "Now that you are old, and your sons do not follow your example, appoint a king over us, as other nations have, to judge us."

⁶Samuel was displeased when they asked for a king to judge them. He prayed to the LORD, however,

⁷who said in answer: "Grant the people's every request. It is not you they reject, they are rejecting me as their king.

⁸As they have treated me constantly from the day I brought them up from Egypt to this day, deserting me and worshiping strange gods, so do they treat you too.

⁹Now grant their request; but at the same time, warn them solemnly and inform them of the rights of the king who will rule them."

¹⁰Samuel delivered the message of the LORD in full to those who were asking him for a king.

¹¹He told them: "The rights of the king who will rule you will be as follows: He will take your sons and assign them to his chariots and horses, and they will run before his chariot.

¹²He will also appoint from among them his commanders of groups of a thousand and of a hundred soldiers. He will set them to do his plowing and his harvesting, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots.

¹³He will use your daughters as ointment-makers, as cooks, and as bakers.

¹⁴He will take the best of your fields, vineyards, and olive groves, and give them to his officials.

¹⁵He will tithe your crops and your vineyards, and give the revenue to his eunuchs and his slaves.

¹⁶He will take your male and female servants, as well as your best oxen and your asses, and use them to do his work.

¹⁷He will tithe your flocks and you yourselves will become his slaves.

¹⁸When this takes place, you will complain against the king whom you have chosen, but on that day the LORD will not answer you."

¹⁹The people, however, refused to listen to Samuel's warning and said, "Not so! There must be a king over us.

²⁰We too must be like other nations, with a king to rule us and to lead us in warfare and fight our battles."

²¹When Samuel had listened to all the people had to say, he repeated it to the LORD,

²²who then said to him, "Grant their request and appoint a king to rule them." Samuel thereupon said to the men of Israel, "Each of you go to his own city."

9There was a stalwart man from Benjamin named Kish, who was the son of Abiel, son of Zeror, son of Becorath, son of Aphiah, a Benjaminite.

²He had a son named Saul, who was a handsome young man. There was no other Israelite handsomer than Saul; he stood head and shoulders above the people.

³Now the asses of Saul's father, Kish, had wandered off. Kish said to his son Saul, "Take one of the servants with you and go out and hunt for the asses."

⁴Accordingly they went through the hill country of Ephraim, and through the land of Shalishah. Not finding them there, they continued through the land of Shaalim without success. They also went through the land of Benjamin, but they failed to find the animals.

⁵When they came to the land of Zuph, Saul said to the servant who was with him, "Come, let us turn back, lest my father forget about the asses and become anxious about us."

⁶The servant replied, "Listen! There is a man of God in this city, a man held in high esteem; all that he says is sure to come true. Let us go there now! Perhaps he can tell us how to accomplish our errand."

⁷But Saul said to his servant, "If we go, what can we offer the man? There is no bread in our bags, and we have no present to give the man of God. What have we?"

⁸Again the servant answered Saul, "I have a quarter of a silver shekel. If I give that to the man of God, he will tell us our way."

⁹(In former times in Israel, anyone who went to consult God used to say, "Come, let us go to the seer." For he who is now called prophet was formerly called seer.)

¹⁰Saul then said to his servant, "Well said! Come on, let us go!" And they went to the city where the man of God lived.

¹¹As they were going up the ascent to the city, they met some girls coming out to draw water and inquired of them, "Is the seer in town?"

¹²The girls answered, "Yes, there--straight ahead. Hurry now; just today he came to the city, because the people have a sacrifice today on the high place.

¹³When you enter the city, you may reach him before he goes up to the high place to eat. The people will not eat until he arrives; only after he blesses the sacrifice will the invited guests eat. Go up immediately, for you should find him right now."

¹⁴So they went up to the city. As they entered it, Samuel was coming toward them on his way to the high place.

¹⁵The day before Saul's arrival, the LORD had given Samuel the revelation:

¹⁶"At this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin whom you are to anoint as commander of my people Israel. He shall save my people from the clutches of the Philistines, for I have witnessed their misery and accepted their cry for help."

¹⁷When Samuel caught sight of Saul, the LORD assured him, "This is the man of whom I told you; he is to govern my people."

¹⁸Saul met Samuel in the gateway and said, "Please tell me where the seer lives."

¹⁹Samuel answered Saul: "I am the seer. Go up ahead of me to the high place and eat with me today. In the morning, before dismissing you, I will tell you whatever you wish.

²⁰As for the asses you lost three days ago, do not worry about them, for they have been found. Whom does Israel desire ardently if not you and your father's family?"

²¹Saul replied: "Am I not a Benjaminite, of one of the smallest tribes of Israel, and is not my clan the least among the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why say such things to me?"

²²Samuel then took Saul and his servant and brought them to the room, where he placed them at the head of the guests, of whom there were about thirty.

²³He said to the cook, "Bring the portion I gave you and told you to put aside."

²⁴So the cook took up the leg and what went with it, and placed it before Saul. Samuel said: "This is a reserved portion that has been set before you. Eat, for it was kept for you until your arrival; I explained that I was inviting some guests." Thus Saul dined with Samuel that day.

²⁵When they came down from the high place into the city, a mattress was spread for Saul on the roof,

²⁶and he slept there. At daybreak Samuel called to Saul on the roof, "Get up, and I will start you on your journey." Saul rose, and he and Samuel went outside the city together.

²⁷As they were approaching the edge of the town, Samuel said to Saul, "Tell the servant to go on ahead of us, but stay here yourself for the moment, that I may give you a message from God."

10Then, from a flask he had with him, Samuel poured oil on Saul's head; he also kissed him, saying: "The LORD anoints you commander over his heritage. You are to govern the LORD'S people Israel, and to save them from the grasp of their enemies round about. "This will be the sign for you that the LORD has anointed you commander over his heritage:

²When you leave me today, you will meet two men near Rachel's tomb at Zelzah in the territory of Benjamin, who will say to you, 'The asses you went to look for have been found. Your father is no longer worried about the asses, but is anxious about you and says, What shall I do about my son?'

³Farther on, when you arrive at the terebinth of Tabor, you will be met by three men going up to God at Bethel; one will be bringing three kids, another three loaves of bread, and the third a skin of wine.

⁴They will greet you and offer you two wave offerings of bread, which you will take from them.

⁵After that you will come to Gibeath-elohim, where there is a garrison of the Philistines. As you enter that city, you will meet a band of prophets, in a prophetic state, coming down from the high place preceded by lyres, tambourines, flutes and harps.

⁶The spirit of the LORD will rush upon you, and you will join them in their prophetic state and will be changed into another man.

⁷When you see these signs fulfilled, do whatever you judge feasible, because God is with you.

⁸Now go down ahead of me to Gilgal, for I shall come down to you, to offer holocausts and to sacrifice peace offerings. Wait seven days until I come to you; I shall then tell you what you must do."

⁹As Saul turned to leave Samuel, God gave him another heart. That very day all these signs came to pass. . . .

¹⁰When they were going from there to Gibeah, a band of prophets met him, and the spirit of God rushed upon him, so that he joined them in their prophetic state.

¹¹When all who had known him previously saw him in a prophetic state among the prophets, they said to one another, "What has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?"

¹²And someone from that district added, "And who is their father?" Thus the proverb arose, "Is Saul also among the prophets?"

¹³When he came out of the prophetic state, he went home.

¹⁴Saul's uncle inquired of him and his servant, "Where have you been?" Saul replied, "To look for the asses. When we could not find them, we went to Samuel."

¹⁵Then Saul's uncle said, "Tell me, then, what Samuel said to you."

¹⁶Saul said to his uncle, "He assured us that the asses had been found." But he mentioned nothing to him of what Samuel had said about the kingship.

¹⁷Samuel called the people together to the LORD at Mizpah

¹⁸and addressed the Israelites: "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'It was I who brought Israel up from Egypt and delivered you from the power of the Egyptians and from the power of all the kingdoms that oppressed you.'

¹⁹But today you have rejected your God, who delivers you from all your evils and calamities, by saying to him, 'Not so, but you must appoint a king over us.' Now, therefore, take your stand before the LORD according to tribes and families."

²⁰So Samuel had all the tribes of Israel come forward, and the tribe of Benjamin was chosen.

²¹Next he had the tribe of Benjamin come forward in clans, and the clan of Matri was chosen, and finally Saul, son of Kish, was chosen. But they looked for him in vain.

²²Again they consulted the LORD, "Has he come here?" The LORD answered, "He is hiding among the baggage."

²³They ran to bring him from there; and when he stood among the people, he was head and shoulders above all the crowd.

²⁴Samuel said to all the people, "Do you see the man whom the LORD has chosen? There is none like him among all the people!" Then all the people shouted, "Long live the king!"

²⁵Samuel next explained to the people the law of royalty and wrote it in a book, which he placed in the presence of the LORD. This done, Samuel dismissed the people, each to his own place.

²⁶Saul also went home to Gibeah, accompanied by warriors whose hearts the LORD had touched.

²⁷But certain worthless men said, "How can this fellow save us?" They despised him and brought him no present.

11About a month later, Nahash the Ammonite went up and laid siege to Jabesh-gilead. All the men of Jabesh begged Nahash, "Make a treaty with us, and we will be your subjects."

²But Nahash the Ammonite replied, "This is my condition for a treaty with you: I must gouge out every man's right eye, that I may thus bring ignominy on all Israel."

³The elders of Jabesh said to him: "Give us seven days to send messengers throughout the territory of Israel. If no one rescues us, we will surrender to you."

⁴When the messengers arrived at Gibeah of Saul, they related the news to the people, all of whom wept aloud.

⁵Just then Saul came in from the field, behind his oxen. "Why are the people weeping?" he asked. The message of the inhabitants of Jabesh was repeated to him.

⁶As he listened to this report, the spirit of God rushed upon him and he became very angry.

⁷Taking a yoke of oxen, he cut them into pieces, which he sent throughout the territory of Israel by couriers with the message, "If anyone does not come out to follow Saul (and Samuel), the same as this will be done to his oxen!" In dread of the LORD, the people turned out to a man.

⁸When he reviewed them in Bezek, there were three hundred thousand Israelites and seventy thousand Judahites.

⁹To the messengers who had come he said, "Tell the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead that tomorrow, while the sun is hot, they will be rescued." The messengers came and reported this to the inhabitants of Jabesh, who were jubilant,

¹⁰and said to Nahash, "Tomorrow we will surrender to you, and you may do whatever you please with us."

¹¹On the appointed day, Saul arranged his troops in three companies and invaded the camp during the dawn watch. They slaughtered Ammonites until the heat of the day; by then the survivors were so scattered that no two were left together.

¹²The people then said to Samuel: "Who questioned whether Saul should rule over us? Hand over the men and we will put them to death."

¹³But Saul broke in to say, "No man is to be put to death this day, for today the LORD has saved Israel."

¹⁴Samuel said to the people, "Come, let us go to Gilgal to inaugurate the kingdom there."

¹⁵So all the people went to Gilgal, where, in the presence of the LORD, they made Saul king. They also sacrificed peace offerings there before the LORD, and Saul and all the Israelites celebrated the occasion with great joy.

12Samuel addressed all Israel: "I have granted your request in every respect," he said. "I have set a king over you

²and now the king is your leader. As for me, I am old and gray, and have sons among you. I have lived with you from my youth to the present day.

³Here I stand! Answer me in the presence of the LORD and of his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose ass have I taken? Whom have I cheated? Whom have I oppressed? From whom have I accepted a bribe and overlooked his guilt? I will make restitution to you."

⁴They replied, "You have neither cheated us, nor oppressed us, nor accepted anything from anyone."

⁵So he said to them, "The LORD is witness against you this day, and his anointed as well, that you have found nothing in my possession." "He is witness," they agreed.

⁶Continuing, Samuel said to the people: "The LORD is witness, who appointed Moses and Aaron, and who brought your fathers up from the land of Egypt.

⁷Now, therefore, take your stand, and I shall arraign you before the LORD, and shall recount for you all the acts of mercy the LORD has done for you and your fathers.

⁸When Jacob and his sons went to Egypt and the Egyptians oppressed them, your fathers appealed to the LORD, who sent Moses and Aaron to bring them out of Egypt, and he gave them this place to live in.

⁹But they forgot the LORD their God; and he allowed them to fall into the clutches of Sisera, the captain of the army of Jabin, king of Hazor, into the grasp of the Philistines, and into the grip of the king of Moab, who made war against them.

¹⁰Each time they appealed to the LORD and said, 'We have sinned in forsaking the LORD and worshiping Baals and Ashtaroth; but deliver us now from the power of our enemies, and we will worship you.'

¹¹Accordingly, the LORD sent Jerubbaal, Barak, Jephthah, and Samuel; he delivered you from the power of your enemies on every side, so that you were able to live in security.

¹²Yet, when you saw Nahash, king of the Ammonites, advancing against you, you said to me, 'Not so, but a king must rule us,' even though the LORD your God is your king.

¹³"Now you have the king you want, a king the LORD has given you.

¹⁴If you fear the LORD and worship him, if you are obedient to him and do not rebel against the LORD'S command, if both you and the king who rules you follow the LORD your God--well and good.

¹⁵But if you do not obey the LORD and if you rebel against his command, the LORD will deal severely with you and your king, and destroy you.

¹⁶Now then, stand ready to witness the great marvel the LORD is about to accomplish before your eyes.

¹⁷Are we not in the harvest time for wheat? Yet I shall call to the LORD, and he will send thunder and rain. Thus you will see and understand how greatly the LORD is displeased that you have asked for a king."

¹⁸Samuel then called to the LORD, and the LORD sent thunder and rain that day. As a result, all the people dreaded the LORD and Samuel.

¹⁹They said to Samuel, "Pray to the LORD your God for us, your servants, that we may not die for having added to all our other sins the evil of asking for a king."

²⁰"Do not fear," Samuel answered them. "It is true you have committed all this evil; still, you must not turn from the LORD, but must worship him with your whole heart.

²¹Do not turn to meaningless idols which can neither profit nor save; they are nothing.

²²For the sake of his own great name the LORD will not abandon his people, since the LORD himself chose to make you his people.

²³As for me, far be it from me to sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you and to teach you the good and right way.

²⁴But you must fear the LORD and worship him faithfully with your whole heart; keep in mind the great things he has done among you.

²⁵If instead you continue to do evil, both you and your king shall perish."

13(Saul was. . . years old when he became king and he reigned. . . (two) years over Israel.)

²Saul chose three thousand men of Israel, of whom two thousand remained with him in Michmash and in the hill country of Bethel, and one thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin. He sent the rest of the people back to their tents.

³Now Jonathan overcame the Philistine garrison which was in Gibeah, and the Philistines got word of it. Then Saul sounded the horn throughout the land, with a proclamation, "Let the Hebrews hear!"

⁴Thus all Israel learned that Saul had overcome the garrison of the Philistines and that Israel had brought disgrace upon the Philistines; and the soldiers were called up to Saul in Gilgal.

⁵The Philistines also assembled for battle, with three thousand chariots, six thousand horsemen, and foot soldiers as numerous as the sands of the seashore. Moving up against Israel, they encamped in Michmash, east of Beth-aven.

⁶Some Israelites, aware of the danger and of the difficult situation, hid themselves in caves, in thickets, among rocks, in caverns, and in cisterns,

⁷and other Hebrews passed over the Jordan into the land of Gad and Gilead. Saul, however, held out at Gilgal, although all his followers were seized with fear.

⁸He waited seven days--the time Samuel had determined. When Samuel did not arrive at Gilgal, the men began to slip away from Saul.

⁹He then said, "Bring me the holocaust and peace offerings," and he offered up the holocaust.

¹⁰He had just finished this offering when Samuel arrived. Saul went out to greet him,

¹¹and Samuel asked him, "What have you done?" Saul replied: "When I saw that the men were slipping away from me, since you had not come by the specified time, and with the Philistines assembled at Michmash,

¹²I said to myself, 'Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not yet sought the LORD'S blessing.' So in my anxiety I offered up the holocaust."

¹³Samuel's response was: "You have been foolish! Had you kept the command the LORD your God gave you, the LORD would now establish your kingship in Israel as lasting;

¹⁴but as things are, your kingdom shall not endure. The LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and has appointed him commander of his people, because you broke the LORD'S command."

¹⁵Then Samuel set out from Gilgal and went his own way; but the rest of the people went up after Saul to meet the soldiers, going from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin. Saul then numbered the soldiers he had with him, who were about six hundred.

¹⁶Saul, his son Jonathan, and the soldiers they had with them were now occupying Geba of Benjamin, and the Philistines were encamped at Michmash.

¹⁷Meanwhile, raiders left the camp of the Philistines in three bands. One band took the Ophrah road toward the district of Shual;

¹⁸another turned in the direction of Beth-horon; and the third took the road for Geba that overlooks the Valley of the Hyenas toward the desert.

¹⁹Not a single smith was to be found in the whole land of Israel, for the Philistines had said, "Otherwise the Hebrews will make swords or spears."

²⁰All Israel, therefore, had to go down to the Philistines to sharpen their plowshares, mattocks, axes, and sickles.

²¹The price for the plowshares and mattocks was two-thirds of a shekel, and a third of a shekel for sharpening the axes and for setting the ox-goads.

²²And so on the day of battle neither sword nor spear could be found in the possession of any of the soldiers with Saul or Jonathan. Only Saul and his son Jonathan had them.

²³An outpost of the Philistines had pushed forward to the pass of Michmash.

14One day Jonathan, son of Saul, said to his armor-bearer, "Come let us go over to the Philistine outpost on the other side." But he did not inform his father.

²(Saul's command post was under the pomegranate tree near the threshing floor on the outskirts of Geba; those with him numbered about six hundred men.

³Ahijah, son of Ahitub, brother of Ichabod, who was the son of Phinehas, son of Eli, the priest of the LORD at Shiloh, was wearing the ephod.) Nor did the soldiers know that Jonathan had gone.

⁴Flanking the ravine through which Jonathan intended to get over to the Philistine outpost there was a rocky crag on each side, one called Bozez, the other Seneh.

⁵One crag was to the north, toward Michmash, the other to the south, toward Geba.

⁶Jonathan said to his armor-bearer: "Come let us go over to that outpost of the uncircumcised. Perhaps the LORD will help us, because it is no more difficult for the LORD to grant victory through a few than through many."

⁷His armor-bearer replied, "Do whatever you are inclined to do; I will match your resolve."

⁸Jonathan continued: "We shall go over to those men and show ourselves to them.

⁹If they say to us, 'Stay there until we can come to you,' we shall stop where we are; we shall not go up to them.

¹⁰But if they say, 'Come up to us,' we shall go up, because the LORD has delivered them into our grasp. That will be our sign."

¹¹Accordingly, the two of them appeared before the outpost of the Philistines, who said, "Look, some Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have been hiding."

¹²The men of the outpost called to Jonathan and his armor-bearer. "Come up here," they said, "and we will teach you a lesson." So Jonathan said to his armor-bearer, "Climb up after me, for the LORD has delivered them into the grasp of Israel."

¹³Jonathan clambered up with his armor-bearer behind him; as the Philistines turned to flee him, he cut them down, and his armor-bearer followed him and finished them off.

¹⁴In this first exploit Jonathan and his armor-bearer slew about twenty men within half a furlong.

¹⁵Then panic spread to the army and to the countryside, and all the soldiers, including the outpost and the raiding parties, were terror-stricken. The earth also shook, so that the panic was beyond human endurance.

¹⁶The lookouts of Saul in Geba of Benjamin saw that the enemy camp had scattered and were running about in all directions.

¹⁷Saul said to those around him, "Count the troops and find out if any of us are missing." When they had investigated, they found Jonathan and his armor-bearer missing.

¹⁸Saul then said to Ahijah, "Bring the ephod here." (Ahijah was wearing the ephod in front of the Israelites at that time.)

¹⁹While Saul was speaking to the priest, the tumult in the Philistine camp kept increasing. So he said to the priest, "Withdraw your hand."

²⁰And Saul and all his men shouted and rushed into the fight, where the Philistines, wholly confused, were thrusting swords at one another.

²¹In addition, the Hebrews who had previously sided with the Philistines and had gone up with them to the camp, turned to join the Israelites under Saul and Jonathan.

²²Likewise, all the Israelites who were hiding in the hill country of Ephraim, on hearing that the Philistines were fleeing, pursued them in the rout.

²³Thus the LORD saved Israel that day. The battle continued past Beth-horon;

²⁴the whole people, about ten thousand combatants, were with Saul, and there was scattered fighting in every town in the hill country of Ephraim. And Saul swore a very rash oath that day, putting the people under this ban: "Cursed be the man who takes food before evening, before I am able to avenge myself on my enemies." So none of the people tasted food.

²⁵Indeed, there was a honeycomb lying on the ground,

²⁶and when the soldiers came to the comb the swarm had left it; yet no one would raise a hand to his mouth from it, because the people feared the oath.

²⁷Jonathan, who had not heard that his father had put the people under oath, thrust out the end of the staff he was holding and dipped in into the honey. Then he raised it to his mouth and his eyes lit up.

²⁸At this one of the soldiers spoke up: "Your father put the people under a strict oath, saying, 'Cursed be the man who takes food this day!' As a result the people are weak."

²⁹Jonathan replied: "My father brings trouble to the land. Look how bright my eyes are from this small taste of honey I have had.

³⁰What is more, if the people had eaten freely today of their enemy's booty when they came across it, would not the slaughter of the Philistines by now have been the greater for it?"

³¹After the Philistines were routed that day from Michmash to Aijalon, the people were completely exhausted.

³²So they pounced upon the spoil and took sheep, oxen and calves, slaughtering them on the ground and eating the flesh with blood.

³³Informed that the people were sinning against the LORD by eating the flesh with blood, Saul said: "You have broken faith. Roll a large stone here for me."

³⁴He continued: "Mingle with the people and tell each of them to bring his ox or his sheep to me. Slaughter it here and then eat, but you must not sin against the LORD by eating the flesh with blood." So everyone brought to the LORD whatever ox he had seized, and they slaughtered them there;

³⁵and Saul built an altar to the LORD--this was the first time he built an altar to the LORD.

³⁶Then Saul said, "Let us go down in pursuit of the Philistines by night, to plunder among them until daybreak and to kill them all off." They replied, "Do what you think best." But the priest said, "Let us consult God."

³⁷So Saul inquired of God: "Shall I go down in pursuit of the Philistines? Will you deliver them into the power of Israel?" But he received no answer on this occasion.

³⁸Saul then said, "Come here, all officers of the army. We must investigate and find out how this sin was committed today.

³⁹As the LORD lives who has given victory to Israel, even if my son Jonathan has committed it, he shall surely die!" But none of the people answered him.

⁴⁰So he said to all Israel, "Stand on one side, and I and my son Jonathan will stand on the other." The people responded, "Do what you think best."

⁴¹And Saul said to the LORD, the God of Israel: "Why did you not answer your servant this time? If the blame for this resides in me or my son Jonathan, LORD, God of Israel, respond with Urim; but if this guilt is in your people Israel, respond with Thummim." Jonathan and Saul were designated, and the people went free.

⁴²Saul then said, "Cast lots between me and my son Jonathan." And Jonathan was designated.

⁴³Saul said to Jonathan, "Tell me what you have done." Jonathan replied, "I only tasted a little honey from the end of the staff I was holding. Am I to die for this?"

⁴⁴Saul said, "May God do thus and so to me if you do not indeed die, Jonathan!"

⁴⁵But the army said to Saul: "Is Jonathan to die, though it was he who brought Israel this great victory? This must not be! As the LORD lives, not a single hair of his head shall fall to the ground, for God was with him in what he did today!" Thus the soldiers were able to rescue Jonathan from death.

⁴⁶After that Saul gave up the pursuit of the Philistines, who returned to their own territory.

⁴⁷After taking over the kingship of Israel, Saul waged war on all their surrounding enemies--Moab, the Ammonites, Aram, Beth-rehob, the king of Zobah, and the Philistines. Wherever he turned, he was successful

⁴⁸and fought bravely. He defeated Amalek and delivered Israel from the hands of those who were plundering them.

⁴⁹The sons of Saul were Jonathan, Ishvi, and Malchishua; his two daughters were named, the elder, Merob, and the younger, Michal.

⁵⁰Saul's wife, who was named Ahinoam, was the daughter of Ahimaaz. The name of his general was Abner, son of Saul's uncle, Ner;

⁵¹Kish, Saul's father, and Ner, Abner's father, were sons of Abiel.

⁵²An unremitting war was waged against the Philistines during Saul's lifetime. When Saul saw any strong or brave man, he took him into his service.

15Samuel said to Saul: "It was I the LORD sent to anoint you king over his people Israel. Now, therefore, listen to the message of the LORD.

²This is what the LORD of hosts has to say: 'I will punish what Amalek did to Israel when he barred his way as he was coming up from Egypt.

³Go, now, attack Amalek, and deal with him and all that he has under the ban. Do not spare him, but kill men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and asses.'"

⁴Saul alerted the soldiers, and at Telaim reviewed two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men of Judah.

⁵Saul went to the city of Amalek, and after setting an ambush in the wadi,

⁶warned the Kenites: "Come! Leave Amalek and withdraw, that I may not have to destroy you with them, for you were kind to the Israelites when they came up from Egypt." After the Kenites left,

⁷Saul routed Amalek from Havilah to the approaches of Shur, on the frontier of Egypt.

⁸He took Agag, king of Amalek, alive, but on the rest of the people he put into effect the ban of destruction by the sword.

⁹He and his troops spared Agag and the best of the fat sheep and oxen, and the lambs. They refused to carry out the doom on anything that was worthwhile, dooming only what was worthless and of no account.

¹⁰Then the LORD spoke to Samuel:

¹¹"I regret having made Saul king, for he has turned from me and has not kept my command." At this Samuel grew angry and cried out to the LORD all night.

¹²Early in the morning he went to meet Saul, but was informed that Saul had gone to Carmel, where he erected a trophy in his own honor, and that on his return he had passed on and gone down to Gilgal.

¹³When Samuel came to him, Saul greeted him: "The LORD bless you! I have kept the command of the LORD."

¹⁴But Samuel asked, "What, then, is the meaning of this bleating of sheep that comes to my ears, and the lowing of oxen that I hear?"

¹⁵Saul replied: "They were brought from Amalek. The men spared the best sheep and oxen to sacrifice to the LORD, your God; but we have carried out the ban on the rest."

¹⁶Samuel said to Saul: "Stop! Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night." "Speak!" he replied.

¹⁷Samuel then said: "Though little in your own esteem, are you not leader of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king of Israel

¹⁸and sent you on a mission, saying, 'Go and put the sinful Amalekites under a ban of destruction. Fight against them until you have exterminated them.'

¹⁹Why then have you disobeyed the LORD? You have pounced on the spoil, thus displeasing the LORD."

²⁰Saul answered Samuel: "I did indeed obey the LORD and fulfill the mission on which the LORD sent me. I have brought back Agag, and I have destroyed Amalek under the ban.

²¹But from the spoil the men took sheep and oxen, the best of what had been banned, to sacrifice to the LORD their God in Gilgal."

²²But Samuel said: "Does the LORD so delight in holocausts and sacrifices as in obedience to the command of the LORD? Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission than the fat of rams.

²³For a sin like divination is rebellion, and presumption is the crime of idolatry. Because you have rejected the command of the LORD, he, too, has rejected you as ruler."

²⁴Saul replied to Samuel: "I have sinned, for I have disobeyed the command of the LORD and your instructions. In my fear of the people, I did what they said.

²⁵Now forgive my sin, and return with me, that I may worship the LORD."

²⁶But Samuel said to Saul, "I will not return with you, because you rejected the command of the LORD and the LORD rejects you as king of Israel."

²⁷As Samuel turned to go, Saul seized a loose end of his mantle, and it tore off.

²⁸So Samuel said to him: "The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you.

²⁹The Glory of Israel neither retracts nor repents, for he is not man that he should repent."

³⁰But he answered: "I have sinned, yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel. Return with me that I may worship the LORD your God."

³¹And so Samuel returned with him, and Saul worshiped the LORD.

³²Afterward Samuel commanded, "Bring Agag, king of Amalek, to me." Agag came to him struggling and saying, "So it is bitter death!"

³³And Samuel said, "As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women." Then he cut Agag down before the LORD in Gilgal.

³⁴Samuel departed for Ramah, while Saul went up to his home in Gibeah of Saul.

³⁵Never again, as long as he lived, did Samuel see Saul. Yet he grieved over Saul, because the LORD regretted having made him king of Israel.

16The LORD said to Samuel: "How long will you grieve for Saul, whom I have rejected as king of Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and be on your way. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem, for I have chosen my king from among his sons."

²But Samuel replied: "How can I go? Saul will hear of it and kill me." To this the LORD answered: "Take a heifer along and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.'

³Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I myself will tell you what to do; you are to anoint for me the one I point out to you."

⁴Samuel did as the LORD had commanded him. When he entered Bethlehem, the elders of the city came trembling to meet him and inquired, "Is your visit peaceful, O seer?"

⁵He replied: "Yes! I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. So cleanse yourselves and join me today for the banquet." He also had Jesse and his sons cleanse themselves and invited them to the sacrifice.

⁶As they came, he looked at Eliab and thought, "Surely the LORD'S anointed is here before him."

⁷But the LORD said to Samuel: "Do not judge from his appearance or from his lofty stature, because I have rejected him. Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance but the LORD looks into the heart."

⁸Then Jesse called Abinadab and presented him before Samuel, who said, "The Lord has not chosen him."

⁹Next Jesse presented Shammah, but Samuel said, "The LORD has not chosen this one either."

¹⁰In the same way Jesse presented seven sons before Samuel, but Samuel said to Jesse, "The LORD has not chosen any one of these."

¹¹Then Samuel asked Jesse, "Are these all the sons you have?" Jesse replied, "There is still the youngest, who is tending the sheep." Samuel said to Jesse, "Send for him; we will not begin the sacrificial banquet until he arrives here."

¹²Jesse sent and had the young man brought to them. He was ruddy, a youth handsome to behold and making a splendid appearance. The LORD said, "There-anoint him, for this is he!"

¹³Then Samuel, with the horn of oil in hand, anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and from that day on, the spirit of the LORD rushed upon David. When Samuel took his leave, he went to Ramah.

¹⁴The spirit of the LORD had departed from Saul, and he was tormented by an evil spirit sent by the LORD.

¹⁵So the servants of Saul said to him: "Please! An evil spirit from God is tormenting you.

¹⁶If your lordship will order it, we, your servants here in attendance on you, will look for a man skilled in playing the harp. When the evil spirit from God comes over you, he will play and you will feel better."

¹⁷Saul then told his servants, "Find me a skillful harpist and bring him to me."

¹⁸A servant spoke up to say: "I have observed that one of the sons of Jesse of Bethlehem is a skillful harpist. He is also a stalwart soldier, besides being an able speaker, and handsome. Moreover, the LORD is with him."

¹⁹Accordingly, Saul dispatched messengers to ask Jesse to send him his son David, who was with the flock.

²⁰Then Jesse took five loaves of bread, a skin of wine, and a kid, and sent them to Saul by his son David.

²¹Thus David came to Saul and entered his service. Saul became very fond of him, made him his armor-bearer,

²²and sent Jesse the message, "Allow David to remain in my service, for he meets with my approval."

²³Whenever the spirit from God seized Saul, David would take the harp and play, and Saul would be relieved and feel better, for the evil spirit would leave him.

17The Philistines rallied their forces for battle at Socoh in Judah and camped between Socoh and Azekah at Ephes-dammim.

²Saul and the Israelites also gathered and camped in the Vale of the Terebinth, drawing up their battle line to meet the Philistines.

³The Philistines were stationed on one hill and the Israelites on an opposite hill, with a valley between them.

⁴A champion named Goliath of Gath came out from the Philistine camp; he was six and a half feet tall.

⁵He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a bronze corselet of scale armor weighing five thousand shekels,

⁶and bronze greaves, and had a bronze scimitar slung from a baldric.

⁷The shaft of his javelin was like a weaver's heddle-bar, and its iron head weighed six hundred shekels. His shield-bearer went before him.

⁸He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel: "Why come out in battle formation? I am a Philistine, and you are Saul's servants. Choose one of your men, and have him come down to me.

⁹If he beats me in combat and kills me, we will be your vassals; but if I beat him and kill him, you shall be our vassals and serve us."

¹⁰The Philistine continued: "I defy the ranks of Israel today. Give me a man and let us fight together."

¹¹Saul and all the men of Israel, when they heard this challenge of the Philistine, were dismayed and terror-stricken.

¹²(David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah. He had eight sons, and in the days of Saul was old and well on in years.

¹³The three oldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul to war; these three sons who had gone off to war were named, the first-born Eliab, the second son Abinadab, and the third Shammah.

¹⁴David was the youngest. While the three oldest had joined Saul,

¹⁵David would go and come from Saul to tend his father's sheep at Bethlehem.

¹⁶(Meanwhile the Philistine came forward and took his stand morning and evening for forty days.

¹⁷(Now Jesse said to his son David: "Take this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves for your brothers, and bring them quickly to your brothers in the camp.

¹⁸Also take these ten cheeses for the field officer. Greet your brothers and bring home some token from them.

¹⁹Saul, and they, and all Israel are fighting against the Philistines in the Vale of the Terebinth."

²⁰Early the next morning, having left the flock with a shepherd, David set out on his errand, as Jesse had commanded him. He reached the barricade of the camp just as the army, on their way to the battleground, were shouting their battle cry.

²¹The Israelites and the Philistines drew up opposite each other in battle array.

²²David entrusted what he had brought to the keeper of the baggage and hastened to the battle line, where he greeted his brothers.

²³While he was talking with them, the Philistine champion, by name Goliath of Gath, came up from the ranks of the Philistines and spoke as before, and David listened.

²⁴When the Israelites saw the man, they all retreated before him, very much afraid.

²⁵The Israelites had been saying: "Do you see this man coming up? He comes up to insult Israel. If anyone should kill him, the king would give him great wealth, and his daughter as well, and would grant exemption to his father's family in Israel."

²⁶David now said to the men standing by: "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and frees Israel of the disgrace? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine in any case, that he should insult the armies of the living God?"

²⁷They repeated the same words to him and said, "That is how the man who kills him will be rewarded."

²⁸When Eliab, his oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he grew angry with David and said: "Why did you come down? With whom have you left those sheep in the desert meanwhile? I know your arrogance and your evil intent. You came down to enjoy the battle!"

²⁹David replied, "What have I done now?--I was only talking."

³⁰Yet he turned from him to another and asked the same question; and everyone gave him the same answer as before.

³¹The words that David had spoken were overheard and reported to Saul, who sent for him.)

³²Then David spoke to Saul: "Let your majesty not lose courage. I am at your service to go and fight this Philistine."

³³But Saul answered David, "You cannot go up against this Philistine and fight with him, for you are only a youth, while he has been a warrior from his youth."

³⁴Then David told Saul: "Your servant used to tend his father's sheep, and whenever a lion or bear came to carry off a sheep from the flock,

³⁵I would go after it and attack it and rescue the prey from its mouth. If it attacked me, I would seize it by the jaw, strike it, and kill it.

³⁶Your servant has killed both a lion and a bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be as one of them, because he has insulted the armies of the living God."

³⁷David continued: "The LORD, who delivered me from the claws of the lion and the bear, will also keep me safe from the clutches of this Philistine." Saul answered David, "Go! the LORD will be with you."

³⁸Then Saul clothed David in his own tunic, putting a bronze helmet on his head and arming him with a coat of mail.

³⁹David also girded himself with Saul's sword over the tunic. He walked with difficulty, however, since he had never tried armor before. He said to Saul, "I cannot go in these, because I have never tried them before." So he took them off.

⁴⁰Then, staff in hand, David selected five smooth stones from the wadi and put them in the pocket of his shepherd's bag. With his sling also ready to hand, he approached the Philistine.

⁴¹With his shield-bearer marching before him, the Philistine also advanced closer and closer to David.

⁴²When he had sized David up, and seen that he was youthful, and ruddy, and handsome in appearance, he held him in contempt.

⁴³The Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog that you come against me with a staff?" Then the Philistine cursed David by his gods

⁴⁴and said to him, "Come here to me, and I will leave your flesh for the birds of the air and the beasts of the field."

⁴⁵David answered him: "You come against me with sword and spear and scimitar, but I come against you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel that you have insulted.

⁴⁶Today the LORD shall deliver you into my hand; I will strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will leave your corpse and the corpses of the Philistine army for the birds of the air and the beasts of the field; thus the whole land shall learn that Israel has a God.

⁴⁷All this multitude, too, shall learn that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves. For the battle is the LORD'S, and he shall deliver you into our hands."

⁴⁸The Philistine then moved to meet David at close quarters, while David ran quickly toward the battle line in the direction of the Philistine.

⁴⁹David put his hand into the bag and took out a stone, hurled it with the sling, and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone embedded itself in his brow, and he fell prostrate on the ground.

⁵⁰(Thus David overcame the Philistine with sling and stone; he struck the Philistine mortally, and did it without a sword.)

⁵¹Then David ran and stood over him; with the Philistine's own sword (which he drew from its sheath) he dispatched him and cut off his head.When they saw that their hero was dead, the Philistines took to flight.

⁵²Then the men of Israel and Judah, with loud shouts, went in pursuit of the Philistines to the approaches of Gath and to the gates of Ekron, and Philistines fell wounded along the road from Shaaraim as far as Gath and Ekron.

⁵³On their return from the pursuit of the Philistines, the Israelites looted their camp.

⁵⁴David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem; but he kept Goliath's armor in his own tent.

⁵⁵(When Saul saw David go out to meet the Philistine, he asked his general Abner, "Abner, whose son is that youth?" Abner replied, "As truly as your majesty is alive, I have no idea."

⁵⁶And the king said, "Find out whose son the lad is."

⁵⁷So when David returned from slaying the Philistine, Abner took him and presented him to Saul. David was still holding the Philistine's head.

⁵⁸Saul then asked him, "Whose son are you, young man?" David replied, "I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem."

18(By the time David finished speaking with Saul, Jonathan had become as fond of David as if his life depended on him; he loved him as he loved himself.

²Saul laid claim to David that day and did not allow him to return to his father's house.

³And Jonathan entered into a bond with David, because he loved him as himself.

⁴Jonathan divested himself of the mantle he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his military dress, and his sword, his bow and his belt.

⁵David then carried out successfully every mission on which Saul sent him. So Saul put him in charge of his soldiers, and this was agreeable to the whole army, even to Saul's own officers.)

⁶At the approach of Saul and David (on David's return after slaying the Philistine), women came out from each of the cities of Israel to meet King Saul, singing and dancing, with tambourines, joyful songs, and sistrums.

⁷The women played and sang: "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands."

⁸Saul was very angry and resentful of the song, for he thought: "They give David ten thousands, but only thousands to me. All that remains for him is the kingship."

⁹(And from that day on, Saul was jealous of David.

¹⁰(The next day an evil spirit from God came over Saul, and he raged in his house. David was in attendance, playing the harp as at other times, while Saul was holding his spear.

¹¹Saul poised the spear, thinking to nail David to the wall, but twice David escaped him.)

¹²Saul then began to fear David, (because the LORD was with him, but had departed from Saul himself.)

¹³Accordingly, Saul removed him from his presence by appointing him a field officer. So David led the people on their military expeditions,

¹⁴and prospered in all his enterprises, for the LORD was with him.

¹⁵Seeing how successful he was, Saul conceived a fear of David:

¹⁶on the other hand, all Israel and Judah loved him, since he led them on their expeditions.

¹⁷(Saul said to David, "There is my older daughter, Merob, whom I will give you in marriage if you become my champion and fight the battles of the LORD." Saul had in mind, "I shall not touch him; let the Philistines strike him."

¹⁸But David answered Saul: "Who am I? And who are my kin or my father's clan in Israel that I should become the king's son-in-law?"

¹⁹However, when it was time for Saul's daughter Merob to be given to David, she was given in marriage to Adriel the Meholathite instead.)

²⁰Now Saul's daughter Michal loved David, and it was reported to Saul, who was pleased at this,

²¹for he thought, "I will offer her to him to become a snare for him, so that the Philistines may strike him." (Thus for the second time Saul said to David, "You shall become my son-in-law today.")

²²Saul then ordered his servants to speak to David privately and to say: "The king is fond of you, and all his officers love you. You should become the king's son-in-law."

²³But when Saul's servants mentioned this to David, he said: "Do you think it easy to become the king's son-in-law? I am poor and insignificant."

²⁴When his servants reported to him the nature of David's answer,

²⁵Saul commanded them to say this to David: "The king desires no other price for the bride than the foreskins of one hundred Philistines, that he may thus take vengeance on his enemies." Saul intended in this way to bring about David's death through the Philistines.

²⁶When the servants reported this offer to David, he was pleased with the prospect of becoming the king's son-in-law. (Before the year was up,)

²⁷David made preparations and sallied forth with his men and slew two hundred Philistines. He brought back their foreskins and counted them out before the king, that he might thus become the king's son-in-law. So Saul gave him his daughter Michal in marriage.

²⁸Saul thus came to recognize that the LORD was with David; besides, his own daughter Michal loved David.

²⁹Therefore Saul feared David all the more (and was his enemy ever after).

³⁰(The Philistine chiefs continued to make forays, but each time they took the field, David was more successful against them than any other of Saul's officers, and as a result acquired great fame.)

19Saul discussed his intention of killing David with his son Jonathan and with all his servants. But Saul's son Jonathan, who was very fond of David,

²told him: "My father Saul is trying to kill you. Therefore, please be on your guard tomorrow morning; get out of sight and remain in hiding.

³I, however, will go out and stand beside my father in the countryside where you are, and will speak to him about you. If I learn anything, I will let you know."

⁴Jonathan then spoke well of David to his father Saul, saying to him: "Let not your majesty sin against his servant David, for he has committed no offense against you, but has helped you very much by his deeds.

⁵When he took his life in his hands and slew the Philistine, and the LORD brought about a great victory for all Israel through him, you were glad to see it. Why, then, should you become guilty of shedding innocent blood by killing David without cause?"

⁶Saul heeded Jonathan's plea and swore, "As the LORD lives, he shall not be killed."

⁷So Jonathan summoned David and repeated the whole conversation to him. Jonathan then brought David to Saul, and David served him as before.

⁸When war broke out again, David went out to fight against the Philistines and inflicted a great defeat upon them, putting them to flight.

⁹Then an evil spirit from the LORD came upon Saul as he was sitting in his house with spear in hand and David was playing the harp nearby.

¹⁰Saul tried to nail David to the wall with the spear, but David eluded Saul, so that the spear struck only the wall, and David got away safe.

¹¹The same night, Saul sent messengers to David's house to guard it, that he might kill him in the morning. David's wife Michal informed him, "Unless you save yourself tonight, tomorrow you will be killed."

¹²Then Michal let David down through a window, and he made his escape in safety.

¹³Michal took the household idol and laid it in the bed, putting a net of goat's hair at its head and covering it with a spread.

¹⁴When Saul sent messengers to arrest David, she said, "He is sick."

¹⁵Saul, however, sent the messengers back to see David and commanded them, "Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him."

¹⁶But when the messengers entered, they found the household idol in the bed, with the net of goat's hair at its head.

¹⁷Saul therefore asked Michal: "Why did you play this trick on me? You have helped my enemy to get away!" Michal answered Saul: "He threatened me, 'Let me go or I will kill you.'"

¹⁸Thus David got safely away; he went to Samuel in Ramah, informing him of all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went to stay in the sheds.

¹⁹When Saul was told that David was in the sheds near Ramah,

²⁰he sent messengers to arrest David. But when they saw the band of prophets, presided over by Samuel, in a prophetic frenzy, they too fell into the prophetic state.

²¹Informed of this, Saul sent other messengers, who also fell into the prophetic state. For the third time Saul sent messengers, but they too fell into the prophetic state.

²²Saul then went to Ramah himself. Arriving at the cistern of the threshing floor on the bare hilltop, he inquired, "Where are Samuel and David?", and was told, "At the sheds near Ramah."

²³As he set out from the hilltop toward the sheds, the spirit of God came upon him also, and he continued on in a prophetic condition until he reached the spot. At the sheds near Ramah

²⁴he, too, stripped himself of his garments and he, too, remained in the prophetic state in the presence of Samuel; all that day and night he lay naked. That is why they say, "Is Saul also among the prophets?"

20David fled from the sheds near Ramah, and went to Jonathan. "What have I done?" he asked him. "What crime or what offense does your father hold against me that he seeks my life?"

²Jonathan answered him: "Heaven forbid that you should die! My father does nothing, great or small, without disclosing it to me. Why, then, should my father conceal this from me? This cannot be so!"

³But David replied: "Your father is well aware that I am favored with your friendship, so he has decided, 'Jonathan must not know of this lest he be grieved.' Nevertheless, as the LORD lives and as you live, there is but a step between me and death."

⁴Jonathan then said to David, "I will do whatever you wish."

⁵David answered: "Tomorrow is the new moon, when I should in fact dine with the king. Let me go and hide in the open country until evening.

⁶If it turns out that your father misses me, say, 'David urged me to let him go on short notice to his city Bethlehem, because his whole clan is holding its seasonal sacrifice there.'

⁷If he says, 'Very well,' your servant is safe. But if he becomes quite angry, you can be sure he has planned some harm.

⁸Do this kindness for your servant because of the LORD'S bond between us, into which you brought me: if I am guilty, kill me yourself! Why should you give me up to your father?"

⁹But Jonathan answered: "Not I! If ever I find out that my father is determined to inflict injury upon you, I will certainly let you know."

¹⁰David then asked Jonathan, "Who will tell me if your father gives you a harsh answer?"

¹¹(Jonathan replied to David, "Come, let us go out into the field." When they were out in the open country together,

¹²Jonathan said to David: "As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, I will sound out my father about this time tomorrow. Whether he is well disposed toward David or not, I will send you the information.

¹³Should it please my father to bring any injury upon you, may the LORD do thus and so to Jonathan if I do not apprise you of it and send you on your way in peace. May the LORD be with you even as he was with my father.

¹⁴Only this: if I am still alive, may you show me the kindness of the LORD. But if I die,

¹⁵never withdraw your kindness from my house. And when the LORD exterminates all the enemies of David from the surface of the earth,

¹⁶the name of Jonathan must never be allowed by the family of David to die out from among you, or the LORD will make you answer for it."

¹⁷And in his love for David, Jonathan renewed his oath to him, because he loved him as his very self.)

¹⁸Jonathan then said to him: "Tomorrow is the new moon; and you will be missed, since your place will be vacant.

¹⁹On the following day you will be missed all the more. Go to the spot where you hid on the other occasion and wait near the mound there.

²⁰On the third day of the month I will shoot arrows, as though aiming at a target.

²¹I will then send my attendant to go and recover the arrows. If in fact I say to him, 'Look, the arrow is this side of you; pick it up,' come, for you are safe. As the LORD lives, there will be nothing to fear.

²²But if I say to the boy, 'Look, the arrow is beyond you,' go, for the LORD sends you away.

²³However, in the matter which you and I have discussed, the LORD shall be between you and me forever."

²⁴So David hid in the open country. On the day of the new moon, when the king sat at table to dine,

²⁵taking his usual place against the wall, Jonathan sat facing him, while Abner sat at the king's side, and David's place was vacant.

²⁶Saul, however, said nothing that day, for he thought, "He must have become unclean by accident, and not yet have been cleansed."

²⁷On the next day, the second day of the month, David's place was vacant. Saul inquired of his son Jonathan, "Why has the son of Jesse not come to table yesterday or today?"

²⁸Jonathan answered Saul: "David urgently asked me to let him go to his city, Bethlehem.

²⁹'Please let me go,' he begged, 'for we are to have a clan sacrifice in our city, and my brothers insist on my presence. Now, therefore, if you think well of me, give me leave to visit my brothers.' That is why he has not come to the king's table."

³⁰But Saul was extremely angry with Jonathan and said to him: "Son of a rebellious woman, do I not know that, to your own shame and to the disclosure of your mother's shame, you are the companion of Jesse's son?

³¹Why, as long as the son of Jesse lives upon the earth, you cannot make good your claim to the kingship! So send for him, and bring him to me, for he is doomed."

³²But Jonathan asked his father Saul: "Why should he die? What has he done?"

³³At this Saul brandished his spear to strike him, and thus Jonathan learned that his father was resolved to kill David.

³⁴Jonathan sprang up from the table in great anger and took no food that second day of the month, for he was grieved on David's account, since his father had railed against him.

³⁵The next morning Jonathan went out into the field with a little boy for his appointment with David.

³⁶There he said to the boy, "Run and fetch the arrow." And as the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him in the direction of the city.

³⁷When the boy made for the spot where Jonathan had shot the arrow, Jonathan called after him, "The arrow is farther on!"

³⁸Again he called to his lad, "Hurry, be quick, don't delay!" Jonathan's boy picked up the arrow and brought it to his master.

³⁹The boy knew nothing; only Jonathan and David knew what was meant.

⁴⁰Then Jonathan gave his weapons to this boy of his and said to him, "Go, take them to the city."

⁴¹When the boy had left, David rose from beside the mound and prostrated himself on the ground three times before Jonathan in homage. They kissed each other and wept aloud together.

⁴²At length Jonathan said to David, "Go in peace, in keeping with what we two have sworn by the name of the LORD: 'The LORD shall be between you and me, and between your posterity and mine forever.'"

21Then David departed on his way, while Jonathan went back into the city.

²David went to Ahimelech, the priest of Nob, who came trembling to meet him and asked, "Why are you alone? Is there no one with you?"

³David answered the priest: "The king gave me a commission and told me to let no one know anything about the business on which he sent me or the commission he gave me. For that reason I have arranged a meeting place with my men.

⁴Now what have you on hand? Give me five loaves, or whatever you can find."

⁵But the priest replied to David, "I have no ordinary bread on hand, only holy bread; if the men have abstained from women, you may eat some of that."

⁶David answered the priest: "We have indeed been segregated from women as on previous occasions. Whenever I go on a journey, all the young men are consecrated--even for a secular journey. All the more so today, when they are consecrated at arms!"

⁷So the priest gave him holy bread, for no other bread was on hand except the showbread which had been removed from the LORD'S presence and replaced by fresh bread when it was taken away.

⁸One of Saul's servants was there that day, detained before the LORD; his name was Doeg the Edomite, and he was Saul's chief henchman.

⁹David then asked Ahimelech: "Do you have a spear or a sword on hand? I brought along neither my sword nor my weapons, because the king's business was urgent."

¹⁰The priest replied: "The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Vale of the Terebinth, is here (wrapped in a mantle) behind an ephod. If you wish to take that, take it; there is no sword here except that one." David said: "There is none to match it. Give it to me!"

¹¹That same day David took to flight from Saul, going to Achish, king of Gath.

¹²But the servants of Achish said, "Is this not David, the king of the land? During their dances do they not sing, 'Saul has slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands'?"

¹³David took note of these remarks and became very much afraid of Achish, king of Gath.

¹⁴So, as they watched, he feigned insanity and acted like a madman in their hands, drumming on the doors of the gate and drooling onto his beard.

¹⁵Finally Achish said to his servants: "You see the man is mad. Why did you bring him to me?

¹⁶Do I not have enough madmen, that you bring in this one to carry on in my presence? Should this fellow come into my house?"

22David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and the rest of his family heard about it, they came down to him there.

²He was joined by all those who were in difficulties or in debt, or who were embittered, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him.

³From there David went to Mizpeh of Moab and said to the king of Moab, "Let my father and mother stay with you, until I learn what God will do for me."

⁴He left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him as long as David remained in the refuge.

⁵But the prophet Gad said to David: "Do not remain in the refuge. Leave, and go to the land of Judah." And so David left and went to the forest of Hereth.

⁶Now Saul heard that David and his men had been located. At the time he was sitting in Gibeah under a tamarisk tree on the high place, holding his spear, while all his servants were standing by.

⁷So he said to them: "Listen, men of Benjamin! Will the son of Jesse give all of you fields and vineyards? Will he make each of you an officer over a thousand or a hundred men,

⁸that you have all conspired against me and no one tells me that my son has made an agreement with the son of Jesse? None of you shows sympathy for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant to be an enemy against me, as is the case today."

⁹Then Doeg the Edomite, who was standing with the officers of Saul, spoke up: "I saw the son of Jesse come to Ahimelech, son of Ahitub, in Nob.

¹⁰He consulted the LORD for him and gave him supplies, and the sword of Goliath the Philistine as well."

¹¹At this the king sent a summons to Ahimelech the priest, son of Ahitub, and to all his family who were priests in Nob; and they all came to the king.

¹²Then Saul said, "Listen, son of Ahitub!" He replied, "Yes, my lord."

¹³Saul asked him, "Why did you conspire against me with the son of Jesse by giving him food and a sword and by consulting God for him, that he might rebel against me and become my enemy, as is the case today?"

¹⁴Ahimelech answered the king: "And who among all your servants is as loyal as David, the king's son-in-law, captain of your bodyguard, and honored in your own house?

¹⁵Is this the first time I have consulted God for him? No indeed! Let not the king accuse his servant or anyone in my family of such a thing. Your servant knows nothing at all, great or small, about the whole matter."

¹⁶But the king said, "You shall die, Ahimelech, with all your family."

¹⁷The king then commanded his henchmen standing by: "Make the rounds and kill the priests of the LORD, for they assisted David. They knew he was a fugitive and yet failed to inform me." But the king's servants refused to lift a hand to strike the priests of the LORD.

¹⁸The king therefore commanded Doeg, "You make the rounds and kill the priests!" So Doeg the Edomite went from one to the next and killed the priests himself, slaying on that day eighty-five who wore the linen ephod.

¹⁹Saul also put the priestly city of Nob to the sword, including men and women, children and infants, and oxen, asses and sheep.

²⁰One son of Ahimelech, son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled to David.

²¹When Abiathar told David that Saul had slain the priests of the LORD,

²²David said to him: "I knew that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I am responsible for the death of all your family.

²³Stay with me. Fear nothing; he that seeks your life must seek my life also. You are under my protection."

23David received information that the Philistines were attacking Keilah and plundering the threshing floors.

²So he consulted the LORD, inquiring, "Shall I go and defeat these Philistines?" The LORD answered, "Go, for you will defeat the Philistines and rescue Keilah."

³But David's men said to him: "We are afraid here in Judah. How much more so if we go to Keilah against the forces of the Philistines!"

⁴Again David consulted the LORD, who answered, "Go down to Keilah, for I will deliver the Philistines into your power."

⁵David then went with his men to Keilah and fought with the Philistines. He drove off their cattle and inflicted a severe defeat on them, and thus rescued the inhabitants of Keilah.

⁶Abiathar, son of Ahimelech, who had fled to David, went down with David to Keilah, taking the ephod with him.

⁷When Saul was told that David had entered Keilah, he said: "God has put him in my grip. Now he has shut himself in, for he has entered a city with gates and bars."

⁸Saul then called all the people to war, in order to go down to Keilah and besiege David and his men.

⁹When David found out that Saul was planning to harm him, he said to the priest Abiathar, "Bring forward the ephod."

¹⁰David then said: "O LORD God of Israel, your servant has heard a report that Saul plans to come to Keilah, to destroy the city on my account.

¹¹Will they hand me over? And now: will Saul come down as your servant has heard? O LORD God of Israel, tell your servant." The LORD answered, "He will come down."

¹²David then asked, "Will the citizens of Keilah deliver me and my men into the grasp of Saul?" And the LORD answered, "Yes."

¹³So David and his men, about six hundred in number, left Keilah and wandered from place to place. When Saul was informed that David had escaped from Keilah, he abandoned the expedition.

¹⁴David now lived in the refuges in the desert, or in the barren hill country near Ziph. Though Saul sought him continually, the LORD did not deliver David into his grasp.

¹⁵David was apprehensive because Saul had come out to seek his life; but while he was at Horesh in the barrens near Ziph,

¹⁶Saul's son, Jonathan, came down there to David and strengthened his resolve in the LORD.

¹⁷He said to him: "Have no fear, my father Saul shall not lay a hand to you. You shall be king of Israel and I shall be second to you. Even my father Saul knows this."

¹⁸They made a joint agreement before the LORD in Horesh, where David remained, while Jonathan returned to his home.

¹⁹Some of the Ziphites went up to Saul in Gibeah and said, "David is hiding among us, now in the refuges, and again at Horesh, or on the hill of Hachilah, south of the wasteland.

²⁰Therefore, whenever the king wishes to come down, let him do so. It will be our task to deliver him into the king's grasp."

²¹Saul replied: "The LORD bless you for your sympathy toward me.

²²Go now and make sure once more! Take note of the place where he sets foot" (for he thought, perhaps they are playing some trick on me).

²³"Look around and learn in which of all the various hiding places he is holding out. Then come back to me with sure information, and I will go with you. If he is in the region, I will search him out among all the families of Judah."

²⁴So they went off to Ziph ahead of Saul. At this time David and his men were in the desert below Maon, in the Arabah south of the wasteland.

²⁵When Saul and his men came looking for him, David got word of it and went down to the gorge in the desert below Maon. Saul heard of this and pursued David into the desert below Maon.

²⁶As Saul moved along one rim of the gorge, David and his men took to the other. David was in anxious flight to escape Saul, and Saul and his men were attempting to outflank David and his men in order to capture them,

²⁷when a messenger came to Saul, saying, "Come quickly, because the Philistines have invaded the land."

²⁸Saul interrupted his pursuit of David and went to meet the Philistines. This is how that place came to be called the Gorge of Divisions.

24David then went up from there and stayed in the refuges behind Engedi.

²And when Saul returned from the pursuit of the Philistines, he was told that David was in the desert near Engedi.

³So Saul took three thousand picked men from all Israel and went in search of David and his men in the direction of the wild goat crags.

⁴When he came to the sheepfolds along the way, he found a cave, which he entered to ease nature. David and his men were occupying the inmost recesses of the cave.

⁵David's servants said to him, "This is the day of which the LORD said to you, 'I will deliver your enemy into your grasp; do with him as you see fit.'" So David moved up and stealthily cut off an end of Saul's mantle.

⁶Afterward, however, David regretted that he had cut off an end of Saul's mantle.

⁷He said to his men, "The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the LORD'S anointed, as to lay a hand on him, for he is the Lord's anointed."

⁸With these words David restrained his men and would not permit them to attack Saul. Saul then left the cave and went on his way.

⁹David also stepped out of the cave, calling to Saul, "My lord the king!" When Saul looked back, David bowed to the ground in homage

¹⁰and asked Saul: "Why do you listen to those who say, 'David is trying to harm you'?

¹¹You see for yourself today that the LORD just now delivered you into my grasp in the cave. I had some thought of killing you, but I took pity on you instead. I decided, 'I will not raise a hand against my lord, for he is the LORD'S anointed and a father to me.'

¹²Look here at this end of your mantle which I hold. Since I cut off an end of your mantle and did not kill you, see and be convinced that I plan no harm and no rebellion. I have done you no wrong, though you are hunting me down to take my life.

¹³The LORD will judge between me and you, and the LORD will exact justice from you in my case. I shall not touch you.

¹⁴The old proverb says, 'From the wicked comes forth wickedness.' So I will take no action against you.

¹⁵Against whom are you on campaign, O king of Israel? Whom are you pursuing? A dead dog, or a single flea!

¹⁶The LORD will be the judge; he will decide between me and you. May he see this, and take my part, and grant me justice beyond your reach!"

¹⁷When David finished saying these things to Saul, Saul answered, "Is that your voice, my son David?" And he wept aloud.

¹⁸Saul then said to David: "You are in the right rather than I; you have treated me generously, while I have done you harm.

¹⁹Great is the generosity you showed me today, when the LORD delivered me into your grasp and you did not kill me.

²⁰For if a man meets his enemy, does he send him away unharmed? May the LORD reward you generously for what you have done this day.

²¹And now, since I know that you shall surely be king and that sovereignty over Israel shall come into your possession,

²²swear to me by the LORD that you will not destroy my descendants and that you will not blot out my name and family."

²³David gave Saul his oath and Saul returned home, while David and his men went up to the refuge.

25Samuel died, and all Israel gathered to mourn him; they buried him at his home in Ramah.Then David went down to the desert of Maon.

²There was a man of Maon who had property in Carmel; he was very wealthy, owning three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. At this time he was present for the shearing of his flock in Carmel.

³The man was named Nabal, his wife, Abigail. The woman was intelligent and attractive, but Nabal himself, a Calebite, was harsh and ungenerous in his behavior.

⁴When David heard in the desert that Nabal was shearing his flock,

⁵he sent ten young men, instructing them: "Go up to Carmel. Pay Nabal a visit and greet him in my name.

⁶Say to him, 'Peace be with you, my brother, and with your family, and with all who belong to you.

⁷I have just heard that shearers are with you. Now, when your shepherds were with us, we did them no injury, neither did they miss anything all the while they were in Carmel.

⁸Ask your servants and they will tell you so. Look kindly on these young men, since we come at a festival time. Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can manage.'"

⁹When David's young men arrived, they delivered this message fully to Nabal in David's name, and then waited.

¹⁰But Nabal answered the servants of David: "Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? Nowadays there are many servants who run away from their masters.

¹¹Must I take my bread, my wine, my meat that I have slaughtered for my own shearers, and give them to men who come from I know not where?"

¹²So David's young men retraced their steps and on their return reported to him all that had been said.

¹³Thereupon David said to his men, "Let everyone gird on his sword." And so everyone, David included, girded on his sword. About four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained with the baggage.

¹⁴But Nabal's wife Abigail was informed of this by one of the servants, who said: "David sent messengers from the desert to greet our master, but he flew at them screaming.

¹⁵Yet these men were very good to us. We were done no injury, neither did we miss anything all the while we were living among them during our stay in the open country.

¹⁶For us they were like a rampart night and day the whole time we were pasturing the sheep near them.

¹⁷Now, see what you can do, for you must realize that otherwise evil is in store for our master and for his whole family. He is so mean that no one can talk to him."

¹⁸Abigail quickly got together two hundred loaves, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of pressed raisins, and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on asses.

¹⁹She then said to her servants, "Go on ahead; I will follow you." But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

²⁰As she came down through a mountain defile riding on an ass, David and his men were also coming down from the opposite direction. When she met them,

²¹David had just been saying: "Indeed, it was in vain that I guarded all this man's possessions in the desert, so that he missed nothing. He has repaid good with evil.

²²May God do thus and so to David, if by morning I leave a single male alive among all those who belong to him."

²³As soon as Abigail saw David, she dismounted quickly from the ass and, falling prostrate on the ground before David, did him homage.

²⁴As she fell at his feet she said: "My lord, let the blame be mine. Please let your handmaid speak to you, and listen to the words of your handmaid.

²⁵Let not my lord pay attention to that worthless man Nabal, for he is just like his name. Fool is his name, and he acts the fool. I, your handmaid, did not see the young men whom my lord sent.

²⁶Now, therefore, my lord, as the LORD lives, and as you live, it is the LORD who has kept you from shedding blood and from avenging yourself personally. May your enemies and those who seek to harm my lord become as Nabal!

²⁷Accept this present, then, which your maidservant has brought for my lord, and let it be given to the young men who follow my lord.

²⁸Please forgive the transgression of your handmaid, for the LORD shall certainly establish a lasting dynasty for my lord, because your lordship is fighting the battles of the LORD, and there is no evil to be found in you your whole life long.

²⁹If anyone rises to pursue you and to seek your life, may the life of my lord be bound in the bundle of the living in the care of the LORD your God; but may he hurl out the lives of your enemies as from the hollow of a sling.

³⁰And when the LORD carries out for my lord the promise of success he has made concerning you, and appoints you as commander over Israel,

³¹you shall not have this as a qualm or burden on your conscience, my lord, for having shed innocent blood or for having avenged yourself personally. When the LORD confers this benefit on your lordship, remember your handmaid."

³²David said to Abigail: "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you to meet me today.

³³Blessed be your good judgment and blessed be you yourself, who this day have prevented me from shedding blood and from avenging myself personally.

³⁴Otherwise, as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from harming you, if you had not come so promptly to meet me, by dawn Nabal would not have had a single man or boy left alive."

³⁵David then took from her what she had brought him and said to her: "Go up to your home in peace! See, I have granted your request as a personal favor."

³⁶When Abigail came to Nabal, there was a drinking party in his house like that of a king, and Nabal was merry because he was very drunk. So she told him nothing at all before daybreak the next morning.

³⁷But then, when Nabal had become sober, his wife told him what had happened. At this his courage died within him, and he became like a stone.

³⁸About ten days later the LORD struck him and he died.

³⁹On hearing that Nabal was dead, David said: "Blessed be the LORD, who has requited the insult I received at the hand of Nabal, and who restrained his servant from doing evil, but has punished Nabal for his own evil deeds." David then sent a proposal of marriage to Abigail.

⁴⁰When David's servants came to Abigail in Carmel, they said to her, "David has sent us to you that he may take you as his wife."

⁴¹Rising and bowing to the ground, she answered, "Your handmaid would become a slave to wash the feet of my lord's servants."

⁴²She got up immediately, mounted an ass, and followed David's messengers, with her five maids following in attendance upon her. She became his wife,

⁴³and David also married Ahinoam of Jezreel. Thus both of them were his wives; but Saul gave David's wife Michal, Saul's own daughter, to Palti, son of Laish, who was from Gallim.

26Men from Ziph came to Saul in Gibeah, reporting that David was hiding on the hill of Hachilah at the edge of the wasteland.

²So Saul went off down to the desert of Ziph with three thousand picked men of Israel, to search for David in the desert of Ziph.

³Saul camped beside the road on the hill of Hachilah, at the edge of the wasteland. David, who was living in the desert, saw that Saul had come into the desert after him

⁴and sent out scouts, who confirmed Saul's arrival.

⁵David himself then went to the place where Saul was encamped and examined the spot where Saul and Abner, son of Ner, the general, had their sleeping quarters. Saul's were within the barricade, and all his soldiers were camped around him.

⁶David asked Ahimelech the Hittite, and Abishai, son of Zeruiah and brother of Joab, "Who will go down into the camp with me to Saul?" Abishai replied, "I will."

⁷So David and Abishai went among Saul's soldiers by night and found Saul lying asleep within the barricade, with his spear thrust into the ground at his head and Abner and his men sleeping around him.

⁸Abishai whispered to David: "God has delivered your enemy into your grasp this day. Let me nail him to the ground with one thrust of the spear; I will not need a second thrust!"

⁹But David said to Abishai, "Do not harm him, for who can lay hands on the LORD'S anointed and remain unpunished?

¹⁰As the LORD lives," David continued, "it must be the LORD himself who will strike him, whether the time comes for him to die, or he goes out and perishes in battle.

¹¹But the LORD forbid that I touch his anointed! Now take the spear which is at his head and the water jug, and let us be on our way."

¹²So David took the spear and the water jug from their place at Saul's head, and they got away without anyone's seeing or knowing or awakening. All remained asleep, because the LORD had put them into a deep slumber.

¹³Going across to an opposite slope, David stood on a remote hilltop at a great distance from Abner, son of Ner, and the troops.

¹⁴He then shouted, "Will you not answer, Abner?" And Abner answered, "Who is it that calls me?"

¹⁵David said to Abner: "Are you not a man whose like does not exist in Israel? Why, then, have you not guarded your lord the king when one of his subjects went to kill the king, your lord?

¹⁶This is no creditable service you have performed. As the LORD lives, you people deserve death because you have not guarded your lord, the LORD'S anointed. Go, look: where are the king's spear and the water jug that was at his head?"

¹⁷Saul recognized David's voice and asked, "Is that your voice, my son David?" David answered, "Yes, my lord the king."

¹⁸He continued: "Why does my lord pursue his servant? What have I done? What evil do I plan?

¹⁹Please, now, let my lord the king listen to the words of his servant. If the LORD has incited you against me, let an offering appease him; but if men, may they be cursed before the LORD, because they have exiled me so that this day I have no share in the LORD'S inheritance, but am told: 'Go serve other gods!'

²⁰Do not let my blood flow to the ground far from the presence of the LORD. For the king of Israel has come out to seek a single flea as if he were hunting partridge in the mountains."

²¹Then Saul said: "I have done wrong. Come back, my son David, I will not harm you again, because you have held my life precious today. Indeed, I have been a fool and have made a serious mistake."

²²But David answered: "Here is the king's spear. Let an attendant come over to get it.

²³The LORD will reward each man for his justice and faithfulness. Today, though the LORD delivered you into my grasp, I would not harm the LORD'S anointed.

²⁴As I valued your life highly today, so may the LORD value my life highly and deliver me from all difficulties."

²⁵Then Saul said to David: "Blessed are you, my son David! You shall certainly succeed in whatever you undertake." David went his way, and Saul returned to his home.

27But David said to himself: "I shall perish some day at the hand of Saul. I have no choice but to escape to the land of the Philistines; then Saul will give up his continual search for me throughout the land of Israel, and I shall be out of his reach."

²Accordingly, David departed with his six hundred men and went over to Achish, son of Maoch, king of Gath.

³David and his men lived in Gath with Achish; each one had his family, and David had his two wives, Ahinoam from Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal from Carmel.

⁴When Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, he no longer searched for him.

⁵David said to Achish: "If I meet with your approval, let me have a place to live in one of the country towns. Why should your servant live with you in the royal city?"

⁶That same day Achish gave him Ziklag, which has, therefore, belonged to the kings of Judah up to the present time.

⁷In all, David lived a year and four months in the country of the Philistines.

⁸David and his men went up and made raids on the Geshurites, Girzites, and Amalekites-peoples living in the land between Telam, on the approach to Shur, and the land of Egypt.

⁹In attacking the land David would not leave a man or woman alive, but would carry off sheep, oxen, asses, camels, and clothes. On his return he brought these to Achish,

¹⁰who asked, "Whom did you raid this time?" And David answered, "The Negeb of Judah," or "The Negeb of Jerahmeel," or "The Negeb of the Kenites."

¹¹But David would not leave a man or woman alive to be brought to Gath, fearing that they would betray him by saying, "This is what David did." This was his custom as long as he lived in the country of the Philistines.

¹²And Achish trusted David, thinking, "He must certainly be detested by his people Israel. I shall have him as my vassal forever."

28In those days the Philistines mustered their military forces to fight against Israel. So Achish said to David, "You realize, of course, that you and your men must go out on campaign with me to Jezreel."

²David answered Achish, "Good! Now you shall learn what your servant can do." Then Achish said to David, "I shall appoint you my permanent bodyguard."

³Now Samuel had died and, after being mourned by all Israel, was buried in his city, Ramah. Meanwhile Saul had driven mediums and fortune-tellers out of the land.

⁴The Philistine levies advanced to Shunem and encamped. Saul, too, mustered all Israel; they camped on Gilboa.

⁵When Saul saw the camp of the Philistines, he was dismayed and lost heart completely.

⁶He therefore consulted the LORD; but the LORD gave no answer, whether in dreams or by the Urim or through prophets.

⁷Then Saul said to his servants, "Find me a woman who is a medium, to whom I can go to seek counsel through her." His servants answered him, "There is a woman in Endor who is a medium."

⁸So he disguised himself, putting on other clothes, and set out with two companions. They came to the woman by night, and Saul said to her, "Tell my fortune through a ghost; conjure up for me the one I ask you to."

⁹But the woman answered him, "You are surely aware of what Saul has done, in driving the mediums and fortune-tellers out of the land. Why, then, are you laying snares for my life, to have me killed?"

¹⁰But Saul swore to her by the LORD, "As the LORD lives, you shall incur no blame for this."

¹¹Then the woman asked him, "Whom do you want me to conjure up?" and he answered, "Samuel."

¹²When the woman saw Samuel, she shrieked at the top of her voice and said to Saul, "Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!"

¹³But the king said to her, "Have no fear. What do you see?" The woman answered Saul, "I see a preternatural being rising from the earth."

¹⁴"What does he look like?" asked Saul. And she replied, "It is an old man who is rising, clothed in a mantle." Saul knew that it was Samuel, and so he bowed face to the ground in homage.

¹⁵Samuel then said to Saul, "Why do you disturb me by conjuring me up?" Saul replied: "I am in great straits, for the Philistines are waging war against me and God has abandoned me. Since he no longer answers me through prophets or in dreams, I have called you to tell me what I should do."

¹⁶To this Samuel said: "But why do you ask me, if the LORD has abandoned you and is with your neighbor?

¹⁷The LORD has done to you what he foretold through me: he has torn the kingdom from your grasp and has given it to your neighbor David.

¹⁸"Because you disobeyed the LORD'S directive and would not carry out his fierce anger against Amalek, the LORD has done this to you today.

¹⁹Moreover, the LORD will deliver Israel, and you as well, into the clutches of the Philistines. By tomorrow you and your sons will be with me, and the LORD will have delivered the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines."

²⁰Immediately Saul fell full length on the ground, for he was badly shaken by Samuel's message. Moreover, he had no bodily strength left, since he had eaten nothing all that day and night.

²¹Then the woman came to Saul, and seeing that he was quite terror-stricken, said to him: "Remember, your maidservant obeyed you: I took my life in my hands and fulfilled the request you made of me.

²²Now you, in turn, please listen to your maidservant. Let me set something before you to eat, so that you may have strength when you go on your way."

²³But he refused, saying, "I will not eat." However, when his servants joined the woman in urging him, he listened to their entreaties, got up from the ground, and sat on a couch.

²⁴The woman had a stall-fed calf in the house, which she now quickly slaughtered. Then taking flour, she kneaded it and baked unleavened bread.

²⁵She set the meal before Saul and his servants, and they ate. Then they stood up and left the same night.

29Now the Philistines had mustered all their forces in Aphek, and the Israelites were encamped at the spring of Harod near Jezreel.

²As the Philistine lords were marching their groups of a hundred and a thousand, David and his men were marching in the rear guard with Achish.

³The Philistine chiefs asked, "What are those Hebrews doing here?" And Achish answered them: "Why, that is David, the officer of Saul, king of Israel. He has been with me now for a year or two, and I have no fault to find with him from the day he came over to me until the present."

⁴But the Philistine chiefs were angered at this and said to him: "Send that man back! Let him return to the place you picked out for him. He must not go down into battle with us, lest during the battle he become our enemy. For how else can he win back his master's favor, if not with the heads of these men of ours?

⁵Is this not the David of whom they sing during their dances, 'Saul has slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands'?"

⁶So Achish summoned David and said to him: "As the LORD lives, you are honest, and I should be pleased to have you active with me in the camp, for I have found nothing wrong with you from the day of your arrival to this day. But you are not welcome to the lords.

⁷Withdraw peaceably, now, and do nothing that might displease the Philistine lords."

⁸But David said to Achish: "What have I done? Or what have you against your servant from the first day I have been with you to this day, that I cannot go to fight against the enemies of my lord the king?"

⁹"You know," Achish answered David, "that you are acceptable to me. But the Philistine chiefs have determined you are not to go up with us to battle.

¹⁰So the first thing tomorrow, you and your lord's servants who came with you, go to the place I picked out for you. Do not decide to take umbrage at this; you are as acceptable to me as an angel of God. But make an early morning start, as soon as it grows light, and be on your way."

¹¹So David and his men left early in the morning to return to the land of the Philistines. The Philistines, however, went on up to Jezreel.

30Before David and his men reached Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had raided the Negeb and Ziklag, had stormed the city, and had set it on fire.

²They had taken captive the women and all who were in the city, young and old, killing no one; they had carried them off when they left.

³David and his men arrived at the city to find it burned to the ground and their wives, sons and daughters taken captive.

⁴Then David and those who were with him wept aloud until they could weep no more.

⁵David's two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal from Carmel, had also been carried off with the rest.

⁶Now David found himself in great difficulty, for the men spoke of stoning him, so bitter were they over the fate of their sons and daughters. But with renewed trust in the LORD his God,

⁷David said to Abiathar, the priest, son of Ahimelech, "Bring me the ephod!" When Abiathar brought him the ephod,

⁸David inquired of the LORD, "Shall I pursue these raiders? Can I overtake them?" The LORD answered him, "Go in pursuit, for you shall surely overtake them and effect a rescue."

⁹So David went off with his six hundred men and came as far as the Wadi Besor, where those who were to remain behind halted.

¹⁰David continued the pursuit with four hundred men, but two hundred were too exhausted to cross the Wadi Besor and remained behind.

¹¹An Egyptian was found in the open country and brought to David. He was provided with food, which he ate, and given water to drink;

¹²a cake of pressed figs and two cakes of pressed raisins were also offered to him. When he had eaten, he revived; he had not taken food nor drunk water for three days and three nights.

¹³Then David asked him, "To whom do you belong, and where do you come from?" He replied: "I am an Egyptian, the slave of an Amalekite. My master abandoned me because I fell sick three days ago today.

¹⁴We raided the Negeb of the Cherethites, the territory of Judah, and the Negeb of Caleb; and we set Ziklag on fire."

¹⁵David then asked him, "Will you lead me down to this raiding party?" He answered, "Swear to me by God that you will not kill me or deliver me to my master, and I will lead you to the raiding party."

¹⁶He did lead them, and there were the Amalekites scattered all over the ground, eating, drinking, and in a festive mood because of all the rich booty they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.

¹⁷From dawn to sundown David attacked them, putting them under the ban so that none escaped except four hundred young men, who mounted their camels and fled.

¹⁸David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken, and rescued his two wives.

¹⁹Nothing was missing, small or great, booty or sons or daughters, of all that the Amalekites had taken. David brought back everything.

²⁰Moreover, David took all the sheep and oxen, and as they drove these before him, they shouted, "This is David's spoil!"

²¹When David came to the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to follow him, and whom he had left behind at the Wadi Besor, they came out to meet David and the men with him. On nearing them David greeted them.

²²But all the stingy and worthless men among those who had accompanied David spoke up to say, "Since they did not accompany us, we will not give them anything from the booty, except to each man his wife and children. Let them take those along and be on their way."

²³But David said: "You must not do this, my brothers, after what the LORD has given us. He has protected us and delivered into our grip the band that came against us.

²⁴Who could agree with this proposal of yours? Rather, the share of the one who goes down to battle and that of the one who remains with the baggage shall be the same; they shall share alike."

²⁵And from that day forward he made it a law and a custom in Israel, as it still is today.

²⁶When David came to Ziklag, he sent part of the spoil to the elders of Judah, city by city, saying, "This is a gift to you from the spoil of the enemies of the LORD":

²⁷to those in Bethel, to those in Ramoth-negeb, to those in Jattir,

²⁸to those in Aroer, to those in Siphmoth, to those in Eshtemoa,

²⁹to those in Racal, to those in the Jerahmeelite cities, to those in the Kenite cities,

³⁰to those in Hormah, to those in Borashan, to those in Athach,

³¹to those in Hebron, and to all the places frequented by David and his men.

31As they pressed their attack on Israel, with the Israelites fleeing before them and falling mortally wounded on Mount Gilboa,

²the Philistines pursued Saul and his sons closely, and slew Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, sons of Saul.

³The battle raged around Saul, and the archers hit him; he was pierced through the abdomen.

⁴Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword and run me through, lest these uncircumcised come and make sport of me." But his armor-bearer, badly frightened, refused to do it. So Saul took his own sword and fell upon it.

⁵When the armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell upon his sword and died with him.

⁶Thus Saul, his three sons, and his armor-bearer died together on that same day.

⁷When the Israelites on the slope of the valley and those along the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they too abandoned their cities and fled. Then the Philistines came and lived in those cities.

⁸The day after the battle the Philistines came to strip the slain, and found Saul and his three sons lying on Mount Gilboa.

⁹They cut off Saul's head and stripped him of his armor, and then sent the good news throughout the land of the Philistines to their idols and to the people.

¹⁰They put his armor in the temple of Astarte, but impaled his body on the wall of Bethshan.

¹¹When the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul,

¹²all their warriors set out, and after marching throughout the night, removed the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, and brought them to Jabesh, where they cremated them.

¹³Then they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted for seven days.

1After the death of Saul, David returned from his defeat of the Amalekites and spent two days in Ziklag.

²On the third day a man came from Saul's camp, with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. Going to David, he fell to the ground in homage.

³David asked him, "Where do you come from?" He replied, "I have escaped from the Israelite camp."

⁴"Tell me what happened," David bade him. He answered that the soldiers had fled the battle and that many of them had fallen and were dead, among them Saul and his son Jonathan.

⁵Then David said to the youth who was reporting to him, "How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?"

⁶The youthful informant replied: "It was by chance that I found myself on Mount Gilboa and saw Saul leaning on his spear, with chariots and horsemen closing in on him.

⁷He turned around and, seeing me, called me to him. When I said, 'Here I am,'

⁸he asked me, 'Who are you?' and I replied, 'An Amalekite.'

⁹Then he said to me, 'Stand up to me, please, and finish me off, for I am in great suffering, yet fully alive.'

¹⁰So I stood up to him and dispatched him, for I knew that he could not survive his wound. I removed the crown from his head and the armlet from his arm and brought them here to my lord."

¹¹David seized his garments and rent them, and all the men who were with him did likewise.

¹²They mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the soldiers of the LORD of the clans of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.

¹³Then David said to the young man who had brought him the information, "Where are you from?" He replied, "I am the son of an Amalekite immigrant."

¹⁴David said to him, "How is it that you were not afraid to put forth your hand to desecrate the LORD'S anointed?"

¹⁵David then called one of the attendants and said to him, "Come, strike him down"; and the youth struck him a mortal blow.

¹⁶Meanwhile David said to him, "You are responsible for your own death, for you testified against yourself when you said, 'I dispatched the LORD'S anointed.'"

¹⁷Then David chanted this elegy for Saul and his son Jonathan,

¹⁸which is recorded in the Book of Jashar to be taught to the Judahites. He sang:

¹⁹"Alas! the glory of Israel, Saul, slain upon your heights; how can the warriors have fallen!

²⁰"Tell it not in Gath, herald it not in the streets of Ashkelon, Lest the Philistine maidens rejoice, lest the daughters of the strangers exult!

²¹Mountains of Gilboa, may there be neither dew nor rain upon you, nor upsurgings of the deeps! Upon you lie begrimed the warriors' shields, the shield of Saul, no longer anointed with oil.

²²"From the blood of the slain, from the bodies of the valiant, The bow of Jonathan did not turn back, or the sword of Saul return unstained.

²³Saul and Jonathan, beloved and cherished, separated neither in life nor in death, swifter than eagles, stronger than lions!

²⁴Women of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet and in finery, who decked your attire with ornaments of gold.

²⁵"How can the warriors have fallen-- in the thick of the battle, slain upon your heights!

²⁶"I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother! most dear have you been to me; More precious have I held love for you than love for women.

²⁷"How can the warriors have fallen, the weapons of war have perished!"

2After this David inquired of the LORD, "Shall I go up into one of the cities of Judah?" The LORD replied to him, "Yes." Then David asked, "Where shall I go?" He replied, "To Hebron."

²So David went up there accompanied by his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel.

³David also brought up his men with their families, and they dwelt in the cities near Hebron.

⁴Then the men of Judah came there and anointed David king of the Judahites.A report reached David that the men of Jabesh-gilead had buried Saul.

⁵So David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh-gilead and said to them: "May you be blessed by the LORD for having done this kindness to your lord Saul in burying him.

⁶And now may the LORD be kind and faithful to you. I, too, will be generous to you for having done this.

⁷Take courage, therefore, and prove yourselves valiant men, for though your lord Saul is dead, the Judahites have anointed me their king."

⁸Abner, son of Ner, Saul's general, took Ishbaal, son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim,

⁹where he made him king over Gilead, the Ashurites, Jezreel, Ephraim, Benjamin, and the rest of Israel.

¹⁰Ishbaal, son of Saul, was forty years old when he became king over Israel, and he reigned for two years. The Judahites alone followed David.

¹¹In all, David spent seven years and six months in Hebron as king of the Judahites.

¹²Now Abner, son of Ner, and the servants of Ishbaal, Saul's son, left Mahanaim for Gibeon.

¹³Joab, son of Zeruiah, and David's servants also set out and met them at the pool of Gibeon. And they sat down, one group on one side of the pool and the other on the opposite side.

¹⁴Then Abner said to Joab, "Let the young men rise and perform for us." Joab replied, "All right!"

¹⁵So they rose and were counted off: twelve of the Benjaminites of Ishbaal, son of Saul, and twelve of David's servants.

¹⁶Then each one grasped his opponent's head and thrust his sword into his opponent's side, and all fell down together. And so that place, which is in Gideon, was named the Field of the Sides.

¹⁷After a very fierce battle that day, Abner and the men of Israel were defeated by David's servants.

¹⁸The three sons of Zeruiah were there-Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. Asahel, who was as fleet of foot as a gazelle in the open field,

¹⁹set out after Abner, turning neither right nor left in his pursuit.

²⁰Abner turned around and said, "Is that you, Asahel?" He replied, "Yes."

²¹Abner said to him, "Turn right or left; seize one of the young men and take what you can strip from him." But Asahel would not desist from his pursuit.

²²Once more Abner said to Asahel: "Stop pursuing me! Why must I strike you to the ground? How could I face your brother Joab?"

²³Still he refused to stop. So Abner struck him in the abdomen with the heel of his javelin, and the weapon protruded from his back. He fell there and died on the spot. And all who came to the place where Asahel had fallen and died, came to a halt.

²⁴Joab and Abishai, however, continued the pursuit of Abner. The sun had gone down when they came to the hill of Ammah which lies east of the valley toward the desert near Geba.

²⁵Here the Benjaminites rallied around Abner, forming a single group, and made a stand on the hilltop.

²⁶Then Abner called to Joab and said: "Must the sword destroy to the utmost? Do you not know that afterward there will be bitterness? How much longer will you refrain from ordering the people to stop the pursuit of their brothers?"

²⁷Joab replied, "As God lives, if you had not spoken, the soldiers would not have been withdrawn from the pursuit of their brothers until morning."

²⁸Joab then sounded the horn, and all the soldiers came to a halt, pursuing Israel no farther and fighting no more.

²⁹Abner and his men marched all night long through the Arabah, crossed the Jordan, marched all through the morning, and came to Mahanaim.

³⁰Joab, after interrupting the pursuit of Abner, assembled all the men. Besides Asahel, nineteen other servants of David were missing.

³¹But David's servants had fatally wounded three hundred and sixty men of Benjamin, followers of Abner.

³²They took up Asahel and buried him in his father's tomb in Bethlehem. Joab and his men made an all-night march, and dawn found them in Hebron.

3There followed a long war between the house of Saul and that of David, in which David grew stronger, but the house of Saul weaker.

²Sons were born to David in Hebron: his first-born, Amnon, of Ahinoam from Jezreel;

³the second, Chileab, of Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel; the third, Absalom, son of Maacah the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur;

⁴the fourth, Adonijah, son of Haggith; the fifth, Shephatiah, son of Abital;

⁵and the sixth, Ithream, of David's wife Eglah. These were born to David in Hebron.

⁶During the war between the house of Saul and that of David, Abner was gaining power in the house of Saul.

⁷Now Saul had had a concubine, Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah. And Ishbaal, son of Saul, said to Abner, "Why have you been intimate with my father's concubine?"

⁸Enraged at the words of Ishbaal, Abner said, "Am I a dog's head in Judah? At present I am doing a kindness to the house of your father Saul, to his brothers and his friends, by keeping you out of David's clutches; yet this day you charge me with a crime involving a woman!

⁹May God do thus and so to Abner if I do not carry out for David what the LORD swore to him--

¹⁰that is, take away the kingdom from the house of Saul and establish the throne of David over Israel and over Judah from Dan to Beersheba."

¹¹In his fear of Abner, Ishbaal was no longer able to say a word to him.

¹²Then Abner sent messengers to David in Telam, where he was at the moment, to say, "Make an agreement with me, and I will aid you by bringing all Israel over to you."

¹³He replied, "Very well, I will make an agreement with you. But one thing I require of you. You must not appear before me unless you bring back Michal, Saul's daughter, when you come to present yourself to me."

¹⁴At the same time David sent messengers to Ishbaal, son of Saul, to say, "Give me my wife Michal, whom I espoused by paying a hundred Philistine foreskins."

¹⁵Ishbaal sent for her and took her away from her husband Paltiel, son of Laish,

¹⁶who followed her weeping as far as Bahurim. But Abner said to him, "Go back!" And he turned back.

¹⁷Abner then said in discussion with the elders of Israel: "For a long time you have been seeking David as your king.

¹⁸Now take action, for the LORD has said of David, 'By my servant David I will save my people Israel from the grasp of the Philistines and from the grasp of all their enemies.'"

¹⁹Abner also spoke personally to Benjamin, and then went to make his own report to David in Hebron concerning all that would be agreeable to Israel and to the whole house of Benjamin.

²⁰When Abner, accompanied by twenty men, came to David in Hebron, David prepared a feast for Abner and for the men who were with him.

²¹Then Abner said to David, "I will now go to assemble all Israel for my lord the king, that they may make an agreement with you; you will then be king over all whom you wish to rule." So David bade Abner farewell, and he went away in peace.

²²Just then David's servants and Joab were coming in from an expedition, bringing much plunder with them. Abner, having been dismissed by David, was no longer with him in Hebron but had gone his way in peace.

²³When Joab and the whole force he had with him arrived, he was informed, "Abner, son of Ner, came to David; he has been sent on his way in peace."

²⁴So Joab went to the king and said: "What have you done? Abner came to you. Why did you let him go peacefully on his way?

²⁵Are you not aware that Abner came to deceive you and to learn the ins and outs of all that you are doing?"

²⁶Joab then left David, and without David's knowledge sent messengers after Abner, who brought him back from the cistern of Sirah.

²⁷When Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside within the city gate as though to speak with him privately. There he stabbed him in the abdomen, and he died in revenge for the killing of Joab's brother Asahel.

²⁸Later David heard of it and said: "Before the LORD; I and my kingdom are forever innocent.

²⁹May the full responsibility for the death of Abner, son of Ner, be laid to Joab and to all his family. May the men of Joab's family never be without one suffering from a discharge, or a leper, or one unmanly, one falling by the sword, or one in need of bread!"

³⁰(Joab and his brother Abishai had lain in wait for Abner because he killed their brother Asahel in battle at Gibeon.)

³¹Then David said to Joab and to all the people who were with him, "Rend your garments, gird yourselves with sackcloth, and mourn over Abner." King David himself followed the bier.

³²When they had buried Abner in Hebron, the king wept aloud at the grave of Abner, and the people also wept.

³³And the king sang this elegy over Abner: "Would Abner have died like a fool?

³⁴Your hands were not bound with chains, nor your feet placed in fetters; As men fall before the wicked, you fell." And all the people continued to weep for him.

³⁵Then they went to console David with food while it was still day. But David swore, "May God do thus and so to me if I eat bread or anything else before sunset."

³⁶All the people noted this with approval, just as they were pleased with everything that the king did.

³⁷So on that day all the people and all Israel came to know that the king had no part in the killing of Abner, son of Ner.

³⁸The king then said to his servants: "You must recognize that a great general has fallen today in Israel.

³⁹Although I am the anointed king, I am weak this day, and these men, the sons of Zeruiah, are too ruthless for me. May the LORD requite the evildoer in accordance with his evil deed."

4When Ishbaal, son of Saul, heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he ceased to resist and all Israel was alarmed.

²Ishbaal, son of Saul, had two company leaders named Baanah and Rechab, sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, of the tribe of Benjamin. (Beeroth, too, was ascribed to Benjamin:

³the Beerothites fled to Gittaim, where they have been resident aliens to this day.

⁴Jonathan, son of Saul, had a son named Meribbaal with crippled feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and his nurse took him up and fled. But in their hasty flight, he fell and became lame.)

⁵The sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, came into the house of Ishbaal during the heat of the day, while he was taking his siesta.

⁶The portress of the house had dozed off while sifting wheat, and was asleep. So Rechab and his brother Baanah slipped past

⁷and entered the house while Ishbaal was lying asleep in his bedroom. They struck and killed him, and cut off his head. Then, taking the head, they traveled on the Arabah road all night long.

⁸They brought the head of Ishbaal to David in Hebron and said to the king: "This is the head of Ishbaal, son of your enemy Saul, who sought your life. Thus has the LORD this day avenged my lord the king on Saul and his posterity."

⁹But David replied to Rechab and his brother Baanah, sons of Rimmon the Beerothite: "As the LORD lives, who rescued me from all difficulty,

¹⁰in Ziklag I seized and put to death the man who informed me of Saul's death, thinking himself the bearer of good news for which I ought to give him a reward.

¹¹How much more now, when wicked men have slain an innocent man in bed at home, must I hold you responsible for his death and destroy you from the earth!"

¹²So at a command from David, the young men killed them and cut off their hands and feet, hanging them up near the pool in Hebron. But he took the head of Ishbaal and buried it in Abner's grave in Hebron.

5All the tribes of Israel came to David in Hebron and said: "Here we are, your bone and your flesh.

²In days past, when Saul was our king, it was you who led the Israelites out and brought them back. And the LORD said to you, 'You shall shepherd my people Israel and shall be commander of Israel.'"

³When all the elders of Israel came to David in Hebron, King David made an agreement with them there before the LORD, and they anointed him king of Israel.

⁴David was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned for forty years:

⁵seven years and six months in Hebron over Judah, and thirty-three years in Jerusalem over all Israel and Judah.

⁶Then the king and his men set out for Jerusalem against the Jebusites who inhabited the region. David was told, "You cannot enter here: the blind and the lame will drive you away!" which was their way of saying, "David cannot enter here."

⁷But David did take the stronghold of Zion, which is the City of David.

⁸On that day David said: "All who wish to attack the Jebusites must strike at them through the water shaft. The lame and the blind shall be the personal enemies of David." That is why it is said, "The blind and the lame shall not enter the palace."

⁹David then dwelt in the stronghold, which was called the City of David; he built up the area from Millo to the palace.

¹⁰David grew steadily more powerful, for the LORD of hosts was with him.

¹¹Hiram, king of Tyre, sent ambassadors to David; he furnished cedar wood, as well as carpenters and masons, who built a palace for David.

¹²And David knew that the LORD had established him as king of Israel and had exalted his rule for the sake of his people Israel.

¹³David took more concubines and wives in Jerusalem after he had come from Hebron, and more sons and daughters were born to him in Jerusalem.

¹⁴These are the names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon,

¹⁵Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia,

¹⁶Elishama, Baaliada, and Eliphelet.

¹⁷When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king of Israel, they all took the field in search of him. On hearing this, David went down to the refuge.

¹⁸The Philistines came and overran the valley of Rephaim.

¹⁹David inquired of the LORD, "Shall I attack the Philistines--will you deliver them into my grip?" The LORD replied to David, "Attack, for I will surely deliver the Philistines into your grip."

²⁰David then went to Baal-perazim, where he defeated them. He said, "The LORD has scattered my enemies before me like waters that have broken free." That is why the place is called Baal-perazim.

²¹They abandoned their gods there, and David and his men carried them away.

²²But the Philistines came up again and overran the valley of Rephaim.

²³So David inquired of the LORD, who replied: "You must not attack frontally, but circle their rear and meet them before the mastic trees.

²⁴When you hear a sound of marching in the tops of the mastic trees, act decisively, for the LORD will have gone forth before you to attack the camp of the Philistines."

²⁵David obeyed the LORD'S command and routed the Philistines from Gibeon as far as Gezer.

6David again assembled all the picked men of Israel, thirty thousand in number.

²Then David and all the people who were with him set out for Baala of Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which bears the name of the LORD of hosts enthroned above the cherubim.

³The ark of God was placed on a new cart and taken away from the house of Abinadab on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, guided the cart,

⁴with Ahio walking before it,

⁵while David and all the Israelites made merry before the LORD with all their strength, with singing and with citharas, harps, tambourines, sistrums and cymbals.

⁶When they came to the threshing floor of Nodan, Uzzah reached out his hand to the ark of God and steadied it, for the oxen were making it tip.

⁷But the LORD was angry with Uzzah; God struck him on that spot, and he died there before God.

⁸David was disturbed because the LORD had vented his anger on Uzzah. (The place has been called Perez-uzzah down to the present day.)

⁹David feared the LORD that day and said, "How can the ark of the LORD come to me?"

¹⁰So David would not have the ark of the LORD brought to him in the City of David, but diverted it to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.

¹¹The ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite for three months, and the LORD blessed Obed-edom and his whole house.

¹²When it was reported to King David that the LORD had blessed the family of Obed-edom and all that belonged to him, David went to bring up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom into the City of David amid festivities.

¹³As soon as the bearers of the ark of the LORD had advanced six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling.

¹⁴Then David, girt with a linen apron, came dancing before the LORD with abandon,

¹⁵as he and all the Israelites were bringing up the ark of the LORD with shouts of joy and to the sound of the horn.

¹⁶As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Saul's daughter Michal looked down through the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, and she despised him in her heart.

¹⁷The ark of the LORD was brought in and set in its place within the tent David had pitched for it. Then David offered holocausts and peace offerings before the LORD.

¹⁸When he finished making these offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD of hosts.

¹⁹He then distributed among all the people, to each man and each woman in the entire multitude of Israel, a loaf of bread, a cut of roast meat, and a raisin cake. With this, all the people left for their homes.

²⁰When David returned to bless his own family, Saul's daughter Michal came out to meet him and said, "How the king of Israel has honored himself today, exposing himself to the view of the slave girls of his followers, as a commoner might do!"

²¹But David replied to Michal: "I was dancing before the LORD. As the LORD lives, who preferred me to your father and his whole family when he appointed me commander of the LORD'S people, Israel, not only will I make merry before the LORD,

²²but I will demean myself even more. I will be lowly in your esteem, but in the esteem of the slave girls you spoke of I will be honored."

²³And so Saul's daughter Michal was childless to the day of her death.

7When King David was settled in his palace, and the LORD had given him rest from his enemies on every side,

²he said to Nathan the prophet, "Here I am living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God dwells in a tent!"

³Nathan answered the king, "Go, do whatever you have in mind, for the LORD is with you."

⁴But that night the LORD spoke to Nathan and said:

⁵"Go, tell my servant David, 'Thus says the LORD: Should you build me a house to dwell in?

⁶I have not dwelt in a house from the day on which I led the Israelites out of Egypt to the present, but I have been going about in a tent under cloth.

⁷In all my wanderings everywhere among the Israelites, did I ever utter a word to any one of the judges whom I charged to tend my people Israel, to ask: Why have you not built me a house of cedar?'

⁸"Now then, speak thus to my servant David, 'The LORD of hosts has this to say: It was I who took you from the pasture and from the care of the flock to be commander of my people Israel.

⁹I have been with you wherever you went, and I have destroyed all your enemies before you. And I will make you famous like the great ones of the earth.

¹⁰I will fix a place for my people Israel; I will plant them so that they may dwell in their place without further disturbance. Neither shall the wicked continue to afflict them as they did of old,

¹¹since the time I first appointed judges over my people Israel. I will give you rest from all your enemies. The LORD also reveals to you that he will establish a house for you.

¹²And when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm.

¹³It is he who shall build a house for my name. And I will make his royal throne firm forever.

¹⁴I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. And if he does wrong, I will correct him with the rod of men and with human chastisements;

¹⁵but I will not withdraw my favor from him as I withdrew it from your predecessor Saul, whom I removed from my presence.

¹⁶Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.'"

¹⁷Nathan reported all these words and this entire vision to David.

¹⁸Then King David went in and sat before the LORD and said, "Who am I, Lord GOD, and who are the members of my house, that you have brought me to this point?

¹⁹Yet even this you see as too little, Lord GOD; you have also spoken of the house of your servant for a long time to come: this too you have shown to man, Lord GOD!

²⁰What more can David say to you? You know your servant, Lord GOD!

²¹For your servant's sake and as you have had at heart, you have brought about this entire magnificent disclosure to your servant.

²²And so-- "Great are you, Lord GOD! There is none like you and there is no God but you, just as we have heard it told.

²³What other nation on earth is there like your people Israel, which God has led, redeeming it as his people; so that you have made yourself renowned by doing this magnificent deed, and by doing awe-inspiring things as you cleared nations and their gods out of the way of your people, which you redeemed for yourself from Egypt?

²⁴You have established for yourself your people Israel as yours forever, and you, LORD, have become their God.

²⁵And now, LORD God, confirm for all time the prophecy you have made concerning your servant and his house, and do as you have promised.

²⁶Your name will be forever great, when men say, 'The LORD of hosts is God of Israel,' and the house of your servant David stands firm before you.

²⁷It is you, LORD of hosts, God of Israel, who said in a revelation to your servant, 'I will build a house for you.' Therefore your servant now finds the courage to make this prayer to you.

²⁸And now, Lord GOD, you are God and your words are truth; you have made this generous promise to your servant.

²⁹Do, then, bless the house of your servant that it may be before you forever; for you, Lord GOD, have promised, and by your blessing the house of your servant shall be blessed forever."

8After this David attacked the Philistines and conquered them, wresting. . . from the Philistines.

²He also defeated Moab and then measured them with a line, making them lie down on the ground. He told off two lengths of line for execution, and a full length to be spared. Thus the Moabites became tributary to David.

³Next David defeated Hadadezer, son of Rehob, king of Zobah, when he went to reestablish his dominion at the Euphrates River.

⁴David captured from him one thousand seven hundred horsemen and twenty thousand foot soldiers. And he hamstrung all the chariot horses, preserving only enough for a hundred chariots.

⁵When the Arameans of Damascus came to the aid of Hadadezer, king of Zobah, David slew twenty-two thousand of them.

⁶David then placed garrisons in Aram of Damascus, and the Arameans became subjects, tributary to David. The LORD brought David victory in all his undertakings.

⁷David also took away the golden shields used by Hadadezer's servants and brought them to Jerusalem. (These Shishak, king of Egypt, took away when he came to Jerusalem in the days of Rehoboam, son of Solomon.)

⁸From Tebah and Berothai, towns of Hadadezer, King David removed a very large quantity of bronze.

⁹When Toi, king of Hamath, heard that David had defeated all the forces of Hadadezer,

¹⁰he sent his son Hadoram to King David to greet him and to congratulate him for his victory over Hadadezer in battle, because Toi had been in many battles with Hadadezer. Hadoram also brought with him articles of silver, gold, and bronze.

¹¹These, too, King David consecrated to the LORD, together with the silver and gold he had taken from every nation he had conquered:

¹²from Edom and Moab, from the Ammonites, from the Philistines, from the Amalekites, and from the plunder of Hadadezer, son of Rehob, king of Zobah.

¹³On his return, David became famous for having slain eighteen thousand Edomites in the Salt Valley;

¹⁴after which he placed garrisons in Edom. Thus all the Edomites became David's subjects, and the LORD brought David victory in all his undertakings.

¹⁵David reigned over all Israel, judging and administering justice to all his people.

¹⁶Joab, son of Zeruiah, was in command of the army. Jehoshaphat, son of Ahilud, was chancellor.

¹⁷Zadok, son of Ahitub, and Ahimelech, son of Abiathar, were priests. Shawsha was scribe.

¹⁸Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, was in command of the Cherethites and Pelethites. And David's sons were priests.

9David asked, "Is there any survivor of Saul's house to whom I may show kindness for the sake of Jonathan?"

²Now there was a servant of the family of Saul named Ziba. He was summoned to David, and the king asked him, "Are you Ziba?" He replied, "Your servant."

³Then the king inquired, "Is there any survivor of Saul's house to whom I may show God's kindness?" Ziba answered the king, "There is still Jonathan's son, whose feet are crippled."

⁴The king said to him, "Where is he?" and Ziba answered, "He is in the house of Machir, son of Ammiel, in Lodebar."

⁵So King David sent for him and had him brought from the house of Machir, son of Ammiel, in Lodebar.

⁶When Meribbaal, son of Jonathan, son of Saul, came to David, he fell prostrate in homage. David said, "Meribbaal," and he answered, "Your servant."

⁷"Fear not," David said to him, "I will surely be kind to you for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the lands of your grandfather Saul, and you shall always eat at my table."

⁸Bowing low, he answered, "What is your servant that you should pay attention to a dead dog like me?"

⁹The king then called Ziba, Saul's attendant, and said to him: "I am giving your lord's son all that belonged to Saul and to all his family.

¹⁰You and your sons and servants must till the land for him. You shall bring in the produce, which shall be food for your lord's family to eat. But Meribbaal, your lord's son, shall always eat at my table." Ziba, who had fifteen sons and twenty servants,

¹¹said to the king, "Your servant shall do just as my lord the king has commanded him." And so Meribbaal ate at David's table like one of the king's sons.

¹²Meribbaal had a young son whose name was Mica; and all the tenants of Ziba's family worked for Meribbaal.

¹³But Meribbaal lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king's table. He was lame in both feet.

10Some time later the king of the Ammonites died, and his son Hanun succeeded him as king.

²David thought, "I will be kind to Hanun, son of Nahash, as his father was kind to me." So David sent his servants with condolences to Hanun for the loss of his father. But when David's servants entered the country of the Ammonites,

³the Ammonite princes said to their lord Hanun: "Do you think that David is honoring your father by sending men with condolences? Is it not rather to explore the city, to spy on it, and to overthrow it, that David has sent his messengers to you?"

⁴Hanun, therefore, seized David's servants and, after shaving off half their beards and cutting away the lower halves of their garments at the buttocks, sent them away.

⁵When he was told of it, King David sent out word to them, since the men were quite ashamed. "Stay in Jericho until your beards grow," he said, "and then come back."

⁶In view of the offense they had given to David, the Ammonites sent for and hired twenty thousand Aramean foot soldiers from Beth-rehob and Zobah, as well as the king of Maacah with one thousand men, and twelve thousand men from Tob.

⁷On learning this, David sent out Joab with the entire levy of trained soldiers.

⁸The Ammonites came out and drew up in battle formation at the entrance of their city gate, while the Arameans of Zobah and Rehob and the men of Tob and Maacah remained apart in the open country.

⁹When Joab saw the battle lines drawn up against him, both front and rear, he made a selection from all the picked troops of Israel and arrayed them against the Arameans.

¹⁰He placed the rest of the soldiers under the command of his brother Abishai, who arrayed them against the Ammonites.

¹¹Joab said, "If the Arameans are stronger than I, you shall help me. But if the Ammonites are stronger than you, I will come to help you.

¹²Be brave; let us prove our valor for the sake of our people and the cities of our God; the LORD will do what he judges best."

¹³When Joab and the soldiers who were with him approached the Arameans for battle, they fled before him.

¹⁴The Ammonites, seeing that the Arameans had fled, also fled from Abishai and withdrew into the city. Joab then ceased his attack on the Ammonites and returned to Jerusalem.

¹⁵Then the Arameans responded to their defeat by Israel with a full mustering of troops;

¹⁶Hadadezer sent for and enlisted Arameans from beyond the Euphrates. They came to Helam, with Shobach, general of Hadadezer's army, at their head.

¹⁷On receiving this news, David assembled all Israel, crossed the Jordan, and went to Helam. The Arameans drew up in formation against David and fought with him.

¹⁸But the Arameans gave way before Israel, and David's men killed seven hundred charioteers and forty thousand of the Aramean foot soldiers. Shobach, general of the army, was struck down and died on the field.

¹⁹All of Hadadezer's vassal kings, in view of their defeat by Israel, then made peace with the Israelites and became their subjects. And the Arameans were afraid to give further aid to the Ammonites.

11At the turn of the year, when kings go out on campaign, David sent out Joab along with his officers and the army of Israel, and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. David, however, remained in Jerusalem.

²One evening David rose from his siesta and strolled about on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing, who was very beautiful.

³David had inquiries made about the woman and was told, "She is Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam, and wife of (Joab's armor-bearer) Uriah the Hittite."

⁴Then David sent messengers and took her. When she came to him, he had relations with her, at a time when she was just purified after her monthly period. She then returned to her house.

⁵But the woman had conceived, and sent the information to David, "I am with child."

⁶David therefore sent a message to Joab, "Send me Uriah the Hittite." So Joab sent Uriah to David.

⁷When he came, David questioned him about Joab, the soldiers, and how the war was going, and Uriah answered that all was well.

⁸David then said to Uriah, "Go down to your house and bathe your feet." Uriah left the palace, and a portion was sent out after him from the king's table.

⁹But Uriah slept at the entrance of the royal palace with the other officers of his lord, and did not go down to his own house.

¹⁰David was told that Uriah had not gone home. So he said to Uriah, "Have you not come from a journey? Why, then, did you not go down to your house?"

¹¹Uriah answered David, "The ark and Israel and Judah are lodged in tents, and my lord Joab and your majesty's servants are encamped in the open field. Can I go home to eat and to drink and to sleep with my wife? As the LORD lives and as you live, I will do no such thing."

¹²Then David said to Uriah, "Stay here today also, I shall dismiss you tomorrow." So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day. On the day following,

¹³David summoned him, and he ate and drank with David, who made him drunk. But in the evening he went out to sleep on his bed among his lord's servants, and did not go down to his home.

¹⁴The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab which he sent by Uriah.

¹⁵In it he directed: "Place Uriah up front, where the fighting is fierce. Then pull back and leave him to be struck down dead."

¹⁶So while Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew the defenders were strong.

¹⁷When the men of the city made a sortie against Joab, some officers of David's army fell, and among them Uriah the Hittite died.

¹⁸Then Joab sent David a report of all the details of the battle,

¹⁹instructing the messenger, "When you have finished giving the king all the details of the battle,

²⁰the king may become angry and say to you: 'Why did you go near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall above?

²¹Who killed Abimelech, son of Jerubbaal? Was it not a woman who threw a millstone down on him from the wall above, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you go near the wall?' Then you in turn shall say, 'Your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.'"

²²The messenger set out, and on his arrival he relayed to David all the details as Joab had instructed him.

²³He told David: "The men had us at a disadvantage and came out into the open against us, but we pushed them back to the entrance of the city gate.

²⁴Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall above, and some of the king's servants died, among them your servant Uriah."

²⁵David said to the messenger: "This is what you shall convey to Joab: 'Do not be chagrined at this, for the sword devours now here and now there. Strengthen your attack on the city and destroy it.' Encourage him."

²⁶When the wife of Uriah heard that her husband had died, she mourned her lord.

²⁷But once the mourning was over, David sent for her and brought her into his house. She became his wife and bore him a son. But the LORD was displeased with what David had done.

12The LORD sent Nathan to David, and when he came to him, he said: "Judge this case for me! In a certain town there were two men, one rich, the other poor.

²The rich man had flocks and herds in great numbers.

³But the poor man had nothing at all except one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He nourished her, and she grew up with him and his children. She shared the little food he had and drank from his cup and slept in his bosom. She was like a daughter to him.

⁴Now, the rich man received a visitor, but he would not take from his own flocks and herds to prepare a meal for the wayfarer who had come to him. Instead he took the poor man's ewe lamb and made a meal of it for his visitor."

⁵David grew very angry with that man and said to Nathan: "As the LORD lives, the man who has done this merits death!

⁶He shall restore the ewe lamb fourfold because he has done this and has had no pity."

⁷Then Nathan said to David: "You are the man! Thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'I anointed you king of Israel. I rescued you from the hand of Saul.

⁸I gave you your lord's house and your lord's wives for your own. I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were not enough, I could count up for you still more.

⁹Why have you spurned the LORD and done evil in his sight? You have cut down Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you took his wife as your own, and him you killed with the sword of the Ammonites.

¹⁰Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah to be your wife.'

¹¹Thus says the LORD: 'I will bring evil upon you out of your own house. I will take your wives while you live to see it, and will give them to your neighbor. He shall lie with your wives in broad daylight.

¹²You have done this deed in secret, but I will bring it about in the presence of all Israel, and with the sun looking down.'"

¹³Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." Nathan answered David: "The LORD on his part has forgiven your sin: you shall not die.

¹⁴But since you have utterly spurned the LORD by this deed, the child born to you must surely die."

¹⁵Then Nathan returned to his house. The LORD struck the child that the wife of Uriah had borne to David, and it became desperately ill.

¹⁶David besought God for the child. He kept a fast, retiring for the night to lie on the ground clothed in sackcloth.

¹⁷The elders of his house stood beside him urging him to rise from the ground; but he would not, nor would he take food with them.

¹⁸On the seventh day, the child died. David's servants, however, were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said: "When the child was alive, we spoke to him, but he would not listen to what we said. How can we tell him the child is dead? He may do some harm!"

¹⁹But David noticed his servants whispering among themselves and realized that the child was dead. He asked his servants, "Is the child dead?" They replied, "Yes, he is."

²⁰Rising from the ground, David washed and anointed himself, and changed his clothes. Then he went to the house of the LORD and worshiped. He returned to his own house, where at his request food was set before him, and he ate.

²¹His servants said to him: "What is this you are doing? While the child was living, you fasted and wept and kept vigil; now that the child is dead, you rise and take food."

²²He replied: "While the child was living, I fasted and wept, thinking, 'Perhaps the LORD will grant me the child's life.'

²³But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me."

²⁴Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba. He went and slept with her; and she conceived and bore him a son, who was named Solomon. The LORD loved him

²⁵and sent the prophet Nathan to name him Jedidiah, on behalf of the LORD.

²⁶Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and captured this royal city.

²⁷He sent messengers to David with the word: "I have fought against Rabbah and have taken the water-city.

²⁸Therefore, assemble the rest of the soldiers, join the siege against the city and capture it, lest it be I that capture the city and it be credited to me."

²⁹So David assembled the rest of the soldiers and went to Rabbah. When he had fought against it and captured it,

³⁰he took the crown from Milcom's head. It weighed a talent, of gold and precious stones; it was placed on David's head. He brought out immense booty from the city,

³¹and also led away the inhabitants, whom he assigned to work with saws, iron picks, and iron axes, or put to work at the brickmold. This is what he did to all the Ammonite cities. David and all the soldiers then returned to Jerusalem.

13Some time later the following incident occurred. David's son Absalom had a beautiful sister named Tamar, and David's son Amnon loved her.

²He was in such straits over his sister Tamar that he became sick; since she was a virgin, Amnon thought it impossible to carry out his designs toward her.

³Now Amnon had a friend named Jonadab, son of David's brother Shimeah, who was very clever.

⁴He asked him, "Prince, why are you so dejected morning after morning? Why not tell me?" So Amnon said to him, "I am in love with Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister."

⁵Then Jonadab replied, "Lie down on your bed and pretend to be sick. When your father comes to visit you, say to him, 'Please let my sister Tamar come and encourage me to take food. If she prepares something appetizing in my presence, for me to see, I will eat it from her hand.'"

⁶So Amnon lay down and pretended to be sick. When the king came to visit him, Amnon said to the king, "Please let my sister Tamar come and prepare some fried cakes before my eyes, that I may take nourishment from her hand."

⁷David then sent home a message to Tamar, "Please go to the house of your brother Amnon and prepare some nourishment for him."

⁸Tamar went to the house of her brother Amnon, who was in bed. Taking dough and kneading it, she twisted it into cakes before his eyes and fried the cakes.

⁹Then she took the pan and set out the cakes before him. But Amnon would not eat; he said, "Have everyone leave me." When they had all left him,

¹⁰Amnon said to Tamar, "Bring the nourishment into the bedroom, that I may have it from your hand." So Tamar picked up the cakes she had prepared and brought them to her brother Amnon in the bedroom.

¹¹But when she brought them to him to eat, he seized her and said to her, "Come! Lie with me, my sister!"

¹²But she answered him, "No my brother! Do not shame me! That is an intolerable crime in Israel. Do not commit this insensate deed.

¹³Where would I take my shame? And you would be a discredited man in Israel. So please, speak to the king; he will not keep me from you."

¹⁴Not heeding her plea, he overpowered her; he shamed her and had relations with her.

¹⁵Then Amnon conceived an intense hatred for her, which far surpassed the love he had had for her. "Get up and leave," he said to her.

¹⁶She replied, "No, brother, because to drive me out would be far worse than the first injury you have done me." He would not listen to her,

¹⁷but called the youth who was his attendant and said, "Put her outside, away from me, and bar the door after her."

¹⁸Now she had on a long tunic, for that is how maiden princesses dressed in olden days. When his attendant put her out and barred the door after her,

¹⁹Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the long tunic in which she was clothed. Then, putting her hands to her head, she went away crying loudly.

²⁰Her brother Absalom said to her: "Has your brother Amnon been with you? Be still now, my sister; he is your brother. Do not take this affair to heart." But Tamar remained grief-stricken and forlorn in the house of her brother Absalom.

²¹King David, who got word of the whole affair, became very angry. He did not, however, spark the resentment of his son Amnon, whom he favored because he was his first-born.

²²Absalom, moreover, said nothing at all to Amnon, although he hated him for having shamed his sister Tamar.

²³After a period of two years, Absalom had shearers in Baalhazor near Ephraim, and he invited all the princes.

²⁴Absalom went to the king and said: "Your servant is having shearers. Please, your majesty, come with all your retainers to your servant."

²⁵But the King said to Absalom, "No, my son, all of us should not go lest we be a burden to you." And though Absalom urged him, he refused to go and began to bid him good-bye.

²⁶Absalom then said, "If you will not come yourself, please let my brother Amnon come to us." The king asked him, "Why should he go to you?"

²⁷At Absalom's urging, however, he sent Amnon and all the other princes with him. Absalom prepared a banquet fit for royalty.

²⁸But he had instructed his servants: "Now watch! When Amnon is merry with wine and I say to you, 'Kill Amnon,' put him to death. Do not be afraid, for it is I who order you to do it. Be resolute and act manfully."

²⁹When the servants did to Amnon as Absalom had commanded, all the other princes rose, mounted their mules, and fled.

³⁰While they were still on the road, a report reached David that Absalom had killed all the princes and that not one of them had survived.

³¹The king stood up, rent his garments, and then lay on the ground. All his servants standing by him also rent their garments.

³²But Jonadab, son of David's brother Shimeah, spoke up: "Let not my lord think that all the young princes have been killed! Amnon alone is dead, for Absalom was determined on this ever since Amnon shamed his sister Tamar.

³³So let not my lord the king put faith in the report that all the princes are dead. Amnon alone is dead."

³⁴Meanwhile, Absalom had taken flight. Then the servant on watch looked about and saw a large group coming down the slope from the direction of Bahurim. He came in and reported this, telling the king that he had seen some men coming down the mountainside from the direction of Bahurim.

³⁵So Jonadab said to the king: "There! The princes have come. It is as your servant said."

³⁶No sooner had he finished speaking than the princes came in, weeping aloud. The king, too, and all his servants wept very bitterly.

³⁷But Absalom, who had taken flight, went to Talmai, son of Ammihud, king of Geshur,

³⁸and stayed in Geshur for three years.

³⁹The king continued during all that time to mourn over his son; but his longing reached out for Absalom as he became reconciled to the death of Amnon.

14When Joab, son of Zeruiah, observed how the king felt toward Absalom,

²he sent to Tekoa and brought from there a gifted woman, to whom he said: "Pretend to be in mourning. Put on mourning apparel and do not anoint yourself with oil, that you may appear to be a woman who has been long in mourning for a departed one.

³Then go to the king and speak to him in this manner." And Joab instructed her what to say.

⁴So the woman of Tekoa went to the king and fell prostrate to the ground in homage, saying, "Help, your majesty!"

⁵The king said to her, "What do you want?" She replied: "Alas, I am a widow; my husband is dead.

⁶Your servant had two sons, who quarreled in the field. There being no one to part them, one of them struck his brother and killed him.

⁷Then the whole clan confronted your servant and demanded: 'Give up the one who killed his brother. We must put him to death for the life of his brother whom he has slain; we must extinguish the heir also.' Thus they will quench my remaining hope and leave my husband neither name nor posterity upon the earth."

⁸The king then said to the woman: "Go home. I will issue a command on your behalf."

⁹The woman of Tekoa answered him, "Let me and my family be to blame, my lord king; you and your throne are innocent."

¹⁰Then the king said, "If anyone says a word to you, have him brought to me, and he shall not touch you again."

¹¹But she went on to say, "Please, your majesty, keep in mind the LORD your God, that the avenger of blood may not go too far in destruction and that my son may not be done away with." He replied, "As the LORD lives, not a hair of your son shall fall to the ground."

¹²The woman continued, "Please let your servant say still another word to my lord the king." He replied, "Speak."

¹³So the woman said: "Why, then, do you think of this same kind of thing against the people of God? In pronouncing as he has, the king shows himself guilty, for not bringing back his own banished son.

¹⁴We must indeed die; we are then like water that is poured out on the ground and cannot be gathered up. Yet, though God does not bring back life, he does take thought how not to banish anyone from him.

¹⁵And now, if I have presumed to speak of this matter to your majesty, it is because the people have given me cause to fear. And so your servant thought: 'Let me speak to the king. Perhaps he will grant the petition of his maidservant.

¹⁶For the king must surely consent to free his servant from the grasp of one who would seek to destroy me and my son as well from God's inheritance.'"

¹⁷And the woman concluded: "Let the word of my lord the king provide a resting place; indeed, my lord the king is like an angel of God, evaluating good and bad. The LORD your God be with you."

¹⁸The king answered the woman, "Now do not conceal from me anything I may ask you!" The woman said, "Let my lord the king speak."

¹⁹So the king asked, "Is Joab involved with you in all this?" And the woman answered: "As you live, my lord the king, it is just as your majesty has said, and not otherwise. It was your servant Joab who instructed me and told your servant all these things she was to say.

²⁰Your servant Joab did this to come at the issue in a roundabout way. But my lord is as wise as an angel of God, so that he knows all things on earth."

²¹Then the king said to Joab: "I hereby grant this request. Go, therefore, and bring back young Absalom."

²²Falling prostrate to the ground in homage and blessing the king, Joab said, "This day I know that I am in good favor with you, my lord the king, since the king has granted the request of his servant."

²³Joab then went off to Geshur and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.

²⁴But the king said, "Let him go to his own house; he shall not appear before me." So Absalom went off to his house and did not appear before the king.

²⁵In all Israel there was not a man who could so be praised for his beauty as Absalom, who was without blemish from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

²⁶When he shaved his head--which he used to do at the end of every year, because his hair became too heavy for him--the hair weighed two hundred shekels according to the royal standard.

²⁷Absalom had three sons born to him, besides a daughter named Tamar, who was a beautiful woman.

²⁸Absalom lived in Jerusalem for two years without appearing before the king.

²⁹Then he summoned Joab to send him to the king, but Joab would not come to him. Although he summoned him a second time, Joab refused to come.

³⁰He therefore instructed his servants: "You see Joab's field that borders mine, on which he has barley. Go, set it on fire." And so Absalom's servants set the field on fire. Joab's farmhands came to him with torn garments and reported to him what had been done.

³¹At this, Joab went to Absalom in his house and asked him, "Why have your servants set my field on fire?"

³²Absalom answered Joab: "I was summoning you to come here, that I may send you to the king to say: 'Why did I come back from Geshur? I would be better off if I were still there!' Now, let me appear before the king. If I am guilty, let him put me to death."

³³Joab went to the king and reported this. The king then called Absalom, who came to him and in homage fell on his face to the ground before the king. Then the king kissed him.

15After this Absalom provided himself with chariots, horses, and fifty henchmen.

²Moreover, Absalom used to rise early and stand alongside the road leading to the gate. If someone had a lawsuit to be decided by the king, Absalom would call to him and say, "From what city are you?" And when he replied, "Your servant is of such and such a tribe of Israel,"

³Absalom would say to him, "Your suit is good and just, but there is no one to hear you in the king's name."

⁴And he would continue: "If only I could be appointed judge in the land! Then everyone who has a lawsuit to be decided might come to me and I would render him justice."

⁵Whenever a man approached him to show homage, he would extend his hand, hold him, and kiss him.

⁶By behaving in this way toward all the Israelites who came to the king for judgment, Absalom was stealing away the loyalties of the men of Israel.

⁷After a period of four years, Absalom said to the king: "Allow me to go to Hebron and fulfill a vow I made to the LORD.

⁸For while living in Geshur in Aram, your servant made this vow: 'If the LORD ever brings me back to Jerusalem, I will worship him in Hebron.'"

⁹The king wished him a safe journey, and he went off to Hebron.

¹⁰Then Absalom sent spies throughout the tribes of Israel to say, "When you hear the sound of the horn, declare Absalom king in Hebron."

¹¹Two hundred men had accompanied Absalom from Jerusalem. They had been invited and went in good faith, knowing nothing of the plan.

¹²Absalom also sent to Ahithophel the Gilonite, David's counselor, an invitation to come from his town, Giloh, for the sacrifices he was about to offer. So the conspiracy gained strength, and the people with Absalom increased in numbers.

¹³An informant came to David with the report, "The Israelites have transferred their loyalty to Absalom."

¹⁴At this, David said to all his servants who were with him in Jerusalem: "Up! Let us take flight, or none of us will escape from Absalom. Leave quickly, lest he hurry and overtake us, then visit disaster upon us and put the city to the sword."

¹⁵The king's officers answered him, "Your servants are ready, whatever our lord the king chooses to do."

¹⁶Then the king set out, accompanied by his entire household, except for ten concubines whom he left behind to take care of the palace.

¹⁷As the king left the city, with all his officers accompanying him, they halted opposite the ascent of the Mount of Olives, at a distance,

¹⁸while the whole army marched past him.As all the Cherethites and Pelethites, and the six hundred men of Gath who had accompanied him from that city, were passing in review before the king,

¹⁹he said to Ittai the Gittite: "Why should you also go with us? Go back and stay with the king, for you are a foreigner and you, too, are an exile from your own country.

²⁰You came only yesterday, and shall I have you wander about with us today, wherever I have to go? Return and take your brothers with you, and may the LORD be kind and faithful to you."

²¹But Ittai answered the king, "As the LORD lives, and as my lord the king lives, your servant shall be wherever my lord the king may be, whether for death or for life."

²²So the king said to Ittai, "Go, then, march on." And Ittai the Gittite, with all his men and all the dependents that were with him, marched on.

²³Everyone in the countryside wept aloud as the last of the soldiers went by, and the king crossed the Kidron Valley with all the soldiers moving on ahead of him by way of the Mount of Olives, toward the desert.

²⁴Zadok, too (with all the Levite bearers of the ark of the covenant of God), and Abiathar brought the ark of God to a halt until the soldiers had marched out of the city.

²⁵Then the king said to Zadok: "Take the ark of God back to the city. If I find favor with the LORD, he will bring me back and permit me to see it and its lodging.

²⁶But if he should say, 'I am not pleased with you,' I am ready; let him do to me as he sees fit."

²⁷The king also said to the priest Zadok: "See to it that you and Abiathar return to the city in peace, and both your sons with you, your own son Ahimaaz, and Abiathar's son Jonathan.

²⁸Remember, I shall be waiting at the fords near the desert until I receive information from you."

²⁹So Zadok and Abiathar took the ark of God back to Jerusalem and remained there.

³⁰As David went up the Mount of Olives, he wept without ceasing. His head was covered, and he was walking barefoot. All those who were with him also had their heads covered and were weeping as they went.

³¹When David was informed that Ahithophel was among the conspirators with Absalom, he said, "O LORD, turn the counsel of Ahithophel to folly!"

³²When David reached the top, where men used to worship God, Hushai the Archite was there to meet him, with rent garments and dirt upon his head.

³³David said to him: "If you come with me, you will be a burden to me.

³⁴But if you return to the city and say to Absalom, 'Let me be your servant, O king; I was formerly your father's servant, but now I will be yours,' you will undo for me the counsel of Ahithophel.

³⁵You will have the priests Zadok and Abiathar there with you. If you hear anything from the royal palace, you shall report it to the priests Zadok and Abiathar,

³⁶who have there with them both Zadok's son Ahimaaz and Abiathar's son Jonathan. Through them you shall send on to me whatever you hear."

³⁷So David's friend Hushai went into the city of Jerusalem as Absalom was about to enter it.

16David had gone a little beyond the top when Ziba, the servant of Meribbaal, met him with saddled asses laden with two hundred loaves of bread, an ephah of cakes of pressed raisins, an ephah of summer fruits, and a skin of wine.

²The king said to Ziba, "What do you plan to do with these?" Ziba replied: "The asses are for the king's household to ride on. The bread and summer fruits are for your servants to eat, and the wine for those to drink who are weary in the desert."

³Then the king said, "And where is your lord's son?" Ziba answered the king, "He is staying in Jerusalem, for he said, 'Now the Israelites will restore to me my father's kingdom.'"

⁴The king therefore said to Ziba, "So! Everything Meribbaal had is yours." Then Ziba said: "I pay you homage, my lord the king. May I find favor with you!"

⁵As David was approaching Bahurim, a man named Shimei, the son of Gera of the same clan as Saul's family, was coming out of the place, cursing as he came.

⁶He threw stones at David and at all the king's officers, even though all the soldiers, including the royal guard, were on David's right and on his left.

⁷Shimei was saying as he cursed: "Away, away, you murderous and wicked man!

⁸The LORD has requited you for all the bloodshed in the family of Saul, in whose stead you became king, and the LORD has given over the kingdom to your son Absalom. And now you suffer ruin because you are a murderer."

⁹Abishai, son of Zeruiah, said to the king: "Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over, please, and lop off his head."

¹⁰But the king replied: "What business is it of mine or of yours, sons of Zeruiah, that he curses? Suppose the LORD has told him to curse David; who then will dare to say, 'Why are you doing this?'"

¹¹Then the king said to Abishai and to all his servants: "If my own son, who came forth from my loins, is seeking my life, how much more might this Benjaminite do so! Let him alone and let him curse, for the LORD has told him to.

¹²Perhaps the LORD will look upon my affliction and make it up to me with benefits for the curses he is uttering this day."

¹³David and his men continued on the road, while Shimei kept abreast of them on the hillside, all the while cursing and throwing stones and dirt as he went.

¹⁴The king and all the soldiers with him arrived at the Jordan tired out, and stopped there for a rest.

¹⁵In the meantime Absalom, accompanied by Ahithophel, entered Jerusalem with all the Israelites.

¹⁶When David's friend Hushai the Archite came to Absalom, he said to him: "Long live the king! Long live the king!"

¹⁷But Absalom asked Hushai: "Is this your devotion to your friend? Why did you not go with your friend?"

¹⁸Hushai replied to Absalom: "On the contrary, I am his whom the LORD and all this people and all Israel have chosen, and with him I will stay.

¹⁹Furthermore, as I was in attendance upon your father, so will I be before you. Whom should I serve, if not his son?"

²⁰Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, "Offer your counsel on what we should do."

²¹Ahithophel replied to Absalom: "Have relations with your father's concubines, whom he left behind to take care of the palace. When all Israel hears how odious you have made yourself to your father, all your partisans will take courage."

²²So a tent was pitched on the roof for Absalom, and he visited his father's concubines in view of all Israel.

²³Now the counsel given by Ahithophel at that time was as though one had sought divine revelation. Such was all his counsel both to David and to Absalom.

17Ahithophel went on to say to Absalom: "Please let me choose twelve thousand men, and be off in pursuit of David tonight.

²If I come upon him when he is weary and discouraged, I shall cause him panic. When all the people with him flee, I shall strike down the king alone.

³Then I can bring back the rest of the people to you, as a bride returns to her husband. It is the death of only one man you are seeking; then all the people will be at peace."

⁴This plan was agreeable to Absalom and to all the elders of Israel.

⁵Then Absalom said, "Now call Hushai the Archite also; let us hear what he too has to say."

⁶When Hushai came to Absalom, Absalom said to him: "This is what Ahithophel proposed. Shall we follow his proposal? If not, speak up."

⁷Hushai replied to Absalom, "This time Ahithophel has not given good counsel."

⁸And he went on to say: "You know that your father and his men are warriors, and that they are as fierce as a bear in the wild robbed of her cubs. Moreover, since your father is skilled in warfare, he will not spend the night with the people.

⁹Even now he lies hidden in one of the caves or in some other place. And if some of our soldiers should fall at the first attack, whoever hears of it will say, 'Absalom's followers have been slaughtered.'

¹⁰Then even the brave man with the heart of a lion will lose courage. For all Israel knows that your father is a warrior and that those who are with him are brave.

¹¹"This is what I counsel: Let all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba, who are as numerous as the sands by the sea, be called up for combat; and go with them yourself.

¹²We can then attack him wherever we find him, settling down upon him as dew alights on the ground. None shall survive--neither he nor any of his followers.

¹³And if he retires into a city, all Israel shall bring ropes to that city and we can drag it into the gorge, so that not even a pebble of it can be found."

¹⁴Then Absalom and all the Israelites pronounced the counsel of Hushai the Archite better than that of Ahithophel. For the LORD had decided to undo Ahithophel's good counsel, in order thus to bring Absalom to ruin.

¹⁵Then Hushai said to the priests Zadok and Abiathar: "This is the counsel Ahithophel gave Absalom and the elders of Israel, and this is what I counseled.

¹⁶So send a warning to David immediately, not to spend the night at the fords near the desert, but to cross over without fail. Otherwise the king and all the people with him will be destroyed."

¹⁷Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were staying at En-rogel, since they could not risk being seen entering the city. A maidservant was to come with information for them, and they in turn were to go and report to King David.

¹⁸But an attendant saw them and informed Absalom. They sped on their way and reached the house of a man in Bahurim who had a cistern in his courtyard. They let themselves down into this,

¹⁹and the housewife took the cover and spread it over the cistern, strewing ground grain on the cover so that nothing could be noticed.

²⁰When Absalom's servants came to the woman at the house, they asked, "Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?" The woman replied, "They went by a short while ago toward the water." They searched, but found no one, and so returned to Jerusalem.

²¹As soon as they left, Ahimaaz and Jonathan came up out of the cistern and went on to inform King David. They said to him: "Leave! Cross the water at once, for Ahithophel has given the following counsel in regard to you."

²²So David and all his people moved on and crossed the Jordan. By daybreak, there was no one left who had not crossed.

²³When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not acted upon, he saddled his ass and departed, going to his home in his own city. Then, having left orders concerning his family, he hanged himself. And so he died and was buried in his father's tomb.

²⁴Now David had gone to Mahanaim when Absalom crossed the Jordan accompanied by all the Israelites.

²⁵Absalom had put Amasa in command of the army in Joab's place. Amasa was the son of an Ishmaelite named Ithra, who had married Abigail, daughter of Jesse and sister of Joab's mother Zeruiah.

²⁶Israel and Absalom encamped in the territory of Gilead.

²⁷When David came to Mahanaim, Shobi, son of Nahash from Rabbah of the Ammonites, Machir, son of Ammiel from Lodebar, and Barzillai, the Gileadite from Rogelim,

²⁸brought couches, coverlets, basins and earthenware, as well as wheat, barley, flour, roasted grain, beans, lentils,

²⁹honey, butter and cheese from the flocks and herds, for David and those who were with him to eat; for they said, "The people have been hungry and tired and thirsty in the desert."

18After mustering the troops he had with him, David placed officers in command of groups of a thousand and groups of a hundred.

²David then put a third part of the soldiers under Joab's command, a third under command of Abishai, son of Zeruiah and brother of Joab, and a third under command of Ittai the Gittite. The king then said to the soldiers, "I intend to go out with you myself."

³But they replied: "You must not come out with us. For if we should flee, we shall not count; even if half of us should die, we shall not count. You are equal to ten thousand of us. Therefore it is better that we have you to help us from the city."

⁴So the king said to them, "I will do what you think best"; and he stood by the gate as all the soldiers marched out in units of a hundred and of a thousand.

⁵But the king gave this command to Joab, Abishai and Ittai: "Be gentle with young Absalom for my sake." All the soldiers heard the king instruct the various leaders with regard to Absalom.

⁶David's army then took the field against Israel, and a battle was fought in the forest near Mahanaim.

⁷The forces of Israel were defeated by David's servants, and the casualties there that day were heavy--twenty thousand men.

⁸The battle spread out over that entire region, and the thickets consumed more combatants that day than did the sword.

⁹Absalom unexpectedly came up against David's servants. He was mounted on a mule, and, as the mule passed under the branches of a large terebinth, his hair caught fast in the tree. He hung between heaven and earth while the mule he had been riding ran off.

¹⁰Someone saw this and reported to Joab that he had seen Absalom hanging from a terebinth.

¹¹Joab said to his informant: "If you saw him, why did you not strike him to the ground on the spot? Then it would have been my duty to give you fifty pieces of silver and a belt."

¹²But the man replied to Joab: "Even if I already held a thousand pieces of silver in my two hands, I would not harm the king's son, for the king charged you and Abishai and Ittai in our hearing to protect the youth Absalom for his sake.

¹³Had I been disloyal and killed him, the whole matter would have come to the attention of the king, and you would stand aloof."

¹⁴Joab replied, "I will not waste time with you in this way." And taking three pikes in hand, he thrust for the heart of Absalom, still hanging from the tree alive.

¹⁵Next, ten of Joab's young armor-bearers closed in on Absalom, and killed him with further blows.

¹⁶Joab then sounded the horn, and the soldiers turned back from the pursuit of the Israelites, because Joab called on them to halt.

¹⁷Absalom was taken up and cast into a deep pit in the forest, and a very large mound of stones was erected over him. And all the Israelites fled to their own tents.

¹⁸During his lifetime Absalom had taken a pillar and erected it for himself in the King's Valley, for he said, "I have no son to perpetuate my name." The pillar which he named for himself is called Yadabshalom to the present day.

¹⁹Then Ahimaaz, son of Zadok, said, "Let me run to take the good news to the king that the LORD has set him free from the grasp of his enemies."

²⁰But Joab said to him: "You are not the man to bring the news today. On some other day you may take the good news, but today you would not be bringing good news, for in fact the king's son is dead."

²¹Then Joab said to a Cushite, "Go, tell the king what you have seen." The Cushite bowed to Joab and sped away.

²²But Ahimaaz, son of Zadok, said to Joab again, "Come what may, permit me also to run after the Cushite." Joab replied: "Why do you want to run, my son? You will receive no reward."

²³But he insisted, "Come what may, I want to run." Joab said to him, "Very well." Ahimaaz sped off by way of the Jordan plain and outran the Cushite.

²⁴Now David was sitting between the two gates, and a lookout mounted to the roof of the gate above the city wall, where he looked about and saw a man running all alone.

²⁵The lookout shouted to inform the king, who said, "If he is alone, he has good news to report." As he kept coming nearer,

²⁶the lookout spied another runner. From his place atop the gate he cried out, "There is another man running by himself." And the king responded, "He, too, is bringing good news."

²⁷Then the lookout said, "I notice that the first one runs like Ahimaaz, son of Zadok." The king replied, "He is a good man; he comes with good news."

²⁸Then Ahimaaz called out and greeted the king. With face to the ground he paid homage to the king and said, "Blessed be the LORD your God, who has delivered up the men who rebelled against my lord the king."

²⁹But the king asked, "Is the youth Absalom safe?" And Ahimaaz replied, "I saw a great disturbance when the king's servant Joab sent your servant on, but I do not know what it was."

³⁰The king said, "Step aside and remain in attendance here." So he stepped aside and remained there.

³¹When the Cushite came in, he said, "Let my lord the king receive the good news that this day the LORD has taken your part, freeing you from the grasp of all who rebelled against you."

³²But the king asked the Cushite, "Is young Absalom safe?" The Cushite replied, "May the enemies of my lord the king and all who rebel against you with evil intent be as that young man!"

19The king was shaken, and went up to the room over the city gate to weep. He said as he wept, "My son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you, Absalom, my son, my son!"

²Joab was told that the king was weeping and mourning for Absalom;

³and that day's victory was turned into mourning for the whole army when they heard that the king was grieving for his son.

⁴The soldiers stole into the city that day like men shamed by flight in battle.

⁵Meanwhile the king covered his face and cried out in a loud voice, "My son Absalom! Absalom! My son, my son!"

⁶Then Joab went to his residence and said: "Though they saved your life and your sons' and daughters' lives, also the lives of your wives and those of your concubines, you have put all your servants to shame today

⁷by loving those who hate you and hating those who love you. For you have shown today that officers and servants mean nothing to you. Indeed I am now certain that if Absalom were alive today and all of us dead, you would think that more suitable.

⁸Now then, get up! Go out and speak kindly to your servants. I swear by the LORD that if you do not go out, not a single man will remain with you overnight, and this will be a far greater disaster for you than any that has afflicted you from your youth until now."

⁹So the king stepped out and sat at the gate. When all the people were informed that the king was sitting at the gate, they came into his presence. Now the Israelites had fled to their separate tents,

¹⁰but throughout the tribes of Israel all the people were arguing among themselves, saying to one another: "The king delivered us from the clutches of our enemies, and it was he who rescued us from the grip of the Philistines. But now he has fled from the country before Absalom,

¹¹and Absalom, whom we anointed over us, died in battle. Why, then, should you remain silent about restoring the king to his palace?" When the talk of all Israel reached the king,

¹²David sent word to the priests Zadok and Abiathar: "Say to the elders of Judah: 'Why should you be last to restore the king to his palace?

¹³You are my brothers, you are my bone and flesh. Why should you be last to restore the king?'

¹⁴Also say to Amasa: 'Are you not my bone and flesh? May God do thus and so to me, if you do not become my general permanently in place of Joab.'"

¹⁵He won over all the Judahites as one man, and so they summoned the king to return, with all his servants.

¹⁶When the king, on his return, reached the Jordan, Judah had come to Gilgal to meet him and to escort him across the Jordan.

¹⁷Shimei, son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahurim, hurried down with the Judahites to meet King David,

¹⁸accompanied by a thousand men from Benjamin. Ziba, too, the servant of the house of Saul, accompanied by his fifteen sons and twenty servants, hastened to the Jordan before the king.

¹⁹They crossed over the ford to bring the king's household over and to do whatever he wished. When Shimei, son of Gera, crossed the Jordan, he fell down before the king

²⁰and said to him: "May my lord not hold me guilty, and may he not remember and take to heart the wrong that your servant did the day my lord the king left Jerusalem.

²¹For your servant knows that he has done wrong. Yet realize that I have been the first of the whole house of Joseph to come down today to meet my lord the king."

²²But Abishai, son of Zeruiah, countered: "Shimei must be put to death for this. He cursed the LORD'S anointed."

²³David replied: "What has come between you and me, sons of Zeruiah, that you would create enmity for me this day? Should anyone die today in Israel? Am I not aware that today I am king of Israel?"

²⁴Then the king said to Shimei, "You shall not die." And the king gave him his oath.

²⁵Meribbaal, son of Saul, also went down to meet the king. He had not washed his feet nor trimmed his mustache nor washed his clothes from the day the king left until he returned safely.

²⁶When he came from Jerusalem to meet the king, the king asked him, "Why did you not go with me, Meribbaal?"

²⁷He replied: "My lord the king, my servant betrayed me. For your servant, who is lame, said to him, 'Saddle the ass for me, that I may ride on it and go with the king.'

²⁸But he slandered your servant before my lord the king. But my lord the king is like an angel of God. Do what you judge best.

²⁹For though my father's entire house deserved only death from my lord the king, yet you placed your servant among the guests at your table. What right do I still have to make further appeal to the king?"

³⁰But the king said to him: "Why do you go on talking? I say, 'You and Ziba shall divide the property.'"

³¹Meribbaal answered the king, "Indeed let him have it all, now that my lord the king has returned safely to his palace."

³²Barzillai the Gileadite also came down from Rogelim and escorted the king to the Jordan for his crossing, taking leave of him there.

³³It was Barzillai, a very old man of eighty and very wealthy besides, who had provisioned the king during his stay in Mahanaim.

³⁴The king said to Barzillai, "Cross over with me, and I will provide for your old age as my guest in Jerusalem."

³⁵But Barzillai answered the king: "How much longer have I to live, that I should go up to Jerusalem with the king?

³⁶I am now eighty years old. Can I distinguish between good and bad? Can your servant taste what he eats and drinks, or still appreciate the voices of singers and songstresses? Why should your servant be any further burden to my lord the king?

³⁷In escorting the king across the Jordan, your servant is doing little enough! Why should the king give me this reward?

³⁸Please let your servant go back to die in his own city by the tomb of his father and mother. Here is your servant Chimham. Let him cross over with my lord the king. Do for him whatever you will."

³⁹Then the king said to him, "Chimham shall come over with me, and I will do for him as you would wish. And anything else you would like me to do for you, I will do."

⁴⁰Then all the people crossed over the Jordan but the king remained; he kissed Barzillai and bade him Godspeed as he returned to his own district.

⁴¹Finally the king crossed over to Gilgal, accompanied by Chimham. All the people of Judah and half of the people of Israel had escorted the king across.

⁴²But all these Israelites began coming to the king and saying, "Why did our brothers the Judahites steal you away and escort the king and his household across the Jordan, along with all David's men?"

⁴³All the Judahites replied to the men of Israel: "Because the king is our relative. Why are you angry over this affair? Have we had anything to eat at the king's expense? Or have portions from his table been given to us?"

⁴⁴The Israelites answered the Judahites: "We have ten shares in the king. Also, we are the first-born rather than you. Why do you slight us? Were we not first to speak of restoring the king?" Then the Judahites in turn spoke even more fiercely than the Israelites.

20Now a rebellious individual from Benjamin named Sheba, the son of Bichri, happened to be there. He sounded the horn and cried out, "We have no portion in David, nor any share in the son of Jesse. Every man to his tent, O Israel!"

²So all the Israelites left David for Sheba, son of Bichri. But from the Jordan to Jerusalem the Judahites remained loyal to their king.

³When King David came to his palace in Jerusalem, he took the ten concubines whom he had left behind to take care of the palace and placed them in confinement. He provided for them, but had no further relations with them. And so they remained in confinement to the day of their death, lifelong widows.

⁴Then the king said to Amasa: "Summon the Judahites for me within three days. Then present yourself here."

⁵Accordingly Amasa set out to summon Judah, but delayed beyond the time set for him by David.

⁶Then David said to Abishai: "Sheba, son of Bichri, may now do us more harm than Absalom did. Take your lord's servants and pursue him, lest he find fortified cities and take shelter while we look on."

⁷So Joab and the Cherethites and Pelethites and all the warriors marched out behind Abishai from Jerusalem to campaign in pursuit of Sheba, son of Bichri.

⁸They were at the great stone in Gibeon when Amasa met them. Now Joab had a belt over his tunic, from which was slung, in its sheath near his thigh, a sword that could be drawn with a downward movement.

⁹And Joab asked Amasa, "How are you, my brother?" With his right hand Joab held Amasa's beard as if to kiss him.

¹⁰And since Amasa was not on his guard against the sword in Joab's other hand, Joab stabbed him in the abdomen with it, so that his entrails burst forth to the ground, and he died without receiving a second thrust. Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba, son of Bichri.

¹¹One of Joab's attendants stood by Amasa and said, "Let him who favors Joab and is for David follow Joab."

¹²Amasa lay covered with blood in the middle of the highroad, and the man noticed that all the soldiers were stopping. So he removed Amasa from the road to the field and placed a garment over him, because all who came up to him were stopping.

¹³When he had been removed from the road, everyone went on after Joab in pursuit of Sheba, son of Bichri.

¹⁴Sheba passed through all the tribes of Israel to Abel Beth-maacah. Then all the Bichrites assembled and they too entered the city after him.

¹⁵So David's servants came and besieged him in Abel Beth-maacah. They threw up a mound against the city, and all the soldiers who were with Joab began battering the wall to throw it down.

¹⁶Then a wise woman from the city stood on the outworks and called out, "Listen, listen! Tell Joab to come here, that I may speak with him."

¹⁷When Joab had come near her, the woman said, "Are you Joab?" And he replied, "Yes." She said to him, "Listen to what your maidservant has to say." He replied. "I am listening."

¹⁸Then she went on to say: "There is an ancient saying, 'Let them ask if they will in Abel

¹⁹or in Dan whether loyalty is finished or ended in Israel.' You are seeking to beat down a city that is a mother in Israel. Why do you wish to destroy the inheritance of the LORD?"

²⁰Joab answered, "Not at all, not at all! I do not wish to destroy or to ruin anything.

²¹That is not the case at all. A man named Sheba, son of Bichri, from the hill country of Ephraim has rebelled against King David. Surrender him alone, and I will withdraw from the city." Then the woman said to Joab, "His head shall be thrown to you across the wall."

²²She went to all the people with her advice, and they cut off the head of Sheba, son of Bichri, and threw it out to Joab. He then sounded the horn, and they scattered from the city to their own tents, while Joab returned to Jerusalem to the king.

²³Joab was in command of the whole army of Israel. Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, was in command of the Cherethites and Pelethites.

²⁴Adoram was in charge of the forced labor. Jehoshaphat, son of Ahilud, was the chancellor.

²⁵Shawsha was the scribe. Zadok and Abiathar were priests.

²⁶Ira the Jairite was also David's priest.

21During David's reign there was a famine for three successive years. David had recourse to the LORD, who said, "There is bloodguilt on Saul and his family because he put the Gibeonites to death."

²So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not Israelites, but survivors of the Amorites; and although the Israelites had given them their oath, Saul had attempted to kill them off in his zeal for the men of Israel and Judah.)

³David said to the Gibeonites, "What must I do for you and how must I make atonement, that you may bless the inheritance of the LORD?"

⁴The Gibeonites answered him, "We have no claim against Saul and his house for silver or gold, nor is it our place to put any man to death in Israel." Then he said, "I will do for you whatever you propose."

⁵They said to the king, "As for the man who was exterminating us and who intended to destroy us that we might have no place in all the territory of Israel,

⁶let seven men from among his descendants be given to us, that we may dismember them before the LORD in Gibeon, on the LORD'S mountain." The king replied, "I will give them up."

⁷The king, however, spared Meribbaal, son of Jonathan, son of Saul, because of the LORD'S oath that formed a bond between David and Saul's son Jonathan.

⁸But the king took Armoni and Meribbaal, the two sons that Aiah's daughter Rizpah had borne to Saul, and the five sons of Saul's daughter Merob that she had borne to Adriel, son of Barzillai the Meholathite,

⁹and surrendered them to the Gibeonites. They then dismembered them on the mountain before the LORD. The seven fell at the one time; they were put to death during the first days of the harvest--that is, at the beginning of the barley harvest.

¹⁰Then Rizpah, Aiah's daughter, took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on the rock from the beginning of the harvest until rain came down on them from the sky, fending off the birds of the sky from settling on them by day, and the wild animals by night.

¹¹When David was informed of what Rizpah, Aiah's daughter, the concubine of Saul, had done,

¹²he went and obtained the bones of Saul and of his son Jonathan from the citizens of Jabesh-gilead, who had carried them off secretly from the public square of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them at the time they killed Saul on Gilboa.

¹³When he had brought up from there the bones of Saul and of his son Jonathan, the bones of those who had been dismembered were also gathered up.

¹⁴Then the bones of Saul and of his son Jonathan were buried in the tomb of his father Kish at Zela in the territory of Benjamin. After all that the king commanded had been carried out, God granted relief to the land.

¹⁵There was another battle between the Philistines and Israel. David went down with his servants and fought the Philistines, but David grew tired.

¹⁶Dadu, one of the Rephaim, whose bronze spear weighed three hundred shekels, was about to take him captive. Dadu was girt with a new sword and planned to kill David,

¹⁷but Abishai, son of Zeruiah, came to his assistance and struck and killed the Philistine. Then David's men swore to him, "You must not go out to battle with us again, lest you quench the lamp of Israel."

¹⁸After this there was another battle with the Philistines in Gob. On that occasion Sibbecai, from Husha, killed Saph, one of the Rephaim.

¹⁹There was another battle with the Philistines in Gob, in which Elhanan, son of Jair from Bethlehem, killed Goliath of Gath, who had a spear with a shaft like a weaver's heddle-bar.

²⁰There was another battle at Gath in which there was a man of large stature with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot--twenty-four in all. He too was one of the Rephaim.

²¹And when he insulted Israel, Jonathan, son of David's brother Shimei, killed him.

²²These four were Rephaim in Gath, and they fell at the hands of David and his servants.

22David sang the words of this song to the LORD when the LORD had rescued him from the grasp of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.

²This is what he sang: I "O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer,

³my God, my rock of refuge! My shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold, my refuge, my savior, from violence you keep me safe.

⁴'Praised be the LORD,' I exclaim, and I am safe from my enemies.

⁵"The breakers of death surged round about me, the floods of perdition overwhelmed me;

⁶The cords of the nether world enmeshed me, the snares of death overtook me.

⁷In my distress I called upon the LORD and cried out to my God; From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry reached his ears.

⁸"The earth swayed and quaked; the foundations of the heavens trembled and shook when his wrath flared up.

⁹Smoke rose from his nostrils, and a devouring fire from his mouth; he kindled coals into flame.

¹⁰He inclined the heavens and came down, with dark clouds under his feet.

¹¹He mounted a cherub and flew, borne on the wings of the wind.

¹²He made darkness the shelter about him, with spattering rain and thickening clouds.

¹³From the brightness of his presence coals were kindled to flame.

¹⁴"The LORD thundered from heaven; the Most High gave forth his voice.

¹⁵He sent forth arrows to put them to flight; he flashed lightning and routed them.

¹⁶Then the wellsprings of the sea appeared, the foundations of the earth were laid bare, At the rebuke of the LORD, at the blast of the wind of his wrath.

¹⁷"He reached out from on high and grasped me; he drew me out of the deep waters.

¹⁸He rescued me from my mighty enemy, from my foes, who were too powerful for me.

¹⁹They attacked me on my day of calamity, but the LORD came to my support.

²⁰He set me free in the open, and rescued me, because he loves me.

²¹"The LORD rewarded me according to my justice; according to the cleanness of my hands he requited me.

²²For I kept the ways of the LORD and was not disloyal to my God.

²³For his ordinances were all present to me, and his statutes I put not from me;

²⁴But I was wholehearted toward him, and I was on my guard against guilt.

²⁵And the LORD requited me according to my justice, according to my innocence in his sight.

²⁶"Toward the faithful you are faithful; toward the wholehearted you are wholehearted;

²⁷Toward the sincere you are sincere; but toward the crooked you are astute.

²⁸You save lowly people, though on the lofty your eyes look down.

²⁹You are my lamp, O LORD! O my God, you brighten the darkness about me.

³⁰For with your aid I run against an armed band, and by the help of my God I leap over a wall.

³¹God's way is unerring; the promise of the LORD is fire-tried; he is a shield to all who take refuge in him."

³²"For who is God except the LORD? Who is a rock save our God?

³³The God who girded me with strength and kept my way unerring;

³⁴Who made my feet swift as those of hinds and set me on the heights;

³⁵Who trained my hands for war till my arms could bend a bow of brass.

³⁶"You have given me your saving shield, and your help has made me great.

³⁷You made room for my steps; unwavering was my stride.

³⁸I pursued my enemies and destroyed them, nor did I turn again till I made an end of them.

³⁹I smote them and they did not rise; they fell beneath my feet.

⁴⁰"You girded me with strength for war; you subdued my adversaries beneath me.

⁴¹My enemies you put to flight before me and those who hated me I destroyed.

⁴²They cried for help-but no one saved them; to the LORD--but he answered them not.

⁴³I ground them fine as the dust of the earth; like the mud in the streets I trampled them down.

⁴⁴"You rescued me from the strife of my people; you made me head over nations. A people I had not known became my slaves;

⁴⁵as soon as they heard me, they obeyed.

⁴⁶The foreigners fawned and cringed before me; they staggered forth from their fortresses."

⁴⁷"The LORD live! And blessed be my Rock! Extolled be my God, rock of my salvation.

⁴⁸O God, who granted me vengeance, who made peoples subject to me

⁴⁹and helped me escape from my enemies, Above my adversaries you exalt me and from the violent man you rescue me.

⁵⁰Therefore will I proclaim you, O LORD, among the nations, and I will sing praise to your name,

⁵¹You who gave great victories to your king and showed kindness to your anointed, to David and his posterity forever."

23These are the last words of David: "The utterance of David, son of Jesse; the utterance of the man God raised up, Anointed of the God of Jacob, favorite of the Mighty One of Israel.

²The spirit of the LORD spoke through me; his word was on my tongue.

³The God of Israel spoke; of me the Rock of Israel said, 'He that rules over men in justice, that rules in the fear of God,

⁴Is like the morning light at sunrise on a cloudless morning, making the greensward sparkle after rain.'

⁵Is not my house firm before God? He has made an eternal covenant with me, set forth in detail and secured. Will he not bring to fruition all my salvation and my every desire?

⁶But the wicked are all like thorns to be cast away; they cannot be taken up by hand.

⁷He who wishes to touch them must arm himself with iron and the shaft of a spear, and they must be consumed by fire."

⁸These are the names of David's warriors. Ishbaal, son of Hachamoni, was the first of the Three. It was he who brandished his battle-ax over eight hundred slain in a single encounter.

⁹Next to him, among the Three warriors, was Eleazar, son of Dodo the Ahohite. He was with David at Ephes-dammim when the Philistines assembled there for battle. The Israelites had retreated,

¹⁰but he stood his ground and fought the Philistines until his hand grew tired and became cramped, holding fast to the sword. The LORD brought about a great victory on that day; the soldiers turned back after Eleazar, but only to strip the slain.

¹¹Next to him was Shammah, son of Agee the Hararite. The Philistines had assembled at Lehi, where there was a plot of land full of lentils. When the soldiers fled from the Philistines,

¹²he took his stand in the middle of the plot and defended it. He slew the Philistines, and the LORD brought about a great victory. Such were the deeds of the Three warriors.

¹³During the harvest three of the Thirty went down to David in the cave of Adullam, while a Philistine clan was encamped in the Vale of Rephaim.

¹⁴At that time David was in the refuge, and there was a garrison of Philistines in Bethlehem.

¹⁵Now David had a strong craving and said, "Oh, that someone would give me a drink of water from the cistern that is by the gate of Bethlehem!"

¹⁶So the Three warriors broke through the Philistine camp and drew water from the cistern that is by the gate of Bethlehem. But when they brought it to David he refused to drink it, and instead poured it out to the LORD,

¹⁷saying: "The LORD forbid that I do this! Can I drink the blood of these men who went at the risk of their lives?" So he refused to drink it.

¹⁸Abishai, brother of Joab, son of Zeruiah, was at the head of the Thirty. It was he who brandished his spear over three hundred slain. He was listed among the Thirty

¹⁹and commanded greater respect than the Thirty, becoming their leader. However, he did not attain to the Three.

²⁰Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, a stalwart from Kabzeel, was a man of great achievements. It was he who slew the two lions in Moab. He also went down and killed the lion in the cistern at the time of the snow.

²¹It was he, too, who slew an Egyptian of large stature. Although the Egyptian was armed with a spear, he went against him with a club and wrested the spear from the Egyptian's hand, then killed him with his own spear.

²²Such were the deeds performed by Benaiah, son of Jehoiada. He was listed among the Thirty warriors

²³and commanded greater respect than the Thirty. However, he did not attain to the Three. David put him in command of his bodyguard.

²⁴Asahel, brother of Joab. . . .Among the Thirty were: Elhanan, son of Dodo, from Bethlehem;

²⁵Shammah from En-harod; Elika from En-harod;

²⁶Helez from Beth-pelet; Ira, son of Ikkesh, from Tekoa;

²⁷Abiezer from Anathoth; Sibbecai from Hushah;

²⁸Zalmon from Ahoh; Maharai from Netophah;

²⁹Heled, son of Baanah, from Netophah; Ittai, son of Ribai, from Gibeah of the Benjaminites;

³⁰Benaiah from Pirathon; Hiddai from Nahale-gaash;

³¹Abibaal from Beth-arabah; Azmaveth from Bahurim;

³²Eliahba from Shaalbon; Jashen the Gunite; Jonathan,

³³son of Shammah the Hararite; Ahiam, son of Sharar the Hararite;

³⁴Eliphelet, son of Ahasbai, from Beth-maacah; Eliam, son of Ahithophel, from Gilo;

³⁵Hezrai from Carmel; Paarai the Arbite;

³⁶Igal, son of Nathan, from Zobah; Bani the Gadite;

³⁷Zelek the Ammonite; Naharai from Beeroth, armor-bearer of Joab, son of Zeruiah;

³⁸Ira from Jattir; Gareb from Jattir;

³⁹Uriah the Hittite-thirty-seven in all.

24The LORD'S anger against Israel flared again, and he incited David against the Israelites by prompting him to number Israel and Judah.

²Accordingly the king said to Joab and the leaders of the army who were with him, "Tour all the tribes in Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba and register the people, that I may know their number."

³But Joab said to the king: "May the LORD your God increase the number of people a hundredfold for your royal majesty to see it with his own eyes. But why does it please my lord the king to order a thing of this kind?"

⁴The king, however, overruled Joab and the leaders of the army, so they left the king's presence in order to register the people of Israel.

⁵Crossing the Jordan, they began near Aroer, south of the city in the wadi, and went in the direction of Gad toward Jazer.

⁶They continued on to Gilead and to the district below Mount Hermon. Then they proceeded to Dan; from there they turned toward Sidon,

⁷going to the fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites, and ending up at Beer-sheba in the Negeb of Judah.

⁸Thus they toured the whole country, reaching Jerusalem again after nine months and twenty days.

⁹Joab then reported to the king the number of people registered: in Israel, eight hundred thousand men fit for military service; in Judah, five hundred thousand.

¹⁰Afterward, however, David regretted having numbered the people, and said to the LORD: "I have sinned grievously in what I have done. But now, LORD, forgive the guilt of your servant, for I have been very foolish."

¹¹When David rose in the morning, the LORD had spoken to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying:

¹²"Go and say to David, 'This is what the LORD says: I offer you three alternatives; choose one of them, and I will inflict it on you.'"

¹³Gad then went to David to inform him. He asked: "Do you want a three years' famine to come upon your land, or to flee from your enemy three months while he pursues you, or to have a three days' pestilence in your land? Now consider and decide what I must reply to him who sent me."

¹⁴David answered Gad: "I am in very serious difficulty. Let us fall by the hand of God, for he is most merciful; but let me not fall by the hand of man."

¹⁵Thus David chose the pestilence. Now it was the time of the wheat harvest when the plague broke out among the people. (The LORD then sent a pestilence over Israel from morning until the time appointed, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beer-sheba died.)

¹⁶But when the angel stretched forth his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD regretted the calamity and said to the angel causing the destruction among the people, "Enough now! Stay your hand." The angel of the LORD was then standing at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

¹⁷When David saw the angel who was striking the people, he said to the LORD: "It is I who have sinned; it is I, the shepherd, who have done wrong. But these are sheep; what have they done? Punish me and my kindred."

¹⁸On the same day Gad went to David and said to him, "Go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite."

¹⁹Following Gad's bidding, David went up as the LORD had commanded.

²⁰Now Araunah looked down and noticed the king and his servants coming toward him while he was threshing wheat. So he went out and paid homage to the king, with face to the ground.

²¹Then Araunah asked, "Why does my lord the king come to his servant?" David replied, "To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may be checked among the people."

²²But Araunah said to David: "Let my lord the king take and offer up whatever he may wish. Here are oxen for holocausts, and threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for wood.

²³All this does Araunah give to the king." Araunah then said to the king, "May the LORD your God accept your offering."

²⁴The king, however, replied to Araunah, "No, I must pay you for it, for I cannot offer to the LORD my God holocausts that cost nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty silver shekels.

²⁵Then David built an altar there to the LORD, and offered holocausts and peace offerings. The LORD granted relief to the country, and the plague was checked in Israel.

1When King David was old and advanced in years, though they spread covers over him he could not keep warm.

²His servants therefore said to him, "Let a young virgin be sought to attend you, lord king, and to nurse you. If she sleeps with your royal majesty, you will be kept warm."

³So they sought for a beautiful girl throughout the territory of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunamite, whom they brought to the king.

⁴The maiden, who was very beautiful, nursed the king and cared for him, but the king did not have relations with her.

⁵Adonijah, son of Haggith, began to display his ambition to be king. He acquired chariots, drivers, and fifty henchmen.

⁶Yet his father never rebuked him or asked why he was doing this. Adonijah was also very handsome, and next in age to Absalom by the same mother.

⁷He conferred with Joab, son of Zeruiah, and with Abiathar the priest, and they supported him.

⁸However, Zadok the priest, Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, Nathan the prophet, and Shimei and his companions, the pick of David's army, did not side with Adonijah.

⁹When he slaughtered sheep, oxen, and fatlings at the stone Zoheleth, near En-rogel, Adonijah invited all his brothers, the king's sons, and all the royal officials of Judah.

¹⁰But he did not invite the prophet Nathan, or Benaiah, or the pick of the army, or his brother Solomon.

¹¹Then Nathan said to Bathsheba, Solomon's mother: "Have you not heard that Adonijah, son of Haggith, has become king without the knowledge of our lord David?

¹²Come now, let me advise you so that you may save your life and that of your son Solomon.

¹³Go, visit King David, and say to him, 'Did you not, lord king, swear to your handmaid: Your son Solomon shall be king after me and shall sit upon my throne? Why, then, has Adonijah become king?'

¹⁴And while you are still there speaking to the king, I will come in after you and confirm what you have said."

¹⁵So Bathsheba visited the king in his room, while Abishag the Shunamite was attending him because of his advanced age.

¹⁶Bathsheba bowed in homage to the king, who said to her, "What do you wish?"

¹⁷She answered him: "My lord, you swore to me your handmaid by the LORD, your God, that my son Solomon should reign after you and sit upon your throne.

¹⁸But now Adonijah has become king, and you, my lord king, do not know it.

¹⁹He has slaughtered oxen, fatlings, and sheep in great numbers; he has invited all the king's sons, Abiathar the priest, and Joab, the general of the army, but not your servant Solomon.

²⁰Now, my lord king, all Israel is waiting for you to make known to them who is to sit on the throne after your royal majesty.

²¹If this is not done, when my lord the king sleeps with his fathers, I and my son Solomon will be considered criminals."

²²While she was still speaking to the king, the prophet Nathan came in.

²³When he had been announced, the prophet entered the king's presence and, bowing to the floor, did him homage.

²⁴Then Nathan said: "Have you decided, my lord king, that Adonijah is to reign after you and sit on your throne?

²⁵He went down today and slaughtered oxen, fatlings, and sheep in great numbers; he invited all the king's sons, the commanders of the army, and Abiathar the priest, and they are eating and drinking in his company and saying, 'Long live King Adonijah!'

²⁶But me, your servant, he did not invite; nor Zadok the priest, nor Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, nor your servant Solomon.

²⁷Was this done by my royal master's order without my being told who was to succeed to your majesty's kingly throne?"

²⁸King David answered, "Call Bathsheba here." When she re-entered the king's presence and stood before him,

²⁹the king swore, "As the LORD lives, who has delivered me from all distress,

³⁰this very day I will fulfill the oath I swore to you by the LORD, the God of Israel, that your son Solomon should reign after me and should sit upon my throne in my place."

³¹Bowing to the floor in homage to the king, Bathsheba said, "May my lord, King David, live forever!"

³²Then King David summoned Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah, son of Jehoiada. When they had entered the king's presence,

³³he said to them: "Take with you the royal attendants. Mount my son Solomon upon my own mule and escort him down to Gihon.

³⁴There Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet are to anoint him king of Israel, and you shall blow the horn and cry, 'Long live King Solomon!'

³⁵When you come back in his train, he is to go in and sit upon my throne and reign in my place. I designate him ruler of Israel and of Judah."

³⁶In answer to the king, Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, said: "So be it! May the LORD, the God of my lord the king, so decree!

³⁷As the LORD has been with your royal majesty, so may he be with Solomon, and exalt his throne even more than that of my lord, King David!"

³⁸So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and Pelethites went down, and mounting Solomon on King David's mule, escorted him to Gihon.

³⁹Then Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the tent and anointed Solomon. They blew the horn and all the people shouted, "Long live King Solomon!"

⁴⁰Then all the people went up after him, playing flutes and rejoicing so much as to split open the earth with their shouting.

⁴¹Adonijah and all the guests who were with him heard it, just as they ended their banquet. When Joab heard the sound of the horn, he asked, "What does this uproar in the city mean?"

⁴²As he was speaking, Jonathan, son of Abiathar the priest, arrived. "Come," said Adonijah, "you are a man of worth and must bring good news."

⁴³"On the contrary!" Jonathan answered him. "Our lord, King David, has made Solomon king.

⁴⁴The king sent with him Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and Pelethites, and they mounted him upon the king's own mule.

⁴⁵Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anointed him king at Gihon, and they went up from there rejoicing, so that the city is in an uproar. That is the noise you heard.

⁴⁶Besides, Solomon took his seat on the royal throne,

⁴⁷and the king's servants went in and paid their respects to our lord, King David, saying, 'May God make Solomon more famous than you and exalt his throne more than your own!' And the king in his bed worshiped God,

⁴⁸and this is what he said: 'Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who has this day seated one of my sons upon my throne, so that I see it with my own eyes.'"

⁴⁹All the guests of Adonijah left in terror, each going his own way.

⁵⁰Adonijah, in fear of Solomon, also left; he went and seized the horns of the altar.

⁵¹It was reported to Solomon that Adonijah, in his fear of King Solomon, had seized the horns of the altar and said, "Let King Solomon first swear that he will not kill me, his servant, with the sword."

⁵²Solomon answered, "If he proves himself worthy, not a hair shall fall from his head. But if he is found guilty of crime, he shall die."

⁵³King Solomon sent to have him brought down from the altar, and he came and paid homage to the king. Solomon then said to him, "Go to your home."

2When the time of David's death drew near, he gave these instructions to his son Solomon:

²"I am going the way of all mankind. Take courage and be a man.

³Keep the mandate of the LORD, your God, following his ways and observing his statutes, commands, ordinances, and decrees as they are written in the law of Moses, that you may succeed in whatever you do, wherever you turn,

⁴and the LORD may fulfill the promise he made on my behalf when he said, 'If your sons so conduct themselves that they remain faithful to me with their whole heart and with their whole soul, you shall always have someone of your line on the throne of Israel.'

⁵You yourself know what Joab, son of Zeruiah, did to me when he slew the two generals of Israel's armies, Abner, son of Ner, and Amasa, son of Jether. He took revenge for the blood of war in a time of peace, and put bloodshed without provocation on the belt about my waist and the sandal on my foot.

⁶Act with the wisdom you possess; you must not allow him to go down to the grave in peaceful old age.

⁷"But be kind to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and have them eat at your table. For they received me kindly when I was fleeing your brother Absalom.

⁸"You also have with you Shimei, son of Gera, the Benjaminite of Bahurim, who cursed me balefully when I was going to Mahanaim. Because he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the LORD that I would not put him to the sword.

⁹But you must not let him go unpunished. You are a prudent man and will know how to deal with him to send down his hoary head in blood to the grave."

¹⁰David rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David.

¹¹The length of David's reign over Israel was forty years: he reigned seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.

¹²When Solomon was seated on the throne of his father David, with his sovereignty firmly established,

¹³Adonijah, son of Haggith, went to Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon. "Do you come as a friend?" she asked. "Yes," he answered,

¹⁴and added, "I have something to say to you." She replied, "Say it."

¹⁵So he said: "You know that the kingdom was mine, and all Israel expected me to be king. But the kingdom escaped me and became my brother's, for the LORD gave it to him.

¹⁶But now there is one favor I would ask of you. Do not refuse me." And she said, "Speak on."

¹⁷He said, "Please ask King Solomon, who will not refuse you, to give me Abishag the Shunamite for my wife."

¹⁸"Very well," replied Bathsheba, "I will speak to the king for you."

¹⁹Then Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah, and the king stood up to meet her and paid her homage. Then he sat down upon his throne, and a throne was provided for the king's mother, who sat at his right.

²⁰"There is one small favor I would ask of you," she said. "Do not refuse me." "Ask it, my mother," the king said to her, "for I will not refuse you."

²¹So she said, "Let Abishag the Shunamite be given to your brother Adonijah for his wife."

²²"And why do you ask Abishag the Shunamite for Adonijah?" King Solomon answered his mother. "Ask the kingdom for him as well, for he is my elder brother and has with him Abiathar the priest and Joab, son of Zeruiah."

²³And King Solomon swore by the LORD: "May God do thus and so to me, and more besides, if Adonijah has not proposed this at the cost of his life.

²⁴And now, as the LORD lives, who has seated me firmly on the throne of my father David and made of me a dynasty as he promised, this day shall Adonijah be put to death."

²⁵Then King Solomon sent Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, who struck him dead.

²⁶The king said to Abiathar the priest: "Go to your land in Anathoth. Though you deserve to die, I will not put you to death this time, because you carried the ark of the Lord GOD before my father David and shared in all the hardships my father endured."

²⁷So Solomon deposed Abiathar from his office of priest of the LORD, thus fulfilling the prophecy which the LORD had made in Shiloh about the house of Eli.

²⁸When the news came to Joab, who had sided with Adonijah, though not with Absalom, he fled to the tent of the LORD and seized the horns of the altar.

²⁹King Solomon was told that Joab had fled to the tent of the LORD and was at the altar. He sent Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, with the order, "Go, strike him down."

³⁰Benaiah went to the tent of the LORD and said to him, "The king says, 'Come out.'" But he answered, "No! I will die here." Benaiah reported to the king, "This is what Joab said to me in reply."

³¹The king answered him: "Do as he has said, Strike him down and bury him, and you will remove from me and from my family the blood which Joab shed without provocation.

³²The LORD will hold him responsible for his own blood, because he struck down two men better and more just than himself, and slew them with the sword without my father David's knowledge: Abner, son of Ner, general of Israel's army, and Amasa, son of Jether, general of Judah's army.

³³Joab and his descendants shall be responsible forever for their blood. But there shall be the peace of the LORD forever for David, and his descendants, and his house, and his throne."

³⁴Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, went back, struck him down and killed him; he was buried in his house in the desert.

³⁵The king appointed Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, over the army in his place, and put Zadok the priest in place of Abiathar.

³⁶Then the king summoned Shimei and said to him: "Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and live there. Do not go anywhere else.

³⁷For if you leave, and cross the Kidron Valley, be certain you shall die without fail. You shall be responsible for your own blood."

³⁸Shimei answered the king: "I accept. Your servant will do just as the king's majesty has said." So Shimei stayed in Jerusalem for a long time.

³⁹But three years later, two of Shimei's servants ran away to Achish, son of Maacah, king of Gath, and Shimei was informed that his servants were in Gath.

⁴⁰So Shimei rose, saddled his ass, and went to Achish in Gath in search of his servants, whom he brought back.

⁴¹When Solomon was informed that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and had returned,

⁴²the king summoned Shimei and said to him: "Did I not have you swear by the LORD to your clear understanding of my warning that, if you left and went anywhere else, you should die without fail? And you answered, 'I accept and obey.'

⁴³Why, then, have you not kept the oath of the LORD and the command that I gave you?"

⁴⁴And the king said to Shimei: "You know in your heart the evil that you did to my father David. Now the LORD requites you for your own wickedness.

⁴⁵But King Solomon shall be blessed, and David's throne shall endure before the LORD forever."

⁴⁶The king then gave the order to Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, who struck him dead as he left.

3With the royal power firmly in his grasp, Solomon allied himself by marriage with Pharaoh, king of Egypt. The daughter of Pharaoh, whom he married, he brought to the City of David, until he should finish building his palace, and the temple of the LORD, and the wall around Jerusalem.

²However, the people were sacrificing on the high places, for up to that time no temple had been built to the name of the LORD.

³Solomon loved the LORD, and obeyed the statutes of his father David; yet he offered sacrifice and burned incense on the high places.

⁴The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, because that was the most renowned high place. Upon its altar Solomon offered a thousand holocausts.

⁵In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said, "Ask something of me and I will give it to you."

⁶Solomon answered: "You have shown great favor to your servant, my father David, because he behaved faithfully toward you, with justice and an upright heart; and you have continued this great favor toward him, even today, seating a son of his on his throne.

⁷O LORD, my God, you have made me, your servant, king to succeed my father David; but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act.

⁸I serve you in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a people so vast that it cannot be numbered or counted.

⁹Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong. For who is able to govern this vast people of yours?"

¹⁰The LORD was pleased that Solomon made this request.

¹¹So God said to him: "Because you have asked for this--not for a long life for yourself, nor for riches, nor for the life of your enemies, but for understanding so that you may know what is right--

¹²I do as you requested. I give you a heart so wise and understanding that there has never been anyone like you up to now, and after you there will come no one to equal you.

¹³In addition, I give you what you have not asked for, such riches and glory that among kings there is not your like.

¹⁴And if you follow me by keeping my statutes and commandments, as your father David did, I will give you a long life."

¹⁵When Solomon awoke from his dream, he went to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the covenant of the LORD, offered holocausts and peace offerings, and gave a banquet for all his servants.

¹⁶Later, two harlots came to the king and stood before him.

¹⁷One woman said: "By your leave, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth in the house while she was present.

¹⁸On the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. We were alone in the house; there was no one there but us two.

¹⁹This woman's son died during the night; she smothered him by lying on him.

²⁰Later that night she got up and took my son from my side, as I, your handmaid, was sleeping. Then she laid him in her bosom, after she had laid her dead child in my bosom.

²¹I rose in the morning to nurse my child, and I found him dead. But when I examined him in the morning light, I saw it was not the son whom I had borne."

²²The other woman answered, "It is not so! The living one is my son, the dead one is yours." But the first kept saying, "No, the dead one is your child, the living one is mine!" Thus they argued before the king.

²³Then the king said: "One woman claims, 'This, the living one, is my child, and the dead one is yours.' The other answers, 'No! The dead one is your child; the living one is mine.'"

²⁴The king continued, "Get me a sword." When they brought the sword before him,

²⁵he said, "Cut the living child in two, and give half to one woman and half to the other."

²⁶The woman whose son it was, in the anguish she felt for it, said to the king, "Please, my lord, give her the living child--please do not kill it!" The other, however, said, "It shall be neither mine nor yours. Divide it!"

²⁷The king then answered, "Give the first one the living child! By no means kill it, for she is the mother."

²⁸When all Israel heard the judgment the king had given, they were in awe of him, because they saw that the king had in him the wisdom of God for giving judgment.

4Solomon was king over all Israel,

²and these were the officials he had in his service: Azariah, son of Zadok, priest;

³Elihoreph and Ahijah, sons of Shisha, scribes; Jehoshaphat, son of Ahilud, chancellor;

⁴(Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, commander of the army; Zadok and Abiathar, priests;)

⁵Azariah, son of Nathan, chief of the commissaries; Zabud, son of Nathan, companion to the king;

⁶Ahishar, major-domo of the palace; and Adoniram, son of Abda, superintendent of the forced labor.

⁷Solomon had twelve commissaries for all Israel who supplied food for the king and his household, each having to provide for one month in the year.

⁸Their names were: the son of Hur in the hill country of Ephraim;

⁹the son of Deker in Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth-shemesh, Elon and Beth-hanan;

¹⁰the son of Hesed in Arubboth, as well as in Socoh and the whole region of Hepher;

¹¹the son of Abinadab, who was married to Solomon's daughter Taphath, in all the Naphath-dor;

¹²Baana, son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo, and beyond Jokmeam, and in all Beth-shean, and in the country around Zarethan below Jezreel from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah;

¹³the son of Geber in Ramoth-gilead, having charge of the villages of Jair, son of Manasseh, in Gilead; and of the district of Argob in Bashan--sixty large walled cities with gates barred with bronze;

¹⁴Ahinadab, son of Iddo, in Mahanaim;

¹⁵Ahimaaz, who was married to Basemath, another daughter of Solomon, in Naphtali;

¹⁶Baana, son of Hushai, in Asher and along the rocky coast;

¹⁷Jehoshaphat, son of Paruah, in Issachar;

¹⁸Shimei, son of Ela, in Benjamin;

¹⁹Geber, son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and of Og, king of Bashan. There was one prefect besides, in the king's own land.

²⁰Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sands by the sea; they ate and drank and made merry.

5Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines, down to the border of Egypt; they paid Solomon tribute and were his vassals as long as he lived.

²Solomon's supplies for each day were thirty kors of fine flour, sixty kors of meal,

³ten fatted oxen, twenty pasture-fed oxen, and a hundred sheep, not counting harts, gazelles, roebucks, and fatted fowl.

⁴He ruled over all the land west of the Euphrates, from Tiphsah to Gaza, and over all its kings, and he had peace on all his borders round about.

⁵Thus Judah and Israel lived in security, every man under his vine or under his fig tree from Dan to Beer-sheba, as long as Solomon lived.

⁶Solomon had four thousand stalls for his twelve thousand chariot horses.

⁷These commissaries, one for each month, provided food for King Solomon and for all the guests at the royal table. They left nothing unprovided.

⁸For the chariot horses and draft animals also, each brought his quota of barley and straw to the required place.

⁹Moreover, God gave Solomon wisdom and exceptional understanding and knowledge, as vast as the sand on the seashore.

¹⁰Solomon surpassed all the Cedemites and all the Egyptians in wisdom.

¹¹He was wiser than all other men--than Ethan the Ezrahite, or Heman, Chalcol, and Darda, the musicians--and his fame spread throughout the neighboring nations.

¹²Solomon also uttered three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered a thousand and five.

¹³He discussed plants, from the cedar on Lebanon to the hyssop growing out of the wall, and he spoke about beasts, birds, reptiles, and fishes.

¹⁴Men came to hear Solomon's wisdom from all nations, sent by all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

¹⁵When Hiram, king of Tyre, heard that Solomon had been anointed king in place of his father, he sent an embassy to him; for Hiram had always been David's friend.

¹⁶Solomon sent back this message to Hiram:

¹⁷"You know that my father David, because of the enemies surrounding him on all sides, could not build a temple in honor of the LORD, his God, until such a time as the LORD should put these enemies under the soles of his feet.

¹⁸But now the LORD, my God, has given me peace on all sides. There is no enemy or threat of danger.

¹⁹So I purpose to build a temple in honor of the LORD, my God, as the LORD predicted to my father David when he said: 'It is your son whom I will put upon your throne in your place who shall build the temple in my honor.'

²⁰Give orders, then, to have cedars from the Lebanon cut down for me. My servants shall accompany yours, since you know that there is no one among us who is skilled in cutting timber like the Sidonians, and I will pay you whatever you say for your servants' salary."

²¹When he had heard the words of Solomon, Hiram was pleased and said, "Blessed be the LORD this day, who has given David a wise son to rule this numerous people."

²²Hiram then sent word to Solomon, "I agree to the proposal you sent me, and I will provide all the cedars and fir trees you wish.

²³My servants shall bring them down from the Lebanon to the sea, and I will arrange them into rafts in the sea and bring them wherever you say. There I will break up the rafts, and you shall take the lumber. You, for your part, shall furnish the provisions I desire for my household."

²⁴So Hiram continued to provide Solomon with all the cedars and fir trees he wished;

²⁵while Solomon every year gave Hiram twenty thousand kors of wheat to provide for his household, and twenty thousand measures of pure oil.

²⁶The LORD, moreover, gave Solomon wisdom as he promised him, and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, since they were parties to a treaty.

²⁷King Solomon conscripted thirty thousand workmen from all Israel.

²⁸He sent them to the Lebanon each month in relays of ten thousand, so that they spent one month in the Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the draft.

²⁹Solomon had seventy thousand carriers and eighty thousand stonecutters in the mountain,

³⁰in addition to three thousand three hundred overseers, answerable to Solomon's prefects for the work, directing the people engaged in the work.

³¹By order of the king, fine, large blocks were quarried to give the temple a foundation of hewn stone.

³²Solomon's and Hiram's builders, along with the Gebalites, hewed them out, and prepared the wood and stones for building the temple.

6In the four hundred and eightieth year from the departure of the Israelites from the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, the construction of the temple of the LORD was begun.

²The temple which King Solomon built for the LORD was sixty cubits long, twenty wide, and twenty-five high.

³The porch in front of the temple was twenty cubits from side to side, along the width of the nave, and ten cubits deep in front of the temple.

⁴Splayed windows with trellises were made for the temple,

⁵and adjoining the wall of the temple, which enclosed the nave and the sanctuary, an annex of several stories was built.

⁶Its lowest story was five cubits wide, the middle one six cubits wide, the third seven cubits wide, because there were offsets along the outside of the temple so that the beams would not be fastened into the walls of the temple.

⁷(The temple was built of stone dressed at the quarry, so that no hammer, axe, or iron tool was to be heard in the temple during its construction.)

⁸The entrance to the lowest floor of the annex was at the right side of the temple, and stairs with intermediate landings led up to the middle story and from the middle story to the third.

⁹When the temple was built to its full height, it was roofed in with rafters and boards of cedar.

¹⁰The annex, with its lowest story five cubits high, was built all along the outside of the temple, to which it was joined by cedar beams.

¹¹This word of the LORD came to Solomon:

¹²"As to this temple you are building--if you observe my statutes, carry out my ordinances, keep and obey all my commands, I will fulfill toward you the promise I made to your father David.

¹³I will dwell in the midst of the Israelites and will not forsake my people Israel."

¹⁴When Solomon finished building the temple,

¹⁵its walls were lined from floor to ceiling beams with cedar paneling, and its floor was laid with fir planking.

¹⁶At the rear of the temple a space of twenty cubits was set off by cedar partitions from the floor to the rafters, enclosing the sanctuary, the holy of holies.

¹⁷The nave, or part of the temple in front of the sanctuary, was forty cubits long.

¹⁸The cedar in the interior of the temple was carved in the form of gourds and open flowers; all was of cedar, and no stone was to be seen.

¹⁹In the innermost part of the temple was located the sanctuary to house the ark of the LORD'S covenant,

²⁰twenty cubits long, twenty wide, and twenty high.

²¹Solomon overlaid the interior of the temple with pure gold. He made in front of the sanctuary a cedar altar, overlaid it with gold, and looped it with golden chains.

²²The entire temple was overlaid with gold so that it was completely covered with it; the whole altar before the sanctuary was also overlaid with gold.

²³In the sanctuary were two cherubim, each ten cubits high, made of olive wood.

²⁴Each wing of a cherub measured five cubits so that the space from wing tip to wing tip of each was ten cubits.

²⁵The cherubim were identical in size and shape,

²⁶and each was exactly ten cubits high.

²⁷The cherubim were placed in the inmost part of the temple, with their wings spread wide, so that one wing of each cherub touched a side wall while the other wing, pointing toward the middle of the room, touched the corresponding wing of the second cherub.

²⁸The cherubim, too, were overlaid with gold.

²⁹The walls on all sides of both the inner and the outer rooms had carved figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers.

³⁰The floor of both the inner and the outer rooms was overlaid with gold.

³¹At the entrance of the sanctuary, doors of olive wood were made; the doorframes had beveled posts.

³²The two doors were of olive wood, with carved figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. The doors were overlaid with gold, which was also molded to the cherubim and the palm trees.

³³The same was done at the entrance to the nave, where the doorposts of olive wood were rectangular.

³⁴The two doors were of fir wood; each door was banded by a metal strap, front and back,

³⁵and had carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, over which gold was evenly applied.

³⁶The inner court was walled off by means of three courses of hewn stones and one course of cedar beams.

³⁷The foundations of the LORD'S temple were laid in the month of Ziv

³⁸in the fourth year, and it was completed in all particulars, exactly according to plan, in the month of Bul, the eighth month, in the eleventh year. Thus it took Solomon seven years to build it.

7His own palace Solomon completed after thirteen years of construction.

²He built the hall called the Forest of Lebanon one hundred cubits long, fifty wide, and thirty high; it was supported by four rows of cedar columns, with cedar capitals upon the columns.

³Moreover, it had a ceiling of cedar above the beams resting on the columns; these beams numbered forty-five, fifteen to a row.

⁴There were three window frames at either end, with windows in strict alignment.

⁵The posts of all the doorways were rectangular, and the doorways faced each other, three at either end.

⁶The porch of the columned hall he made fifty cubits long and thirty wide. The porch extended the width of the columned hall, and there was a canopy in front.

⁷He also built the vestibule of the throne where he gave judgment--that is, the tribunal; it was paneled with cedar from floor to ceiling beams.

⁸His living quarters were in another court, set in deeper than the tribunal and of the same construction. A palace like this tribunal was built for Pharaoh's daughter, whom Solomon had married.

⁹All these buildings were of fine stones, hewn to size and trimmed front and back with a saw, from the foundation to the bonding course.

¹⁰(The foundation was made of fine, large blocks, some ten cubits and some eight cubits.

¹¹Above were fine stones hewn to size, and cedar wood.)

¹²The great court was enclosed by three courses of hewn stones and a bonding course of cedar beams. So also were the inner court of the temple of the LORD and the temple porch.

¹³King Solomon had Hiram brought from Tyre.

¹⁴He was a bronze worker, the son of a widow from the tribe of Naphtali; his father had been from Tyre. He was endowed with skill, understanding, and knowledge of how to produce any work in bronze. He came to King Solomon and did all his metal work.

¹⁵Two hollow bronze columns were cast, each eighteen cubits high and twelve cubits in circumference; their metal was of four fingers' thickness.

¹⁶There were also two capitals cast in bronze, to place on top of the columns, each of them five cubits high.

¹⁷Two pieces of network with a chainlike mesh were made to cover the (nodes of the) capitals on top of the columns, one for each capital.

¹⁸Four hundred pomegranates were also cast; two hundred of them in a double row encircled the piece of network on each of the two capitals.

¹⁹The capitals on top of the columns were finished wholly in a lotus pattern

²⁰above the level of the nodes and their enveloping network.

²¹The columns were then erected adjacent to the porch of the temple, one to the right, called Jachin, and the other to the left, called Boaz.

²²Thus the work on the columns was completed.

²³The sea was then cast; it was made with a circular rim, and measured ten cubits across, five in height, and thirty in circumference.

²⁴Under the brim, gourds encircled it, ten to the cubit all the way around; the gourds were in two rows and were cast in one mold with the sea.

²⁵This rested on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east, with their haunches all toward the center, where the sea was set upon them.

²⁶It was a handbreadth thick, and its brim resembled that of a cup, being lily-shaped. Its capacity was two thousand measures.

²⁷Ten stands were also made of bronze, each four cubits long, four wide, and three high.

²⁸When these stands were constructed, panels were set within the framework.

²⁹On the panels between the frames there were lions, oxen, and cherubim; and on the frames likewise, above and below the lions and oxen, there were wreaths in relief.

³⁰Each stand had four bronze wheels and bronze axles.

³¹This was surmounted by a crown one cubit high within which was a rounded opening to provide a receptacle a cubit and a half in depth. There was carved work at the opening, on panels that were angular, not curved.

³²The four wheels were below the paneling, and the axletrees of the wheels and the stand were of one piece. Each wheel was a cubit and a half high.

³³The wheels were constructed like chariot wheels; their axles, fellies, spokes, and hubs were all cast. The four legs of each stand had cast braces, which were under the basin; they had wreaths on each side.

³⁴These four braces, extending to the corners of each stand, were of one piece with the stand.

³⁵On top of the stand there was a raised collar half a cubit high, with supports and panels which were of one piece with the top of the stand.

³⁶On the surfaces of the supports and on the panels, wherever there was a clear space, cherubim, lions, and palm trees were carved, as well as wreaths all around.

³⁷This was how the ten stands were made, all of the same casting, the same size, the same shape.

³⁸Ten bronze basins were then made, each four cubits in diameter with a capacity of forty measures, one basin for the top of each of the ten stands.

³⁹The stands were placed, five on the south side of the temple and five on the north. The sea was placed off to the southeast from the south side of the temple.

⁴⁰When Hiram made the pots, shovels, and bowls, he therewith completed all his work for King Solomon in the temple of the LORD:

⁴¹two columns, two nodes for the capitals on top of the columns, two pieces of network covering the nodes for the capitals on top of the columns,

⁴²four hundred pomegranates in double rows on both pieces of network that covered the two nodes of the capitals where they met the columns,

⁴³ten stands, ten basins on the stands,

⁴⁴one sea, twelve oxen supporting the sea,

⁴⁵pots, shovels, and bowls. All these articles which Hiram made for King Solomon in the temple of the LORD were of burnished bronze.

⁴⁶The king had them cast in the neighborhood of the Jordan, in the clayey ground between Succoth and Zarethan.

⁴⁷Solomon did not weigh all the articles because they were so numerous; the weight of the bronze, therefore, was not determined.

⁴⁸Solomon had all the articles made for the interior of the temple of the LORD: the golden altar; the golden table on which the showbread lay;

⁴⁹the lampstands of pure gold, five to the right and five to the left before the sanctuary, with their flowers, lamps, and tongs of gold;

⁵⁰basins, snuffers, bowls, cups, and fire pans of pure gold; and hinges of gold for the doors of the inner room, or holy of holies, and for the doors of the outer room, the nave.

⁵¹When all the work undertaken by King Solomon in the temple of the LORD was completed, he brought in the dedicated offerings of his father David, putting the silver, gold, and other articles in the treasuries of the temple of the LORD.

8At the order of Solomon, the elders of Israel and all the leaders of the tribes, the princes in the ancestral houses of the Israelites, came to King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the LORD'S covenant from the city of David (which is Zion).

²All the men of Israel assembled before King Solomon during the festival in the month of Ethanim (the seventh month).

³When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the priests took up the ark;

⁴they carried the ark of the LORD and the meeting tent with all the sacred vessels that were in the tent. (The priests and Levites carried them.)

⁵King Solomon and the entire community of Israel present for the occasion sacrificed before the ark sheep and oxen too many to number or count.

⁶The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place beneath the wings of the cherubim in the sanctuary, the holy of holies of the temple.

⁷The cherubim had their wings spread out over the place of the ark, sheltering the ark and its poles from above.

⁸The poles were so long that their ends could be seen from that part of the holy place adjoining the sanctuary; however, they could not be seen beyond. (They have remained there to this day.)

⁹There was nothing in the ark but the two stone tablets which Moses had put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the Israelites at their departure from the land of Egypt.

¹⁰When the priests left the holy place, the cloud filled the temple of the LORD

¹¹so that the priests could no longer minister because of the cloud, since the LORD'S glory had filled the temple of the LORD.

¹²Then Solomon said, "The LORD intends to dwell in the dark cloud;

¹³I have truly built you a princely house, a dwelling where you may abide forever."

¹⁴The king turned and greeted the whole community of Israel as they stood.

¹⁵He said to them: "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who with his own mouth made a promise to my father David and by his hand has brought it to fulfillment. It was he who said,

¹⁶'Since the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city out of any tribe of Israel for the building of a temple to my honor; but I choose David to rule my people Israel.'

¹⁷When my father David wished to build a temple to the honor of the LORD, the God of Israel,

¹⁸the LORD said to him, 'In wishing to build a temple to my honor, you do well.

¹⁹It will not be you, however, who will build the temple; but the son who will spring from you, he shall build the temple to my honor.'

²⁰And now the LORD has fulfilled the promise that he made: I have succeeded my father David and sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD foretold, and I have built this temple to honor the LORD, the God of Israel.

²¹I have provided in it a place for the ark in which is the covenant of the LORD, which he made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt."

²²Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of the whole community of Israel, and stretching forth his hands toward heaven,

²³he said, "LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below; you keep your covenant of kindness with your servants who are faithful to you with their whole heart.

²⁴You have kept the promise you made to my father David, your servant. You who spoke that promise, have this day, by your own power, brought it to fulfillment.

²⁵Now, therefore, LORD, God of Israel, keep the further promise you made to my father David, your servant, saying, 'You shall always have someone from your line to sit before me on the throne of Israel, provided only that your descendants look to their conduct so that they live in my presence, as you have lived in my presence.'

²⁶Now, LORD, God of Israel, may this promise which you made to my father David, your servant, be confirmed.

²⁷"Can it indeed be that God dwells among men on earth? If the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain you, how much less this temple which I have built!

²⁸Look kindly on the prayer and petition of your servant, O LORD, my God, and listen to the cry of supplication which I, your servant, utter before you this day.

²⁹May your eyes watch night and day over this temple, the place where you have decreed you shall be honored; may you heed the prayer which I, your servant, offer in this place.

³⁰Listen to the petitions of your servant and of your people Israel which they offer in this place. Listen from your heavenly dwelling and grant pardon.

³¹"If a man sins against his neighbor and is required to take an oath sanctioned by a curse, when he comes and takes the oath before your altar in this temple,

³²listen in heaven; take action and pass judgment on your servants. Condemn the wicked and punish him for his conduct, but acquit the just and establish his innocence.

³³"If your people Israel sin against you and are defeated by an enemy, and if then they return to you, praise your name, pray to you, and entreat you in this temple,

³⁴listen in heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land you gave their fathers.

³⁵"If the sky is closed, so that there is no rain, because they have sinned against you and you afflict them, and if then they repent of their sin, and pray, and praise your name in this place,

³⁶listen in heaven and forgive the sin of your servant and of your people Israel, teaching them the right way to live and sending rain upon this land of yours which you have given to your people as their heritage.

³⁷"If there is famine in the land or pestilence; or if blight comes, or mildew, or a locust swarm, or devouring insects; if an enemy of your people besieges them in one of their cities; whatever plague or sickness there may be,

³⁸if then any one (of your entire people Israel) has remorse of conscience and offers some prayer or petition, stretching out his hands toward this temple,

³⁹listen from your heavenly dwelling place and forgive. You who alone know the hearts of all men, render to each one of them according to his conduct; knowing their hearts, so treat them

⁴⁰that they may fear you as long as they live on the land you gave our fathers.

⁴¹"To the foreigner, likewise, who is not of your people Israel, but comes from a distant land to honor you

⁴²(since men will learn of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this temple,

⁴³listen from your heavenly dwelling. Do all that the foreigner asks of you, that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, may fear you as do your people Israel, and may acknowledge that this temple which I have built is dedicated to your honor.

⁴⁴"Whatever the direction in which you may send your people forth to war against their enemies, if they pray to you, O LORD, toward the city you have chosen and the temple I have built in your honor,

⁴⁵listen in heaven to their prayer and petition, and defend their cause.

⁴⁶"When they sin against you (for there is no man who does not sin), and in your anger against them you deliver them to the enemy, so that their captors deport them to a hostile land, far or near,

⁴⁷may they repent in the land of their captivity and be converted. If then they entreat you in the land of their captors and say, 'We have sinned and done wrong; we have been wicked';

⁴⁸if with their whole heart and soul they turn back to you in the land of the enemies who took them captive, pray to you toward the land you gave their fathers, the city you have chosen, and the temple I have built in your honor,

⁴⁹listen from your heavenly dwelling.

⁵⁰Forgive your people their sins and all the offenses they have committed against you, and grant them mercy before their captors, so that these will be merciful to them.

⁵¹For they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out of Egypt, from the midst of an iron furnace.

⁵²"Thus may your eyes be open to the petition of your servant and to the petition of your people Israel. Hear them whenever they call upon you,

⁵³because you have set them apart among all the peoples of the earth for your inheritance, as you declared through your servant Moses when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord GOD."

⁵⁴When Solomon finished offering this entire prayer of petition to the LORD, he rose from before the altar of the LORD, where he had been kneeling with his hands outstretched toward heaven.

⁵⁵He stood and blessed the whole community of Israel, saying in a loud voice:

⁵⁶"Blessed be the LORD who has given rest to his people Israel, just as he promised. Not a single word has gone unfulfilled of the entire generous promise he made through his servant Moses.

⁵⁷May the LORD, our God, be with us as he was with our fathers and may he not forsake us nor cast us off.

⁵⁸May he draw our hearts to himself, that we may follow him in everything and keep the commands, statutes, and ordinances which he enjoined on our fathers.

⁵⁹May this prayer I have offered to the LORD, our God, be present to him day and night, that he may uphold the cause of his servant and of his people Israel as each day requires,

⁶⁰that all the peoples of the earth may know the LORD is God and there is no other.

⁶¹You must be wholly devoted to the LORD, our God, observing his statutes and keeping his commandments, as on this day."

⁶²The king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before the LORD.

⁶³Solomon offered as peace offerings to the LORD twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred twenty thousand sheep. Thus the king and all the Israelites dedicated the temple of the LORD.

⁶⁴On that day the king consecrated the middle of the court facing the temple of the LORD; he offered there the holocausts, the cereal offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar before the LORD was too small to hold these offerings.

⁶⁵On this occasion Solomon and all the Israelites, who had assembled in large numbers from Labo of Hamath to the Wadi of Egypt, celebrated the festival before the LORD, our God, for seven days.

⁶⁶On the eighth day he dismissed the people, who bade the king farewell and went to their homes, rejoicing and happy over all the blessings the LORD had given to his servant David and to his people Israel.

9After Solomon finished building the temple of the LORD, the royal palace, and everything else that he had planned,

²the LORD appeared to him a second time, as he had appeared to him in Gibeon.

³The LORD said to him: "I have heard the prayer of petition which you offered in my presence. I have consecrated this temple which you have built; I confer my name upon it forever, and my eyes and my heart shall be there always.

⁴As for you, if you live in my presence as your father David lived, sincerely and uprightly, doing just as I have commanded you, keeping my statutes and decrees,

⁵I will establish your throne of sovereignty over Israel forever, as I promised your father David when I said, 'You shall always have someone from your line on the throne of Israel.'

⁶But if you and your descendants ever withdraw from me, fail to keep the commandments and statutes which I set before you, and proceed to venerate and worship strange gods,

⁷I will cut off Israel from the land I gave them and repudiate the temple I have consecrated to my honor. Israel shall become a proverb and a byword among all nations,

⁸and this temple shall become a heap of ruins. Every passerby shall catch his breath in amazement, and ask, 'Why has the LORD done this to the land and to this temple?'

⁹Men will answer: 'They forsook the LORD, their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt; they adopted strange gods which they worshiped and served. That is why the LORD has brought down upon them all this evil.'"

¹⁰After the twenty years during which Solomon built the two houses, the temple of the LORD and the palace of the king--

¹¹Hiram, king of Tyre, supplying Solomon with all the cedar wood, fir wood, and gold he wished--King Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.

¹²Hiram left Tyre to see the cities Solomon had given him, but was not satisfied with them.

¹³So he said, "What are these cities you have given me, my brother?" And he called them the land of Cabul, as they are called to this day.

¹⁴Hiram, however, had sent king Solomon one hundred and twenty talents of gold.

¹⁵This is an account of the forced labor which King Solomon levied in order to build the temple of the LORD, his palace, Millo, the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, Gezer

¹⁶(Pharaoh, king of Egypt, had come up and taken Gezer and, after destroying it by fire and slaying all the Canaanites living in the city, had given it as dowry to his daughter, Solomon's wife;

¹⁷Solomon then rebuilt Gezer), Lower Beth-horon,

¹⁸Baalath, Tamar in the desert of Judah,

¹⁹all his cities for supplies, cities for chariots and for horses, and whatever else Solomon decided should be built in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in the entire land under his dominion.

²⁰All the non-Israelite people who remained in the land, descendants of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites

²¹whose doom the Israelites had been unable to accomplish, Solomon conscripted as forced laborers, as they are to this day.

²²But Solomon enslaved none of the Israelites, for they were his fighting force, his ministers, commanders, adjutants, chariot officers, and charioteers.

²³The supervisors of Solomon's works who policed the people engaged in the work numbered five hundred and fifty.

²⁴As soon as Pharaoh's daughter went up from the City of David to her palace, which he had built for her, Solomon built Millo.

²⁵Three times a year Solomon used to offer holocausts and peace offerings on the altar which he had built to the LORD, and to burn incense before the LORD; and he kept the temple in repair.

²⁶King Solomon also built a fleet at Ezion-geber, which is near Elath on the shore of the Red Sea in the land of Edom.

²⁷In this fleet Hiram placed his own expert seamen with the servants of Solomon.

²⁸They went to Ophir, and brought back four hundred and twenty talents of gold to King Solomon.

10The queen of Sheba, having heard of Solomon's fame, came to test him with subtle questions.

²She arrived in Jerusalem with a very numerous retinue, and with camels bearing spices, a large amount of gold, and precious stones. She came to Solomon and questioned him on every subject in which she was interested.

³King Solomon explained everything she asked about, and there remained nothing hidden from him that he could not explain to her.

⁴When the queen of Sheba witnessed Solomon's great wisdom, the palace he had built,

⁵the food at his table, the seating of his ministers, the attendance and garb of his waiters, his banquet service, and the holocausts he offered in the temple of the LORD, she was breathless.

⁶"The report I heard in my country about your deeds and your wisdom is true," she told the king.

⁷"Though I did not believe the report until I came and saw with my own eyes, I have discovered that they were not telling me the half. Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report I heard.

⁸Happy are your men, happy these servants of yours, who stand before you always and listen to your wisdom.

⁹Blessed be the LORD, your God, whom it has pleased to place you on the throne of Israel. In his enduring love for Israel, the LORD has made you king to carry out judgment and justice."

¹⁰Then she gave the king one hundred and twenty gold talents, a very large quantity of spices, and precious stones. Never again did anyone bring such an abundance of spices as the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

¹¹Hiram's fleet, which used to bring gold from Ophir, also brought from there a large quantity of cabinet wood and precious stones.

¹²With the wood the king made supports for the temple of the LORD and for the palace of the king, and harps and lyres for the chanters. No more such wood was brought or seen to the present day.

¹³King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba everything she desired and asked for, besides such presents as were given her from Solomon's royal bounty. Then she returned with her servants to her own country.

¹⁴The gold that Solomon received every year weighed six hundred and sixty-six gold talents,

¹⁵in addition to what came from the Tarshish fleet, from the traffic of merchants, and from all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the country.

¹⁶Moreover, King Solomon made two hundred shields of beaten gold (six hundred gold shekels went into each shield)

¹⁷and three hundred bucklers of beaten gold (three minas of gold went into each buckler); and he put them in the hall of the Forest of Lebanon.

¹⁸The king also had a large ivory throne made, and overlaid it with refined gold.

¹⁹The throne had six steps, a back with a round top, and an arm on each side of the seat. Next to each arm stood a lion;

²⁰and twelve other lions stood on the steps, two to a step, one on either side of each step. Nothing like this was produced in any other kingdom.

²¹In addition, all King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the utensils in the hall of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. There was no silver, for in Solomon's time it was considered worthless.

²²The king had a fleet of Tarshish ships at sea with Hiram's fleet. Once every three years the fleet of Tarshish ships would come with a cargo of gold, silver, ivory, apes, and monkeys.

²³Thus King Solomon surpassed in riches and wisdom all the kings of the earth.

²⁴And the whole world sought audience with Solomon, to hear from him the wisdom which God had put in his heart.

²⁵Each one brought his yearly tribute: silver or gold articles, garments, weapons, spices, horses and mules.

²⁶Solomon collected chariots and drivers; he had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand drivers; these he allocated among the chariot cities and to the king's service in Jerusalem.

²⁷The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars as numerous as the sycamores of the foothills.

²⁸Solomon's horses were imported from Cilicia, where the king's agents purchased them.

²⁹A chariot imported from Egypt cost six hundred shekels, a horse one hundred and fifty shekels; they were exported at these rates to all the Hittite and Aramean kings.

11King Solomon loved many foreign women besides the daughter of Pharaoh (Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites),

²from nations with which the LORD had forbidden the Israelites to intermarry, "because," he said, "they will turn your hearts to their gods." But Solomon fell in love with them.

³He had seven hundred wives of princely rank and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart.

⁴When Solomon was old his wives had turned his heart to strange gods, and his heart was not entirely with the LORD, his God, as the heart of his father David had been.

⁵By adoring Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom, the idol of the Ammonites,

⁶Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD; he did not follow him unreservedly as his father David had done.

⁷Solomon then built a high place to Chemosh, the idol of Moab, and to Molech, the idol of the Ammonites, on the hill opposite Jerusalem.

⁸He did the same for all his foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.

⁹The LORD, therefore, became angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice

¹⁰(for though the LORD had forbidden him this very act of following strange gods, Solomon had not obeyed him).

¹¹So the LORD said to Solomon: "Since this is what you want, and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes which I enjoined on you, I will deprive you of the kingdom and give it to your servant.

¹²I will not do this during your lifetime, however, for the sake of your father David; it is your son whom I will deprive.

¹³Nor will I take away the whole kingdom. I will leave your son one tribe for the sake of my servant David and of Jerusalem, which I have chosen."

¹⁴The LORD then raised up an adversary to Solomon: Hadad the Edomite, who was of the royal line in Edom.

¹⁵Earlier, when David had conquered Edom, Joab, the general of the army, while going to bury the slain, put to death every male in Edom.

¹⁶Joab and all Israel remained there six months until they had killed off every male in Edom.

¹⁷Meanwhile, Hadad, who was only a boy, fled toward Egypt with some Edomite servants of his father.

¹⁸They left Midian and passing through Paran, where they picked up additional men, they went into Egypt to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who gave Hadad a house, appointed him rations, and assigned him land.

¹⁹Hadad won great favor with Pharaoh, so that he gave him in marriage the sister of Queen Tahpenes, his own wife.

²⁰Tahpenes' sister bore Hadad a son, Genubath. After his weaning, the queen kept him in Pharaoh's palace, where he then lived with Pharaoh's own sons.

²¹When Hadad in Egypt heard that David rested with his ancestors and that Joab, the general of the army, was dead, he said to Pharaoh, "Give me leave to return to my own country."

²²Pharaoh said to him, "What do you lack with me, that you are seeking to return to your own country?" "Nothing," he said, "but please let me go!"

²³God raised up against Solomon another adversary, in Rezon, the son of Eliada, who had fled from his lord, Hadadezer, king of Zobah,

²⁴when David defeated them with slaughter. Rezon gathered men about him and became leader of a band, went to Damascus, settled there, and became king in Damascus.

²⁵He was an enemy of Israel as long as Solomon lived; this added to the harm done by Hadad, who made a rift in Israel by becoming king over Edom.

²⁶Solomon's servant Jeroboam, son of Nebat, an Ephraimite from Zeredah with a widowed mother, Zeruah, also rebelled against the king.

²⁷This is why he rebelled. King Solomon was building Millo, closing up the breach of his father's City of David.

²⁸Jeroboam was a man of means, and when Solomon saw that he was also an industrious young man, he put him in charge of the entire labor force of the house of Joseph.

²⁹At that time Jeroboam left Jerusalem, and the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite met him on the road. The two were alone in the area, and the prophet was wearing a new cloak.

³⁰Ahijah took off his new cloak, tore it into twelve pieces,

³¹and said to Jeroboam: "Take ten pieces for yourself; the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'I will tear away the kingdom from Solomon's grasp and will give you ten of the tribes.

³²One tribe shall remain to him for the sake of David my servant, and of Jerusalem, the city I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.

³³The ten I will give you because he has forsaken me and has worshiped Astarte, goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh, god of Moab, and Milcom, god of the Ammonites; he has not followed my ways or done what is pleasing to me according to my statutes and my decrees, as his father David did.

³⁴Yet I will not take any of the kingdom from Solomon himself, but will keep him a prince as long as he lives for the sake of my servant David, whom I chose, who kept my commandments and statutes.

³⁵But I will take the kingdom from his son and will give it to you--that is, the ten tribes.

³⁶I will give his son one tribe, that my servant David may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city in which I choose to be honored.

³⁷I will take you; you shall reign over all that you desire and shall become king of Israel.

³⁸If, then, you heed all that I command you, follow my ways, and please me by keeping my statutes and my commandments like my servant David, I will be with you. I will establish for you, as I did for David, a lasting dynasty; I will give Israel to you.

³⁹I will punish David's line for this, but not forever.'"

⁴⁰When Solomon tried to have Jeroboam killed for his rebellion, he escapedto King Shishak, in Egypt, where he remained until Solomon's death.

⁴¹The rest of the acts of Solomon, with all his deeds and his wisdom, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of Solomon.

⁴²The time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years.

⁴³Solomon rested with his ancestors; he was buried in his father's City of David, and his son Rehoboam succeeded him as king.

12Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all Israel had come to proclaim him king.

²Jeroboam, son of Nebat, who was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon, returned from Egypt as soon as he learned this.

³They said to Rehoboam:

⁴"Your father put on us a heavy yoke. If you now lighten the harsh service and the heavy yoke your father imposed on us, we will serve you."

⁵"Come back to me in three days," he answered them. When the people had departed,

⁶King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had been in his father's service while he was alive, and asked, "What answer do you advise me to give this people?"

⁷They replied, "If today you will be the servant of this people and submit to them, giving them a favorable answer, they will be your servants forever."

⁸But he ignored the advice the elders had given him, and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were in his service.

⁹He said to them, "What answer do you advise me to give this people, who have asked me to lighten the yoke my father imposed on them?"

¹⁰The young men who had grown up with him replied, "This is what you must say to this people who have asked you to lighten the yoke your father put on them: 'My little finger is thicker than my father's body.

¹¹Whereas my father put a heavy yoke on you, I will make it heavier. My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions.'"

¹²On the third day all Israel came back to King Rehoboam, as he had instructed them to do.

¹³Ignoring the advice the elders had given him, the king gave the people a harsh answer.

¹⁴He said to them, as the young men had advised: "My father put on you a heavy yoke, but I will make it heavier. My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions."

¹⁵The king did not listen to the people, for the LORD brought this about to fulfill the prophecy he had uttered to Jeroboam, son of Nebat, through Ahijah the Shilonite.

¹⁶When all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king: "What share have we in David? We have no heritage in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Now look to your own house, David."So Israel went off to their tents,

¹⁷but Rehoboam reigned over the Israelites who lived in the cities of Judah.

¹⁸King Rehoboam then sent out Adoram, superintendent of the forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. Rehoboam managed to mount his chariot to flee to Jerusalem,

¹⁹and Israel went into rebellion against David's house to this day.

²⁰When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to an assembly and made him king over all Israel. None remained loyal to David's house except the tribe of Judah alone.

²¹On his arrival in Jersusalem, Rehoboam gathered together all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin--one hundred and eighty thousand seasoned warriors--to fight against the house of Israel, to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam, son of Solomon.

²²However, the LORD spoke to Shemaiah, a man of God:

²³"Say to Rehoboam, son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to the house of Judah and to Benjamin, and to the rest of the people:

²⁴'Thus says the LORD: You must not march out to fight against your brother Israelites. Let every man return home, for I have brought this about.'" They accepted this message of the LORD and gave up the expedition accordingly.

²⁵Jeroboam built up Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. Then he left it and built up Penuel.

²⁶Jeroboam thought to himself: "The kingdom will return to David's house.

²⁷If now this people go up to offer sacrifices in the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem, the hearts of this people will return to their master, Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they will kill me."

²⁸After taking counsel, the king made two calves of gold and said to the people: "You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough. Here is your God, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt."

²⁹And he put one in Bethel, the other in Dan.

³⁰This led to sin, because the people frequented these calves in Bethel and in Dan.

³¹He also built temples on the high places and made priests from among the people who were not Levites.

³²Jeroboam established a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month to duplicate in Bethel the pilgrimage feast of Judah, with sacrifices to the calves he had made; and he stationed in Bethel priests of the high places he had built.

³³Jeroboam ascended the altar he built in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the month in which he arbitrarily chose to establish a feast for the Israelites; he was going to offer sacrifice.

13A man of God came from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD, while Jeroboam was standing at the altar to offer sacrifice.

²He cried out against the altar the word of the LORD: "O altar, altar, the LORD says, 'A child shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, who shall slaughter upon you the priests of the high places who offer sacrifice upon you, and he shall burn human bones upon you.'"

³He gave a sign that same day and said: "This is the sign that the LORD has spoken: The altar shall break up and the ashes on it shall be strewn about.

⁴When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God was crying out against the altar, he stretched forth his hand from the altar and said, "Seize him!" But the hand he stretched forth against him withered, so that he could not draw it back.

⁵Moreover, the altar broke up and the ashes from it were strewn about--the sign the man of God had given as the word of the LORD.

⁶Then the king appealed to the man of God. "Entreat the LORD, your God," he said, "and intercede for me that I may be able to withdraw my hand." So the man of God entreated the LORD, and the king recovered the normal use of his hand.

⁷"Come home with me for some refreshment," the king invited the man of God, "and I will give you a present."

⁸"If you gave me half your kingdom," the man of God said to the king, "I would not go with you, nor eat bread or drink water in this place.

⁹For I was instructed by the word of the LORD not to eat bread or drink water and not to return by the way I came."

¹⁰So he departed by another road and did not go back the way he had come to Bethel.

¹¹There was an old prophet living in the city, whose sons came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. When they repeated to their father the words he had spoken to the king,

¹²the father asked them, "Which way did he go?" And his sons pointed out to him the road taken by the man of God who had come from Judah.

¹³Then he said to his sons, "Saddle the ass for me." When they had saddled it, he mounted

¹⁴and followed the man of God, whom he found seated under a terebinth. When he asked him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" he answered, "Yes."

¹⁵Then he said, "Come home with me and have some bread."

¹⁶"I cannot go back with you, and I cannot eat bread or drink water with you in this place," he answered,

¹⁷"for I was told by the word of the LORD neither to eat bread nor drink water here, and not to go back the way I came."

¹⁸But he said to him, "I, too, am a prophet like you, and an angel told me in the word of the LORD to bring you back with me to my house and to have you eat bread and drink water." He was lying to him, however.

¹⁹So he went back with him, and ate bread and drank water in his house.

²⁰But while they were sitting at table, the LORD spoke to the prophet who had brought him back,

²¹and he cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah: "The LORD says, 'Because you rebelled against the command of the LORD and did not keep the command which the LORD, your God, gave you,

²²but returned and ate bread and drank water in the place where he told you to do neither, your corpse shall not be brought to the grave of your ancestors.'"

²³After he had eaten bread and drunk water, the ass was saddled for him, and he again

²⁴set out. But a lion met him on the road, and killed him. His corpse lay sprawled on the road, and the ass remained standing by it, and so did the lion.

²⁵Some passers-by saw the body lying in the road, with the lion standing beside it, and carried the news to the city where the old prophet lived.

²⁶On hearing it, the prophet who had brought him back from his journey said: "It is the man of God who rebelled against the command of the LORD. He has delivered him to a lion, which mangled and killed him, as the LORD predicted to him."

²⁷Then he said to his sons, "Saddle the ass for me." When they had saddled it,

²⁸he went off and found the body lying in the road with the ass and the lion standing beside it. The lion had not eaten the body nor had it harmed the ass.

²⁹The prophet lifted up the body of the man of God and put it on the ass, and brought it back to the city to mourn over it and to bury it.

³⁰He laid the man's body in his own grave, and they mourned over it: "Alas, my brother!"

³¹After he had buried him, he said to his sons, "When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried. Lay my remains beside his.

³²For the word of the LORD which he proclaimed against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the cities of Samaria shall certainly come to pass."

³³Jeroboam did not give up his evil ways after this event, but again made priests for the high places from among the common people. Whoever desired it was consecrated and became a priest of the high places.

³⁴This was a sin on the part of the house of Jeroboam for which it was to be cut off and destroyed from the earth.

14At that time Abijah, son of Jeroboam, took sick.

²So Jeroboam said to his wife, "Get ready and disguise yourself so that none will recognize you as Jeroboam's wife. Then go to Shiloh, where you will find the prophet Ahijah. It was he who predicted my reign over this people.

³Take along ten loaves, some cakes, and a jar of preserves, and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the child."

⁴The wife of Jeroboam obeyed. She made the journey to Shiloh and entered the house of Ahijah who could not see because age had dimmed his sight.

⁵The LORD had said to Ahijah: "Jeroboam's wife is coming to consult you about her son, for he is sick. This is what you must tell her. When she comes, she will be in disguise."

⁶So Ahijah, hearing the sound of her footsteps as she entered the door, said, "Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why are you in disguise? I have been commissioned to give you bitter news.

⁷Go, tell Jeroboam, 'This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I exalted you from among the people and made you ruler of my people Israel.

⁸I deprived the house of David of the kingdom and gave it to you. Yet you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commandments and followed me with his whole heart, doing only what pleased me.

⁹You have done worse than all who preceded you: you have gone and made for yourself strange gods and molten images to provoke me; but me you have cast behind your back.

¹⁰Therefore, I am bringing evil upon the house of Jeroboam: I will cut off every male in Jeroboam's line, whether slave or freeman in Israel, and will burn up the house of Jeroboam completely, as though dung were being burned.

¹¹When one of Jeroboam's line dies in the city, dogs will devour him; when one of them dies in the field, he will be devoured by the birds of the sky. For the LORD has spoken!'

¹²So leave; go home! As you step inside the city, the child will die,

¹³and all Israel will mourn him and bury him, for he alone of Jeroboam's line will be laid in the grave, since in him alone of Jeroboam's house has something pleasing to the LORD, the God of Israel, been found.

¹⁴Today, at this very moment, the LORD will raise up for himself a king of Israel who will destroy the house of Jeroboam.

¹⁵The LORD will strike Israel like a reed tossed about in the water and will pluck out Israel from this good land which he gave their fathers, scattering them beyond the River, because they made sacred poles for themselves and thus provoked the LORD.

¹⁶He will give up Israel because of the sins Jeroboam has committed and caused Israel to commit."

¹⁷So Jeroboam's wife started back; when she reached Tirzah and crossed the threshold of her house, the child died.

¹⁸He was buried with all Israel mourning him, as the LORD had prophesied through his servant the prophet Ahijah.

¹⁹The rest of the acts of Jeroboam, with his warfare and his reign, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

²⁰The length of Jeroboam's reign was twenty-two years. He rested with his ancestors, and his son Nadab succeeded him as king.

²¹Rehoboam, son of Solomon, reigned in Judah. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city in which, out of all the tribes of Israel, the LORD chose to be honored. His mother was the Ammonite named Naamah.

²²Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and by their sins angered him even more than their fathers had done.

²³They, too, built for themselves high places, pillars, and sacred poles, upon every high hill and under every green tree.

²⁴There were also cult prostitutes in the land. Judah imitated all the abominable practices of the nations whom the LORD had cleared out of the Israelites' way.

²⁵In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, king of Egypt, attacked Jerusalem.

²⁶He took everything, including the treasures of the temple of the LORD and those of the royal palace, as well as all the gold shields made under Solomon.

²⁷To replace them, King Rehoboam had bronze shields made, which he entrusted to the officers of the guard on duty at the entrance of the royal palace.

²⁸Whenever the king visited the temple of the LORD, those on duty would carry the shields, and then return them to the guardroom.

²⁹The rest of the acts of Rehoboam, with all that he did, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.

³⁰There was constant warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam.

³¹Rehoboam rested with his ancestors; he was buried with them in the City of David. His mother was the Ammonite named Naamah. His son Abijam succeeded him as king.

15In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, son of Nebat, Abijam became king of Judah;

²he reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Maacah, daughter of Abishalom.

³He imitated all the sins his father had committed before him, and his heart was not entirely with the LORD, his God, like the heart of his grandfather David.

⁴Yet for David's sake the LORD, his God, gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, raising up his son after him and permitting Jerusalem to endure;

⁵because David had pleased the LORD and did not disobey any of his commands as long as he lived, except in the case of Uriah the Hittite.

⁶There was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.

⁷The rest of Abijam's acts, with all that he did, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.

⁸Abijam rested with his ancestors; he was buried in the City of David, and his son Asa succeeded him as king.

⁹In the twentieth year of Jeroboam, king of Israel, Asa, king of Judah, began to reign;

¹⁰he reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem. His grandmother's name was Maacah, daughter of Abishalom.

¹¹Asa pleased the LORD like his forefather David,

¹²banishing the temple prostitutes from the land and removing all the idols his father had made.

¹³He also deposed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother, because she had made an outrageous object for Asherah. Asa cut down this object and burned it in the Kidron Valley.

¹⁴The high places did not disappear; yet Asa's heart was entirely with the LORD as long as he lived.

¹⁵He brought into the temple of the LORD his father's and his own votive offerings of silver, gold, and various utensils.

¹⁶There was war between Asa and Baasha, king of Israel, as long as they both reigned.

¹⁷Baasha, king of Israel, attacked Judah and fortified Ramah to prevent communication with Asa, king of Judah.

¹⁸Asa then took all the silver and gold remaining in the treasuries of the temple of the LORD and of the royal palace. Entrusting them to his ministers, King Asa sent them to Ben-hadad, son of Tabrimmon, son of Hezion, king of Aram, resident in Damascus. He said:

¹⁹"There is a treaty between you and me, as there was between your father and my father. I am sending you a present of silver and gold. Go, break your treaty with Baasha, king of Israel, that he may withdraw from me."

²⁰Ben-hadad agreed with King Asa and sent the leaders of his troops against the cities of Israel. They attacked Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maacah, and all Chinnereth, besides all the land of Naphtali.

²¹When Baasha heard of it, he left off fortifying Ramah, and stayed in Tirzah.

²²Then King Asa summoned all Judah without exception, and they carried away the stones and beams with which Baasha was fortifying Ramah. With them King Asa built Geba of Benjamin and Mizpeh.

²³The rest of the acts of Asa, with all his valor and accomplishments, and the cities he built, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah. In his old age, Asa had an infirmity in his feet.

²⁴He rested with his ancestors; he was buried in his forefather's City of David, and his son Jehoshaphat succeeded him as king.

²⁵In the second year of Asa, king of Judah, Nadab, son of Jeroboam, became king of Israel; he reigned over Israel two years.

²⁶He did evil in the LORD'S sight, imitating his father's conduct and the sin which he had caused Israel to commit.

²⁷Baasha, son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, plotted against him and struck him down at Gibbethon of the Philistines, which Nadab and all Israel were besieging.

²⁸Baasha killed him in the third year of Asa, king of Judah, and reigned in his stead.

²⁹Once he was king, he killed off the entire house of Jeroboam, not leaving a single soul to Jeroboam but destroying him utterly, according to the warning which the LORD had pronounced through his servant, Ahijah the Shilonite,

³⁰because of the sins Jeroboam committed and caused Israel to commit, by which he provoked the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger.

³¹The rest of the acts of Nadab, with all that he did, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

³²(There was war between Asa and Baasha, king of Israel, as long as they lived.)

³³In the third year of Asa, king of Judah, Baasha, son of Ahijah, began his twenty-four-year reign over Israel in Tirzah.

³⁴He did evil in the LORD'S sight, imitating the conduct of Jeroboam and the sin he had caused Israel to commit.

16The LORD spoke against Baasha to Jehu, son of Hanani, and said:

²"Inasmuch as I lifted you up from the dust and made you ruler of my people Israel, but you have imitated the conduct of Jeroboam and have caused my people Israel to sin, provoking me to anger by their sins,

³I will destroy you, Baasha, and your house;

⁴I will make your house like that of Jeroboam, son of Nebat. If anyone of Baasha's line dies in the city, dogs shall devour him; if he dies in the field, he shall be devoured by the birds of the sky."

⁵The rest of the acts of Baasha, with all his valor and accomplishments, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

⁶Baasha rested with his ancestors; he was buried in Tirzah, and his son Elah succeeded him as king.

⁷(Through the prophet Jehu, son of Hanani, the LORD had threatened Baasha and his house, because of all the evil Baasha did in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger by his evil deeds, so that he became like the house of Jeroboam; and because he killed Nadab.)

⁸In the twenty-sixth year of Asa, king of Judah, Elah, son of Baasha, began his two-year reign over Israel in Tirzah.

⁹His servant Zimri, commander of half his chariots, plotted against him. As he was in Tirzah, drinking to excess in the house of Arza, superintendent of his palace in Tirzah,

¹⁰Zimri entered; he struck and killed him in the twenty-seventh year of Asa, king of Judah, and reigned in his place.

¹¹Once he was seated on the royal throne, he killed off the whole house of Baasha, not sparing a single male relative or friend of his.

¹²Zimri destroyed the entire house of Baasha, as the LORD had prophesied to Baasha through the prophet Jehu,

¹³because of all the sins which Baasha and his son Elah committed and caused Israel to commit, provoking the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger by their idols.

¹⁴The rest of the acts of Elah, with all that he did, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

¹⁵In the twenty-seventh year of Asa, king of Judah, Zimri reigned seven days in Tirzah. The army was besieging Gibbethon of the Philistines

¹⁶when they heard that Zimri had formed a conspiracy and had killed the king. So that day in the camp all Israel proclaimed Omri, general of the army, king of Israel.

¹⁷Omri marched up from Gibbethon, accompanied by all Israel, and laid siege to Tirzah.

¹⁸When Zimri saw the city was captured, he entered the citadel of the royal palace and burned down the palace over him. He died

¹⁹because of the sins he had committed, doing evil in the sight of the LORD by imitating the sinful conduct of Jeroboam, thus causing Israel to sin.

²⁰The rest of the acts of Zimri, with the conspiracy he carried out, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

²¹At that time the people of Israel were divided, half following Tibni, son of Ginath, to make him king, and half for Omri.

²²The partisans of Omri prevailed over those of Tibni, son of Ginath. Tibni died and Omri became king.

²³In the thirty-first year of Asa, king of Judah, Omri became king; he reigned over Israel twelve years, the first six of them in Tirzah.

²⁴He then bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two silver talents and built upon the hill, naming the city he built Samaria after Shemer, the former owner.

²⁵But Omri did evil in the LORD'S sight beyond any of his predecessors.

²⁶He closely imitated the sinful conduct of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, causing Israel to sin and to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger by their idols.

²⁷The rest of the acts of Omri, with all his valor and accomplishments, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

²⁸Omri rested with his ancestors; he was buried in Samaria, and his son Ahab succeeded him as king.

²⁹In the thirty-eighth year of Asa, king of Judah, Ahab, son of Omri, became king of Israel; he reigned over Israel in Samaria for twenty-two years.

³⁰Ahab, son of Omri, did evil in the sight of the LORD more than any of his predecessors.

³¹It was not enough for him to imitate the sins of Jeroboam, son of Nebat. He even married Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians, and went over to the veneration and worship of Baal.

³²Ahab erected an altar to Baal in the temple of Baal which he built in Samaria,

³³and also made a sacred pole. He did more to anger the LORD, the God of Israel, than any of the kings of Israel before him.

³⁴During his reign, Hiel from Bethel rebuilt Jericho. He lost his first-born son, Abiram, when he laid the foundation, and his youngest son, Segub, when he set up the gates, as the LORD had foretold through Joshua, son of Nun.

17Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab: "As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, during these years there shall be no dew or rain except at my word."

²The LORD then said to Elijah:

³"Leave here, go east and hide in the Wadi Cherith, east of the Jordan.

⁴You shall drink of the stream, and I have commanded ravens to feed you there."

⁵So he left and did as the LORD had commanded. He went and remained by the Wadi Cherith, east of the Jordan.

⁶Ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the stream.

⁷After some time, however, the brook ran dry, because no rain had fallen in the land.

⁸So the LORD said to him:

⁹"Move on to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have designated a widow there to provide for you."

¹⁰He left and went to Zarephath. As he arrived at the entrance of the city, a widow was gathering sticks there; he called out to her, "Please bring me a small cupful of water to drink."

¹¹She left to get it, and he called out after her, "Please bring along a bit of bread."

¹²"As the LORD, your God, lives," she answered, "I have nothing baked; there is only a handful of flour in my jar and a little oil in my jug. Just now I was collecting a couple of sticks, to go in and prepare something for myself and my son; when we have eaten it, we shall die."

¹³"Do not be afraid," Elijah said to her. "Go and do as you propose. But first make me a little cake and bring it to me. Then you can prepare something for yourself and your son.

¹⁴For the LORD, the God of Israel, says, 'The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, until the day when the LORD sends rain upon the earth.'"

¹⁵She left and did as Elijah had said. She was able to eat for a year, and he and her son as well;

¹⁶The jar of flour did not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, as the LORD had foretold through Elijah.

¹⁷Some time later the son of the mistress of the house fell sick, and his sickness grew more severe until he stopped breathing.

¹⁸So she said to Elijah, "Why have you done this to me, O man of God? Have you come to me to call attention to my guilt and to kill my son?"

¹⁹"Give me your son," Elijah said to her. Taking him from her lap, he carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed.

²⁰He called out to the LORD: "O LORD, my God, will you afflict even the widow with whom I am staying by killing her son?"

²¹Then he stretched himself out upon the child three times and called out to the LORD: "O LORD, my God, let the life breath return to the body of this child."

²²The LORD heard the prayer of Elijah; the life breath returned to the child's body and he revived.

²³Taking the child, Elijah brought him down into the house from the upper room and gave him to his mother. "See!" Elijah said to her, "your son is alive."

²⁴"Now indeed I know that you you are a man of God," the woman replied to Elijah. "The word of the LORD comes truly from your mouth."

18Long afterward, in the third year, the LORD spoke to Elijah, "Go, present yourself to Ahab," he said, "that I may send rain upon the earth."

²So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab.

³Now the famine in Samaria was bitter,

⁴and Ahab had summoned Obadiah, his vizier, who was a zealous follower of the LORD. When Jezebel was murdering the prophets of the LORD, Obadiah took a hundred prophets, hid them away fifty each in two caves, and supplied them with food and drink.

⁵Ahab said to Obadiah, "Come, let us go through the land to all sources of water and to all the streams. We may find grass and save the horses and mules, so that we shall not have to slaughter any of the beasts."

⁶Dividing the land to explore between them, Ahab went one way by himself, Obadiah another way by himself.

⁷As Obadiah was on his way, Elijah met him. Recognizing him, Obadiah fell prostrate and asked, "Is it you, my lord Elijah?"

⁸"Yes," he answered. "Go tell your master, 'Elijah is here!'"

⁹But Obadiah said, "What sin have I committed, that you are handing me over to Ahab to have me killed?

¹⁰As the LORD, your God, lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my master has not sent in search of you. When they replied, 'He is not here,' he made each kingdom and nation swear they could not find you.

¹¹And now you say, 'Go tell your master: Elijah is here!'

¹²After I leave you, the spirit of the LORD will carry you to some place I do not know, and when I go to inform Ahab and he does not find you, he will kill me. Your servant has revered the LORD from his youth.

¹³Have you not been told, my lord, what I did when Jezebel was murdering the prophets of the LORD--that I hid a hundred of the prophets of the LORD, fifty each in two caves, and supplied them with food and drink?

¹⁴And now you say, 'Go tell your master: Elijah is here!' He will kill me!"

¹⁵Elijah answered, "As the LORD of hosts lives, whom I serve, I will present myself to him today."

¹⁶So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and informed him. Ahab came to meet Elijah,

¹⁷and when he saw Elijah, said to him, "Is it you, you disturber of Israel?"

¹⁸"It is not I who disturb Israel," he answered, "but you and your family, by forsaking the commands of the LORD and following the Baals.

¹⁹Now summon all Israel to me on Mount Carmel, as well as the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table."

²⁰So Ahab sent to all the Israelites and had the prophets assemble on Mount Carmel.

²¹Elijah appealed to all the people and said, "How long will you straddle the issue? If the LORD is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him." The people, however, did not answer him.

²²So Elijah said to the people, "I am the only surviving prophet of the LORD, and there are four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal.

²³Give us two young bulls. Let them choose one, cut it into pieces, and place it on the wood, but start no fire. I shall prepare the other and place it on the wood, but shall start no fire.

²⁴You shall call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD. The God who answers with fire is God." All the people answered, "Agreed!"

²⁵Elijah then said to the prophets of Baal, "Choose one young bull and prepare it first, for there are more of you. Call upon your gods, but do not start the fire."

²⁶Taking the young bull that was turned over to them, they prepared it and called on Baal from morning to noon, saying, "Answer us, Baal!" But there was no sound, and no one answering. And they hopped around the altar they had prepared.

²⁷When it was noon, Elijah taunted them: "Call louder, for he is a god and may be meditating, or may have retired, or may be on a journey. Perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened."

²⁸They called out louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until blood gushed over them.

²⁹Noon passed and they remained in a prophetic state until the time for offering sacrifice. But there was not a sound; no one answered, and no one was listening.

³⁰Then Elijah said to all the people, "Come here to me." When they had done so, he repaired the altar of the LORD which had been destroyed.

³¹He took twelve stones, for the number of tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the LORD had said, "Your name shall be Israel."

³²He built an altar in honor of the LORD with the stones, and made a trench around the altar large enough for two seahs of grain.

³³When he had arranged the wood, he cut up the young bull and laid it on the wood.

³⁴"Fill four jars with water," he said, "and pour it over the holocaust and over the wood." "Do it again," he said, and they did it again. "Do it a third time," he said, and they did it a third time.

³⁵The water flowed around the altar, and the trench was filled with the water.

³⁶At the time for offering sacrifice, the prophet Elijah came forward and said, "LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things by your command.

³⁷Answer me, LORD! Answer me, that this people may know that you, LORD, are God and that you have brought them back to their senses."

³⁸The LORD'S fire came down and consumed the holocaust, wood, stones, and dust, and it lapped up the water in the trench.

³⁹Seeing this, all the people fell prostrate and said, "The LORD is God! The LORD is God!"

⁴⁰Then Elijah said to them, "Seize the prophets of Baal. Let none of them escape!" They were seized, and Elijah had them brought down to the brook Kishon and there he slit their throats.

⁴¹Elijah then said to Ahab, "Go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain."

⁴²So Ahab went up to eat and drink, while Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, crouched down to the earth, and put his head between his knees.

⁴³"Climb up and look out to sea," he directed his servant, who went up and looked, but reported, "There is nothing." Seven times he said, "Go look again!"

⁴⁴And the seventh time the youth reported, "There is a cloud as small as a man's hand rising from the sea." Elijah said, "Go and say to Ahab, 'Harness up and leave the mountain before the rain stops you.'"

⁴⁵In a trice, the sky grew dark with clouds and wind, and a heavy rain fell. Ahab mounted his chariot and made for Jezreel.

⁴⁶But the hand of the LORD was on Elijah, who girded up his clothing and ran before Ahab as far as the approaches to Jezreel.

19Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done--that he had put all the prophets to the sword.

²Jezebel then sent a messenger to Elijah and said, "May the gods do thus and so to me if by this time tomorrow I have not done with your life what was done to each of them."

³Elijah was afraid and fled for his life, going to Beer-sheba of Judah. He left his servant there

⁴and went a day's journey into the desert, until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it. He prayed for death: "This is enough, O LORD! Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers."

⁵He lay down and fell asleep under the broom tree, but then an angel touched him and ordered him to get up and eat.

⁶He looked and there at his head was a hearth cake and a jug of water. After he ate and drank, he lay down again,

⁷but the angel of the LORD came back a second time, touched him, and ordered, "Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!"

⁸He got up, ate and drank; then strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.

⁹There he came to a cave, where he took shelter. But the word of the LORD came to him, "Why are you here, Elijah?"

¹⁰He answered: "I have been most zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts, but the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to the sword. I alone am left, and they seek to take my life."

¹¹Then the LORD said, "Go outside and stand on the mountain before the LORD; the LORD will be passing by." A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the LORD--but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake--but the LORD was not in the earthquake.

¹²After the earthquake there was fire--but the LORD was not in the fire. After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound.

¹³When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave. A voice said to him, "Elijah, why are you here?"

¹⁴He replied, "I have been most zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. But the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to the sword. I alone am left, and they seek to take my life."

¹⁵"Go, take the road back to the desert near Damascus," the LORD said to him. "When you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king of Aram.

¹⁶Then you shall anoint Jehu, son of Nimshi, as king of Israel, and Elisha, son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah, as prophet to succeed you.

¹⁷If anyone escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill him. If he escapes the sword if Jehu, Elisha will kill him.

¹⁸Yet I will leave seven thousand men in Israel--all those who have not knelt to Baal or kissed him."

¹⁹Elijah set out, and came upon Elisha, son of Shaphat, as he was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen; he was following the twelfth. Elijah went over to him and threw his cloak over him.

²⁰Elisha left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, "Please, let me kiss my father and mother good-bye, and I will follow you." "Go back!" Elijah answered. "Have I done anything to you?"

²¹Elisha left him and, taking the yoke of oxen, slaughtered them; he used the plowing equipment for fuel to boil their flesh, and gave it to his people to eat. Then he left and followed Elijah as his attendant.

20Ben-hadad, king of Aram, gathered all his forces, and accompanied by thirty-two kings with horses and chariotry, proceeded to invest and attack Samaria.

²He sent couriers to Ahab, king of Israel, within the city,

³and said to him, "This is Ben-hadad's message: 'Your silver and gold are mine, and your wives and your promising sons are mine.'"

⁴The king of Israel answered, "As you say, my lord king, I and all I have are yours."

⁵But the couriers came again and said, "This is Ben-hadad's message: 'I sent you word to give me your silver and gold, your wives and your sons.

⁶Now, however, at this time tomorrow I will send my servants to you, and they shall ransack your house and the houses of your servants. They shall seize and take away whatever they consider valuable.'"

⁷The king of Israel then summoned all the elders of the land and said: "Understand clearly that this man wants to ruin us. When he sent to me for my wives and sons, my silver and my gold, I did not refuse him."

⁸All the elders and all the people said to him, "Do not listen. Do not give in."

⁹Accordingly he directed the couriers of Ben-hadad, "Say to my lord the king, 'I will do all that you demanded of your servant the first time. But this I cannot do.'" The couriers left and reported this.

¹⁰Ben-hadad then sent him the message, "May the gods do thus and so to me if there is enough dust in Samaria to make handfuls for all my followers."

¹¹The king of Israel replied, "Tell him, 'It is not for the man who is buckling his armor to boast as though he were taking it off.'"

¹²Ben-hadad was drinking in the pavilions with the kings when he heard this reply. "Prepare the assault," he commanded his servants; and they made ready to storm the city.

¹³Then a prophet came up to Ahab, king of Israel and said: "The LORD says, 'Do you see all this huge army? When I deliver it up to you today, you will know that I am the LORD.'"

¹⁴But Ahab asked, "Through whom will it be delivered up?" He answered, "The LORD says, 'Through the retainers of the governors of the provinces.'" Then Ahab asked, "Who is to attack?" He replied, "You are."

¹⁵So Ahab called up the retainers of the governors of the provinces, two hundred thirty-two of them. Behind them he mustered all the Israelite soldiery, who numbered seven thousand.

¹⁶They marched out at noon, while Ben-hadad was drinking heavily in the pavilions with the thirty-two kings who were his allies.

¹⁷When the retainers of the governors of the provinces marched out first, Ben-hadad received word that some men had marched out of Samaria.

¹⁸He answered, "Whether they have come out for peace or for war, in any case take them alive."

¹⁹But when these had come out of the city-the soldiers of the governors of the provinces with the army following them--

²⁰each of them struck down his man. The Arameans fled with Israel pursuing them, while Ben-hadad, king of Aram, escaped on a chariot steed.

²¹The king of Israel went out, took the horses and chariots, and inflicted a severe defeat on Aram.

²²Then the prophet went up to the king of Israel and said to him: "Go, regroup your forces. Mark well what you do, for at the beginning of the year the king of Aram will attack you."

²³On the other hand, the servants of the king of Aram said to him: "Their gods are gods of mountains. That is why they defeated us. But if we fight them on level ground, we shall be sure to defeat them.

²⁴This is what you must do: Take the kings from their posts and put prefects in their places.

²⁵Mobilize an army as large as the army that has deserted you, horse for horse, chariot for chariot. Let us fight them on level ground, and we shall surely defeat them." He took their advice and did this.

²⁶At the beginning of the year, Ben-hadad mobilized Aram and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel.

²⁷The Israelites, too, were called to arms and supplied with provisions; then they went out to engage the foe. The Israelites, encamped opposite them, seemed like a couple of small flocks of goats, while Aram covered the countryside.

²⁸A man of God came up and said to the king of Israel: "The LORD says, 'Because Aram has said the LORD is a god of mountains, not a god of plains, I will deliver up to you all this large army, that you may know I am the LORD.'"

²⁹They were encamped opposite each other for seven days. On the seventh day battle was joined, and the Israelites struck down one hundred thousand foot soldiers of Aram in one day.

³⁰The survivors, twenty-seven thousand of them, fled into the city of Aphek, and there the wall collapsed. Ben-hadad, too, fled, and took refuge within the city, in an inside room.

³¹His servants said to him: "We have heard that the kings of the land of Israel are merciful kings. Allow us, therefore, to garb ourselves in sackcloth, with cords around our heads, and go out to the king of Israel. Perhaps he will spare your life."

³²So they dressed in sackcloth girded at the waist, and wearing cords around their heads, they went to the king of Israel. "Your servant Ben-hadad pleads for his life," they said. "Is he still alive?" the king asked. "He is my brother."

³³Hearing this as a good omen, the men quickly took him at his word and said, "Ben-hadad is your brother." He answered, "Go and get him." When Ben-hadad came out to him, the king had him mount his chariot.

³⁴Ben-hadad said to him, "I will restore the cities which my father took from your father, and you may make yourself bazaars in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria." "On these terms," Ahab replied, "I will set you free." So he made an agreement with him and then set him free.

³⁵One of the guild prophets was prompted by the LORD to say to his companion, "Strike me." But he refused to strike him.

³⁶Then he said to him, "Since you did not obey the voice of the LORD, a lion will kill you when you leave me." When they parted company, a lion came upon him and killed him.

³⁷The prophet met another man and said, "Strike me." The man struck him a blow and wounded him.

³⁸The prophet went on and waited for the king on the road, having disguised himself with a bandage over his eyes.

³⁹As the king was passing, he called out to the king and said: "Your servant went into the thick of the battle, and suddenly someone turned and brought me a man and said, 'Guard this man. If he is missing, you shall have to pay for his life with your life or pay out a talent of silver.'

⁴⁰But while your servant was looking here and there, the man disappeared." The king of Israel said to him, "That is your sentence. You have decided it yourself."

⁴¹He immediately removed the bandage from his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized him as one of the prophets.

⁴²He said to him: "The LORD says, 'Because you have set free the man I doomed to destruction, your life shall pay for his life, your people for his people.'"

⁴³Disturbed and angry, the king of Israel went off homeward and entered Samaria.

21Some time after this, as Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel next to the palace of Ahab, king of Samaria,

²Ahab said to Naboth, "Give me your vineyard to be my vegetable garden, since it is close by, next to my house. I will give you a better vineyard in exchange, or, if you prefer, I will give you its value in money."

³"The LORD forbid," Naboth answered him, "that I should give you my ancestral heritage."

⁴Ahab went home disturbed and angry at the answer Naboth the Jezreelite had made to him: "I will not give you my ancestral heritage." Lying down on his bed, he turned away from food and would not eat.

⁵His wife Jezebel came to him and said to him, "Why are you so angry that you will not eat?"

⁶He answered her, "Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, 'Sell me your vineyard, or, if you prefer, I will give you a vineyard in exchange.' But he refused to let me have his vineyard."

⁷"A fine ruler over Israel you are indeed!" his wife Jezebel said to him. "Get up. Eat and be cheerful. I will obtain the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite for you."

⁸So she wrote letters in Ahab's name and, having sealed them with his seal, sent them to the elders and to the nobles who lived in the same city with Naboth.

⁹This is what she wrote in the letters: "Proclaim a fast and set Naboth at the head of the people.

¹⁰Next, get two scoundrels to face him and accuse him of having cursed God and king. Then take him out and stone him to death."

¹¹His fellow citizens--the elders and the nobles who dwelt in his city--did as Jezebel had ordered them in writing, through the letters she had sent them.

¹²They proclaimed a fast and placed Naboth at the head of the people.

¹³Two scoundrels came in and confronted him with the accusation, "Naboth has cursed God and king." And they led him out of the city and stoned him to death.

¹⁴Then they sent the information to Jezebel that Naboth had been stoned to death.

¹⁵When Jezebel learned that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, "Go on, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite which he refused to sell you, because Naboth is not alive, but dead."

¹⁶On hearing that Naboth was dead, Ahab started off on his way down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.

¹⁷But the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite:

¹⁸"Start down to meet Ahab, king of Israel, who rules in Samaria. He will be in the vineyard of Naboth, of which he has come to take possession.

¹⁹This is what you shall tell him, 'The LORD says: After murdering, do you also take possession? For this, the LORD says: In the place where the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, the dogs shall lick up your blood, too.'"

²⁰"Have you found me out, my enemy?" Ahab said to Elijah. "Yes," he answered. "Because you have given yourself up to doing evil in the LORD'S sight,

²¹I am bringing evil upon you: I will destroy you and will cut off every male in Ahab's line, whether slave or freeman, in Israel.

²²I will make your house like that of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, and like that of Baasha, son of Ahijah, because of how you have provoked me by leading Israel into sin."

²³(Against Jezebel, too, the LORD declared, "The dogs shall devour Jezebel in the district of Jezreel.")

²⁴"When one of Ahab's line dies in the city, dogs will devour him; when one of them dies in the field, the birds of the sky will devour him."

²⁵Indeed, no one gave himself up to the doing of evil in the sight of the LORD as did Ahab, urged on by his wife Jezebel.

²⁶He became completely abominable by following idols, just as the Amorites had done, whom the LORD drove out before the Israelites.

²⁷When Ahab heard these words, he tore his garments and put on sackcloth over his bare flesh. He fasted, slept in the sackcloth, and went about subdued.

²⁸Then the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite,

²⁹"Have you seen that Ahab has humbled himself before me? Since he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his time. I will bring the evil upon his house during the reign of his son."

22Three years passed without war between Aram and Israel.

²In the third year, however, King Jehoshaphat of Judah came down to the king of Israel,

³who said to his servants, "Do you not know that Ramoth-gilead is ours and we are doing nothing to take it from the king of Aram?"

⁴He asked Jehoshaphat, "Will you come with me to fight against Ramoth-gilead?" Jehoshaphat answered the king of Israel, "You and I are as one, and your people and my people, your horses and my horses as well."

⁵Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, "Seek the word of the LORD at once."

⁶The king of Israel gathered together the prophets, about four hundred of them, and asked, "Shall I go to attack Ramoth-gilead or shall I refrain?" "Go up," they answered. "The LORD will deliver it over to the king."

⁷But Jehoshaphat said, "Is there no other prophet of the LORD here whom we may consult?"

⁸The king of Israel answered, "There is one other through whom we might consult the LORD, Micaiah, son of Imlah; but I hate him because he prophesies not good but evil about me." Jehoshaphat said, "Let not your majesty speak of evil against you."

⁹So the king of Israel called an official and said to him, "Get Micaiah, son of Imlah, at once."

¹⁰The king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah were seated, each on his throne, clothed in their robes of state on a threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying before them.

¹¹Zedekiah, son of Chenaanah, made himself horns of iron and said, "The LORD says, 'With these you shall gore Aram until you have destroyed them.'"

¹²The other prophets prophesied in a similar vein, saying: "Go up to Ramoth-gilead; you shall succeed. The LORD will deliver it over to the king."

¹³The messenger who had gone to call Micaiah said to him, "Look now, the prophets are unanimously predicting good for the king. Let your word be the same as any of theirs; predict good."

¹⁴"As the LORD lives," Micaiah answered, "I shall say whatever the LORD tells me."

¹⁵When he came to the king, the king said to him, "Micaiah, shall we go to fight against Ramoth-gilead, or shall we refrain?" "Go up," he answered, "you shall succeed! The LORD will deliver it over to the king."

¹⁶But the king answered him, "How many times must I adjure you to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?"

¹⁷So Micaiah said: "I see all Israel scattered on the mountains, like sheep without a shepherd, and the LORD saying, 'These have no master! Let each of them go back home in peace.'"

¹⁸The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "Did I not tell you he prophesies not good but evil about me?"

¹⁹Micaiah continued: "Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD seated on his throne, with the whole host of heaven standing by to his right and to his left.

²⁰The LORD asked, 'Who will deceive Ahab, so that he will go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?' And one said this, another that,

²¹until one of the spirits came forth and presented himself to the LORD, saying, 'I will deceive him.' The LORD asked, 'How?'

²²He answered, 'I will go forth and become a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.' The LORD replied, 'You shall succeed in deceiving him. Go forth and do this.'

²³So now, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours, but the LORD himself has decreed evil against you."

²⁴Thereupon Zedekiah, son of Chenaanah, came up and slapped Micaiah on the cheek, saying, "Has the spirit of the LORD, then, left me to speak with you?"

²⁵"You shall find out," Micaiah replied, "on that day when you retreat into an inside room to hide."

²⁶The king of Israel then said, "Seize Micaiah and take him back to Amon, prefect of the city, and to Joash, the king's son,

²⁷and say, 'This is the king's order: Put this man in prison and feed him scanty rations of bread and water until I return in safety.'"

²⁸But Micaiah said, "If ever you return in safety, the LORD has not spoken through me."

²⁹The king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah went up to Ramoth-gilead,

³⁰and the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "I will disguise myself and go into battle, but you put on your own clothes." So the king of Israel disguised himself and entered the fray.

³¹In the meantime the king of Aram had given his thirty-two chariot commanders the order, "Do not fight with anyone at all except the king of Israel."

³²When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they cried out, "That must be the king of Israel!" and shifted to fight him. But Jehoshaphat shouted his battle cry,

³³and the chariot commanders, aware that he was not the king of Israel, gave up pursuit of him.

³⁴Someone, however, drew his bow at random, and hit the king of Israel between the joints of his breastplate. He ordered his charioteer, "Rein about and take me out of the ranks, for I am disabled."

³⁵The battle grew fierce during the day, and the king, who was propped up in his chariot facing the Arameans, died in the evening. The blood from his wound flowed to the bottom of the chariot.

³⁶At sunset a cry went through the army, "Every man to his city, every man to his land,

³⁷for the king is dead!" So they went to Samaria, where they buried the king.

³⁸When the chariot was washed at the pool of Samaria, the dogs licked up his blood and harlots bathed there, as the LORD had prophesied.

³⁹The rest of the acts of Ahab, with all that he did, including the ivory palace and all the cities he built, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

⁴⁰Ahab rested with his ancestors, and his son Ahaziah succeeded him as king.

⁴¹Jehoshaphat, son of Asa, began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab, king of Israel.

⁴²Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Azubah, daughter of Shilhi.

⁴³He followed all the ways of his father Asa unswervingly, doing what was right in the LORD'S sight.

⁴⁴Nevertheless, the high places did not disappear, and the people continued to sacrifice and to burn incense on the high places.

⁴⁵Jehoshaphat also made peace with the king of Israel.

⁴⁶The rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, with his prowess, what he did and how he fought, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.

⁴⁷He removed from the land the rest of the cult prostitutes who had remained in the reign of his father Asa.

⁴⁸There was no king in Edom, but an appointed regent.

⁴⁹Jehoshaphat made Tarshish ships to go to Ophir for gold; but in fact the ships did not go, because they were wrecked at Ezion-geber.

⁵⁰Then Ahaziah, son of Ahab, said to Jehoshaphat, "Let my servants accompany your servants in the ships." But Jehoshaphat would not agree.

⁵¹Jehoshaphat rested with his ancestors; he was buried in his forefathers' City of David. His son Jehoram succeeded him as king.

⁵²Ahaziah, son of Ahab, began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah; he reigned two years over Israel.

⁵³He did evil in the sight of the LORD, behaving like his father, his mother, and Jeroboam, son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin.

⁵⁴He served and worshiped Baal, thus provoking the LORD, the God of Israel, just as his father had done.

1After Ahab's death, Moab rebelled against Israel.

²Ahaziah had fallen through the lattice of his roof terrace at Samaria and had been injured. So he sent out messengers with the instructions: "Go and inquire of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this injury."

³Meanwhile, the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite: "Go, intercept the messengers of Samaria's king, and ask them, 'Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron?'

⁴For this, the LORD says: 'You shall not leave the bed upon which you lie; instead, you shall die.'" And with that, Elijah departed.

⁵The messengers then returned to Ahaziah, who asked them. "Why have you returned?"

⁶"A man came up to us," they answered, "who said to us, 'Go back to the king who sent you and tell him: The LORD says, Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending to inquire of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron? For this you shall not leave the bed upon which you lie; instead, you shall die.'"

⁷The king asked them, "What was the man like who came up to you and said these things to you?"

⁸"Wearing a hairy garment," they replied, "with a leather girdle about his loins." "It is Elijah the Tishbite!" he exclaimed.

⁹Then the king sent a captain with his company of fifty men after Elijah. The prophet was seated on a hilltop when he found him. "Man of God," he ordered, "the king commands you to come down."

¹⁰"If I am a man of God," Elijah answered the captain, "may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men." And fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty men.

¹¹Ahaziah sent another captain with his company of fifty men after Elijah. "Man of God," he called out to Elijah, "the king commands you to come down immediately."

¹²"If I am a man of God," Elijah answered him, "may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men." And divine fire came down from heaven, consuming him and his fifty men.

¹³Again, for the third time, Ahaziah sent a captain with his company of fifty men. When the third captain arrived, he fell to his knees before Elijah, pleading with him. "Man of God," he implored him, "let my life and the lives of these fifty men, your servants, count for something in your sight!

¹⁴Already fire has come down from heaven, consuming two captains with their companies of fifty men. But now, let my life mean something to you!"

¹⁵Then the angel of the LORD said to Elijah, "Go down with him; you need not be afraid of him."

¹⁶So Elijah left and went down with him and stated to the king: "Thus says the LORD: 'Because you sent messengers to inquire of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron, you shall not leave the bed upon which you lie; instead you shall die.'"

¹⁷Ahaziah died in fulfillment of the prophecy of the LORD spoken by Elijah. Since he had no son, his brother Joram succeeded him as king, in the second year of Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah.

¹⁸The rest of the acts of Ahaziah are recorded in the book of chronicles of the kings of Israel.

2When the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, he and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal.

²"Stay here, please," Elijah said to Elisha. "The LORD has sent me on to Bethel." "As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live," Elisha replied, "I will not leave you." So they went down to Bethel,

³where the guild prophets went out to Elisha and asked him, "Do you know that the LORD will take your master from over you today?" "Yes, I know it," he replied. "Keep still."

⁴Then Elijah said to him, "Stay here, please, Elisha, for the LORD has sent me on to Jericho." "As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live," Elisha replied, "I will not leave you."

⁵They went on to Jericho, where the guild prophets approached Elisha and asked him, "Do you know that the LORD will take your master from over you today?" "Yes, I know it," he replied. "Keep still."

⁶Elijah said to Elisha, "Please stay here; the LORD has sent me on to the Jordan." "As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live," Elisha replied, "I will not leave you." And so the two went on together.

⁷Fifty of the guild prophets followed, and when the two stopped at the Jordan, stood facing them at a distance.

⁸Elijah took his mantle, rolled it up and struck the water, which divided, and both crossed over on dry ground.

⁹When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, "Ask for whatever I may do for you, before I am taken from you." Elisha answered, "May I receive a double portion of your spirit."

¹⁰"You have asked something that is not easy," he replied. "Still, if you see me taken up from you, your wish will be granted; otherwise not."

¹¹As they walked on conversing, a flaming chariot and flaming horses came between them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.

¹²When Elisha saw it happen he cried out, "My father! my father! Israel's chariots and drivers!" But when he could no longer see him, Elisha gripped his own garment and tore it in two.

¹³Then he picked up Elijah's mantle which had fallen from him, and went back and stood at the bank of the Jordan.

¹⁴Wielding the mantle which had fallen from Elijah, he struck the water in his turn and said, "Where is the LORD, the God of Elijah?" When Elisha struck the water it divided and he crossed over.

¹⁵The guild prophets in Jericho, who were on the other side, saw him and said, "The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha." They went to meet him, bowing to the ground before him.

¹⁶"Among your servants are fifty brave men," they said. "Let them go in search of your master. Perhaps the spirit of the LORD has carried him away to some mountain or some valley." "Do not send them," he answered.

¹⁷However, they kept urging him, until he was embarrassed and said, "Send them." So they sent the fifty men, who searched for three days without finding him.

¹⁸When they returned to Elisha in Jericho, where he was staying, he said to them, "Did I not tell you not to go?"

¹⁹Once the inhabitants of the city complained to Elisha, "The site of the city is fine indeed, as my lord can see, but the water is bad and the land unfruitful."

²⁰"Bring me a new bowl," Elisha said, "and put salt into it." When they had brought it to him,

²¹he went out to the spring and threw salt into it, saying, "Thus says the LORD, 'I have purified this water. Never again shall death or miscarriage spring from it.'"

²²And the water has stayed pure even to this day, just as Elisha prophesied.

²³From there Elisha went up to Bethel. While he was on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him. "Go up, baldhead," they shouted, "go up, baldhead!"

²⁴The prophet turned and saw them, and he cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the children to pieces.

²⁵From there he went to Mount Carmel, and thence he returned to Samaria.

3Joram, son of Ahab, became king of Israel in Samaria (in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and he reigned for twelve years).

²He did evil in the LORD'S sight, though not as much as his father and mother. He did away with the pillar of Baal, which his father had made,

³but he still clung to the sin to which Jeroboam, son of Nebat, had lured Israel; this he did not give up.

⁴Now Mesha, king of Moab, who raised sheep, used to pay the king of Israel as tribute a hundred thousand lambs and the wool of a hundred thousand rams.

⁵But when Ahab died, the king of Moab had rebelled against the king of Israel.

⁶Joram as king mustered all Israel, and when he set out on a campaign from Samaria,

⁷he sent the king of Judah the message: "The king of Moab is in rebellion against me. Will you join me in battle against Moab?" "I will," he replied. "You and I shall be as one, your people and mine, and your horses and mine as well."

⁸They discussed the route for their attack, and settled upon the route through the desert of Edom.

⁹So the king of Israel set out, accompanied by the king of Judah and the king of Edom. After their roundabout journey of seven days the water gave out for the army and for the animals with them.

¹⁰"Alas!" exclaimed the king of Israel. "The LORD has called together these three kings to put them in the grasp of Moab."

¹¹But the king of Judah asked, "Is there no prophet of the LORD here through whom we may inquire of the LORD?" One of the officers of the king of Israel replied, "Elisha, son of Shaphat, who poured water on the hands of Elijah, is here."

¹²"He has the word of the LORD," the king of Judah agreed. So the kings of Israel, Judah, and Edom went down to Elisha.

¹³"What do you want with me?" Elisha asked the king of Israel. "Go to the prophets of your father and to the prophets of your mother." "No," the king of Israel replied. "The LORD has called these three kings together to put them in the grasp of Moab."

¹⁴Then Elisha said, "As the LORD of hosts lives, whom I serve, were it not that I respect the king of Judah, I should neither look at you nor notice you at all.

¹⁵Now get me a minstrel." When the minstrel played, the power of the LORD came upon Elisha

¹⁶and he announced: "Thus says the LORD, 'Provide many catch basins in this wadi.'

¹⁷For the LORD says, 'Though you will see neither wind nor rain, yet this wadi will be filled with water for you, your livestock, and your pack animals to drink.'

¹⁸And since the LORD does not consider this enough, he will also deliver Moab into your grasp.

¹⁹You shall destroy every fortified city, fell every fruit tree, stop up all the springs, and ruin every fertile field with stones."

²⁰In the morning, at the time of the sacrifice, water came from the direction of Edom and filled the land.

²¹Meanwhile, all Moab heard that the kings had come to give them battle; every man capable of bearing arms was called up and stationed at the border.

²²Early that morning, when the sun shone on the water, the Moabites saw the water at a distance as red as blood.

²³"This is blood!" they exclaimed. "The kings have fought among themselves and killed one another. Quick! To the spoils, Moabites!"

²⁴But when they reached the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and attacked the Moabites, who fled from them. They ranged through the countryside striking down the Moabites, and

²⁵destroying the cities; each of them cast stones onto every fertile field till they had loaded it down; all the springs they stopped up and every useful tree they felled. Finally only Kir-hareseth was left behind its stone walls, and the slingers had surrounded it and were attacking it.

²⁶When he saw that he was losing the battle, the king of Moab took seven hundred swordsmen to break through to the king of Aram, but he failed.

²⁷So he took his first-born, his heir apparent, and offered him as a holocaust upon the wall. The wrath against Israel was so great that they gave up the siege and returned to their own land.

4A certain woman, the widow of one of the guild prophets, complained to Elisha: "My husband, your servant, is dead. You know that he was a God-fearing man, yet now his creditor has come to take my two children as his slaves."

²"How can I help you?" Elisha answered her. "Tell me what you have in the house." "This servant of yours has nothing in the house but a jug of oil," she replied.

³"Go out," he said, "borrow vessels from all your neighbors--as many empty vessels as you can.

⁴Then come back and close the door on yourself and your children; pour the oil into all the vessels, and as each is filled, set it aside."

⁵She went and did so, closing the door on herself and her children. As they handed her the vessels, she would pour in oil.

⁶When all the vessels were filled, she said to her son, "Bring me another vessel." "There is none left," he answered her. And then the oil stopped.

⁷She went and told the man of God, who said, "Go and sell the oil to pay off your creditor; with what remains, you and your children can live."

⁸One day Elisha came to Shunem, where there was a woman of influence, who urged him to dine with her. Afterward, whenever he passed by, he used to stop there to dine.

⁹So she said to her husband, "I know that he is a holy man of God. Since he visits us often,

¹⁰let us arrange a little room on the roof and furnish it for him with a bed, table, chair, and lamp, so that when he comes to us he can stay there."

¹¹Sometime later Elisha arrived and stayed in the room overnight.

¹²Then he said to his servant Gehazi, "Call this Shunammite woman." He did so, and when she stood before Elisha,

¹³he told Gehazi, "Say to her, 'You have lavished all this care on us; what can we do for you? Can we say a good word for you to the king or to the commander of the army?'" She replied, "I am living among my own people."

¹⁴Later Elisha asked, "Can something be done for her?" "Yes!" Gehazi answered. "She has no son, and her husband is getting on in years."

¹⁵"Call her," said Elisha. When she had been called, and stood at the door,

¹⁶Elisha promised, "This time next year you will be fondling a baby son." "Please, my lord," she protested, "you are a man of God; do not deceive your servant."

¹⁷Yet the woman conceived, and by the same time the following year she had given birth to a son, as Elisha had promised.

¹⁸The day came when the child was old enough to go out to his father among the reapers.

¹⁹"My head hurts!" he complained to his father. "Carry him to his mother," the father said to a servant.

²⁰The servant picked him up and carried him to his mother; he stayed with her until noon, when he died in her lap.

²¹The mother took him upstairs and laid him on the bed of the man of God. Closing the door on him, she went out

²²and called to her husband, "Let me have a servant and a donkey. I must go quickly to the man of God, and I will be back."

²³"Why are you going to him today?" he asked. "It is neither the new moon nor the sabbath." But she bade him good-bye,

²⁴and when the donkey was saddled, said to her servant: "Lead on! Do not stop my donkey unless I tell you to."

²⁵She kept going till she reached the man of God on Mount Carmel. When he spied her at a distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi: "There is the Shunammite!

²⁶Hurry to meet her, and ask if all is well with her, with her husband, and with the boy." "Greetings," she replied.

²⁷But when she reached the man of God on the mountain, she clasped his feet. Gehazi came near to push her away, but the man of God said: "Let her alone, she is in bitter anguish; the LORD hid it from me and did not let me know."

²⁸"Did I ask my lord for a son?" she cried out. "Did I not beg you not to deceive me?"

²⁹"Gird your loins," Elisha said to Gehazi, "take my staff with you and be off; if you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff upon the boy."

³⁰But the boy's mother cried out: "As the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not release you." So he started to go back with her.

³¹Meanwhile, Gehazi had gone on ahead and had laid the staff upon the boy, but there was no sound or sign of life. He returned to meet Elisha and informed him that the boy had not awakened.

³²When Elisha reached the house, he found the boy lying dead.

³³He went in, closed the door on them both, and prayed to the LORD.

³⁴Then he lay upon the child on the bed, placing his mouth upon the child's mouth, his eyes upon the eyes, and his hands upon the hands. As Elisha stretched himself over the child, the body became warm.

³⁵He arose, paced up and down the room, and then once more lay down upon the boy, who now sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

³⁶Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, "Call the Shunammite." She came at his call, and Elisha said to her, "Take your son."

³⁷She came in and fell at his feet in gratitude; then she took her son and left the room.

³⁸When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land. Once, when the guild prophets were seated before him, he said to his servant, "Put the large pot on, and make some vegetable stew for the guild prophets."

³⁹Someone went out into the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine, from which he picked a clothful of wild gourds. On his return he cut them up into the pot of vegetable stew without anybody's knowing it.

⁴⁰The stew was poured out for the men to eat, but when they began to eat it, they exclaimed, "Man of God, there is poison in the pot!" And they could not eat it.

⁴¹"Bring some meal," Elisha said. He threw it into the pot and said, "Serve it to the people to eat." And there was no longer anything harmful in the pot.

⁴²A man came from Baal-shalishah bringing the man of God twenty barley loaves made from the first fruits, and fresh grain in the ear. "Give it to the people to eat," Elisha said.

⁴³But his servant objected, "How can I set this before a hundred men?" "Give it to the people to eat," Elisha insisted. "For thus says the LORD, 'They shall eat and there shall be some left over.'"

⁴⁴And when they had eaten, there was some left over, as the LORD had said.

5Naaman, the army commander of the king of Aram, was highly esteemed and respected by his master, for through him the LORD had brought victory to Aram. But valiant as he was, the man was a leper.

²Now the Arameans had captured from the land of Israel in a raid a little girl, who became the servant of Naaman's wife.

³"If only my master would present himself to the prophet in Samaria," she said to her mistress, "he would cure him of his leprosy."

⁴Naaman went and told his lord just what the slave girl from the land of Israel had said.

⁵"Go," said the king of Aram. "I will send along a letter to the king of Israel." So Naaman set out, taking along ten silver talents, six thousand gold pieces, and ten festal garments.

⁶To the king of Israel he brought the letter, which read: "With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy."

⁷When he read the letter, the king of Israel tore his garments and exclaimed: "Am I a god with power over life and death, that this man should send someone to me to be cured of leprosy? Take note! You can see he is only looking for a quarrel with me!"

⁸When Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his garments, he sent word to the king: "Why have you torn your garments? Let him come to me and find out that there is a prophet in Israel."

⁹Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha's house.

¹⁰The prophet sent him the message: "Go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will heal, and you will be clean."

¹¹But Naaman went away angry, saying, "I thought that he would surely come out and stand there to invoke the LORD his God, and would move his hand over the spot, and thus cure the leprosy.

¹²Are not the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be cleansed?" With this, he turned about in anger and left.

¹³But his servants came up and reasoned with him. "My father," they said, "if the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary, would you not have done it? All the more now, since he said to you, 'Wash and be clean,' should you do as he said."

¹⁴So Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times at the word of the man of God. His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

¹⁵He returned with his whole retinue to the man of God. On his arrival he stood before him and said, "Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel. Please accept a gift from your servant."

¹⁶"As the LORD lives whom I serve, I will not take it," Elisha replied; and despite Naaman's urging, he still refused.

¹⁷Naaman said: "If you will not accept, please let me, your servant, have two mule-loads of earth, for I will no longer offer holocaust or sacrifice to any other god except to the LORD.

¹⁸But I trust the LORD will forgive your servant this: when my master enters the temple of Rimmon to worship there, then I, too, as his adjutant, must bow down in the temple of Rimmon. May the LORD forgive your servant this."

¹⁹"Go in peace," Elisha said to him.

²⁰Naaman had gone some distance when Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, thought to himself: "My master was too easy with this Aramean Naaman, not accepting what he brought. As the LORD lives, I will run after him and get something out of him."

²¹So Gehazi hurried after Naaman. Aware that someone was running after him, Naaman alighted from his chariot to wait for him. "Is everything all right?" he asked.

²²"Yes," Gehazi replied, "but my master sent me to say, 'Two young men have just come to me, guild prophets from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two festal garments.'"

²³"Please take two talents," Naaman said, and pressed them upon him. He tied up these silver talents in bags and gave them, with the two festal garments, to two of his servants, who carried them before Gehazi.

²⁴When they reached the hill, Gehazi took what they had, carried it into the house, and sent the men on their way.

²⁵He went in and stood before Elisha his master, who asked him, "Where have you been, Gehazi?" He answered, "Your servant has not gone anywhere."

²⁶But Elisha said to him: "Was I not present in spirit when the man alighted from his chariot to wait for you? Is this a time to take money or to take garments, olive orchards or vineyards, sheep or cattle, male or female servants?

²⁷The leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and your descendants forever." And Gehazi left Elisha, a leper white as snow.

6The guild prophets once said to Elisha: "There is not enough room for us to continue to live here with you.

²Let us go to the Jordan, where by getting one beam apiece we can build ourselves a place to live." "Go," Elisha said.

³"Please agree to accompany your servants," one of them requested. "Yes, I will come," he replied.

⁴So he went with them, and when they arrived at the Jordan they began to fell trees.

⁵While one of them was felling a tree trunk, the iron axhead slipped into the water. "O master," he cried out, "it was borrowed!"

⁶"Where did it fall?" asked the man of God. When he pointed out the spot, Elisha cut off a stick, threw it into the water, and brought the iron to the surface.

⁷"Pick it up," he said. And the man reached down and grasped it.

⁸When the king of Aram was waging war on Israel, he would make plans with his servants to attack a particular place.

⁹But the man of God would send word to the king of Israel, "Be careful! Do not pass by this place, for Aram will attack there."

¹⁰So the king of Israel would send word to the place which the man of God had indicated, and alert it; then they would be on guard. This happened several times.

¹¹Greatly disturbed over this, the king of Aram called together his officers. "Will you not tell me," he asked them, "who among us is for the king of Israel?"

¹²"No one, my lord king," answered one of the officers. "The Israelite prophet Elisha can tell the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom."

¹³"Go, find out where he is," he said, "so that I may take him captive." Informed that Elisha was in Dothan,

¹⁴he sent there a strong force with horses and chariots. They arrived by night and surrounded the city.

¹⁵Early the next morning, when the attendant of the man of God arose and went out, he saw the force with its horses and chariots surrounding the city. "Alas!" he said to Elisha. "What shall we do, my lord?"

¹⁶"Do not be afraid," Elisha answered. "Our side outnumbers theirs."

¹⁷Then he prayed, "O LORD, open his eyes, that he may see." And the LORD opened the eyes of the servant, so that he saw the mountainside filled with horses and fiery chariots around Elisha.

¹⁸When the Arameans came down to get him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, "Strike this people blind, I pray you." And in answer to the prophet's prayer the LORD struck them blind.

¹⁹Then Elisha said to them: "This is the wrong road, and this is the wrong city. Follow me! I will take you to the man you want." And he led them to Samaria.

²⁰When they entered Samaria, Elisha prayed, "O LORD, open their eyes that they may see." The LORD opened their eyes, and they saw that they were inside Samaria.

²¹When the king of Israel saw them, he asked, "Shall I kill them, my father?"

²²"You must not kill them," replied Elisha. "Do you slay those whom you have taken captive with your sword or bow? Serve them bread and water. Let them eat and drink, and then go back to their master."

²³The king spread a great feast for them. When they had eaten and drunk he sent them away, and they went back to their master. No more Aramean raiders came into the land of Israel.

²⁴After this, Ben-hadad, king of Aram, mustered his whole army and laid siege to Samaria.

²⁵Because of the siege the famine in Samaria was so severe that an ass's head sold for eighty pieces of silver, and a fourth of a kab of wild onion for five pieces of silver.

²⁶One day, as the king of Israel was walking on the city wall, a woman cried out to him, "Help, my lord king!"

²⁷"No," he replied, "the LORD help you! Where could I find help for you: from the threshing floor or the winepress?"

²⁸Then the king asked her, "What is your trouble?" She replied: "This woman said to me, 'Give up your son that we may eat him today; then tomorrow we will eat my son.'

²⁹So we boiled my son and ate him. The next day I said to her, 'Now give up your son that we may eat him.' But she hid her son."

³⁰When the king heard the woman's words, he tore his garments. And as he was walking on the wall, the people saw that he was wearing sackcloth underneath, next to his skin.

³¹"May God do thus and so to me," the king exclaimed, "if the head of Elisha, son of Shaphat, stays on him today!"

³²Meanwhile, Elisha was sitting in his house in conference with the elders. The king had sent a man ahead before he himself should come to him. Elisha had said to the elders: "Do you know that this son of a murderer is sending someone to cut off my head? When the messenger comes, see that you close the door and hold it fast against him. His master's footsteps are echoing behind him."

³³While Elisha was still speaking, the king came down to him and said, "This evil is from the LORD. Why should I trust in the LORD any longer?"

7Elisha said: "Hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the LORD, 'At this time tomorrow a seah of fine flour will sell for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, in the market of Samaria.'"

²But the adjutant on whose arm the king leaned, answered the man of God, "Even if the LORD were to make windows in heaven, how could this happen?" "You shall see it with your own eyes," Elisha said, "but you shall not eat of it."

³At the city gate were four lepers who were deliberating, "Why should we sit here until we die?

⁴If we decide to go into the city, we shall die there, for there is famine in the city. If we remain here, we shall die too. Come, let us desert to the camp of the Arameans. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, we die."

⁵At twilight they left for the Arameans; but when they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there.

⁶The LORD had caused the army of the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses, the din of a large army, and they had reasoned among themselves, "The king of Israel has hired the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the borderlands to fight us."

⁷Then in the twilight they fled, abandoning their tents, their horses, and their asses, the whole camp just as it was, and fleeing for their lives.

⁸After the lepers reached the edge of the camp, they went first into one tent, ate and drank, and took silver, gold, and clothing from it, and went out and hid them. Back they came into another tent, took things from it, and again went out and hid them.

⁹Then they said to one another: "We are not doing right. This is a day of good news, and we are keeping silent. If we wait until morning breaks, we shall be blamed. Come, let us go and inform the palace."

¹⁰They came and summoned the city gatekeepers. "We went to the camp of the Arameans," they said, "but no one was there--not a human voice, only the horses and asses tethered, and the tents just as they were left."

¹¹The gatekeepers announced this and it was reported within the palace.

¹²Though it was night, the king got up; he said to his servants: "Let me tell you what the Arameans have done to us. Knowing that we are in famine, they have left their camp to hide in the field, hoping to take us alive and enter our city when we leave it."

¹³One of his servants, however, suggested: "Since those who are left in the city are no better off than all the throng that has perished, let some of us take five of the abandoned horses and send scouts to investigate."

¹⁴They took two chariots, and horses, and the king sent them to reconnoiter the Aramean army. "Go and find out," he ordered.

¹⁵They followed the Arameans as far as the Jordan, and the whole route was strewn with garments and other objects that the Arameans had thrown away in their haste. The messengers returned and told the king.

¹⁶The people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans; and then a seah of fine flour sold for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel, as the LORD had said.

¹⁷The king put in charge of the gate the officer who was his adjutant; but the people trampled him to death at the gate, just as the man of God had predicted when the king visited him.

¹⁸Thus was fulfilled the prophecy of the man of God to the king, "Two seahs of barley will sell for a shekel, and one seah of fine flour for a shekel at this time tomorrow at the gate of Samaria."

¹⁹The adjutant had answered the man of God, "Even if the LORD were to make windows in heaven, how could this happen?" And Elisha had replied, "You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it."

²⁰And that is what happened to him, for the people trampled him to death at the gate.

8Elisha once said to the woman whose son he had restored to life: "Get ready! Leave with your family and settle wherever you can, because the LORD has decreed a seven-year famine which is coming upon the land."

²The woman got ready and did as the man of God said, setting out with her family and settling in the land of the Philistines for seven years.

³At the end of the seven years, the woman returned from the land of the Philistines and went out to the king to claim her house and her field.

⁴The king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God. "Tell me," he said, "all the great things that Elisha has done."

⁵Just as he was relating to the king how his master had restored a dead person to life, the very woman whose son Elisha had restored to life came to the king to claim her house and field. "My lord king," Gehazi said, "this is the woman, and this is that son of hers whom Elisha restored to life."

⁶The king questioned the woman, and she told him her story. With that the king placed an official at her disposal, saying, "Restore all her property to her, with all that the field produced from the day she left the land until now."

⁷Elisha came to Damascus at a time when Ben-hadad, king of Aram, lay sick. When he was told that the man of God had come there,

⁸the king said to Hazael, "Take a gift with you and go call on the man of God. Have him consult the LORD as to whether I shall recover from this sickness."

⁹Hazael went to visit him, carrying a present, and with forty camel loads of the best goods of Damascus. On his arrival, he stood before the prophet and said, "Your son Ben-hadad, king of Aram, has sent me to ask you whether he will recover from his sickness."

¹⁰"Go and tell him," Elisha answered, "that he will surely recover. However, the LORD has showed me that he will in fact die."

¹¹Then he stared him down until Hazael became ill at ease. The man of God wept,

¹²and Hazael asked, "Why are you weeping, my lord?" Elisha replied, "Because I know the evil that you will inflict upon the Israelites. You will burn their fortresses, you will slay their youth with the sword, you will dash their little children to pieces, you will rip open their pregnant women."

¹³Hazael exclaimed, "How can a dog like me, your servant, do anything so important?" "The LORD has showed you to me as king over Aram," replied Elisha.

¹⁴Hazael left Elisha and returned to his master. "What did Elisha tell you?" asked Ben-hadad. "He told me that you would surely recover," replied Hazael.

¹⁵The next day, however, Hazael took a cloth, dipped it in water, and spread it over the king's face, so that he died. And Hazael reigned in his stead.

¹⁶In the fifth year of Joram, son of Ahab, king of Israel, Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, became king.

¹⁷He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.

¹⁸He conducted himself like the kings of Israel of the line of Ahab, since the sister of Ahab was his wife; and he did evil in the LORD'S sight.

¹⁹Even so, the LORD was unwilling to destroy Judah, because of his servant David. For he had promised David that he would leave him a lamp in the LORD'S presence for all time.

²⁰During Jehoram's reign, Edom revolted against the sovereignty of Judah and chose a king of its own.

²¹Thereupon Jehoram with all his chariots crossed over to Zair. He arose by night and broke through the Edomites when they had surrounded him and the commanders of his chariots. Then his army fled homeward.

²²To this day Edom has been in revolt against the rule of Judah. Libnah also revolted at that time.

²³The rest of the acts of Jehoram, with all that he did, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.

²⁴Jehoram rested with his ancestors and was buried with them in the City of David. His son Ahaziah succeeded him as king.

²⁵Ahaziah, son of Jehoram, king of Judah, became king in the twelfth year of Joram, son of Ahab, king of Israel.

²⁶He was twenty-two years old when he began his reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Athaliah; she was daughter of Omri, king of Israel.

²⁷He conducted himself like the house of Ahab, doing evil in the LORD'S sight as they did, since he was related to them by marriage.

²⁸He joined Joram, son of Ahab, in battle against Hazael, king of Aram, at Ramoth-gilead, where the Arameans wounded Joram.

²⁹King Joram returned to Jezreel to be healed of the wounds which the Arameans had inflicted on him at Ramah in his battle against Hazael, king of Aram. Then Ahaziah, son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to Jezreel to visit him there in his illness.

9The prophet Elisha called one of the guild prophets and said to him: "Gird your loins, take this flask of oil with you, and go to Ramoth-gilead.

²When you get there, look for Jehu, son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi. Enter and take him away from his companions into an inner chamber.

³From the flask you have, pour oil on his head, and say, 'Thus says the LORD: I anoint you king over Israel.' Then open the door and flee without delay."

⁴The young man (the guild prophet) went to Ramoth-gilead.

⁵When he arrived, the commanders of the army were in session. "I have a message for you, commander," he said. "For which one of us?" asked Jehu. "For you, commander," he answered.

⁶Jehu got up and went into the house. Then the young man poured the oil on his head and said, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: 'I anoint you king over the people of the LORD, over Israel.

⁷You shall destroy the house of Ahab your master; thus will I avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the other servants of the LORD shed by Jezebel,

⁸and by all the rest of the family of Ahab. I will cut off every male in Ahab's line, whether slave or freeman in Israel.

⁹I will deal with the house of Ahab as I dealt with the house of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, and with the house of Baasha, son of Ahijah.

¹⁰Dogs shall devour Jezebel at the confines of Jezreel, so that no one can bury her.'" Then he opened the door and fled.

¹¹When Jehu rejoined his master's servants, they asked him, "Is all well? Why did that madman come to you?" You know that kind of man and his talk, he replied.

¹²But they said, "Not at all! Come, tell us." So he told them what the young man had said to him, and finally, "Thus says the LORD: 'I anoint you king over Israel.'"

¹³At once each took his garment, spread it under Jehu on the bare steps, blew the trumpet, and cried out, "Jehu is king!"

¹⁴Thus Jehu, son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi, formed a conspiracy against Joram. Joram, with all Israel, had been besieging Ramoth-gilead against Hazael, king of Aram,

¹⁵but had returned to Jezreel to be healed of the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him in the battle against Hazael, king of Aram. "If you are truly with me," Jehu said, "see that no one escapes from the city to report in Jezreel."

¹⁶Then Jehu mounted his chariot and drove to Jezreel, where Joram lay ill and Ahaziah, king of Judah, had come to visit him.

¹⁷The watchman standing on the tower in Jezreel saw the troop of Jehu coming and reported, "I see chariots." "Get a driver," Joram said, "and send him to meet them and to ask whether all is well."

¹⁸So a driver went out to meet him and said, "The king asks whether all is well." "What does it matter to you how things are?" Jehu said. "Get behind me." The watchman reported to the king, "The messenger has reached them, but is not returning."

¹⁹Joram sent a second driver, who went to them and said, "The king asks whether all is well." "What does it matter to you how things are?" Jehu replied. "Get behind me."

²⁰The watchman reported, "The messenger has reached them, but is not returning. The driving is like that of Jehu, son of Nimshi, in its fury."

²¹"Prepare my chariot," said Joram. When they had done so, Joram, king of Israel, and Ahaziah, king of Judah, set out, each in his own chariot, to meet Jehu. They reached him near the field of Naboth the Jezreelite.

²²When Joram recognized Jehu, he asked, "Is all well, Jehu?" "How can all be well," Jehu replied, "as long as the many fornications and witchcrafts of your mother Jezebel continue?"

²³Joram reined about and fled, crying to Ahaziah, "Treason, Ahaziah!"

²⁴But Jehu drew his bow and shot Joram between the shoulders, so that the arrow went through his heart and he collapsed in his chariot.

²⁵Then Jehu said to his adjutant Bidkar, "Take him and throw him into the field of Naboth the Jezreelite. For I remember that when we were driving teams behind his father Ahab, the LORD delivered this oracle against him:

²⁶'As surely as I saw yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons,' says the LORD, 'I will repay you for it in that very plot of ground, says the LORD.' So now take him into this plot of ground, in keeping with the word of the LORD."

²⁷Seeing what was happening, Ahaziah, king of Judah, fled toward Beth-haggan. Jehu pursued him, shouting, "Kill him too!" And they pierced him as he rode through the pass of Gur near Ibleam. He continued his flight as far as Megiddo and died there.

²⁸His servants brought him in a chariot to Jerusalem and buried him in the tomb of his ancestors in the City of David.

²⁹Ahaziah had become king of Judah in the eleventh year of Joram, son of Ahab.

³⁰When Jezebel learned that Jehu had arrived in Jezreel, she shadowed her eyes, adorned her hair, and looked down from her window.

³¹As Jehu came through the gate, she cried out, "Is all well, Zimri, murderer of your master?"

³²Jehu looked up to the window and shouted, "Who is on my side? Anyone?" At this, two or three eunuchs looked down toward him.

³³"Throw her down," he ordered. They threw her down, and some of her blood spurted against the wall and against the horses. Jehu rode in over her body

³⁴and, after eating and drinking, he said: "Attend to that accursed woman and bury her; after all, she was a king's daughter."

³⁵But when they went to bury her, they found nothing of her but the skull, the feet, and the hands.

³⁶They returned to Jehu, and when they told him, he said, "This is the sentence which the LORD pronounced through his servant Elijah the Tishbite: 'In the confines of Jezreel dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel.

³⁷The corpse of Jezebel shall be like dung in the field in the confines of Jezreel, so that no one can say: This was Jezebel.'"

10Ahab had seventy descendants in Samaria. Jehu prepared letters and sent them to the city rulers, to the elders, and to the guardians of Ahab's descendants in Samaria.

²"Since your master's sons are with you," he wrote, "and you have the chariots, the horses, a fortified city, and the weapons, when this letter reaches you

³decide which is the best and the fittest of your master's offspring, place him on his father's throne, and fight for your master's house."

⁴They were overcome with fright and said, "If two kings could not withstand him, how can we?"

⁵So the vizier and the ruler of the city, along with the elders and the guardians, sent this message to Jehu: "We are your servants, and we will do everything you tell us. We will proclaim no one king; do whatever you think best."

⁶So Jehu wrote them a second letter: "If you are on my side and will obey me, count the heads of your master's sons and come to me in Jezreel at this time tomorrow." (The seventy princes were in the care of prominent men of the city, who were rearing them.)

⁷When the letter arrived, they took the princes and slew all seventy of them, put their heads in baskets, and sent them to Jehu in Jezreel.

⁸"They have brought the heads of the princes," a messenger came in and told him. "Pile them in two heaps at the entrance of the city until morning," he ordered.

⁹Going out in the morning, he stopped and said to all the people: "You are not responsible, and although I conspired against my lord and slew him, yet who killed all these?

¹⁰Know that not a single word which the LORD has spoken against the house of Ahab shall go unfulfilled. The LORD has accomplished all that he foretold through his servant Elijah."

¹¹Thereupon Jehu slew all who were left of the family of Ahab in Jezreel, as well as all his powerful supporters, intimates, and priests, leaving him no survivor.

¹²Then he set out for Samaria, and at Beth-eked-haroim on the way,

¹³he came across kinsmen of Ahaziah, king of Judah. "Who are you?" he asked. "We are kinsmen of Ahaziah," they replied. "We are going down to visit the princes and the family of the queen mother."

¹⁴"Take them alive," Jehu ordered. They were taken alive, forty-two in number, then slain at the pit of Beth-eked. Not one of them was spared.

¹⁵When he had left there, Jehu met Jehonadab, son of Rechab, on the road. He greeted him and asked, "Are you sincerely disposed toward me, as I am toward you?" "Yes," replied Jehonadab. "If you are," continued Jehu, "give me your hand." Jehonadab gave him his hand, and Jehu drew him up into his chariot.

¹⁶"Come with me," he said, "and see my zeal for the LORD." And he took him along in his own chariot.

¹⁷When he arrived in Samaria, Jehu slew all who remained there of Ahab's line, doing away with them completely and thus fulfilling the prophecy which the LORD had spoken to Elijah.

¹⁸Jehu gathered all the people together and said to them: "Ahab served Baal to some extent, but Jehu will serve him yet more.

¹⁹Now summon for me all Baal's prophets, all his worshipers, and all his priests. See that no one is absent, for I have a great sacrifice for Baal. Whoever is absent shall not live." This Jehu did as a ruse, so that he might destroy the worshipers of Baal.

²⁰Jehu said further, "Proclaim a solemn assembly in honor of Baal." They did so,

²¹and Jehu sent word of it throughout the land of Israel. All the worshipers of Baal without exception came into the temple of Baal, which was filled to capacity.

²²Then Jehu said to the custodian of the wardrobe, "Bring out the garments for all the worshipers of Baal." When he had brought out the garments for them,

²³Jehu, with Jehonadab, son of Rechab, entered the temple of Baal and said to the worshipers of Baal, "Search and be sure that there is no worshiper of the LORD here with you, but only worshipers of Baal."

²⁴Then they proceeded to offer sacrifices and holocausts. Now Jehu had stationed eighty men outside with this warning, "If one of you lets anyone escape of those whom I shall deliver into your hands, he shall pay life for life."

²⁵As soon as he finished offering the holocaust, Jehu said to the guards and officers, "Go in and slay them. Let no one escape." So the guards and officers put them to the sword and cast them out. Afterward they went into the inner shrine of the temple of Baal,

²⁶took out the stele of Baal, and burned the shrine.

²⁷Then they smashed the stele of Baal, tore down the building, and turned it into a latrine, as it remains today.

²⁸Thus Jehu rooted out the worship of Baal from Israel.

²⁹However, he did not desist from the sins which Jeroboam, son of Nebat, had caused Israel to commit, as regards the golden calves at Bethel and at Dan.

³⁰The LORD said to Jehu, "Because you have done well what I deem right, and have treated the house of Ahab as I desire, your sons to the fourth generation shall sit upon the throne of Israel."

³¹But Jehu was not careful to observe wholeheartedly the law of the LORD, the God of Israel, since he did not desist from the sins which Jeroboam caused Israel to commit.

³²At that time the LORD began to dismember Israel. Hazael defeated the Israelites throughout their territory

³³east of the Jordan (all the land of Gilead, of the Gadites, Reubenites and Manassehites), from Aroer on the river Arnon up through Gilead and Bashan.

³⁴The rest of the acts of Jehu, his valor and all his accomplishments, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

³⁵Jehu rested with his ancestors and was buried in Samaria. His son Jehoahaz succeeded him as king.

³⁶The length of Jehu's reign over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.

11When Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she began to kill off the whole royal family.

²But Jehosheba, daughter of King Jehoram and sister of Ahaziah, took Joash, his son, and spirited him away, along with his nurse, from the bedroom where the princes were about to be slain. She concealed him from Athaliah, and so he did not die.

³For six years he remained hidden in the temple of the LORD, while Athaliah ruled the land.

⁴But in the seventh year, Jehoiada summoned the captains of the Carians and of the guards. He had them come to him in the temple of the LORD, exacted from them a sworn commitment, and then showed them the king's son.

⁵He gave them these orders: "This is what you must do: the third of you who come on duty on the sabbath shall guard the king's palace;

⁶another third shall be at the gate Sur; and the last third shall be at the gate behind the guards.

⁷The two of your divisions who are going off duty that week shall keep guard over the temple of the LORD for the king.

⁸You shall surround the king, each with drawn weapons, and if anyone tries to approach the cordon, kill him; stay with the king, whatever he may do."

⁹The captains did just as Jehoiada the priest commanded. Each one with his men, both those going on duty for the sabbath and those going off duty that week, came to Jehoiada the priest.

¹⁰He gave the captains King David's spears and shields, which were in the temple of the LORD.

¹¹And the guards, with drawn weapons, lined up from the southern to the northern limit of the enclosure, surrounding the altar and the temple on the king's behalf.

¹²Then Jehoiada led out the king's son and put the crown and the insignia upon him. They proclaimed him king and anointed him, clapping their hands and shouting, "Long live the king!"

¹³Athaliah heard the noise made by the people, and appeared before them in the temple of the LORD.

¹⁴When she saw the king standing by the pillar, as was the custom, and the captains and trumpeters near him, with all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing trumpets, she tore her garments and cried out, "Treason, treason!"

¹⁵Then Jehoiada the priest instructed the captains in command of the force: "Bring her outside through the ranks. If anyone follows her," he added, "let him die by the sword." He had given orders that she should not be slain in the temple of the LORD.

¹⁶She was led out forcibly to the horse gate of the royal palace, where she was put to death.

¹⁷Then Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD as one party and the king and the people as the other, by which they would be the LORD'S people; and another covenant, between the king and the people.

¹⁸Thereupon all the people of the land went to the temple of Baal and demolished it. They shattered its altars and images completely, and slew Mattan, the priest of Baal, before the altars. After appointing a detachment for the temple of the LORD, Jehoiada

¹⁹with the captains, the Carians, the guards, and all the people of the land, led the king down from the temple of the LORD through the guards' gate to the palace, where Joash took his seat on the royal throne.

²⁰All the people of the land rejoiced and the city was quiet, now that Athaliah had been slain with the sword at the royal palace.

12Joash was seven years old when he became king.

²Joash began to reign in the seventh year of Jehu, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother, who was named Zibiah, was from Beer-sheba.

³Joash did what was pleasing to the LORD as long as he lived, because the priest Jehoiada guided him.

⁴Still, the high places did not disappear; the people continued to sacrifice and to burn incense there.

⁵For the priests Joash made this rule: "All the funds for sacred purposes that are brought to the temple of the LORD--the census tax, personal redemption money, and whatever funds are freely brought to the temple of the LORD--

⁶the priests may take for themselves, each from his own clients. However, they must make whatever repairs on the temple may prove necessary."

⁷Nevertheless, as late as the twenty-third year of the reign of King Joash, the priests had not made needed repairs on the temple.

⁸Accordingly, King Joash summoned the priest Jehoiada and the other priests. "Why do you not repair the temple?" he asked them. "You must no longer take funds from your clients, but you shall turn them over for the repairs."

⁹So the priests agreed that they would neither take funds from the people nor make the repairs on the temple.

¹⁰The priest Jehoiada then took a chest, bored a hole in its lid, and set it beside the stele, on the right as one entered the temple of the LORD. The priests who guarded the entry would put into it all the funds that were brought to the temple of the LORD.

¹¹When they noticed that there was a large amount of silver in the chest, the royal scribe (and the priest) would come up, and they would melt down all the funds that were in the temple of the LORD, and weigh them.

¹²The amount thus realized they turned over to the master workmen in the temple of the LORD. They in turn would give it to the carpenters and builders working in the temple of the LORD,

¹³and to the lumbermen and stone cutters, and for the purchase of the wood and hewn stone used in repairing the breaches, and for any other expenses that were necessary to repair the temple.

¹⁴None of the funds brought to the temple of the LORD were used there to make silver cups, snuffers, basins, trumpets, or any gold or silver article.

¹⁵Instead, they were given to the workmen, and with them they repaired the temple of the LORD.

¹⁶Moreover, no reckoning was asked of the men who were provided with the funds to give to the workmen, because they held positions of trust.

¹⁷The funds from guilt-offerings and from sin-offerings, however, were not brought to the temple of the LORD; they belonged to the priests.

¹⁸Then King Hazael of Aram mounted a siege against Gath. When he had taken it, Hazael decided to go on to attack Jerusalem.

¹⁹But King Jehoash of Judah took all the dedicated offerings presented by his forebears, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, kings of Judah, as well as his own, and all the gold there was in the treasuries of the temple and the palace, and sent them to King Hazael of Aram, who then led his forces away from Jerusalem.

²⁰The rest of the acts of Joash, with all that he did, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.

²¹Certain of his officials entered into a plot against him and killed him at Beth-millo.

²²Jozacar, son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad, son of Shomer, were the officials who killed him. He was buried in his forefathers' City of David, and his son Amaziah succeeded him as king.

13In the twenty-third year of Joash, son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, began his seventeen-year reign over Israel in Samaria.

²He did evil in the LORD'S sight, conducting himself like Jeroboam, son of Nebat, and not renouncing the sin he had caused Israel to commit.

³The LORD was angry with Israel and for a long time left them in the power of Hazael, king of Aram, and of Ben-hadad, son of Hazael.

⁴Then Jehoahaz entreated the LORD, who heard him, since he saw the oppression to which the king of Aram had subjected Israel.

⁵So the LORD gave Israel a savior, and the Israelites, freed from the power of Aram, dwelt in their own homes as formerly.

⁶Nevertheless, they did not desist from the sins which the house of Jeroboam had caused Israel to commit, but persisted in them. The sacred pole also remained standing in Samaria.

⁷No soldiers were left to Jehoahaz, except fifty horsemen with ten chariots and ten thousand foot soldiers, since the king of Aram had destroyed them and trampled them like dust.

⁸The rest of the acts of Jehoahaz, with all his valor and accomplishments, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

⁹Jehoahaz rested with his ancestors and was buried in Samaria. His son Joash succeeded him as king.

¹⁰In the thirty-seventh year of Joash, king of Judah, Jehoash, son of Jehoahaz, began his sixteen-year reign over Israel in Samaria.

¹¹He did evil in the sight of the LORD; he did not desist from any of the sins which Jeroboam, son of Nebat, had caused Israel to commit, but persisted in them.

¹²(The rest of the acts of Joash, the valor with which he fought against Amaziah, king of Judah, and all his accomplishments, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

¹³Joash rested with his ancestors, and Jeroboam occupied the throne. Joash was buried with the kings of Israel in Samaria.)

¹⁴When Elisha was suffering from the sickness of which he was to die, King Joash of Israel went down to visit him. "My father, my father!" he exclaimed, weeping over him. "Israel's chariots and horsemen!"

¹⁵"Take a bow and some arrows," Elisha said to him. When he had done so,

¹⁶Elisha said to the king of Israel, "Put your hand on the bow." As the king held the bow, Elisha placed his hands over the king's hands

¹⁷and said, "Open the window toward the east." He opened it. Elisha said, "Shoot," and he shot. The prophet exclaimed, "The LORD'S arrow of victory! The arrow of victory over Aram! You will completely conquer Aram at Aphec."

¹⁸Then he said to the king of Israel, "Take the arrows," which he did. Elisha said to him, "Strike the ground!" He struck the ground three times and stopped.

¹⁹Angry with him, the man of God said: "You should have struck five or six times; you would have defeated Aram completely. Now, you will defeat Aram only three times."

²⁰Elisha died and was buried. At the time, bands of Moabites used to raid the land each year.

²¹Once some people were burying a man, when suddenly they spied such a raiding band. So they cast the dead man into the grave of Elisha, and everyone went off. But when the man came in contact with the bones of Elisha, he came back to life and rose to his feet.

²²King Hazael of Aram oppressed Israel during the entire reign of Jehoahaz.

²³But the LORD was merciful with Israel and looked on them with compassion because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He was unwilling to destroy them or to cast them out from his presence.

²⁴So when King Hazael of Aram died and his son Ben-hadad succeeded him as king,

²⁵Joash, son of Jehoahaz, took back from Ben-hadad, son of Hazael, the cities which Hazael had taken in battle from his father Jehoahaz. Joash defeated Ben-hadad three times, and thus recovered the cities of Israel.

14In the second year of Joash, son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel, Amaziah, son of Joash, king of Judah, began to reign.

²He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother, whose name was Jehoaddin, was from Jerusalem.

³He pleased the LORD, yet not like his forefather David, since he did just as his father Joash had done.

⁴Thus the high places did not disappear, but the people continued to sacrifice and to burn incense on them.

⁵When Amaziah had the kingdom firmly in hand, he slew the officials who had murdered the king, his father.

⁶But the children of the murderers he did not put to death, obeying the LORD'S command written in the book of the law of Moses, "Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers; each one shall die for his own sin."

⁷Amaziah slew ten thousand Edomites in the Salt Valley, and took Sela in battle. He renamed it Joktheel, the name it has to this day.

⁸Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash, son of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, king of Israel, with this challenge, "Come, let us meet face to face."

⁹King Jehoash of Israel sent this reply to the king of Judah: "The thistle of Lebanon sent word to the cedar of Lebanon, 'Give your daughter to my son in marriage,' but an animal of Lebanon passed by and trampled the thistle underfoot.

¹⁰You have indeed conquered Edom, and you have become ambitious. Enjoy your glory, but stay at home! Why involve yourself and Judah with you in misfortune and failure?"

¹¹But Amaziah would not listen. King Jehoash of Israel then advanced, and he and King Amaziah of Judah met in battle at Beth-shemesh of Judah.

¹²Judah was defeated by Israel, and all the Judean soldiery fled homeward.

¹³King Jehoash of Israel captured Amaziah, son of Jehoash, son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, at Beth-shemesh. He went on to Jerusalem where he tore down four hundred cubits of the city wall, from the Gate of Ephraim to the Corner Gate.

¹⁴He took all the gold and silver and all the utensils there were in the temple of the LORD and the treasuries of the palace, and hostages as well. Then he returned to Samaria.

¹⁵The rest of the acts of Jehoash, his valor, and how he fought Amaziah, king of Judah, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

¹⁶Jehoash rested with his ancestors; he was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel. His son Jeroboam succeeded him as king.

¹⁷Amaziah, son of Joash, king of Judah, survived Jehoash, son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel, by fifteen years.

¹⁸The rest of the acts of Amaziah are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.

¹⁹When a conspiracy was formed against him in Jerusalem, he fled to Lachish. But he was pursued to Lachish and killed there.

²⁰He was brought back on horses and buried with his ancestors in the City of David in Jerusalem.

²¹Thereupon all the people of Judah took the sixteen-year-old Azariah and proclaimed him king to succeed his father Amaziah.

²²It was Azariah who rebuilt Elath and restored it to Judah, after King Amaziah rested with his ancestors.

²³In the fifteenth year of Amaziah, son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam, son of Joash, king of Israel, began his forty-one-year reign in Samaria.

²⁴He did evil in the sight of the LORD; he did not desist from any of the sins which Jeroboam, son of Nebat, had caused Israel to commit.

²⁵He restored the boundaries of Israel from Labo-of-Hamath to the sea of the Arabah, just as the LORD, the God of Israel, had prophesied through his servant, the prophet Jonah, son of Amittai, from Gath-hepher.

²⁶For the LORD saw the very bitter affliction of Israel, where there was neither slave nor freeman, no one at all to help Israel.

²⁷Since the LORD had not determined to blot out the name of Israel from under the heavens, he saved them through Jeroboam, son of Joash.

²⁸The rest of the acts of Jeroboam, his valor and all his accomplishments, how he fought with Damascus and turned back Hamath from Israel, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

²⁹Jeroboam rested with his ancestors, the kings of Israel, and his son Zechariah succeeded him as king.

15Azariah, son of Amaziah, king of Judah, became king in the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam, king of Israel.

²He was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother, whose name was Jecholiah, was from Jerusalem.

³He pleased the LORD just as his father Amaziah had done.

⁴Yet the high places did not disappear; the people continued to sacrifice and to burn incense on them.

⁵The LORD afflicted the king, and he was a leper to the day of his death. He lived in a house apart, while Jotham, the king's son, was vizier and regent for the people of the land.

⁶The rest of the acts of Azariah, and all his accomplishments, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.

⁷Azariah rested with his ancestors, and was buried with them in the City of David. His son Jotham succeeded him as king.

⁸In the thirty-eighth year of Azariah, king of Judah, Zechariah, son of Jeroboam, was king of Israel in Samaria for six months.

⁹He did evil in the sight of the LORD as his fathers had done, and did not desist from the sins which Jeroboam, son of Nebat, had caused Israel to commit.

¹⁰Shallum, son of Jabesh, conspired against Zechariah, attacked and killed him at Ibleam, and reigned in his place.

¹¹The rest of the acts of Zechariah are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

¹²Thus the LORD'S promise to Jehu, "Your descendants to the fourth generation shall sit upon the throne of Israel," was fulfilled.

¹³Shallum, son of Jabesh, became king in the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah, king of Judah; he reigned one month in Samaria.

¹⁴Menahem, son of Gadi, came up from Tirzah to Samaria, where he attacked and killed Shallum, son of Jabesh, and reigned in his place.

¹⁵The rest of the acts of Shallum, and the fact of his conspiracy, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

¹⁶At that time, Menahem punished Tappuah, all the inhabitants of the town and of its whole district, because on his way from Tirzah they did not let him in. He punished them even to ripping open all the pregnant women.

¹⁷In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah, king of Judah, Menahem, son of Gadi, began his ten-year reign over Samaria.

¹⁸He did evil in the sight of the LORD, not desisting from the sins which Jeroboam, son of Nebat, had caused Israel to commit. During his reign,

¹⁹Pul, king of Assyria, invaded the land, and Menahem gave him a thousand talents of silver to have his assistance in strengthening his hold on the kingdom.

²⁰Menahem secured the money to give to the king of Assyria by exacting it from all the men of substance in the country, fifty silver shekels from each. The king of Assyria did not remain in the country but withdrew.

²¹The rest of the acts of Menahem, and all his accomplishments, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

²²Menahem rested with his ancestors, and his son Pekahiah succeeded him as king.

²³In the fiftieth year of Azariah, king of Judah, Pekahiah, son of Menahem, began his two-year reign over Israel in Samaria.

²⁴He did evil in the sight of the LORD, not desisting from the sins which Jeroboam, son of Nebat, had caused Israel to commit.

²⁵His adjutant Pekah, son of Remaliah, who had with him fifty men from Gilead, conspired against him, killed him within the palace stronghold in Samaria, and reigned in his place.

²⁶The rest of the acts of Pekahiah, and all his accomplishments, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

²⁷In the fifty-second year of Azariah, king of Judah, Pekah, son of Remaliah, began his twenty-year reign over Israel in Samaria.

²⁸He did evil in the sight of the LORD, not desisting from the sins which Jeroboam, son of Nebat, had caused Israel to commit.

²⁹During the reign of Pekah, king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, came and took Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, all the territory of Naphtali, Gilead, and Galilee, deporting the inhabitants to Assyria.

³⁰Hoshea, son of Elah, conspired against Pekah, son of Remaliah; he attacked and killed him, and reigned in his place (in the twentieth year of Jotham, son of Uzziah).

³¹The rest of the acts of Pekah, and all his accomplishments, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

³²In the second year of Pekah, son of Remaliah, king of Israel, Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, began to reign.

³³He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jerusha, daughter of Zadok.

³⁴He pleased the LORD, just as his father Uzziah had done.

³⁵Nevertheless the high places did not disappear and the people continued to sacrifice and to burn incense on them. It was he who built the Upper Gate of the temple of the LORD.

³⁶The rest of the acts of Jotham, and all his accomplishments, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.

³⁷It was at that time that the LORD first loosed Rezin, king of Aram, and Pekah, son of Remaliah, against Judah.

³⁸Jotham rested with his ancestors and was buried with them in his forefather's City of David. His son Ahaz succeeded him as king.

16In the seventeenth year of Pekah, son of Remaliah, Ahaz, son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign.

²Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not please the LORD, his God, like his forefather David,

³but conducted himself like the kings of Israel, and even immolated his son by fire, in accordance with the abominable practice of the nations whom the LORD had cleared out of the way of the Israelites.

⁴Further, he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on hills, and under every leafy tree.

⁵Then Rezin, king of Aram, and Pekah, son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to attack it. Although they besieged Ahaz, they were unable to conquer him.

⁶At the same time the king of Edom recovered Elath for Edom, driving the Judeans out of it. The Edomites then entered Elath, which they have occupied until the present.

⁷Meanwhile, Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, with the plea: "I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the clutches of the king of Aram and the king of Israel, who are attacking me."

⁸Ahaz took the silver and gold that were in the temple of the LORD and in the palace treasuries and sent them as a present to the king of Assyria,

⁹who listened to him and moved against Damascus, which he captured. He deported its inhabitants to Kir and put Rezin to death.

¹⁰King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria. When he saw the altar in Damascus, King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest a model of the altar and a detailed design of its construction.

¹¹Uriah the priest built an altar according to the plans which King Ahaz sent him from Damascus, and had it completed by the time the king returned home.

¹²On his arrival from Damascus, the king inspected this altar, then went up to it and offered sacrifice on it,

¹³burning his holocaust and cereal-offering, pouring out his libation, and sprinkling the blood of his peace-offerings on the altar.

¹⁴The bronze altar that stood before the LORD he brought from the front of the temple--that is, from the space between the new altar and the temple of the LORD--and set it on the north side of his altar.

¹⁵"Upon the large altar," King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, "burn the morning holocaust and the evening cereal offering, the royal holocaust and cereal offering, as well as the holocausts, cereal offerings, and libations of the people. You must also sprinkle on it all the blood of holocausts and sacrifices. But the old bronze altar shall be mine for consultation."

¹⁶Uriah the priest did just as King Ahaz had commanded.

¹⁷King Ahaz detached the frames from the bases and removed the lavers from them; he also took down the bronze sea from the bronze oxen that supported it, and set it on a stone pavement.

¹⁸In deference to the king of Assyria he removed from the temple of the LORD the emplacement which had been built in the temple for a throne, and the outer entrance for the king.

¹⁹The rest of the acts of Ahaz are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.

²⁰Ahaz rested with his ancestors and was buried with them in the City of David. His son Hezekiah succeeded him as king.

17In the twelfth year of Ahaz, king of Judah, Hoshea, son of Elah, began his nine-year reign over Israel in Samaria.

²He did evil in the sight of the LORD, yet not to the extent of the kings of Israel before him.

³Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, advanced against him, and Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute.

⁴But the king of Assyria found Hoshea guilty of conspiracy for sending envoys to the king of Egypt at Sais, and for failure to pay the annual tribute to his Assyrian overlord.

⁵For this, the king of Assyria arrested and imprisoned Hoshea; he then occupied the whole land and attacked Samaria, which he besieged for three years.

⁶In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and deported the Israelites to Assyria, settling them in Halah, at the Habor, a river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

⁷This came about because the Israelites sinned against the LORD, their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt, from under the domination of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and because they venerated other gods.

⁸They followed the rites of the nations whom the LORD had cleared out of the way of the Israelites (and the kings of Israel whom they set up).

⁹They adopted unlawful practices toward the LORD, their God. They built high places in all their settlements, the watchtowers as well as the walled cities.

¹⁰They set up pillars and sacred poles for themselves on every high hill and under every leafy tree.

¹¹There, on all the high places, they burned incense like the nations whom the LORD had sent into exile at their coming. They did evil things that provoked the LORD,

¹²and served idols, although the LORD had told them, "You must not do this."

¹³And though the LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and seer, "Give up your evil ways and keep my commandments and statutes, in accordance with the entire law which I enjoined on your fathers and which I sent you by my servants the prophets,"

¹⁴they did not listen, but were as stiff-necked as their fathers, who had not believed in the LORD, their God.

¹⁵They rejected his statutes, the covenant which he had made with their fathers, and the warnings which he had given them. The vanity they pursued, they themselves became: they followed the surrounding nations whom the LORD had commanded them not to imitate.

¹⁶They disregarded all the commandments of the LORD, their God, and made for themselves two molten calves; they also made a sacred pole and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.

¹⁷They immolated their sons and daughters by fire, practiced fortune-telling and divination, and sold themselves into evil doing in the LORD'S sight, provoking him

¹⁸till, in his great anger against Israel, the LORD put them away out of his sight. Only the tribe of Judah was left.

¹⁹Even the people of Judah, however, did not keep the commandments of the LORD, their God, but followed the rites practiced by Israel.

²⁰So the LORD rejected the whole race of Israel. He afflicted them and delivered them over to plunderers, finally casting them out from before him.

²¹When he tore Israel away from the house of David, they made Jeroboam, son of Nebat, king; he drove the Israelites away from the LORD, causing them to commit a great sin.

²²The Israelites imitated Jeroboam in all the sins he committed, nor would they desist from them.

²³Finally, the LORD put Israel away out of his sight as he had foretold through all his servants, the prophets; and Israel went into exile from their native soil to Assyria, an exile lasting to the present.

²⁴The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the Israelites. They took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its cities.

²⁵When they first settled there, they did not venerate the LORD, so he sent lions among them that killed some of their number.

²⁶A report reached the king of Assyria: "The nations whom you deported and settled in the cities of Samaria do not know how to worship the God of the land, and he has sent lions among them that are killing them, since they do not know how to worship the God of the land."

²⁷The king of Assyria gave the order, "Send back one of the priests whom I deported, to go there and settle, to teach them how to worship the God of the land."

²⁸So one of the priests who had been deported from Samaria returned and settled in Bethel, and taught them how to venerate the LORD.

²⁹But these peoples began to make their own gods in the various cities in which they were living; in the shrines on the high places which the Samarians had made, each people set up gods.

³⁰Thus the Babylonians made Marduk and his consort; the men of Cuth made Nergal; the men of Hamath made Ashima;

³¹the men of Avva made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the men of Sepharvaim immolated their children by fire to their city gods, King Hadad and his consort Anath.

³²They also venerated the LORD, choosing from their number priests for the high places, who officiated for them in the shrines on the high places.

³³But, while venerating the LORD, they served their own gods, following the worship of the nations from among whom they had been deported.

³⁴To this day they worship according to their ancient rites. (They did not venerate the LORD nor observe the statutes and regulations, the law and commandments, which the LORD enjoined on the descendants of Jacob, whom he had named Israel.

³⁵When he made a covenant with them, he commanded them: "You must not venerate other gods, nor worship them, nor serve them, nor offer sacrifice to them.

³⁶The LORD, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and outstretched arm: him shall you venerate, him shall you worship, and to him shall you sacrifice.

³⁷You must be careful to observe forever the statutes and regulations, the law and commandment, which he wrote for you, and you must not venerate other gods.

³⁸The covenant which I made with you, you must not forget; you must not venerate other gods.

³⁹But the LORD, your God, you must venerate; it is he who will deliver you from the power of all your enemies."

⁴⁰They did not listen, however, but continued in their earlier manner.)

⁴¹Thus these nations venerated the LORD, but also served their idols. And their sons and grandsons, to this day, are doing as their fathers did.

18In the third year of Hoshea, son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign.

²He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abi, daughter of Zechariah.

³He pleased the LORD, just as his forefather David had done.

⁴It was he who removed the high places, shattered the pillars, and cut down the sacred poles. He smashed the bronze serpent called Nehushtan which Moses had made, because up to that time the Israelites were burning incense to it.

⁵He put his trust in the LORD, the God of Israel; and neither before him nor after him was there anyone like him among all the kings of Judah.

⁶Loyal to the LORD, Hezekiah never turned away from him, but observed the commandments which the LORD had given Moses.

⁷The LORD was with him, and he prospered in all that he set out to do. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.

⁸He also subjugated the watchtowers and walled cities of the Philistines, all the way to Gaza and its territory.

⁹In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea, son of Elah, king of Israel, Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, attacked Samaria, laid siege to it,

¹⁰and after three years captured it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, the ninth year of Hoshea, king of Israel, Samaria was taken.

¹¹The king of Assyria then deported the Israelites to Assyria and settled them in Halah, at the Habor, a river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

¹²This came about because they had not heeded the warning of the LORD, their God, but violated his covenant, not heeding and not fulfilling the commandments of Moses, the servant of the LORD.

¹³In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, went on an expedition against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

¹⁴Hezekiah, king of Judah, sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: "I have done wrong. Leave me, and I will pay whatever tribute you impose on me." The king of Assyria exacted three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold from Hezekiah, king of Judah.

¹⁵Hezekiah paid him all the funds there were in the temple of the LORD and in the palace treasuries.

¹⁶He broke up the door panels and the uprights of the temple of the LORD which he himself had ordered to be overlaid with gold, and gave the gold to the king of Assyria.

¹⁷The king of Assyria sent the general, the lord chamberlain, and the commander from Lachish with a great army to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They went up, and on their arrival in Jerusalem, stopped at the conduit of the upper pool on the highway of the fuller's field.

¹⁸They called for the king, who sent out to them Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, the master of the palace; Shebnah the scribe; and the herald Joah, son of Asaph.

¹⁹The commander said to them, "Tell Hezekiah, 'Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you base this confidence of yours?

²⁰Do you think mere words substitute for strategy and might in war? On whom, then, do you rely, that you rebel against me?

²¹This Egypt, the staff on which you rely, is in fact a broken reed which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it. That is what Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is to all who rely on him.

²²But if you say to me, We rely on the LORD, our God, is not he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, commanding Judah and Jerusalem to worship before this altar in Jerusalem?'

²³"Now, make a wager with my lord, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses if you can put riders on them.

²⁴How then can you repulse even one of the least servants of my lord, relying as you do on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

²⁵Was it without the LORD'S will that I have come up to destroy this place? The LORD said to me, 'Go up and destroy that land!'"

²⁶Then Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, and Shebnah and Joah said to the commander: "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic; we understand it. Do not speak to us in Judean within earshot of the people who are on the wall."

²⁷But the commander replied: "Was it to your master and to you that my lord sent me to speak these words? Was it not rather to the men sitting on the wall, who, with you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their urine?"

²⁸Then the commander stepped forward and cried out in a loud voice in Judean, "Listen to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.

²⁹Thus says the king: 'Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, since he cannot deliver you out of my hand.

³⁰Let not Hezekiah induce you to rely on the LORD, saying, The LORD will surely save us; this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.

³¹Do not listen to Hezekiah, for the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and surrender! Then each of you will eat of his own vine and of his own fig-tree, and drink the water of his own cistern,

³²until I come to take you to a land like your own, a land of grain and wine, of bread and orchards, of olives, oil and fruit syrup. Choose life, not death. Do not listen to Hezekiah when he would seduce you by saying, The LORD will rescue us.

³³Has any of the gods of the nations ever rescued his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

³⁴Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Avva? Where are the gods of the land of Samaria?

³⁵Which of the gods for all these lands ever rescued his land from my hand? Will the LORD then rescue Jerusalem from my hand?'"

³⁶But the people remained silent and did not answer him one word, for the king had ordered them not to answer him.

³⁷Then the master of the palace, Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, Shebnah the scribe, and the herald Joah, son of Asaph, came to Hezekiah with their garments torn, and reported to him what the commander had

19When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his garments, wrapped himself in sackcloth, and went into the temple of the LORD.

²He sent Eliakim, the master of the palace, Shebnah the scribe, and the elders of the priests, wrapped in sackcloth, to tell the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz,

³"Thus says Hezekiah: 'This is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace. Children are at the point of birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth.

⁴Perhaps the LORD, your God, will hear all the words of the commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God, and will rebuke him for the words which the LORD, your God, has heard. So send up a prayer for the remnant that is here.'"

⁵When the servants of King Hezekiah had come to Isaiah,

⁶he said to them, "Tell this to your master: 'Thus says the LORD: Do not be frightened by the words you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

⁷I am about to put in him such a spirit that, when he hears a certain report, he will return to his own land, and there I will cause him to fall by the sword.'"

⁸When the commander, on his return, heard that the king of Assyria had withdrawn from Lachish, he found him besieging Libnah.

⁹The king of Assyria heard a report that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, had come out to fight against him. Again he sent envoys to Hezekiah with this message:

¹⁰"Thus shall you say to Hezekiah, king of Judah: 'Do not let your God on whom you rely deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.

¹¹You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all other countries: they doomed them! Will you, then, be saved?

¹²Did the gods of the nations whom my fathers destroyed save them? Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, or the Edenites in Telassar?

¹³Where are the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, or the kings of the cities Sepharvaim, Hena and Avva?'"

¹⁴Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; then he went up to the temple of the LORD, and spreading it out before him,

¹⁵he prayed in the LORD'S presence: "O LORD, God of Israel, enthroned upon the cherubim! You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made the heavens and the earth.

¹⁶Incline your ear, O LORD, and listen! Open your eyes, O LORD, and see! Hear the words of Sennacherib which he sent to taunt the living God.

¹⁷Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands,

¹⁸and cast their gods into the fire; they destroyed them because they were not gods, but the work of human hands, wood and stone.

¹⁹Therefore, O LORD, our God, save us from the power of this man, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God."

²⁰Then Isaiah, son of Amoz, sent this message to Hezekiah: "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, in answer to your prayer for help against Sennacherib, king of Assyria: I have listened!

²¹This is the word the LORD has spoken concerning him: " 'She despises you, laughs you to scorn, the virgin daughter Zion! Behind you she wags her head, daughter Jerusalem.

²²Whom have you insulted and blasphemed, against whom have you raised your voice'And lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel!

²³Through your servants you have insulted the LORD. You said: With my many chariots I climbed the mountain heights, the recesses of Lebanon; I cut down its lofty cedars, its choice cypresses; I reached the remotest heights, its forest park.

²⁴I dug wells and drank water in foreign lands; I dried up with the soles of my feet all the rivers of Egypt.

²⁵" 'Have you not heard? Long ago I prepared it, From days of old I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass: That you should reduce fortified cities into heaps of ruins,

²⁶While their inhabitants, shorn of power, are dismayed and ashamed, Becoming like the plants of the field, like the green growth, like the scorched grass on the housetops.

²⁷I am aware whether you stand or sit; I know whether you come or go,

²⁸and also your rage against me. Because of your rage against me and your fury which has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and make you return the way you came.

²⁹" 'This shall be a sign for you: this year you shall eat the aftergrowth, next year, what grows of itself; But in the third year, sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit!

³⁰The remaining survivors of the house of Judah shall again strike root below and bear fruit above.

³¹For out of Jerusalem shall come a remnant, and from Mount Zion, survivors. The zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.'

³²"Therefore, thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: 'He shall not reach this city, nor shoot an arrow at it, nor come before it with a shield, nor cast up siege-works against it.

³³He shall return by the same way he came, without entering the city, says the LORD.

³⁴I will shield and save this city for my own sake, and for the sake of my servant David.'"

³⁵That night the angel of the LORD went forth and struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. Early the next morning, there they were, all the corpses of the dead.

³⁶So Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, broke camp, and went back home to Nineveh.

³⁷When he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer slew him with the sword and fled into the land of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon reigned in his stead.

20In those days, when Hezekiah was mortally ill, the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, came and said to him: "Thus says the LORD: 'Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you shall not recover.'"

²He turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD:

³"O LORD, remember how faithfully and wholeheartedly I conducted myself in your presence, doing what was pleasing to you!" And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴Before Isaiah had left the central courtyard, the word of the LORD came to him:

⁵"Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people: 'Thus says the LORD, the God of your forefather David: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will heal you. In three days you shall go up to the LORD'S temple;

⁶I will add fifteen years to your life. I will rescue you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; I will be a shield to this city for my own sake, and for the sake of my servant David.'"

⁷Isaiah then ordered a poultice of figs to be brought and applied to the boil, that he might recover.

⁸Then Hezekiah asked Isaiah, "What is the sign that the LORD will heal me and that I shall go up to the temple of the LORD on the third day?"

⁹Isaiah replied, "This will be the sign for you from the LORD that he will do what he has promised: Shall the shadow go forward or back ten steps?"

¹⁰"It is easy for the shadow to advance ten steps," Hezekiah answered. "Rather, let it go back ten steps."

¹¹So the prophet Isaiah invoked the LORD, who made the shadow retreat the ten steps it had descended on the staircase to the terrace of Ahaz.

¹²At that time, when Merodachbaladan, son of Baladan, king of Babylon, heard that Hezekiah had been ill, he sent letters and gifts to him.

¹³Hezekiah was pleased at this, and therefore showed the messengers his whole treasury, his silver, gold, spices and fine oil, his armory, and all that was in his storerooms; there was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.

¹⁴Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and asked him: "What did these men say to you? Where did they come from?" "They came from a distant land, from Babylon," replied Hezekiah.

¹⁵"What did they see in your house?" the prophet asked. "They saw everything in my house," answered Hezekiah. "There is nothing in my storerooms that I did not show them."

¹⁶Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah: "Hear the word of the LORD:

¹⁷The time is coming when all that is in your house, and everything that your fathers have stored up until this day, shall be carried off to Babylon; nothing shall be left, says the LORD.

¹⁸Some of your own bodily descendants shall be taken and made servants in the palace of the king of Babylon."

¹⁹Hezekiah replied to Isaiah, "The word of the LORD which you have spoken is favorable." For he thought, "There will be peace and security in my lifetime."

²⁰The rest of the acts of Hezekiah, all his valor, and his construction of the pool and conduit by which water was brought into the city, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.

²¹Hezekiah rested with his ancestors and his son Manasseh succeeded him as king.

21Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah.

²He did evil in the sight of the LORD, following the abominable practices of the nations whom the LORD had cleared out of the way of the Israelites.

³He rebuilt the high places which his father Hezekiah had destroyed. He erected altars to Baal, and also set up a sacred pole, as Ahab, king of Israel, had done. He worshiped and served the whole host of heaven.

⁴He built altars in the temple of the LORD, about which the LORD had said, "I will establish my name in Jerusalem"--

⁵altars for the whole host of heaven, in the two courts of the temple.

⁶He immolated his son by fire. He practiced soothsaying and divination, and reintroduced the consulting of ghosts and spirits. He did much evil in the LORD'S sight and provoked him to anger.

⁷The Asherah idol he had made, he set up in the temple, of which the LORD had said to David and to his son Solomon: "In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I shall place my name forever.

⁸I will not in future allow Israel to be driven off the land I gave their fathers, provided that they are careful to observe all I have commanded them, the entire law which my servant Moses enjoined upon them."

⁹But they did not listen, and Manasseh misled them into doing even greater evil than the nations whom the LORD had destroyed at the coming of the Israelites.

¹⁰Then the LORD spoke through his servants the prophets:

¹¹"Because Manasseh, king of Judah, has practiced these abominations and has done greater evil than all that was done by the Amorites before him, and has led Judah into sin by his idols,

¹²therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: 'I will bring such evil on Jerusalem and Judah that, whenever anyone hears of it, his ears shall ring.

¹³I will measure Jerusalem with the same cord as I did Samaria, and with the plummet I used for the house of Ahab. I will wipe Jerusalem clean as one wipes a dish, wiping it inside and out.

¹⁴I will cast off the survivors of my inheritance and deliver them into enemy hands, to become a prey and a booty for all their enemies,

¹⁵because they have done evil in my sight and provoked me from the day their fathers came forth from Egypt until today.'"

¹⁶In addition to the sin which he caused Judah to commit, Manasseh did evil in the sight of the LORD, shedding so much innocent blood as to fill the length and breadth of Jerusalem.

¹⁷The rest of the acts of Manasseh, the sin he committed and all that he did, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.

¹⁸Manasseh rested with his ancestors and was buried in his palace garden, the garden of Uzza. His son Amon succeeded him as king.

¹⁹Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Meshullemeth, daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.

²⁰He did evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh had done.

²¹He followed exactly the path his father had trod, serving and worshiping the idols his father had served.

²²He abandoned the LORD, the God of his fathers, and did not follow the path of the LORD.

²³Subjects of Amon conspired against him and slew the king in his palace,

²⁴but the people of the land then slew all who had conspired against King Amon, and proclaimed his son Josiah king in his stead.

²⁵The rest of the acts that Amon did are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.

²⁶He was buried in his own grave in the garden of Uzza, and his son Josiah succeeded him as king.

22Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedidah, daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath.

²He pleased the LORD and conducted himself unswervingly just as his ancestor David had done.

³In his eighteenth year, King Josiah sent the scribe Shaphan, son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, to the temple of the LORD with orders to

⁴go to the high priest Hilkiah and have him smelt down the precious metals that had been donated to the temple of the Lord, which the doorkeepers had collected from the people.

⁵They were to be consigned to the master workmen in the temple of the LORD, who should then pay them out to the carpenters, builders, and lumbermen making repairs on the temple,

⁶and for the purchase of wood and hewn stone for the temple repairs.

⁷No reckoning was asked of them regarding the funds consigned to them, because they held positions of trust.

⁸The high priest Hilkiah informed the scribe Shaphan, "I have found the book of the law in the temple of the LORD." Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, who read it.

⁹Then the scribe Shaphan went to the king and reported, "Your servants have smelted down the metals available in the temple and have consigned them to the master workmen in the temple of the LORD."

¹⁰The scribe Shaphan also informed the king that the priest Hilkiah had given him a book, and then read it aloud to the king.

¹¹When the king had heard the contents of the book of the law, he tore his garments

¹²and issued this command to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, son of Shaphan, Achbor, son of Micaiah, the scribe Shaphan, and the king's servant Asaiah:

¹³"Go, consult the LORD for me, for the people, for all Judah, about the stipulations of this book that has been found, for the anger of the LORD has been set furiously ablaze against us, because our fathers did not obey the stipulations of this book, nor fulfill our written obligations."

¹⁴So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah betook themselves to the Second Quarter in Jerusalem, where the prophetess Huldah resided. She was the wife of Shallum, son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. When they had spoken to her,

¹⁵she said to them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: 'Say to the man who sent you to me,

¹⁶Thus says the LORD: I will bring upon this place and upon its inhabitants all the evil that is threatened in the book which the king of Judah has read.

¹⁷Because they have forsaken me and have burned incense to other gods, provoking me by everything to which they turn their hands, my anger is ablaze against this place and it cannot be extinguished.'

¹⁸"But to the king of Judah who sent you to consult the LORD, give this response: 'Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: As for the threats you have heard,

¹⁹because you were heartsick and have humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard my threats that this place and its inhabitants would become a desolation and a curse; because you tore your garments and wept before me; I in turn have listened, says the LORD.

²⁰I will therefore gather you to your ancestors; you shall go to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the evil I will bring upon this place.'" This they reported to the king.

23The king then had all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem summoned together before him.

²The king went up to the temple of the LORD with all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: priests, prophets, and all the people, small and great. He had the entire contents of the book of the covenant that had been found in the temple of the LORD, read out to them.

³Standing by the column, the king made a covenant before the LORD that they would follow him and observe his ordinances, statutes and decrees with their whole hearts and souls, thus reviving the terms of the covenant which were written in this book. And all the people stood as participants in the covenant.

⁴Then the king commanded the high priest Hilkiah, his vicar, and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the LORD all the objects that had been made for Baal, Asherah, and the whole host of heaven. He had these burned outside Jerusalem on the slopes of the Kidron and their ashes carried to Bethel.

⁵He also put an end to the pseudo-priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the vicinity of Jerusalem, as well as those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, moon, and signs of the Zodiac, and to the whole host of heaven.

⁶From the temple of the LORD he also removed the sacred pole, to the Kidron Valley, outside Jerusalem; there he had it burned and beaten to dust, which was then scattered over the common graveyard.

⁷He tore down the apartments of the cult prostitutes which were in the temple of the LORD, and in which the women wove garments for the Asherah.

⁸He brought in all the priests from the cities of Judah, and then defiled, from Geba to Beer-sheba, the high places where they had offered incense. He also tore down the high place of the satyrs, which was at the entrance of the Gate of Joshua, governor of the city, to the left as one enters the city gate.

⁹The priests of the high places could not function at the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem; but they, along with their relatives, ate the unleavened bread.

¹⁰The king also defiled Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, so that there would no longer be an immolation of sons or daughters by fire in honor of Molech.

¹¹He did away with the horses which the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun; these were at the entrance of the temple of the LORD, near the chamber of Nathan-melech the eunuch, which was in the large building. The chariots of the sun he destroyed by fire.

¹²He also demolished the altars made by the kings of Judah on the roof (the roof terrace of Ahaz), and the altars made by Manasseh in the two courts of the temple of the LORD. He pulverized them and threw the dust into the Kidron Valley.

¹³The king defiled the high places east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of Misconduct, which Solomon, king of Israel, had built in honor of Astarte, the Sidonian horror, of Chemosh, the Moabite horror, and of Milcom, the idol of the Ammonites.

¹⁴He broke to pieces the pillars, cut down the sacred poles, and filled the places where they had been with human bones.

¹⁵Likewise the altar which was at Bethel, the high place built by Jeroboam, son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin--this same altar and high place he tore down, breaking up the stones and grinding them to powder, and burning the Asherah.

¹⁶When Josiah turned and saw the graves there on the mountainside, he ordered the bones taken from the graves and burned on the altar, and thus defiled it in fulfillment of the word of the LORD which the man of God had proclaimed as Jeroboam was standing by the altar on the feast day. When the king looked up and saw the grave of the man of God who had proclaimed these words,

¹⁷he asked, "What is that tombstone I see?" The men of the city replied, "It is the grave of the man of God who came from Judah and predicted the very things you have done to the altar of Bethel."

¹⁸"Let him be," he said, "let no one move his bones." So they left his bones undisturbed together with the bones of the prophet who had come from Samaria.

¹⁹Josiah also removed all the shrines on the high places near the cities of Samaria which the kings of Israel had erected, thereby provoking the LORD; he did the very same to them as he had done in Bethel.

²⁰He slaughtered upon the altars all the priests of the high places that were at the shrines, and burned human bones upon them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

²¹The king issued a command to all the people to observe the Passover of the LORD, their God, as it was prescribed in that book of the covenant.

²²No Passover such as this had been observed during the period when the Judges ruled Israel, or during the entire period of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah,

²³until the eighteenth year of king Josiah, when this Passover of the LORD was kept in Jerusalem.

²⁴Further, Josiah did away with the consultation of ghosts and spirits, with the household gods, idols, and all the other horrors to be seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, so that he might carry out the stipulations of the law written in the book that the priest Hilkiah had found in the temple of the LORD.

²⁵Before him there had been no king who turned to the LORD as he did, with his whole heart, his whole soul, and his whole strength, in accord with the entire law of Moses; nor could any after him compare with him.

²⁶Yet, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had given, the LORD did not desist from his fiercely burning anger against Judah.

²⁷The LORD said: "Even Judah will I put out of my sight as I did Israel. I will reject this city, Jerusalem, which I chose, and the temple of which I said, 'There shall my name be.'"

²⁸The rest of the acts of Josiah, with all that he did, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.

²⁹In his time Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, went up toward the river Euphrates to the king of Assyria. King Josiah set out to confront him, but was slain at Megiddo at the first encounter.

³⁰His servants brought his body on a chariot from Megiddo to Jerusalem, where they buried him in his own grave. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz, son of Josiah, anointed him, and proclaimed him king to succeed his father.

³¹Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother, whose name was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah, was from Libnah.

³²He did evil in the sight of the LORD, just as his forebears had done.

³³Pharaoh Neco took him prisoner at Riblah in the land of Hamath, thus ending his reign in Jerusalem. He imposed a fine upon the land of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

³⁴Pharaoh Neco then appointed Eliakim, son of Josiah, king in place of his father Josiah; he changed his name to Jehoiakim. Jehoahaz he took away with him to Egypt, where he died.

³⁵Jehoiakim gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh, but taxed the land to raise the amount Pharaoh demanded. He exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land, from each proportionately, to pay Pharaoh Neco.

³⁶Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zebidah, daughter of Pedaiah, from Rumah.

³⁷He did evil in the sight of the LORD, just as his forebears had done.

24During his reign Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, moved against him, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years. Then Jehoiakim turned and rebelled against him.

²The LORD loosed against him bands of Chaldeans, Arameans, Moabites, and Ammonites; he loosed them against Judah to destroy it, as the LORD had threatened through his servants the prophets.

³This befell Judah because the LORD had stated that he would inexorably put them out of his sight for the sins Manasseh had committed in all that he did;

⁴and especially because of the innocent blood he shed, with which he filled Jerusalem, the LORD would not forgive.

⁵The rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, with all that he did, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.

⁶Jehoiakim rested with his ancestors, and his son Jehoiachin succeeded him as king.

⁷The king of Egypt did not again leave his own land, for the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt from the Wadi of Egypt to the Euphrates River.

⁸Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Nehushta, daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.

⁹He did evil in the sight of the LORD, just as his forebears had done.

¹⁰At that time the officials of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, attacked Jerusalem, and the city came under siege.

¹¹Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, himself arrived at the city while his servants were besieging it.

¹²Then Jehoiachin, king of Judah, together with his mother, his ministers, officers, and functionaries, surrendered to the king of Babylon, who, in the eighth year of his reign, took him captive.

¹³He carried off all the treasures of the temple of the LORD and those of the palace, and broke up all the gold utensils that Solomon, king of Israel, had provided in the temple of the LORD, as the LORD had foretold.

¹⁴He deported all Jerusalem: all the officers and men of the army, ten thousand in number, and all the craftsmen and smiths. None were left among the people of the land except the poor.

¹⁵He deported Jehoiachin to Babylon, and also led captive from Jerusalem to Babylon the king's mother and wives, his functionaries, and the chief men of the land.

¹⁶The king of Babylon also led captive to Babylon all seven thousand men of the army, and a thousand craftsmen and smiths, all of them trained soldiers.

¹⁷In place of Jehoiachin, the king of Babylon appointed his uncle Mattaniah king, and changed his name to Zedekiah.

¹⁸Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

¹⁹He also did evil in the sight of the LORD, just as Jehoiakim had done.

²⁰The LORD'S anger befell Jerusalem and Judah till he cast them out from his presence. Thus Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

25In the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his whole army advanced against Jerusalem, encamped around it, and built siege walls on every side.

²The siege of the city continued until the eleventh year of Zedekiah.

³On the ninth day of the fourth month, when famine had gripped the city, and the people had no more bread,

⁴the city walls were breached. Then the king and all the soldiers left the city by night through the gate between the two walls which was near the king's garden. Since the Chaldeans had the city surrounded, they went in the direction of the Arabah.

⁵But the Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook him in the desert near Jericho, abandoned by his whole army.

⁶The king was therefore arrested and brought to Riblah to the king of Babylon, who pronounced sentence on him.

⁷He had Zedekiah's sons slain before his eyes. Then he blinded Zedekiah, bound him with fetters, and had him brought to Babylon.

⁸On the seventh day of the fifth month (this was in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon), Nebuzaradan, captain of the bodyguard, came to Jerusalem as the representative of the king of Babylon.

⁹He burned the house of the LORD, the palace of the king, and all the houses of Jerusalem; every large building was destroyed by fire.

¹⁰Then the Chaldean troops who were with the captain of the guard tore down the walls that surrounded Jerusalem.

¹¹Then Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, led into exile the last of the people remaining in the city, and those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the last of the artisans.

¹²But some of the country's poor, Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, left behind as vinedressers and farmers.

¹³The bronze pillars that belonged to the house of the LORD, and the wheeled carts and the bronze sea in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans broke into pieces; they carried away the bronze to Babylon.

¹⁴They took also the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the bowls, the pans and all the bronze vessels used for service.

¹⁵The fire-holders and the bowls which were of gold or silver the captain of the guard also carried off.

¹⁶The weight in bronze of the two pillars, the bronze sea, and the wheeled carts, all of them furnishings which Solomon had made for the house of the LORD, was never calculated.

¹⁷Each of the pillars was eighteen cubits high; a bronze capital five cubits high surmounted each pillar, and a network with pomegranates encircled the capital, all of bronze; and so for the other pillar, as regards the network.

¹⁸The captain of the guard also took Seraiah the high priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the entry.

¹⁹And from the city he took one courtier, a commander of soldiers, five men in the personal service of the king who were still in the city, the scribe of the army commander, who mustered the people of the land, and sixty of the common people still remaining in the city.

²⁰The captain of the guard, Nebuzaradan, arrested these and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah;

²¹the king had them struck down and put to death in Riblah, in the land of Hamath. Thus was Judah exiled from her land.

²²As for the people whom he had allowed to remain in the land of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, appointed as their governor Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan.

²³Hearing that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah governor, all the army commanders with their men came to him at Mizpah: Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, Johanan, son of Kareah, Seraiah, son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah, from Beth-maacah.

²⁴Gedaliah gave the commanders and their men his oath. "Do not be afraid of the Chaldean officials," he said to them. "Remain in the country and serve the king of Babylon, and all will be well with you."

²⁵But in the seventh month Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of royal descent, came with ten men, attacked Gedaliah and killed him, along with the Jews and Chaldeans who were in Mizpah with him.

²⁶Then all the people, great and small, left with the army commanders and went to Egypt for fear of the Chaldeans.

²⁷In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month, Evilmerodach, king of Babylon, in the inaugural year of his own reign, raised up Jehoiachin, king of Judah, from prison.

²⁸He spoke kindly to him and gave him a throne higher than that of the other kings who were with him in Babylon.

²⁹Jehoiachin took off his prison garb and ate at the king's table as long as he lived.

³⁰The allowance granted him by the king was a perpetual allowance, in fixed daily amounts, for as long as he lived.

1Adam, Seth, Enosh,

²Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared,

³Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech,

⁴Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

⁵The descendants of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.

⁶The descendants of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.

⁷The descendants of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittim, and the Rodanim.

⁸The descendants of Ham were Cush, Mesraim, Put, and Canaan.

⁹The descendants of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabta, Raama, and Sabteca. The descendants of Raama were Sheba and Dedan.

¹⁰Cush became the father of Nimrod, who was the first to be a conqueror on the earth.

¹¹Mesraim became the father of the Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim,

¹²Pathrusim, Casluhim, and Caphtorim, from whom the Philistines sprang.

¹³Canaan became the father of Sidon, his first-born, and Heth,

¹⁴and the Jebusite, the Amorite, the Girgashite,

¹⁵the Hivite, the Arkite, the Sinite,

¹⁶the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite.

¹⁷The descendants of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram. The descendants of Aram were Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.

¹⁸Arpachshad became the father of Shelah, and Shelah became the father of Eber.

¹⁹Two sons were born to Eber; the first was named Peleg (for in his time the world was divided), and his brother was Joktan.

²⁰Joktan became the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah,

²¹Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah,

²²Ebal, Abimael, Sheba,

²³Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab; all these were the sons of Joktan.

²⁴Shem, Arpachshad, Shelah,

²⁵Eber, Peleg, Reu,

²⁶Serug, Nahor, Terah,

²⁷Abram, who was Abraham.

²⁸The sons of Abraham were Isaac and Ishmael.

²⁹These were their descendants:Nebaioth, the first-born of Ishmael, then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,

³⁰Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema,

³¹Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. These were the descendants of Ishmael.

³²The descendants of Keturah, Abraham's concubine: she bore Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. The sons of Jokshan were Sheba and Dedan.

³³The descendants of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the descendants of Keturah.

³⁴Abraham became the father of Isaac. The sons of Isaac were Esau and Israel.

³⁵The sons of Esau were Eliphaz, Reuel, Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.

³⁶The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zephi, Gatam, Kenaz, (Timna,) and Amalek.

³⁷The sons of Reuel were Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah.

³⁸The descendants of Seir were Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan.

³⁹The sons of Lotan were Hori and Homam; Timna was the sister of Lotan.

⁴⁰The sons of Shobal were Alian, Manahath, Ebal, Shephi, and Onam. The sons of Zibeon were Aiah and Anah.

⁴¹The sons of Anah: Dishon. The sons of Dishon were Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Cheran.

⁴²The sons of Ezer were Bilhan, Zaavan, and Jaakan. The sons of Dishan were Uz and Aran.

⁴³The kings who reigned in the land of Edom before they had Israelite kings were the following: Bela, son of Beor, the name of whose city was Dinhabah.

⁴⁴When Bela died, Jobab, son of Zerah, from Bozrah, succeeded him.

⁴⁵When Jobab died, Husham, from the land of the Temanites, succeeded him.

⁴⁶Husham died and Hadad, son of Bedad, succeeded him. He overthrew the Midianites on the Moabite plateau, and the name of his city was Avith.

⁴⁷Hadad died and Samlah of Masrekah succeeded him.

⁴⁸Samlah died and Shaul from Rehoboth-han-nahar succeeded him.

⁴⁹When Shaul died, Baal-hanan, son of Achbor, succeeded him.

⁵⁰Baalhanan died and Hadad succeeded him. The name of his city was Pai, and his wife's name was Mehetabel. She was the daughter of Matred, who was the daughter of Mezahab.

⁵¹After Hadad died. . . .These were the chiefs of Edom: the chiefs of Timna, Aliah, Jetheth,

⁵²Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon,

⁵³Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar,

⁵⁴Magdiel, and Iram were the chiefs of Edom.

2These were the sons of Israel: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun,

²Dan, Joseph, Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.

³The sons of Judah were: Er, Onan, and Shelah; these three were born to him of Bathshua, a Canaanite woman. But Judah's first-born, Er, was wicked in the sight of the LORD, so he killed him.

⁴Judah's daughter-in-law Tamar bore him Perez and Zerah, so that he had five sons in all.

⁵The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.

⁶The sons of Zerah were Zimri, Ethan, Heman, Calcol, and Darda--five in all.

⁷The sons of Zimri: Carmi. The sons of Carmi: Achar, who brought trouble upon Israel by violating the ban.

⁸The sons of Ethan: Azariah.

⁹The sons born to Hezron were Jerahmeel, Ram, and Chelubai.

¹⁰Ram became the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, a prince of the Judahites.

¹¹Nahshon became the father of Salmah. Salmah became the father of Boaz.

¹²Boaz became the father of Obed. Obed became the father of Jesse.

¹³Jesse became the father of Eliab, his first-born, of Abinadab, the second son, Shimea, the third,

¹⁴Nethanel, the fourth, Raddai, the fifth,

¹⁵Ozem, the sixth, and David, the seventh.

¹⁶Their sisters were Zeruiah and Abigail. Zeruiah had three sons: Abishai, Joab, and Asahel.

¹⁷Abigail bore Amasa, whose father was Jether the Ishmaelite.

¹⁸By his wife Azubah, Caleb, son of Hezron, became the father of a daughter, Jerioth. Her sons were Jesher, Shobab, and Ardon.

¹⁹When Azubah died, Caleb married Ephrath, who bore him Hur.

²⁰Hur became the father of Uri, and Uri became the father of Bezalel.

²¹Then Hezron had relations with the daughter of Machir, the father of Gilead, having married her when he was sixty years old. She bore him Segub.

²²Segub became the father of Jair, who possessed twenty-three cities in the land of Gilead.

²³Geshur and Aram took from them the villages of Jair, that is, Kenath and its towns, sixty cities in all, which had belonged to the sons of Machir, the father of Gilead.

²⁴After the death of Hezron, Caleb had relations with Ephrathah, the widow of his father Hezron, and she bore him Ashhur, the father of Tekoa.

²⁵The sons of Jerahmeel, the first-born of Hezron, were Ram, the first-born, then Bunah, Oren, and Ozem, his brothers.

²⁶Jerahmeel also had another wife, Atarah by name, who was the mother of Onam.

²⁷The sons of Ram, the first-born of Jerahmeel, were Maaz, Jamin, and Eker.

²⁸The sons of Onam were Shammai and Jada. The sons of Shammai were Nadab and Abishur.

²⁹Abishur's wife, who was named Abihail, bore him Ahban and Molid.

³⁰The sons of Nadab were Seled and Appaim. Seled died without sons.

³¹The sons of Appaim: Ishi. The sons of Ishi: Sheshan. The sons of Sheshan: Ahlai.

³²The sons of Jada, the brother of Shammai, were Jether and Jonathan. Jether died without sons.

³³The sons of Jonathan were Peleth and Zaza. These were the descendants of Jerahmeel.

³⁴Sheshan, who had no sons, only daughters, had an Egyptian slave named Jarha.

³⁵Sheshan gave his daughter in marriage to his slave Jarha, and she bore him Attai.

³⁶Attai became the father of Nathan. Nathan became the father of Zabad.

³⁷Zabad became the father of Ephlal. Ephlal became the father of Obed.

³⁸Obed became the father of Jehu. Jehu became the father of Azariah.

³⁹Azariah became the father of Helez. Helez became the father of Eleasah.

⁴⁰Eleasah became the father of Sismai. Sismai became the father of Shallum.

⁴¹Shallum became the father of Jekamiah. Jekamiah became the father of Elishama.

⁴²The descendants of Caleb, the brother of Jerahmeel: (Mesha) his first-born, who was the father of Ziph. Then the sons of Mareshah, who was the father of Hebron.

⁴³The sons of Hebron were Korah, Tappuah, Rekem, and Shema.

⁴⁴Shema became the father of Raham, who was the father of Jorkeam. Rekem became the father of Shammai.

⁴⁵The son of Shammai: Maon, who was the father of Beth-zur.

⁴⁶Ephah, Caleb's concubine, bore Haran, Moza, and Gazez. Haran became the father of Gazez.

⁴⁷The sons of Jahdai were Regem, Jotham, Geshan, Pelet, Ephah, and Shaaph.

⁴⁸Maacah, Caleb's concubine, bore Sheber and Tirhanah.

⁴⁹She also bore Shaaph, the father of Madmannah, Sheva, the father of Machbenah, and the father of Gibea. Achsah was Caleb's daughter.

⁵⁰These were descendants of Caleb, sons of Hur, the first-born of Ephrathah: Shobal, the father of Kiriath-jearim,

⁵¹Salma, the father of Bethlehem, and Hareph, the father of Bethgader.

⁵²The sons of Shobal, the father of Kiriath-jearim, were Reaiah, half the Manahathites,

⁵³and the clans of Kiriath-jearim: the Ithrites, the Puthites, the Shumathites, and the Mishraites. From these the people of Zorah and the Eshtaolites derived.

⁵⁴The descendants of Salma were Bethlehem, the Netophathites, Atroth-beth-Joab, half the Manahathites, and the Zorites.

⁵⁵The clans of the Sopherim dwelling in Jabez were the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, and the Sucathites. They were the Kenites, who came from Hammath of the ancestor of the Rechabites.

3The following were the sons of David who were born to him in Hebron: the first-born, Amnon, by Ahinoam of Jezreel; the second, Daniel, by Abigail of Carmel;

²the third, Absalom, son of Maacah, who was the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur; the fourth, Adonijah, son of Haggith;

³the fifth, Shephatiah, by Abital; the sixth, Ithream, by his wife Eglah.

⁴Six in all were born to him in Hebron, where he reigned seven years and six months. Then he reigned thirty-three years in Jerusalem,

⁵where the following were born to him: Shimea, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon--four by Bathsheba, the daughter of Ammiel;

⁶Ibhar, Elishua, Eliphelet,

⁷Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia,

⁸Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet--nine.

⁹All these were sons of David, in addition to other sons by concubines; and Tamar was their sister.

¹⁰The son of Solomon was Rehoboam, whose son was Abijah, whose son was Asa, whose son was Jehoshaphat,

¹¹whose son was Joram, whose son was Ahaziah, whose son was Joash,

¹²whose son was Amaziah, whose son was Azariah, whose son was Jotham,

¹³whose son was Ahaz, whose son was Hezekiah, whose son was Manasseh,

¹⁴whose son was Amon, whose son was Josiah.

¹⁵The sons of Josiah were: the first-born Johanan; the second, Jehoiakim; the third, Zedekiah; the fourth, Shallum.

¹⁶The sons of Jehoiakim were: Jeconiah, his son; Zedekiah, his son.

¹⁷The sons of Jeconiah the captive were: Shealtiel,

¹⁸Malchiram, Pedaiah, Shenazzar, Jekamiah, Shama, and Nedabiah.

¹⁹The sons of Pedaiah were Zerubbabel and Shimei. The sons of Zerubbabel were Meshullam and Hananiah; Shelomith was their sister.

²⁰The sons of Meshullam were Hashubah, Ohel, Berechiah, Hasadiah, Jushabhesed--five.

²¹The sons of Hananiah were Pelatiah, Jeshaiah, Rephaiah, Arnan, Obadiah, and Shecaniah.

²²The sons of Shecaniah were Shemiah, Hattush, Igal, Bariah, Neariah, Shaphat--six.

²³The sons of Neariah were Elioenai, Hizkiah, and Azrikam--three.

²⁴The sons of Elioenai were Hodaviah, Eliashib, Pelaiah, Akkub, Johanan, Delaiah, and Anani--seven.

4The descendants of Judah were: Perez, Hezron, Carmi, Hur, and Shobal.

²Reaiah, the son of Shobal, became the father of Jahath, and Jahath became the father of Ahumai and Lahad. These were the clans of the Zorathites.

³These were the descendants of Hareph, the father of Etam: Jezreel, Ishma, and Idbash; their sister was named Hazzelelponi.

⁴Penuel was the father of Gedor, and Ezer the father of Hushah. These were the descendants of Hur, the first-born of Ephrathah, the father of Bethlehem.

⁵Ashhur, the father of Tekoa, had two wives, Helah and Naarah.

⁶Naarah bore him Ahuzzam, Hepher, the Temenites and the Ahashtarites. These were the descendants of Naarah.

⁷The sons of Helah were Zereth, Izhar, Ethnan, and Koz.

⁸Koz became the father of Anub and Zobebah, as well as of the clans of Aharhel, son of Harum.

⁹Jabez was the most distinguished of the brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, "I bore him with pain."

¹⁰Jabez prayed to the God of Israel: "Oh, that you may truly bless me and extend my boundaries! Help me and make me free of misfortune, without pain!" And God granted his prayer.

¹¹Chelub, the brother of Shuhah, became the father of Mehir, who was the father of Eshton.

¹²Eshton became the father of Bethrapha, Paseah, and Tehinnah, the father of the city of Nahash. These were the men of Recah.

¹³The sons of Kenaz were Othniel and Seraiah. The sons of Othniel were Hathath and Meonothai;

¹⁴Meonothai became the father of Ophrah. Seraiah became the father of Joab, the father of Geharashim, so called because they were craftsmen.

¹⁵The sons of Caleb, son of Jephunneh, were Ir, Elah, and Naam. The sons of Elah were. . . and Kenaz.

¹⁶The sons of Jehallelel were Ziph, Ziphah, Tiria, and Asarel.

¹⁷The sons of Ezrah were Jether, Mered, Epher, and Jalon. Jether became the father of Miriam, Shammai, and Ishbah, the father of Eshtemoa. (. . . . . .)

¹⁸His (Mered's) Egyptian wife bore Jered, the father of Gedor, Heber, the father of Soco, and Jekuthiel, the father of Zanoah. These were the sons of Bithiah, the daughter of Pharaoh, whom Mered married.

¹⁹The sons of his Jewish wife, the sister of Naham, the father of Keilah, were Shimon the Garmite and Ishi the Maacathite.

²⁰The sons of Shimon were Amnon, Rinnah, Benhanan, and Tilon. The son of Ishi was Zoheth and the son of Zoheth. . . .

²¹The descendants of Shelah, son of Judah, were: Er, the father of Lecah; Laadah, the father of Mareshah; the clans of the linen weavers' guild in Bethashbea;

²²Jokim; the men of Cozeba; and Joash and Saraph, who held property in Moab, but returned to Bethlehem. (These are events of old.)

²³They were potters and inhabitants of Netaim and Gederah, where they lived in the king's service.

²⁴The sons of Simeon were Nemuel, Jamin, Jachin, Zerah, and Shaul,

²⁵whose son was Shallum, whose son was Mibsam, whose son was Mishma.

²⁶The descendants of Mishma were his son Hammuel, whose son was Zaccur, whose son was Shimei.

²⁷Shimei had sixteen sons and six daughters. His brothers, however, did not have many sons, and as a result all their clans did not equal the number of the Judahites.

²⁸They dwelt in Beer-sheba, Moladah, Hazar-shual,

²⁹Bilhah, Ezem, Tolad,

³⁰Bethuel, Hormah, Ziklag,

³¹Beth-marcaboth, Hazar-susim, Bethbiri, and Shaaraim. Until David came to reign, these were their cities

³²and their villages. Etam, also, and Ain, Rimmon, Tochen, and Ashan--five cities,

³³together with all their outlying villages as far as Baal. Here is where they dwelt, and so it was inscribed of them in their family records.

³⁴Meshobab, Jamlech, Joshah, son of Amaziah,

³⁵Joel, Jehu, son of Joshibiah, son of Seraiah, son of Asiel,

³⁶Elioenai, Jaakobath, Jeshohaiah, Asaiah, Adiel, Jesimiel, Benaiah,

³⁷Ziza, son of Shiphi, son of Allon, son of Jedaiah, son of Shimri, son of Shemaiah--

³⁸these just named were princes in their clans, and their ancestral houses spread out to such an extent

³⁹that they went to the approaches of Gedor, east of the valley, seeking pasture for their flocks.

⁴⁰They found abundant and good pastures, and the land was spacious, quiet, and peaceful.

⁴¹They who have just been listed by name set out during the reign of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and attacked the tents of Ham (for Hamites dwelt there formerly) and also the Meunites who were there. They pronounced against them the ban that is still in force and dwelt in their place because they found pasture there for their flocks.

⁴²Five hundred of them (the Simeonites) went to Mount Seir under the leadership of Pelatiah, Neariah, Rephaiah, and Uzziel, sons of Ishi.

⁴³They attacked the surviving Amalekites who had escaped, and have resided there to the present day.

5The sons of Reuben, the first-born of Israel. (He was indeed the first-born, but because he disgraced the couch of his father his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, son of Israel, so that he is not listed in the family records according to birthright.

²Judah, in fact, became powerful among his brothers, so that the ruler came from him, though the birthright had been Joseph's.)

³The sons of Reuben, the first-born of Israel, were Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.

⁴His son was Joel, whose son was Shemaiah, whose son was Gog, whose son was Shimei,

⁵whose son was Micah, whose son was Reaiah, whose son was Baal,

⁶whose son was Beerah, whom Tiglath-pileser, the king of Assyria, took into exile; he was a prince of the Reubenites.

⁷His brothers who belonged to his clans, when they were listed in the family records according to their descendants, were: Jeiel, the chief, and Zechariah,

⁸and Bela, son of Azaz, son of Shema, son of Joel. The Reubenites lived in Aroer and as far as Nebo and Baal-meon;

⁹toward the east they dwelt as far as the desert which extends from the Euphrates River, for they had much livestock in the land of Gilead.

¹⁰During the reign of Saul they waged war with the Hagrites, and when they had defeated them they occupied their tents throughout the region east of Gilead.

¹¹The Gadites lived alongside them in the land of Bashan as far as Salecah.

¹²Joel was chief, Shapham was second in command, and Janai was judge in Bashan.

¹³Their brothers, corresponding to their ancestral houses, were: Michael, Meshullam, Sheba, Jorai, Jacan, Zia, and Eber--seven.

¹⁴These were the sons of Abihail, son of Huri, son of Jaroah, son of Gilead, son of Michael, son of Jeshishai, son of Jahdo, son of Buz.

¹⁵Ahi, son of Abdiel, son of Guni, was the head of their ancestral houses.

¹⁶They dwelt in Gilead, in Bashan and its towns, and in all the pasture lands of Sirion to the borders.

¹⁷All were listed in the family records in the time of Jotham, king of Judah, and of Jeroboam, king of Israel.

¹⁸The Reubenites, Gadites, and half-tribe of Manasseh were warriors, men who bore shield and sword and who drew the bow, trained in warfare--forty-four thousand seven hundred and sixty men fit for military service.

¹⁹When they waged war against the Hagrites and against Jetur, Naphish, and Nodab,

²⁰they received help so that they mastered the Hagrites and all who were with them. For during the battle they called on God, and he heard them because they had put their trust in him.

²¹Along with one hundred thousand men they also captured their livestock: fifty thousand camels, two hundred fifty thousand sheep, and two thousand asses.

²²Many had fallen in battle, for victory is from God; and they took over their dwelling place until the time of the exile.

²³The numerous members of the half-tribe of Manasseh lived in the land of Bashan as far as Baal-hermon, Senir, and Mount Hermon.

²⁴The following were the heads of their ancestral houses: Epher, Ishi, Eliel, Azriel, Jeremiah, Hodaviah, and Jahdiel--men who were warriors, famous men, and heads over their ancestral houses.

²⁵However, they offended the God of their fathers by lusting after the gods of the natives of the land, whom God had cleared out of their way.

²⁶Therefore the God of Israel incited against them the anger of Pul, king of Assyria, and of Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, who deported the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh and brought them to Halah, Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, where they have remained to this day.

²⁷The sons of Levi were Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

²⁸The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel.

²⁹The children of Amram were Aaron, Moses, and Miriam. The sons of Aaron were Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.

³⁰Eleazar became the father of Phinehas. Phinehas became the father of Abishua.

³¹Abishua became the father of Bukki. Bukki became the father of Uzzi.

³²Uzzi became the father of Zerahiah. Zerahiah became the father of Meraioth.

³³Meraioth became the father of Amariah. Amariah became the father of Ahitub.

³⁴Ahitub became the father of Zadok. Zadok became the father of Ahimaaz.

³⁵Ahimaaz became the father of Azariah. Azariah became the father of Johanan.

³⁶Johanan became the father of Azariah, who served as priest in the temple Solomon built in Jerusalem.

³⁷Azariah became the father of Amariah. Amariah became the father of Ahitub.

³⁸Ahitub became the father of Zadok. Zadok became the father of Shallum.

³⁹Shallum became the father of Hilkiah. Hilkiah became the father of Azariah.

⁴⁰Azariah became the father of Seraiah. Seraiah became the father of Jehozadak.

⁴¹Jehozadak was one of those who went into the exile which the LORD inflicted on Judah and Jerusalem through Nebuchadnezzar.

6The sons of Levi were Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

²The sons of Gershon were named Libni and Shimei.

³The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel.

⁴The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi.The following were the clans of Levi, distributed according to their ancestors:

⁵of Gershon: his son Libni, whose son was Jahath, whose son was Zimmah,

⁶whose son was Joah, whose son was Iddo, whose son was Zerah, whose son was Jetherai.

⁷The descendants of Kohath were: his son Amminadab, whose son was Korah, whose son was Assir,

⁸whose son was Elkanah, whose son was Ebiasaph, whose son was Assir,

⁹whose son was Tahath, whose son was Uriel, whose son was Uzziah, whose son was Shaul.

¹⁰The sons of Elkanah were Amasai and Ahimoth,

¹¹whose son was Elkanah, whose son was Zophai, whose son was Nahath,

¹²whose son was Eliab, whose son was Jeroham, whose son was Elkanah, whose son was Samuel.

¹³The sons of Samuel were Joel, the first-born, and Abijah, the second.

¹⁴The descendants of Merari were Mahli, whose son was Libni, whose son was Shimei, whose son was Uzzah,

¹⁵whose son was Shimea, whose son was Haggiah, whose son was Asaiah.

¹⁶The following were entrusted by David with the choir services in the LORD'S house from the time when the ark had obtained a permanent resting place.

¹⁷They served as singers before the Dwelling of the meeting tent until Solomon built the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem, and they performed their services in an order prescribed for them.

¹⁸Those who so performed are the following, together with their descendants. Among the Kohathites: Heman, the chanter, son of Joel, son of Samuel,

¹⁹son of Elkanah, son of Jeroham, son of Eliel, son of Toah,

²⁰son of Zuth, son of Elkanah, son of Mahath, son of Amasi,

²¹son of Elkanah, son of Joel, son of Azariah, son of Zaphaniah,

²²son of Tahath, son of Assir, son of Ebiasaph, son of Korah,

²³son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, son of Israel.

²⁴His brother Asaph stood at his right hand. Asaph was the son of Berechiah, son of Shimea,

²⁵son of Michael, son of Baaseiah, son of Malchijah,

²⁶son of Ethni, son of Zerah, son of Adaiah,

²⁷son of Ethan, son of Zimmah, son of Shimei,

²⁸son of Jahath, son of Gershon, son of Levi.

²⁹Their brothers, the Merarites, stood at the left: Ethan, son of Kishi, son of Abdi, son of Malluch,

³⁰son of Hashabiah, son of Amaziah, son of Hilkiah,

³¹son of Amzi, son of Bani, son of Shemer,

³²son of Mahli, son of Mushi, son of Merari, son of Levi.

³³Their brother Levites were appointed to all the other services of the Dwelling of the house of God.

³⁴However, it was Aaron and his descendants who burnt the offerings on the altar of holocausts and on the altar of incense; they alone had charge of the holy of holies and of making atonement for Israel, as Moses, the servant of God, had ordained.

³⁵These were the descendants of Aaron: his son Eleazar, whose son was Phinehas, whose son was Abishua,

³⁶whose son was Bukki, whose son was Uzzi, whose son was Zerahiah,

³⁷whose son was Meraioth, whose son was Amariah, whose son was Ahitub,

³⁸whose son was Zadok, whose son was Ahimaaz.

³⁹The following were their dwelling places to which their encampment was limited. To the descendants of Aaron who belonged to clan of the Kohathites, since the first lot fell to them,

⁴⁰was assigned Hebron with its adjacent pasture lands in the land of Judah,

⁴¹although the open country and the villages belonging to the city had been given to Caleb, the son of Jephunneh.

⁴²There were assigned to the descendants of Aaron: Hebron a city of asylum, Libnah with its pasture lands, Jattir with its pasture lands, Eshtemoa with its pasture lands,

⁴³Holon with its pasture lands, Debir with its pasture lands,

⁴⁴Ashan with its pasture lands, Jetta with its pasture lands, and Beth-shemesh with its pasture lands.

⁴⁵Also from the tribe of Benjamin: Gibeon with its pasture lands, Geba with its pasture lands, Almon with its pasture lands, Anathoth with its pasture lands. In all, they had thirteen cities with their pasture lands.

⁴⁶The other Kohathites obtained ten cities by lot for their clans from the tribe of Ephraim, from the tribe of Dan, and from the half-tribe of Manasseh.

⁴⁷The clans of the Gershonites obtained thirteen cities from the tribes of Issachar, Asher, and Naphtali, and from the half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan.

⁴⁸The clans of the Merarites obtained twelve cities by lot from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Zebulun.

⁴⁹The Israelites assigned these cities with their pasture lands to the Levites,

⁵⁰designating them by name and assigning them by lot from the tribes of the Judahites, Simeonites, and Benjaminites.

⁵¹The clans of the Kohathites obtained cities by lot from the tribe of Ephraim.

⁵²They were assigned: Shechem in the mountain region of Ephraim, a city of asylum, with its pasture lands, Gezer with its pasture lands,

⁵³Kibzaim with its pasture lands, and Beth-horon with its pasture lands.

⁵⁴From the tribe of Dan: Elteke with its pasture lands, Gibbethon with its pasture lands, Aijalon with its pasture lands, and Gath-rimmon with its pasture lands.

⁵⁵From the half-tribe of Manasseh: Taanach with its pasture lands and Ibleam with its pasture lands. These belonged to the rest of the Kohathite clan.

⁵⁶The clans of the Gershonites received from the half-tribe of Manasseh: Golan in Bashan with its pasture lands and Ashtaroth with its pasture lands.

⁵⁷From the tribe of Issachar: Kedesh with its pasture lands, Daberath with its pasture lands,

⁵⁸Ramoth with its pasture lands, and Engannim with its pasture lands.

⁵⁹From the tribe of Asher: Mashal with its pasture lands, Abdon with its pasture lands,

⁶⁰Hilkath with its pasture lands, and Rehob with its pasture lands.

⁶¹From the tribe of Naphtali: Kedesh in Galilee with its pasture lands, Hammon with its pasture lands, and Kiriathaim with its pasture lands.

⁶²The rest of the Merarites received from the tribe of Zebulun: Jokneam with its pasture lands, Kartah with its pasture lands, Rimmon with its pasture lands, and Tabor with its pasture lands.

⁶³Across the Jordan at Jericho (that is, east of the Jordan) they received from the tribe of Reuben: Bezer in the desert with its pasture lands, Jahzah with its pasture lands,

⁶⁴Kedemoth with its pasture lands, and Mephaath with its pasture lands.

⁶⁵From the tribe of Gad: Ramoth in Gilead with its pasture lands, Mahanaim with its pasture lands,

⁶⁶Heshbon with its pasture lands, and Jazer with its pasture lands.

7The sons of Issachar were Tola, Puah, Jashub, and Shimron: four.

²The sons of Tola were Uzzi, Rephaiah, Jeriel, Jahmai, Ibsam, and Shemuel, warrior heads of the ancestral houses of Tola. Their kindred numbered twenty-two thousand six hundred in the time of David.

³The sons of Uzzi: Izarahiah. The sons of Izarahiah were Michael, Obadiah, Joel, and Isshiah. All five of these were chiefs.

⁴Their kindred, by ancestral houses, numbered thirty-six thousand men in organized military troops, since they had more wives and sons

⁵than their fellow tribesmen. In all the clans of Issachar there was a total of eighty-seven thousand warriors in their family records.

⁶The sons of Benjamin were Bela, Becher, and Jediael--three.

⁷The sons of Bela were Ezbon, Uzzi, Uzziel, Jerimoth, and Iri--five. They were heads of their ancestral houses and warriors. Their family records listed twenty-two thousand and thirty-four.

⁸The sons of Becher were Zemirah, Joash, Eliezer, Elioenai, Omri, Jeremoth, Abijah, Anathoth, and Alemeth--all these were sons of Becher.

⁹Their family records listed twenty thousand two hundred of their kindred who were heads of their ancestral houses and warriors.

¹⁰The sons of Jediael: Bilhan. The sons of Bilhan were Jeush, Benjamin, Ehud, Chenaanah, Zethan, Tarshish, and Ahishahar.

¹¹All these were descendants of Jediael, heads of ancestral houses and warriors. They numbered seventeen thousand two hundred men fit for military service. . . Shupham and Hupham.

¹²The sons of Dan: Hushim.

¹³The sons of Naphtali were Jahziel, Guni, Jezer, and Shallum. These were descendants of Bilhah.

¹⁴The sons of Manasseh, whom his Aramean concubine bore: she bore Machir, the father of Gilead.

¹⁵Machir took a wife whose name was Maacah; his sister's name was Molecheth. Manasseh's second son was named Zelophehad, but to Zelophehad only daughters were born.

¹⁶Maacah, Machir's wife, bore a son whom she named Peresh. He had a brother named Sheresh, whose sons were Ulam and Rakem.

¹⁷The sons of Ulam: Bedan. These were the descendants of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh.

¹⁸His sister Molecheth bore Ishhod, Abiezer, and Mahlah.

¹⁹The sons of Shemida were Ahian, Shechem, Likhi, and Aniam.

²⁰The sons of Ephraim: Shuthelah, whose son was Bered, whose son was Tahath, whose son was Eleadah, whose son was Tahath,

²¹whose son was Zabad. Ephraim's son Shuthelah, and Ezer and Elead, who were born in the land, were slain by the inhabitants of Gath because they had gone down to take away their livestock.

²²Their father Ephraim mourned a long time, but after his kinsmen had come and comforted him,

²³he visited his wife, who conceived and bore a son whom he named Beriah, since evil had befallen his house.

²⁴He had a daughter, Sheerah, who built lower and upper Beth-horon and Uzzen-sheerah.

²⁵Zabad's son was Rephah, whose son was Resheph, whose son was Telah, whose son was Tahan,

²⁶whose son was Ladan, whose son was Ammihud, whose son was Elishama,

²⁷whose son was Nun, whose son was Joshua.

²⁸Their property and their dwellings were in Bethel and its towns, Naaran to the east, Gezer and its towns to the west, and also Shechem and its towns as far as Ayyah and its towns.

²⁹Manasseh, however, had possession of Beth-shean and its towns, Taanach and its towns, Megiddo and its towns, and Dor and its towns. In these dwelt the descendants of Joseph, the son of Israel.

³⁰The sons of Asher were Imnah, Iishvah, Ishvi, and Beriah; their sister was Serah.

³¹Beriah's sons were Heber and Malchiel, who was the father of Birzaith.

³²Heber became the father of Japhlet, Shomer, Hotham, and their sister Shua.

³³The sons of Japhlet were Pasach, Bimhal, and Ashvath; these were the sons of Japhlet.

³⁴The sons of Shomer were Ahi, Rohgah, Jehubbah, and Aram.

³⁵The sons of his brother Hotham were Zophah, Imna, Shelesh, and Amal.

³⁶The sons of Zophah were Suah, Harnepher, Shual, Beri, Imrah,

³⁷Bezer, Hod, Shamma, Shilshah, Ithran, and Beera.

³⁸The sons of Jether were Jephunneh, Pispa, and Ara.

³⁹The sons of Ulla were Arah, Hanniel, and Rizia.

⁴⁰All these were descendants of Asher, heads of ancestral houses, distinguished men, warriors, and chiefs among the princes. Their family records numbered twenty-six thousand men fit for military service.

8Benjamin became the father of Bela, his first-born, Ashbel, the second son, Aharah, the third,

²Nohah, the fourth, and Rapha, the fifth.

³The sons of Bela were Addar and Gera, the father of Ehud.

⁴The sons of Ehud were Abishua, Naaman, Ahoah,

⁵Gera, Shephuphan, and Huram.

⁶These were the sons of Ehud, family heads over those who dwelt in Geba and were deported to Manahath.

⁷Also Naaman, Ahijah, and Gera. The last, who led them into exile, became the father of Uzza and Ahihud.

⁸Shaharaim became a father on the Moabite plateau after he had put away his wives Hushim and Baara.

⁹By his wife Hodesh he became the father of Jobab, Zibia, Mesha, Malcam,

¹⁰Jeuz, Sachia, and Mirmah. These were his sons, family heads.

¹¹By Hushim he became the father of Abitub and Elpaal.

¹²The sons of Elpaal were Eber, Misham, Shemed, who built Ono and Lod with its nearby towns,

¹³Beriah, and Shema. They were family heads of those who dwelt in Aijalon, and they put the inhabitants of Gath to flight.

¹⁴Their brethren were Elpaal, Shashak, and Jeremoth.

¹⁵Zebadiah, Arad, Eder,

¹⁶Michael, Ishpah, and Joha were the sons of Beriah.

¹⁷Zebadiah, Meshullam, Hizki, Heber,

¹⁸Ishmerai, Izliah, and Jobab were the sons of Elpaal.

¹⁹Jakim, Zichri, Zabdi,

²⁰Elienai, Zillethai, Eliel,

²¹Adaiah, Beraiah, and Shimrath were the sons of Shimei.

²²Ishpan, Eber, Eliel,

²³Abdon, Zichri, Hanan,

²⁴Hananiah, Elam, Anthothijah,

²⁵Iphdeiah, and Penuel were the sons of Shashak.

²⁶Shamsherai, Shehariah, Athaliah,

²⁷Jaareshiah, Elijah, and Zichri were the sons of Jeroham.

²⁸These were family heads over their kindred, chiefs who dwelt in Jerusalem.

²⁹In Gibeon dwelt Jeiel, the founder of Gibeon, whose wife's name was Maacah;

³⁰also his first-born son, Abdon, and Zur, Kish, Baal, Ner, Nadab,

³¹Gedor, Ahio, Zecher, and Mikloth.

³²Mikloth became the father of Shimeah. These, too, dwelt with their relatives in Jerusalem, opposite their fellow tribesmen.

³³Ner became the father of Kish, and Kish became the father of Saul. Saul became the father of Jonathan, Malchishua, Abinadab, and Eshbaal.

³⁴The son of Jonathan was Meribbaal, and Meribbaal became the father of Micah.

³⁵The sons of Micah were Pithon, Melech, Tarea, and Ahaz.

³⁶Ahaz became the father of Jehoaddah, and Jehoaddah became the father of Alemeth, Azmaveth, and Zimri. Zimri became the father of Moza.

³⁷Moza became the father of Binea, whose son was Raphah, whose son was Eleasah, whose son was Azel.

³⁸Azel had six sons, whose names were Azrikam, his first-born, Ishmael, Sheariah, Azariah, Obadiah, and Hanan; all these were the sons of Azel.

³⁹The sons of Eshek, his brother, were Ulam, his first-born, Jeush, the second son, and Eliphelet, the third.

⁴⁰The sons of Ulam were combat archers, and many were their sons and grandsons: one hundred and fifty. All these were the descendants of Benjamin.

9Thus all Israel was inscribed in its family records which are recorded in the book of the kings of Israel.Now Judah had been carried in captivity to Babylon because of its rebellion.

²The first to settle again in their cities and dwell there were certain lay Israelites, the priests, the Levites, and the temple slaves.

³In Jerusalem lived Judahites and Benjaminites; also Ephraimites and Manassehites.

⁴Among the Judahites was Uthai, son of Ammihud, son of Omri, son of Imri, son of Bani, one of the descendants of Perez, son of Judah.

⁵Among the Shelanites were Asaiah, the first-born, and his sons.

⁶Among the Zerahites were Jeuel and six hundred and ninety of their brethren.

⁷Among the Benjaminites were Sallu, son of Meshullam, son of Hodaviah, son of Hassenuah;

⁸Ibneiah, son of Jeroham; Elah, son of Uzzi, son of Michri; Meshullam, son of Shephatiah, son of Reuel, son of Ibnijah.

⁹Their kindred of various families were nine hundred and fifty-six. All those named were heads of their ancestral houses.

¹⁰Among the priests were Jedaiah; Jehoiarib; Jachin;

¹¹Azariah, son of Hilkiah, son of Meshullam, son of Zadok, son of Meraioth, son of Ahitub, the ruler of the house of God;

¹²Adaiah, son of Jeroham, son of Pashhur, son of Malchijah; Maasai, son of Adiel, son of Jahzerah, son of Meshullam, son of Meshillemith, son of Immer.

¹³Their brethren, heads of their ancestral houses, were one thousand seven hundred and sixty, valiant for the work of the service of the house of God.

¹⁴Among the Levites were Shemaiah, son of Hasshub, son of Azrikam, son of Hashabiah, one of the descendants of Merari;

¹⁵Bakbakkar; Heresh; Galal; Mattaniah, son of Mica, son of Zichri, a descendant of Asaph;

¹⁶Obadiah, son of Shemaiah, son of Galal, a descendant of Jeduthun; and Berechiah, son of Asa, son of Elkanah, whose family lived in the villages of the Netophathites.

¹⁷The gatekeepers were Shallum, Akkub, Talmon, Ahiman, and their brethren; Shallum was the chief.

¹⁸Previously they had stood guard at the king's gate on the east side; now they became gatekeepers for the encampments of the Levites.

¹⁹Shallum, son of Kore, son of Ebiasaph, a descendant of Korah, and his brethren of the same ancestral house of the Korahites had as their assigned task the guarding of the threshold of the tent, just as their fathers had guarded the entrance to the encampment of the LORD.

²⁰Phinehas, son of Eleazar, had been their chief in times past--the LORD be with him!

²¹Zechariah, son of Meshelemiah, guarded the gate of the meeting tent.

²²In all, those who were chosen for gatekeepers at the threshold were two hundred and twelve. They were inscribed in the family records of their villages. David and Samuel the seer had established them in their position of trust.

²³Thus they and their sons kept guard over the gates of the house of the LORD, the house which was then a tent.

²⁴The gatekeepers were stationed at the four sides, to the east, the west, the north, and the south.

²⁵Their kinsmen who lived in their own villages took turns in assisting them for seven-day periods,

²⁶while the four chief gatekeepers were on constant duty. These were the Levites who also had charge of the chambers and treasures of the house of God.

²⁷At night they lodged about the house of God, for it was in their charge and they had the duty of opening it each morning.

²⁸Some of them had charge of the liturgical equipment, tallying it as it was brought in and taken out.

²⁹Others were appointed to take care of the utensils and all the sacred vessels, as well as the fine flour, the wine, the oil, the frankincense, and the spices.

³⁰It was the sons of priests, however, who mixed the spiced ointments.

³¹Mattithiah, one of the Levites, the first-born of Shallum the Koreite, was entrusted with preparing the cakes.

³²Benaiah the Kohathite, one of their brethren, was in charge of setting out the showbread each sabbath.

³³These were the chanters and the gatekeepers, family heads over the Levites. They stayed in the chambers when free of duty, for day and night they had to be ready for service.

³⁴These were the levitical family heads over their kindred, chiefs who dwelt in Jerusalem.

³⁵In Gibeon dwelt Jeiel, the founder of Gibeon, whose wife's name was Maacah.

³⁶His first-born son was Abdon; then came Zur, Kish, Baal, Ner, Nadab,

³⁷Gedor, Ahio, Zechariah, and Mikloth.

³⁸Mikloth became the father of Shimeam. These, too, with their brethren, dwelt opposite their brethren in Jerusalem.

³⁹Ner became the father of Kish, and Kish became the father of Saul. Saul became the father of Jonathan, Malchishua, Abinadab, and Eshbaal.

⁴⁰The son of Jonathan was Meribbaal, and Meribbaal became the father of Micah.

⁴¹The sons of Micah were Pithon, Melech, Tahrea, and Ahaz.

⁴²Ahaz became the father of Jehoaddah, and Jehoaddah became the father of Alemeth, Azmaveth, and Zimri. Zimri became the father of Moza.

⁴³Moza became the father of Binea, whose son was Rephaiah, whose son was Eleasah, whose son was Azel.

⁴⁴Azel had six sons, whose names were Azrikam, his first-born, Ishmael, Sheariah, Azariah, Obadiah, and Hanan; these were the sons of Azel.

10Now the Philistines were at war with Israel; the Israelites fled before the Philistines, and a number of them fell, slain on Mount Gilboa.

²The Philistines pressed hard after Saul and his sons. When the Philistines had killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, sons of Saul,

³the whole fury of the battle descended upon Saul. Then the archers found him, and wounded him with their arrows.

⁴Saul said to his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword and thrust me through with it, that these uncircumcised may not come and maltreat me." But the armor-bearer, in great fear, refused. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it;

⁵and seeing him dead, the armor-bearer also fell on his sword and died.

⁶Thus, with Saul and his three sons, his whole house died at one time.

⁷When all the Israelites who were in the valley saw that Saul and his sons had died in the rout, they left their cities and fled; thereupon the Philistines came and occupied them.

⁸On the following day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his sons where they had fallen on Mount Gilboa.

⁹They stripped him, cut off his head, and took his armor; these they sent throughout the land of the Philistines to convey the good news to their idols and their people.

¹⁰His armor they put in the house of their gods, but his skull they impaled on the temple of Dagon.

¹¹When all the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead had heard what the Philistines had done to Saul,

¹²its warriors rose to a man, recovered the bodies of Saul and his sons, and brought them to Jabesh. They buried their bones under the oak of Jabesh, and fasted seven days.

¹³Thus Saul died because of his rebellion against the LORD in disobeying his command, and also because he had sought counsel of a necromancer,

¹⁴and had not rather inquired of the LORD. Therefore the LORD slew him, and transferred his kingdom to David, the son of Jesse.

11Then all Israel gathered about David in Hebron, and they said: "Surely, we are of the same bone and flesh as you.

²Even formerly, when Saul was still the king, it was you who led Israel in all its battles. And now the LORD, your God, has said to you, 'You shall shepherd my people Israel and be ruler over them.'"

³Then all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and there David made a covenant with them in the presence of the LORD; and they anointed him king over Israel, in accordance with the word of the LORD as revealed through Samuel.

⁴Then David and all Israel went to Jerusalem, that is, Jebus, where the natives of the land were called Jebusites.

⁵The inhabitants of Jebus said to David, "You shall not enter here." David nevertheless captured the fortress of Zion, which is the City of David.

⁶David said, "Whoever strikes the Jebusites first shall be made the chief commander." Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was the first to go up; and so he became chief.

⁷David took up his residence in the fortress, which thenceforth was called the City of David.

⁸He rebuilt the city on all sides, from the Millo all the way around, while Joab restored the rest of the city.

⁹David became more and more powerful, for the LORD of hosts was with him.

¹⁰These were David's chief warriors who, together with all Israel, supported him in his reign in order to make him true king, even as the LORD had commanded concerning Israel.

¹¹Here is the list of David's warriors: Ishbaal, the son of Hachamoni, chief of the Three. He brandished his spear against three hundred, whom he slew in a single encounter.

¹²Next to him Eleazar, the son of Dodo the Ahohite, one of the Three warriors.

¹³He was with David at Pas-dammim, where the Philistines had massed for battle. The plow-land was fully planted with barley, but its defenders were retreating before the Philistines.

¹⁴He made a stand on the sown ground, kept it safe, and cut down the Philistines. Thus the LORD brought about a great victory.

¹⁵Three of the Thirty chiefs went down to the rock, to David, who was in the cave of Adullam while the Philistines were encamped in the valley of Rephaim.

¹⁶David was then in the stronghold, and a Philistine garrison was at Bethlehem.

¹⁷David expressed a desire: "Oh, that someone would give me a drink from the cistern that is by the gate at Bethlehem!"

¹⁸Thereupon the Three broke through the encampment of the Philistines, drew water from the cistern by the gate at Bethlehem, and carried it back to David. But David refused to drink it. Instead, he poured it out as a libation to the LORD,

¹⁹saying, "God forbid that I should do such a thing! Could I drink the blood of these men who risked their lives?" For at the risk of their lives they brought it; and so he refused to drink it. Such deeds as these the Three warriors performed.

²⁰Abishai, the brother of Joab. He was the chief of the Thirty; he brandished his spear against three hundred, and slew them. Thus he had a reputation like that of the Three.

²¹He was twice as famous as any of the Thirty and became their commander, but he did not attain to the Three.

²²Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, a valiant man of mighty deeds, from Kabzeel. He killed the two sons of Ariel of Moab, and also, on a snowy day, he went down and killed the lion in the cistern.

²³He likewise slew the Egyptian, a huge man five cubits tall. The Egyptian carried a spear that was like a weaver's heddle-bar, but he came against him with a staff, wrested the spear from the Egyptian's hand, and killed him with his own spear.

²⁴Such deeds as these of Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, gave him a reputation like that of the Three.

²⁵He was more famous than any of the Thirty, but he did not attain to the Three. David put him in charge of his bodyguard.

²⁶Also these warriors: Asahel, the brother of Joab; Elhanan, son of Dodo, from Bethlehem;

²⁷Shammoth, from En-harod; Helez, from Palti;

²⁸Ira, son of Ikkesh, from Tekoa; Abiezer, from Anathoth;

²⁹Sibbecai, from Husha; Ilai, from Ahoh;

³⁰Maharai, from Netophah; Heled, son of Baanah, from Netophah;

³¹Ithai, son of Ribai, from Gibeah of Benjamin; Benaiah, from Pirathon;

³²Hurai, from the valley of Gaash; Abiel, from Beth-arabah;

³³Azmaveth, from Bahurim; Eliahba, from Shaalbon;

³⁴Jashen the Gunite; Jonathan, son of Shagee, from En-harod;

³⁵Ahiam, son of Sachar, from En-harod; Elipheleth, son of

³⁶Ahasabi, from Beth-maacah; Ahijah, from Gilo;

³⁷Hezro, from Carmel; Naarai, the son of Ezbai;

³⁸Joel, brother of Nathan, from Rehob, the Gadite;

³⁹Zelek the Ammonite; Naharai, from Beeroth, the armor-bearer of Joab, son of Zeruiah;

⁴⁰Ira, from Jattir; Gareb, from Jattir;

⁴¹Uriah the Hittite; Zabad, son of Ahlai,

⁴²and, in addition to the Thirty, Adina, son of Shiza, the Reubenite, chief of the tribe of Reuben;

⁴³Hanan, from Beth-maacah; Joshaphat the Mithnite;

⁴⁴Uzzia, from Ashterath; Shama and Jeiel, sons of Hotham, from Aroer;

⁴⁵Jediael, son of Shimri, and Joha, his brother, the Tizite;

⁴⁶Eliel the Mahavite; Jeribai and Joshaviah, sons of Elnaam; Ithmah, from Moab;

⁴⁷Eliel, Obed, and Jaasiel the Mezobian.

12The following men came to David in Ziklag while he was still under banishment from Saul, son of Kish; they, too, were among the warriors who helped him in his battles.

²They were archers who could use either the right or the left hand, both in slinging stones and in shooting arrows with the bow. They were some of Saul's kinsmen, from Benjamin.

³Ahiezer was their chief, along with Joash, both sons of Shemaah of Gibeah; also Jeziel and Pelet, sons of Azmaveth; Beracah; Jehu, from Anathoth;

⁴Ishmaiah the Gibeonite, a warrior on the level of the Thirty, and in addition to their number;

⁵Jeremiah; Jahaziel; Johanan; Jozabad from Gederah;

⁶Eluzai; Jerimoth; Bealiah; Shemariah; Shephatiah the Haruphite;

⁷Elkanah, Isshiah, Azarel, Joezer, and Ishbaal, who were Korahites;

⁸Joelah, finally, and Zebadiah, sons of Jeroham, from Gedor.

⁹Some of the Gadites also went over to David when he was at the stronghold in the wilderness. They were valiant warriors, experienced soldiers equipped with shield and spear, who bore themselves like lions, and were as swift as the gazelles on the mountains.

¹⁰Ezer was their chief, Obadiah was second, Eliab third,

¹¹Mishmannah fourth, Jeremiah fifth,

¹²Attai sixth, Eliel seventh,

¹³Johanan eighth, Elzabad ninth,

¹⁴Jeremiah tenth, and Machbannai eleventh.

¹⁵These Gadites were army commanders, the lesser placed over hundreds and the greater over thousands.

¹⁶It was they who crossed over the Jordan when it was overflowing both its banks in the first month, and dispersed all who were in the valleys to the east and to the west.

¹⁷Some Benjaminites and Judahites also came to David at the stronghold.

¹⁸David went out to meet them and addressed them in these words: "If you come peacefully, to help me, I am of a mind to have you join me. But if you have come to betray me to my enemies though my hands have done no wrong, may the God of our fathers see and punish you."

¹⁹Then spirit enveloped Amasai, the chief of the Thirty, who spoke: "We are yours, O David, we are with you, O son of Jesse. Peace, peace to you, and peace to him who helps you; your God it is who helps you." So David received them and placed them among the leaders of his troops.

²⁰Men from Manasseh also deserted to David when he came with the Philistines to battle against Saul. However, he did not help the Philistines, for their lords took counsel and sent him home, saying, "At the cost of our heads he will desert to his master Saul."

²¹As he was returning to Ziklag, therefore, these deserted to him from Manasseh: Adnah, Jozabad, Jediael, Michael, Jozabad, Elihu, and Zillethai, chiefs of thousands of Manasseh.

²²They helped David by taking charge of his troops, for they were all warriors and became commanders of his army.

²³And from day to day men kept coming to David's help until there was a vast encampment, like an encampment of angels.

²⁴This is the muster of the detachments of armed troops that came to David at Hebron to transfer to him Saul's kingdom, as the LORD had ordained.

²⁵Judahites bearing shields and spears: six thousand eight hundred armed troops.

²⁶Of the Simeonites, warriors fit for battle: seven thousand one hundred.

²⁷Of the Levites: four thousand six hundred,

²⁸along with Jehoiada, leader of the line of Aaron, with another three thousand seven hundred,

²⁹and Zadok, a young warrior, with twenty-two princes of his father's house.

³⁰Of the Benjaminites, the brethren of Saul: three thousand--until this time, most of them had held their allegiance to the house of Saul.

³¹Of the Ephraimites: twenty thousand eight hundred warriors, men renowned in their ancestral houses.

³²Of the half-tribe of Manasseh: eighteen thousand, designated by name to come and make David king.

³³Of the Issacharites, their chiefs who were endowed with an understanding of the times and who knew what Israel had to do: two hundred chiefs, together with all their brethren under their command.

³⁴From Zebulun, men fit for military service, set in battle array with every kind of weapon for war: fifty thousand men rallying with a single purpose.

³⁵From Naphtali: one thousand captains, and with them, armed with shield and lance, thirty-seven thousand men.

³⁶Of the Danites, set in battle array: twenty-eight thousand six hundred.

³⁷From Asher, fit for military service and set in battle array: forty thousand.

³⁸From the other side of the Jordan, of the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, men equipped with every kind of weapon of war: one hundred and twenty thousand.

³⁹All these soldiers, drawn up in battle order, came to Hebron with the resolute intention of making David king over all Israel. The rest of Israel was likewise of one mind to make David king.

⁴⁰They remained with David for three days, feasting and drinking, for their brethren had prepared for them.

⁴¹Moreover, their neighbors from as far as Issachar, Zebulun, and Naphtali came bringing food on asses, camels, mules, and oxen--provisions in great quantity of meal, pressed figs, raisins, wine, oil, oxen, and sheep. For there was rejoicing in Israel.

13After David had taken counsel with his commanders of thousands and of hundreds, that is to say, with every one of his leaders,

²he said to the whole assembly of Israel: "If it seems good to you, and is so decreed by the LORD our God, let us summon the rest of our brethren from all the districts of Israel, and also the priests and the Levites from their cities with pasture lands, that they may join us;

³and let us bring the ark of our God here among us, for in the days of Saul we did not visit it."

⁴And the whole assembly agreed to do this, for the idea was pleasing to all the people.

⁵Then David assembled all Israel, from Shihor of Egypt to Labo of Hamath, to bring the ark of God from Kiriath-jearim.

⁶David and all Israel went up to Baalah, that is, to Kiriath-jearim, of Judah, to bring back the ark of God, which was known by the name "LORD enthroned upon the cherubim."

⁷They transported the ark of God on a new cart from the house of Abinadab; Uzzah and Ahio were guiding the cart,

⁸while David and all Israel danced before God with great enthusiasm, amid songs and music on lyres, harps, tambourines, cymbals, and trumpets.

⁹As they reached the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzzah stretched out his hand to steady the ark, for the oxen were upsetting it.

¹⁰Then the LORD became angry with Uzzah and struck him; he died there in God's presence, because he had laid his hand on the ark.

¹¹David was disturbed because the LORD'S anger had broken out against Uzzah. Therefore that place has been called Perez-uzza even to this day.

¹²David was now afraid of God, and he said, "How can I bring the ark of God with me?"

¹³Therefore he did not take the ark back with him to the City of David, but he took it instead to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.

¹⁴The ark of God remained in the house of Obed-edom with his family for three months, and the LORD blessed Obed-edom's household and all that he possessed.

14Hiram, king of Tyre, sent envoys to David along with masons and carpenters, and cedar wood to build him a house.

²David now understood that the LORD had truly confirmed him as king over Israel, for his kingdom was greatly exalted for the sake of his people Israel.

³David took other wives in Jerusalem and became the father of more sons and daughters.

⁴These are the names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon,

⁵Ibhar, Elishua, Elpelet,

⁶Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia,

⁷Elishama, Beeliada, and Eliphelet.

⁸When the Philistines had heard that David was anointed king over all Israel, they went up in unison to seek him out. But when David heard of this, he marched out against them.

⁹Meanwhile the Philistines had come and raided the valley of Rephaim.

¹⁰David inquired of God, "Shall I advance against the Philistines, and will you deliver them into my power?" The LORD answered him, "Advance, for I will deliver them into your power."

¹¹They advanced, therefore, to Baal-perazim, and David defeated them there. Then David said, "God has used me to break through my enemies just as water breaks through a dam." Therefore that place was called Baal-perazim.

¹²The Philistines had left their gods there, and David ordered them to be burnt.

¹³Once again the Philistines raided the valley,

¹⁴and again David inquired of God. But God answered him: "Do not try to pursue them, but go around them and come upon them from the direction of the mastic trees.

¹⁵When you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mastic trees, then go forth to battle, for God has already gone before you to strike the army of the Philistines."

¹⁶David did as God commanded him, and they routed the Philistine army from Gibeon to Gezer.

¹⁷Thus David's fame was spread abroad through every land, and the LORD made all the nations fear him.

15David built houses for himself in the City of David and prepared a place for the ark of God, pitching a tent for it there.

²At that time he said, "No one may carry the ark of God except the Levites, for the LORD chose them to carry the ark of the LORD and to minister to him forever."

³Then David assembled all Israel in Jerusalem to bring the ark of the LORD to the place which he had prepared for it.

⁴David also called together the sons of Aaron and the Levites:

⁵of the sons of Kohath, Uriel, their chief, and one hundred and twenty of his brethren;

⁶of the sons of Merari, Asaiah, their chief, and two hundred and twenty of his brethren;

⁷of the sons of Gershon, Joel, their chief, and one hundred and thirty of his brethren;

⁸of the sons of Elizaphan, Shemaiah, their chief, and two hundred of his brethren;

⁹of the sons of Hebron, Eliel, their chief, and eighty of his brethren;

¹⁰of the sons of Uzziel, Amminadab, their chief, and one hundred and twelve of his brethren.

¹¹David summoned the priests Zadok and Abiathar, and the Levites Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab,

¹²and said to them: "You, the heads of the levitical families, must sanctify yourselves along with your brethren and bring the ark of the LORD, the God of Israel, to the place which I have prepared for it.

¹³Because you were not with us the first time, the wrath of the LORD our God burst upon us, for we did not seek him aright."

¹⁴Accordingly, the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the LORD, the God of Israel.

¹⁵The Levites bore the ark of God on their shoulders with poles, as Moses had ordained according to the word of the LORD.

¹⁶David commanded the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their brethren as chanters, to play on musical instruments, harps, lyres, and cymbals, to make a loud sound of rejoicing.

¹⁷Therefore the Levites appointed Heman, son of Joel, and, among his brethren, Asaph, son of Berechiah; and among the sons of Merari, their brethren, Ethan, son of Kushaiah;

¹⁸and, together with these, their brethren of the second rank: the gatekeepers Zechariah, Uzziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-edom, and Jeiel.

¹⁹The chanters, Heman, Asaph, and Ethan, sounded brass cymbals.

²⁰Zechariah, Uzziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah, and Benaiah played on harps set to "Alamoth."

²¹But Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-edom, and Jeiel led the chant on lyres set to "the eighth."

²²Chenaniah was the chief of the Levites in the chanting; he directed the chanting, for he was skillful.

²³Berechiah and Elkanah were gatekeepers before the ark.

²⁴The priests, Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah, and Eliezer, sounded the trumpets before the ark of God. Obed-edom and Jeiel were also gatekeepers before the ark.

²⁵Thus David, the elders of Israel, and the commanders of thousands went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with joy from the house of Obed-edom.

²⁶While the Levites, with God's help, were bearing the ark of the covenant of the LORD, seven bulls and seven rams were sacrificed.

²⁷David was clothed in a robe of fine linen, as were all the Levites who carried the ark, the singers, and Chenaniah, the leader of the chant; David was also wearing a linen ephod.

²⁸Thus all Israel brought back the ark of the covenant of the LORD with joyful shouting, to the sound of horns, trumpets, and cymbals, and the music of harps and lyres.

²⁹But as the ark of the covenant of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal, daughter of Saul, looked down from her window, and when she saw King David leaping and dancing, she despised him in her heart.

16They brought in the ark of God and set it within the tent which David had pitched for it. Then they offered up holocausts and peace offerings to God.

²When David had finished offering up the holocausts and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD,

³and distributed to every Israelite, to every man and every woman, a loaf of bread, a piece of meat, and a raisin cake.

⁴He now appointed certain Levites to minister before the ark of the LORD, to celebrate, thank, and praise the LORD, the God of Israel.

⁵Asaph was their chief, and second to him were Zechariah, Uzziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-edom, and Jeiel. These were to play on harps and lyres, while Asaph was to sound the cymbals,

⁶and the priests Benaiah and Jahaziel were to be the regular trumpeters before the ark of the covenant of God.

⁷Then, on that same day, David appointed Asaph and his brethren to sing for the first time these praises of the LORD:

⁸Give thanks to the LORD, invoke his name; make known among the nations his deeds.

⁹Sing to him, sing his praise, proclaim all his wondrous deeds.

¹⁰Glory in his holy name; rejoice, O hearts that seek the LORD!

¹¹Look to the LORD in his strength; seek to serve him constantly.

¹²Recall the wondrous deeds that he has wrought, his portents, and the judgments he has uttered,

¹³You descendants of Israel, his servants, sons of Jacob, his chosen ones!

¹⁴He, the LORD, is our God; throughout the earth his judgments prevail.

¹⁵He remembers forever his covenant which he made binding for a thousand generations--

¹⁶Which he entered into with Abraham and by his oath to Isaac;

¹⁷Which he established for Jacob by statute, for Israel as an everlasting covenant,

¹⁸Saying, "To you will I give the land of Canaan as your allotted inheritance."

¹⁹When they were few in number, a handful, and strangers there,

²⁰Wandering from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people,

²¹He let no one oppress them, and for their sake he rebuked kings:

²²"Touch not my anointed, and to my prophets do no harm."

²³Sing to the LORD, all the earth, announce his salvation, day after day

²⁴Tell his glory among the nations; among all peoples, his wondrous deeds.

²⁵For great is the LORD and highly to be praised; and awesome is he, beyond all gods.

²⁶For all the gods of the nations are things of nought, but the LORD made the heavens.

²⁷Splendor and majesty go before him; praise and joy are in his holy place.

²⁸Give to the LORD, you families of nations, give to the LORD glory and praise;

²⁹Give to the LORD the glory due his name! Bring gifts, and enter his presence; worship the LORD in holy attire.

³⁰Tremble before him, all the earth; he has made the world firm, not to be moved.

³¹Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice; let them say among the nations: The LORD is king.

³²Let the sea and what fills it resound; let the plains rejoice and all that is in them!

³³Then shall all the trees of the forest exult before the LORD, for he comes: he comes to rule the earth.

³⁴Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his kindness endures forever;

³⁵And say, "Save us, O God, our savior, gather us and deliver us from the nations, That we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in praising you."

³⁶Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, through all eternity! Let all the people say, Amen! Alleluia.

³⁷Then David left Asaph and his brethren there before the ark of the covenant of the LORD to minister before the ark regularly according to the daily ritual;

³⁸he also left there Obed-edom and sixty-eight of his brethren, including Obed-edom, son of Jeduthun, and Hosah, to be gatekeepers.

³⁹But the priest Zadok and his priestly brethren he left before the Dwelling of the LORD on the high place at Gibeon,

⁴⁰to offer holocausts to the LORD on the altar of holocausts regularly, morning and evening, and to do all that is written in the law of the LORD which he has decreed for Israel.

⁴¹With them were Heman and Jeduthun and the others who were chosen and designated by name to give thanks to the LORD, "because his kindness endures forever,"

⁴²with trumpets and cymbals for accompaniment, and instruments for the sacred chant. The sons of Jeduthun kept the gate.

⁴³Then all the people departed, each to his own home, and David returned to bless his household.

17After David had taken up residence in his house, he said to Nathan the prophet, "See, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the LORD dwells under tentcloth."

²Nathan replied to David, "Do, therefore, whatever you desire, for God is with you."

³But that same night the word of God came to Nathan:

⁴"Go and tell my servant David, Thus says the LORD: It is not you who are to build a house for me to dwell in.

⁵For I have never dwelt in a house, from the time when I led Israel onward, even to this day, but I have been lodging in tent or pavilion

⁶as long as I have wandered about with all of Israel. Did I ever say a word to any of the judges of Israel whom I commanded to guide my people, such as, 'Why have you not built me a house of cedar?'

⁷Therefore, tell my servant David, Thus says the LORD of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you might become ruler over my people Israel.

⁸I was with you wherever you went, and I cut down all your enemies before you. I will make your name great like that of the greatest on the earth.

⁹I will assign a place for my people Israel and I will plant them in it to dwell there henceforth undisturbed; nor shall wicked men ever again oppress them, as they did at first,

¹⁰and during all the time when I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will subdue all your enemies. Moreover, I declare to you that I, the LORD, will build you a house;

¹¹so that when your days have been completed and you must join your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you who will be one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom.

¹²He it is who shall build me a house, and I will establish his throne forever.

¹³I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me, and I will not withdraw my favor from him as I withdrew it from him who preceded you;

¹⁴but I will maintain him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be firmly established forever."

¹⁵All these words and this whole vision Nathan related exactly to David.

¹⁶Then David came in and sat in the LORD'S presence, saying: "Who am I, O LORD God, and what is my family, that you should have brought me as far as I have come?

¹⁷And yet, even this you now consider too little, O God! For you have made a promise regarding your servant's family reaching into the distant future, and you have looked on me as henceforth the most notable of men, O LORD God.

¹⁸What more can David say to you? You know your servant.

¹⁹O LORD, for your servant's sake and in keeping with your purpose, you have done this great thing.

²⁰O LORD, there is no one like you and there is no God but you, just as we have always understood.

²¹"Is there, like your people Israel, whom you redeemed from Egypt, another nation on earth whom a god went to redeem as his people? You won for yourself a name for great and awesome deeds by driving out the nations before your people.

²²You made your people Israel your own forever, and you, O LORD, became their God.

²³Therefore, O LORD, may the promise that you have uttered concerning your servant and his house remain firm forever. Bring about what you have promised,

²⁴that your renown as LORD of hosts, God of Israel, may be great and abide forever, while the house of David, your servant, is established in your presence.

²⁵"Because you, O my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build him a house, your servant has made bold to pray before you.

²⁶Since you, O LORD, are truly God and have promised this good thing to your servant,

²⁷and since you have deigned to bless the house of your servant, so that it will remain forever--since it is you, O LORD, who blessed it, it is blessed forever."

18After this, David defeated the Philistines and subdued them; and he took Gath and its towns away from the control of the Philistines.

²He also defeated Moab, and the Moabites became his subjects, paying tribute.

³David then defeated Hadadezer, king of Zobah toward Hamath, when the latter was on his way to set up his victory stele at the river Euphrates.

⁴David took from him twenty thousand foot soldiers, one thousand chariots, and seven thousand horsemen. Of the chariot horses, David hamstrung all but one hundred.

⁵The Arameans of Damascus came to the aid of Hadadezer, king of Zobah, but David also slew twenty-two thousand of their men.

⁶Then David set up garrisons in the Damascus region of Aram, and the Arameans became his subjects, paying tribute. Thus the LORD made David victorious in all his campaigns.

⁷David took the golden shields that were carried by Hadadezer's attendants and brought them to Jerusalem.

⁸He likewise took away from Tibhath and Cun, cities of Hadadezer, large quantities of bronze, which Solomon later used to make the bronze sea and the pillars and the vessels of bronze.

⁹When Tou, king of Hamath, heard that David had defeated the entire army of Hadadezer, king of Zobah,

¹⁰he sent his son Hadoram to wish King David well and to congratulate him on having waged a victorious war against Hadadezer; for Hadadezer had been at war with Tou. He also sent David gold, silver and bronze utensils of every sort.

¹¹These also King David consecrated to the LORD along with all the silver and gold that he had taken from the nations: from Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines, and Amalek.

¹²Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, also slew eighteen thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt.

¹³He set up garrisons in Edom, and all the Edomites became David's subjects. Thus the LORD made David victorious in all his campaigns.

¹⁴David reigned over all Israel and dispensed justice and right to all his people.

¹⁵Joab, son of Zeruiah, was in command of the army; Jehoshaphat, son of Ahilud, was herald;

¹⁶Zadok, son of Ahitub, and Ahimelech, son of Abiathar, were priests; Shavsha was scribe;

¹⁷Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, was in command of the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and David's sons were the chief assistants to the king.

19Afterward Nahash, king of the Ammonites, died and his son succeeded him as king.

²David said, "I will show kindness to Hanun, the son of Nahash, for his father treated me with kindness." Therefore he sent envoys to him to comfort him over the death of his father. But when David's servants had entered the land of the Ammonites to comfort Hanun,

³the Ammonite princes said to Hanun, "Do you think David is doing this--sending you these consolers--to honor your father? Have not his servants rather come to you to explore the land, spying it out for its overthrow?"

⁴Thereupon Hanun seized David's servants and had them shaved and their garments cut off half-way at the hips. Then he sent them away.

⁵When David was informed of what had happened to his men, he sent messengers to meet them, for the men had been greatly disgraced. "Remain at Jericho," the king told them, "until your beards have grown again; and then you may come back here."

⁶When the Ammonites realized that they had put themselves in bad odor with David, Hanun and the Ammonites sent a thousand talents of silver to hire chariots and horsemen from Aram Naharaim, from Aram-maacah, and from Zobah.

⁷They hired thirty-two thousand chariots along with the king of Maacah and his army, who came and encamped before Medeba. The Ammonites also assembled from their cities and came out for war.

⁸When David heard of this, he sent Joab and his whole army of warriors against them.

⁹The Ammonites marched out and lined up for a battle at the gate of the city, while the kings who had come to their help remained apart in the open field.

¹⁰When Joab saw that there was a battle line both in front of and behind him, he chose some of the best fighters among the Israelites and set them in array against the Arameans;

¹¹the rest of the army, which he placed under the command of his brother Abishai, then lined up to oppose the Ammonites.

¹²And he said: "If the Arameans prove too strong for me, you must come to my help; and if the Ammonites prove too strong for you, I will save you.

¹³Hold steadfast and let us show ourselves courageous for the sake of our people and the cities of our God; then may the LORD do what seems best to him."

¹⁴Joab therefore advanced with his men to engage the Arameans in battle; but they fled before him.

¹⁵And when the Ammonites saw that the Arameans had fled, they also took to flight before his brother Abishai, and reentered the city. Joab then returned to Jerusalem.

¹⁶Seeing themselves vanquished by Israel, the Arameans sent messengers to bring out the Arameans from the other side of the River, with Shophach, the general of Hadadezer's army, at their head.

¹⁷When this was reported to David, he gathered all Israel together, crossed the Jordan, and met them. With the army of David drawn up to fight the Arameans, they gave battle.

¹⁸But the Arameans fled before Israel, and David slew seven thousand of their chariot fighters and forty thousand of their foot soldiers; he also killed Shophach, the general of the army.

¹⁹When the vassals of Hadadezer saw themselves vanquished by Israel, they made peace with David and became his subjects. After this, the Arameans refused to come to the aid of the Ammonites.

20At the beginning of the following year, the time when kings go to war, Joab led the army out in force, laid waste the land of the Ammonites, and went on to besiege Rabbah, while David himself remained in Jerusalem. When Joab had attacked Rabbah and destroyed it,

²David took the crown of Milcom from the idol's head. It was found to weigh a talent of gold; and it contained precious stones, which David wore on his own head. He also brought out a great amount of booty from the city.

³He deported the people of the city and set them to work with saws, iron picks, and axes. Thus David dealt with all the cities of the Ammonites. Then he and his whole army returned to Jerusalem.

⁴Afterward there was another battle with the Philistines, at Gezer. At that time, Sibbecai the Hushathite slew Sippai, one of the descendants of the Raphaim, and the Philistines were subdued.

⁵Once again there was war with the Philistines, and Elhanan, the son of Jair, slew Lahmi, the brother of Goliath of Gath, whose spear shaft was like a weaver's heddle-bar.

⁶In still another battle, at Gath, they encountered a giant, also a descendant of the Raphaim, who had six fingers to each hand and six toes to each foot; twenty-four in all.

⁷He defied Israel, and Jonathan, the son of Shimea, David's brother, slew him.

⁸These were the descendants of the Raphaim of Gath who died at the hands of David and his servants.

21A satan rose up against Israel, and he enticed David into taking a census of Israel.

²David therefore said to Joab and to the other generals of the army, "Go, find out the number of the Israelites from Beer-sheba to Dan, and report back to me that I may know their number."

³But Joab replied: "May the LORD increase his people a hundredfold! My lord king, are not all of them my lord's subjects? Why does my lord seek to do this thing? Why will he bring guilt upon Israel?"

⁴However, the king's command prevailed over Joab, who departed and traversed all of Israel, and then returned to Jerusalem.

⁵Joab reported the result of the census to David: of men capable of wielding a sword, there were in all Israel one million one hundred thousand, and in Judah four hundred and seventy thousand.

⁶Levi and Benjamin, however, he did not include in the census, for the king's command was repugnant to Joab.

⁷This command displeased God, who began to punish Israel.

⁸Then David said to God, "I have sinned greatly in doing this thing. Take away your servant's guilt, for I have acted very foolishly."

⁹Then the LORD spoke to Gad, David's seer, in these words:

¹⁰"Go, tell David: Thus says the LORD: I offer you three alternatives; choose one of them, and I will inflict it on you."

¹¹Accordingly, Gad went to David and said to him; "Thus says the LORD: Decide now--

¹²will it be three years of famine; or three months of fleeing your enemies, with the sword of your foes ever at your back; or three days of the LORD'S own sword, a pestilence in the land, with the LORD'S destroying angel in every part of Israel? Therefore choose: What answer am I to give him who sent me?"

¹³Then David said to Gad: "I am in dire straits. But I prefer to fall into the hand of the LORD, whose mercy is very great, than into the hands of men."

¹⁴Therefore the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel died.

¹⁵God also sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem; but as he was on the point of destroying it, the LORD saw and decided against the calamity, and said to the destroying angel, "Enough now! Stay your hand!"The angel of the LORD was then standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

¹⁶When David raised his eyes, he saw the angel of the LORD standing between earth and heaven, with a naked sword in his hand stretched out against Jerusalem. David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, prostrated themselves face to the ground,

¹⁷and David prayed to God: "Was it not I who ordered the census of the people? I am the one who sinned, I did this wicked thing. But these sheep, what have they done? O LORD, my God, strike me and my father's family, but do not afflict your people with this plague!"

¹⁸Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to tell David to go up and erect an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

¹⁹David went up at Gad's command, given in the name of the LORD.

²⁰While Ornan was threshing wheat, he turned around and saw the king, and his four sons who were with him, without recognizing them.

²¹But as David came on toward him, he looked up and saw that it was David. Then he left the threshing floor and bowed down before David, his face to the ground.

²²David said to Ornan: "Sell me the ground of this threshing floor, that I may build on it an altar to the LORD. Sell it to me at its full price, that the plague may be stayed from the people."

²³But Ornan said to David: "Take it as your own, and let my lord the king do what seems best to him. See, I also give you the oxen for the holocausts, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the cereal offering. I give it all to you."

²⁴But King David replied to Ornan: "No! I will buy it from you properly, at its full price. I will not take what is yours for the LORD, nor offer up holocausts that cost me nothing."

²⁵So David paid Ornan six hundred shekels of gold for the place.

²⁶David then built an altar there to the LORD, and offered up holocausts and peace offerings. When he called upon the LORD, he answered him by sending down fire from heaven upon the altar of holocausts.

²⁷Then the LORD gave orders to the angel to return his sword to its sheath.

²⁸Once David saw that the LORD had heard him on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he continued to offer sacrifices there.

²⁹The Dwelling of the LORD, which Moses had built in the desert, and the altar of holocausts were at that time on the high place at Gibeon.

³⁰But David could not go there to worship God, for he was fearful of the sword of the angel of the LORD.

22Therefore David said, "This is the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar of holocausts for Israel."

²David then ordered that all the aliens who lived in the land of Israel be brought together, and he appointed them stonecutters to hew out stone blocks for building the house of God.

³He also laid up large stores of iron to make nails for the doors of the gates, and clamps, together with so much bronze that it could not be weighed,

⁴and cedar trees without number. The Sidonians and Tyrians brought great stores of cedar logs to David,

⁵who said: "My son Solomon is young and immature; but the house that is to be built for the LORD must be made so magnificent that it will be renowned and glorious in all countries. Therefore I will make preparations for it." Thus before his death David laid up materials in abundance.

⁶Then he called for his son Solomon and commanded him to build a house for the LORD, the God of Israel.

⁷David said to Solomon: "My son, it was my purpose to build a house myself for the honor of the LORD, my God.

⁸But this word of the LORD came to me: 'You have shed much blood, and you have waged great wars. You may not build a house in my honor, because you have shed too much blood upon the earth in my sight.

⁹However, a son is to be born to you. He will be a peaceful man, and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side. For Solomon shall be his name, and in his time I will bestow peace and tranquillity on Israel.

¹⁰It is he who shall build a house in my honor; he shall be a son to me, and I will be a father to him, and I will establish the throne of his kingship over Israel forever.'

¹¹Now, my son, the LORD be with you, and may you succeed in building the house of the LORD your God, as he has said you shall.

¹²May the LORD give you prudence and discernment when he brings you to rule over Israel, so that you keep the law of the LORD, your God.

¹³Only then shall you succeed, if you are careful to observe the precepts and decrees which the LORD gave Moses for Israel. Be brave and steadfast; do not fear or lose heart.

¹⁴See, with great effort I have laid up for the house of the LORD a hundred thousand talents of gold, a million talents of silver, and bronze and iron in such great quantities that they cannot be weighed. I have also stored up wood and stones, to which you must add.

¹⁵Moreover, you have available an unlimited supply of workmen, stonecutters, masons, carpenters, and every kind of craftsman

¹⁶skilled in gold, silver, bronze, and iron. Set to work, therefore, and the LORD be with you!"

¹⁷David also commanded all of Israel's leaders to help his son Solomon:

¹⁸"Is not the LORD your God with you? Has he not given you rest on every side? Indeed, he has delivered the occupants of the land into my power, and the land is subdued before the LORD and his people.

¹⁹Therefore, devote your hearts and souls to seeking the LORD your God. Proceed to build the sanctuary of the LORD God, that the ark of the covenant of the LORD and God's sacred vessels may be brought into the house built in honor of the LORD."

23When David had grown old and was near the end of his days, he made his son Solomon king over Israel.

²He then gathered together all the leaders of Israel, together with the priests and the Levites.

³The Levites thirty years old and above were counted, and their total number was found to be thirty-eight thousand men.

⁴Of these, twenty-four thousand were to direct the service of the house of the LORD, six thousand were to be officials and judges,

⁵four thousand were to be gatekeepers, and four thousand were to praise the LORD with the instruments which David had devised for praise.

⁶David divided them into classes according to the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

⁷To the Gershonites belonged Ladan and Shimei.

⁸The sons of Ladan: Jehiel the chief, then Zetham and Joel; three in all.

⁹The sons of Shimei were Shelomoth, Haziel, and Haran; three. These were the heads of the families of Ladan.

¹⁰The sons of Shimei were Jahath, Zizah, Jeush, and Beriah; these were the sons of Shimei, four in all.

¹¹Jahath was the chief and Zizah was second to him; but Jeush and Beriah had not many sons, and therefore they were classed as a single family, fulfilling a single office.

¹²The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel; four in all.

¹³The sons of Amram were Aaron and Moses. Aaron was set apart to be consecrated as most holy, he and his sons forever, to offer sacrifice before the LORD, to minister to him, and to bless his name forever.

¹⁴As for Moses, however, the man of God, his sons were counted as part of the tribe of Levi.

¹⁵The sons of Moses were Gershom and Eliezer.

¹⁶The sons of Gershom: Shubael the chief.

¹⁷The sons of Eliezer were Rehabiah the chief--Eliezer had no other sons, but the sons of Rehabiah were very numerous.

¹⁸The sons of Izhar: Shelomith the chief.

¹⁹The sons of Hebron: Jeriah, the chief, Amariah, the second, Jahaziel, the third, and Jekameam, the fourth.

²⁰The sons of Uzziel: Micah, the chief, and Isshiah, the second.

²¹The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. The sons of Mahli: Eleazar and Kish.

²²Eleazar died leaving no sons, only daughters; the sons of Kish, their kinsmen, married them.

²³The sons of Mushi: Mahli, Eder, and Jeremoth; three in all.

²⁴These were the sons of Levi according to their ancestral houses, the family heads as they were enrolled one by one according to their names. They performed the work of the service of the house of the LORD from twenty years of age upward,

²⁵David said: "The LORD, the God of Israel, has given rest to his people, and has taken up his dwelling in Jerusalem.

²⁶Henceforth the Levites need not carry the Dwelling or any of its furnishings or equipment.

²⁷for David's final orders were to enlist the Levites from the time they were twenty years old.

²⁸Rather, their duty shall be to assist the sons of Aaron in the service of the house of the LORD, having charge of the courts, the chambers, and the preservation of everything holy: they shall take part in the service of the house of God.

²⁹They shall also have charge of the showbread, of the fine flour for the cereal offering, of the wafers of unleavened bread, and of the baking and mixing, and of all measures of quantity and size.

³⁰They must be present every morning to offer thanks and to praise the LORD, and likewise in the evening;

³¹and at every offering of holocausts to the LORD on sabbaths, new moons, and feast days, in such numbers as are prescribed, they must always be present before the LORD.

³²They shall observe what is prescribed for them concerning the meeting tent, the sanctuary, and the sons of Aaron, their brethren, in the service of the house of the LORD."

24The descendants of Aaron also were divided into classes. The sons of Aaron were Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.

²Nadab and Abihu died before their father, leaving no sons; therefore only Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests.

³David, with Zadok, a descendant of Eleazar, and Ahimelech, a descendant of Ithamar, assigned the functions for the priestly service.

⁴But since the descendants of Eleazar were found to be more numerous than those of Ithamar, the former were divided into sixteen groups, and the latter into eight groups, each under its family head.

⁵Their functions were assigned impartially by lot, for there were officers of the holy place, and officers of the divine presence, descended both from Eleazar and from Ithamar.

⁶The scribe Shemaiah, son of Nethanel, a Levite, made a record of it in the presence of the king, and of the leaders, of Zadok the priest, and of Ahimelech, son of Abiathar, and of the heads of the ancestral houses of the priests and of the Levites, listing two successive family groups from Eleazar before each one from Ithamar.

⁷The first lot fell to Jehoiarib, the second to Jedaiah,

⁸the third to Harim, the fourth to Seorim,

⁹the fifth to Malchijah, the sixth to Mijamin,

¹⁰the seventh to Hakkoz, the eighth to Abijah,

¹¹the ninth to Jeshua, the tenth to Shecaniah,

¹²the eleventh to Eliashib, the twelfth to Jakim,

¹³the thirteenth to Huppah, the fourteenth to Ishbaal,

¹⁴the fifteenth to Bilgah, the sixteenth to Immer,

¹⁵the seventeenth to Hezir, the eighteenth to Happizzez,

¹⁶the nineteenth to Pethahiah, the twentieth to Jehezkel,

¹⁷the twenty-first to Jachin, the twenty-second to Gamul,

¹⁸the twenty-third to Delaiah, the twenty-fourth to Maaziah.

¹⁹This was the appointed order of their service when they functioned in the house of the LORD in keeping with the precepts given them by Aaron, their father, as the LORD, the God of Israel, had commanded him.

²⁰Of the remaining Levites, there were Shubael, of the descendants of Amram, and Jehdeiah, of the descendants of Shubael;

²¹Isshiah, the chief, of the descendants of Rehabiah;

²²Shelomith of the Izharites, and Jahath of the descendants of Shelomith.

²³The descendants of Hebron were Jeriah, the chief, Amariah, the second, Jahaziel, the third, Jekameam, the fourth.

²⁴The descendants of Uzziel were Micah; Shamir, of the descendants of Micah;

²⁵Isshiah, the brother of Micah; and Zechariah, a descendant of Isshiah.

²⁶The descendants of Merari were Mahli, Mushi, and the descendants of his son Uzziah.

²⁷The descendants of Merari through his son Uzziah: Shoham, Zaccur, and Ibri.

²⁸Descendants of Mahli were Eleazar, who had no sons,

²⁹and Jerahmeel, of the descendants of Kish.

³⁰The descendants of Mushi were Mahli, Eder, and Jerimoth. These were the descendants of the Levites according to their ancestral houses.

³¹They too, in the same manner as their relatives, the descendants of Aaron, cast lots in the presence of King David, Zadok, Ahimelech, and the heads of the priestly and levitical families; the more important family did so in the same way as the less important one.

25David and the leaders of the liturgical cult set apart for service the descendants of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, as singers of inspired songs to the accompaniment of lyres and harps and cymbals.This is the list of those who performed this service:

²Of the sons of Asaph: Zaccur, Joseph, Nethaniah, and Asharelah, sons of Asaph, under the direction of Asaph, who sang inspired songs under the guidance of the king.

³Of Jeduthun, these sons of Jeduthun: Gedaliah, Zeri, Jeshaiah, Shimei, Hashabiah, and Mattithiah; six, under the direction of their father Jeduthun, who sang inspired songs to the accompaniment of a lyre, to give thanks and praise to the LORD.

⁴Of Heman, these sons of Heman: Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shubael, and Jerimoth; Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti, Romamti-ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, and Mahazioth.

⁵All these were the sons of Heman, the king's seer in divine matters; to enhance his prestige, God gave Heman fourteen sons and three daughters.

⁶All these, whether of Asaph, Jeduthun, or Heman, were under their fathers' direction in the singing in the house of the LORD to the accompaniment of cymbals, harps and lyres, serving in the house of God, under the guidance of the king.

⁷Their number, together with that of their brethren who were trained in singing to the LORD, all of them skilled men, was two hundred and eighty-eight.

⁸They cast lots for their functions equally, young and old, master and pupil alike.

⁹The first lot fell to Asaph, the family of Joseph; he and his sons and his brethren were twelve. Gedaliah was the second; he and his brethren and his sons were twelve.

¹⁰The third was Zaccur, his sons, and his brethren: twelve.

¹¹The fourth fell to Izri, his sons, and his brethren: twelve.

¹²The fifth was Nethaniah, his sons, and his brethren: twelve.

¹³The sixth was Bukkiah, his sons, and his brethren: twelve.

¹⁴The seventh was Jesarelah, his sons, and his brethren: twelve.

¹⁵The eighth was Jeshaiah, his sons, and his brethren: twelve.

¹⁶The ninth was Mattaniah, his sons, and his brethren: twelve.

¹⁷The tenth was Shimei, his sons, and his brethren: twelve.

¹⁸The eleventh was Uzziel, his sons, and his brethren: twelve.

¹⁹The twelfth fell to Hashabiah, his sons, and his brethren: twelve.

²⁰The thirteenth was Shubael, his sons, and his brethren: twelve.

²¹The fourteenth was Mattithiah, his sons, and his brethren: twelve.

²²The fifteenth fell to Jeremoth, his sons, and his brethren: twelve.

²³The sixteenth fell to Hananiah, his sons, and his brethren: twelve.

²⁴The seventeenth fell to Joshbekashah, his sons, and his brethren: twelve.

²⁵The eighteenth fell to Hanani, his sons, and his brethren: twelve.

²⁶The nineteenth fell to Mallothi, his sons, and his brethren: twelve.

²⁷The twentieth fell to Eliathah, his sons, and his brethren: twelve.

²⁸The twenty-first fell to Hothir, his sons, and his brethren: twelve.

²⁹The twenty-second fell to Giddalti, his sons, and his brethren: twelve.

³⁰The twenty-third fell to Mahazioth, his sons, and his brethren: twelve.

³¹The twenty-fourth fell to Romamti-ezer, his sons, and his brethren: twelve.

26As for the classes of gatekeepers. Of the Korahites was Meshelemiah, the son of Kore, one of the sons of Abiasaph.

²Meshelemiah's sons: Zechariah, the first-born, Jediael, the second son, Zebadiah, the third, Jathniel, the fourth,

³Elam, the fifth, Jehohanan, the sixth, Eliehoenai, the seventh.

⁴Obed-edom's sons: Shemaiah, the first-born, Jehozabad, a second son, Joah, the third, Sachar, the fourth, Nethanel, the fifth,

⁵Ammiel, the sixth, Issachar, the seventh, Peullethai, the eighth, for God blessed him.

⁶To his son Shemaiah were born sons who ruled over their family, for they were warriors.

⁷The sons of Shemaiah were Othni, Rephael, Obed, and Elzabad; also his brethren who were men of might, Elihu and Semachiah.

⁸All these were the sons of Obed-edom, who, together with their sons and their brethren, were mighty men, fit for the service. Of Obed-edom, sixty-two.

⁹Of Meshelemiah, eighteen sons and brethren, mighty men.

¹⁰Hosah, a descendant of Merari, had these sons: Shimri, the chief (for though he was not the first-born, his father made him chief),

¹¹Hilkiah, the second son, Tebaliah, the third, Zechariah, the fourth. All the sons and brethren of Hosah were thirteen.

¹²To these classes of gatekeepers, under their chief men, were assigned watches in the service of the house of the LORD, for each group in the same way.

¹³They cast lots for each gate, the small and the large families alike.

¹⁴When the lot was cast for the east side, it fell to Meshelemiah. Then they cast lots for his son Zechariah, a prudent counselor, and the north side fell to his lot.

¹⁵To Obed-edom fell the south side, and to his sons the storehouse.

¹⁶To Hosah fell the west side with the Shallecheth gate at the ascending highway. For each family, watches were established.

¹⁷On the east, six watched each day, on the north, four each day, on the south, four each day, and at the storehouse they were two and two;

¹⁸as for the large building on the west, there were four at the highway and two at the large building.

¹⁹These were the classes of the gatekeepers, descendants of Kore and Merari.

²⁰Their brother Levites superintended the stores for the house of God and the stores of votive offerings.

²¹Among the descendants of Ladan the Gershonite, the family heads were descendants of Jehiel: the descendants of Jehiel,

²²Zetham and his brother Joel, who superintended the treasures of the house of the LORD.

²³From the Amramites, Izharites, Hebronites, and Uzzielites,

²⁴Shubael, son of Gershon, son of Moses, was chief superintendent over the treasures.

²⁵His associate pertained to Eliezer, whose son was Rehabiah, whose son was Jeshaiah, whose son was Joram, whose son was Zichri, whose son was Shelomith.

²⁶This Shelomith and his brethren superintended all the stores of the votive offerings dedicated by King David, the heads of the families, the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and the commanders of the army,

²⁷from the booty they had taken in the wars, for the enhancement of the house of the LORD.

²⁸Also, whatever Samuel the seer, Saul, son of Kish, Abner, son of Ner, Joab, son of Zeruiah, and all others had consecrated, was under the charge of Shelomith and his brethren.

²⁹Among the Izharites, Chenaniah and his sons were in charge of Israel's civil affairs as officials and judges.

³⁰Among the Hebronites, Hashabiah and his brethren, one thousand seven hundred police officers, had the administration of Israel on the western side of the Jordan in all the work of the LORD and in the service of the king.

³¹Among the Hebronites, Jerijah was their chief according to their family records. In the fortieth year of David's reign search was made, and there were found among them outstanding officers at Jazer of Gilead.

³²His brethren were also police officers, two thousand seven hundred heads of families. King David appointed them to the administration of the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh in everything pertaining to God and to the king.

27This is the list of the Israelite family heads, commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and other officers who served the king in all that pertained to the divisions, of twenty-four thousand men each, that came and went month by month throughout the year.

²Over the first division for the first month was Ishbaal, son of Zabdiel, and in his division were twenty-four thousand men;

³a descendant of Perez, he was chief over all the commanders of the army for the first month.

⁴Over the division of the second month was Eleazar, son of Dodo, from Ahoh, and in his division were twenty-four thousand men.

⁵The third army commander, chief for the third month, was Benaiah, son of Jehoiada the priest, and in his division were twenty-four thousand men.

⁶This Benaiah was a warrior among the Thirty and over the Thirty. His son Ammizabad was over his division.

⁷Fourth, for the fourth month, was Asahel, brother of Joab, and after him his son Zebadiah, and in his division were twenty-four thousand men.

⁸Fifth, for the fifth month, was the commander Shamhuth, a descendant of Zerah, and in his division were twenty-four thousand men.

⁹Sixth, for the sixth month, was Ira, son of Ikkesh, from Tekoa, and in his division were twenty-four thousand men.

¹⁰Seventh, for the seventh month, was Hellez, from Beth-phelet, of the sons of Ephraim, and in his division were twenty-four thousand men.

¹¹Eighth, for the eighth month, was Sibbecai the Hushathite, a descendant of Zerah, and in his division were twenty-four thousand men.

¹²Ninth, for the ninth month, was Abiezer from Anathoth, of Benjamin, and in his division were twenty-four thousand men.

¹³Tenth, for the tenth month, was Maharai from Netophah, a descendant of Zerah, and in his division were twenty-four thousand men.

¹⁴Eleventh, for the eleventh month, was Benaiah the Pirathonite, of Ephraim, and in his division were twenty-four thousand men.

¹⁵Twelfth, for the twelfth month, was Heldai the Netophathite, of the family of Othniel, and in his division were twenty-four thousand men.

¹⁶Over the tribes of Israel, for the Reubenites the leader was Eliezer, son of Zichri; for the Simeonites, Shephatiah, son of Maacah;

¹⁷for Levi, Hashabiah, son of Kemuel; for Aaron, Zadok;

¹⁸for Judah, Eliab, one of David's brothers; for Issachar, Omri, son of Michael;

¹⁹for Zebulun, Ishmaiah, son of Obadiah; for Naphtali, Jeremoth, son of Azriel;

²⁰for the sons of Ephraim, Hoshea, son of Azaziah; for the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joel, son of Pedaiah;

²¹for the half-tribe of Manasseh in Gilead, Iddo, son of Zechariah; for Benjamin, Jaasiel, son of Abner;

²²for Dan, Azarel, son of Jeroham. These were the commanders of the tribes of Israel.

²³David did not count those who were twenty years of age or younger, for the LORD had promised to multiply Israel like the stars of the heavens.

²⁴Joab, son of Zeruiah, began to take the census, but he did not complete it, for because of it wrath fell upon Israel. Therefore the number did not enter into the book of chronicles of King David.

²⁵Over the treasures of the king was Azmaveth, the son of Adiel. Over the stores in the country, the cities, the villages, and the towers was Jonathan, son of Uzziah.

²⁶Over the farm workers who tilled the soil was Ezri, son of Chelub.

²⁷Over the vineyards was Shimei from Ramah, and over their produce for the wine cellars was Zabdi the Shiphmite.

²⁸Over the olive trees and sycamores of the foothills was Baalhanan the Gederite, and over the stores of oil was Joash.

²⁹Over the cattle that grazed in Sharon was Shitrai the Sharonite, and over the cattle in the valleys was Shaphat, the son of Adlai;

³⁰over the camels was Obil the Ishmaelite; over the she-asses was Jehdeiah the Meronothite;

³¹and over the flocks was Jaziz the Hagrite. All these were the overseers of King David's possessions.

³²Jonathan, David's uncle and a man of intelligence, was counselor and scribe; he and Jehiel, the son of Hachmoni, were tutors of the king's sons.

³³Ahithophel was also the king's counselor, and Hushai the Archite was the king's confidant.

³⁴After Ahithophel came Jehoiada, the son of Benaiah, and Abiathar. The commander of the king's army was Joab.

28David assembled at Jerusalem all the leaders of Israel, the heads of the tribes, the commanders of the divisions who were in the service of the king, the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, the overseers of all the king's estates and possessions, and his sons, together with the courtiers, the warriors, and every important man.

²King David rose to his feet and said: "Hear me, my brethren and my people. It was my purpose to build a house of repose myself for the ark of the covenant of the LORD, the footstool for the feet of our God; and I was preparing to build it.

³But God said to me, 'You may not build a house in my honor, for you are a man who fought wars and shed blood.'

⁴However, the LORD, the God of Israel, chose me from all my father's family to be king over Israel forever. For he chose Judah as leader, then one family of Judah, that of my father; and finally, among all the sons of my father, it pleased him to make me king over all Israel.

⁵And of all my sons--for the LORD has given me many sons--he has chosen my son Solomon to sit on the LORD'S royal throne over Israel.

⁶For he said to me: 'It is your son Solomon who shall build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him for my son, and I will be a father to him.

⁷I will establish his kingdom forever, if he perseveres in keeping my commandments and decrees as he keeps them now.'

⁸Therefore, in the presence of all Israel, the assembly of the LORD, and in the hearing of our God, I exhort you to keep and to carry out all the commandments of the LORD, your God, that you may continue to possess this good land and afterward leave it as an inheritance to your children forever.

⁹"As for you, Solomon, my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a perfect heart and a willing soul, for the LORD searches all hearts and understands all the mind's thoughts. If you seek him, he will let himself be found by you; but if you abandon him, he will cast you off forever.

¹⁰See, then! The LORD has chosen you to build a house as his sanctuary. Take courage and set to work."

¹¹Then David gave to his son Solomon the pattern of the portico and of the building itself, with its storerooms, its upper rooms and inner chambers, and the room with the propitiatory.

¹²He provided also the pattern for all else that he had in mind by way of courts for the house of the LORD, with the surrounding compartments for the stores for the house of God and the stores of the votive offerings,

¹³as well as for the divisions of the priests and Levites, for all the work of the service of the house of the LORD, and for all the liturgical vessels of the house of the LORD.

¹⁴He specified the weight of gold to be used in the golden vessels for the various services and the weight of silver to be used in the silver vessels for the various services;

¹⁵likewise for the golden lampstands and their lamps he specified the weight of gold for each lampstand and its lamps, and for the silver lampstands he specified the weight of silver for each lampstand and its lamps, depending on the use to which each lampstand was to be put.

¹⁶He specified the weight of gold for each table to hold the showbread, and the silver for the silver tables;

¹⁷the pure gold to be used for the forks and pitchers; the amount of gold for each golden bowl and the silver for each silver bowl;

¹⁸the refined gold, and its weight, to be used for the altar of incense; and, finally, gold for what would suggest a chariot throne: the cherubim that spread their wings and covered the ark of the covenant of the LORD.

¹⁹He had successfully committed to writing the exact specifications of the pattern, because the hand of the LORD was upon him.

²⁰Then David said to his son Solomon: "Be firm and steadfast; go to work without fear or discouragement, for the LORD God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or abandon you before you have completed all the work for the service of the house of the LORD.

²¹The classes of the priests and Levites are ready for all the service of the house of God; they will help you in all your work with all those who are eager to show their skill in every kind of craftsmanship. Also the leaders and all the people will do everything that you command."

29King David then said to the whole assembly: "My son Solomon, whom alone God has chosen, is still young and immature; the work, however, is great, for this castle is not intended for man, but for the LORD God.

²For this reason I have stored up for the house of my God, as far as I was able, gold for what will be made of gold, silver for what will be made of silver, bronze for what will be made of bronze, iron for what will be made of iron, wood for what will be made of wood, onyx stones and settings for them, carnelian and mosaic stones, every other kind of precious stone, and great quantities of marble.

³But now, because of the delight I take in the house of my God, in addition to all that I stored up for the holy house, I give to the house of my God my personal fortune in gold and silver:

⁴three thousand talents of Ophir gold, and seven thousand talents of refined silver, for overlaying the walls of the rooms,

⁵for the various utensils to be made of gold and silver, and for every work that is to be done by artisans. Now, who else is willing to contribute generously this day to the LORD?"

⁶Then the heads of the families, the leaders of the tribes of Israel, the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and the overseers of the king's affairs came forward willingly

⁷and contributed for the service of the house of God five thousand talents and ten thousand darics of gold, ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of bronze, and one hundred thousand talents of iron.

⁸Those who had precious stones gave them into the keeping of Jehiel the Gershonite for the treasury of the house of the LORD.

⁹The people rejoiced over these free-will offerings, which had been contributed to the LORD wholeheartedly. King David also rejoiced greatly.

¹⁰Then David blessed the LORD in the presence of the whole assembly, praying in these words: "Blessed may you be, O LORD, God of Israel our father, from eternity to eternity.

¹¹"Yours, O LORD, are grandeur and power, majesty, splendor, and glory. For all in heaven and on earth is yours; yours, O LORD, is the sovereignty; you are exalted as head over all.

¹²"Riches and honor are from you, and you have dominion over all. In your hand are power and might; it is yours to give grandeur and strength to all.

¹³Therefore, our God, we give you thanks and we praise the majesty of your name."

¹⁴"But who am I, and who are my people, that we should have the means to contribute so freely? For everything is from you, and we only give you what we have received from you.

¹⁵For we stand before you as aliens: we are only your guests, like all our fathers. Our life on earth is like a shadow that does not abide.

¹⁶O LORD our God, all this wealth that we have brought together to build you a house in honor of your holy name comes from you and is entirely yours.

¹⁷I know, O my God, that you put hearts to the test and that you take pleasure in uprightness. With a sincere heart I have willingly given all these things, and now with joy I have seen your people here present also giving to you generously.

¹⁸O LORD, God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, keep such thoughts in the hearts and minds of your people forever, and direct their hearts toward you.

¹⁹Give to my son Solomon a wholehearted desire to keep your commandments, precepts, and statutes, that he may carry out all these plans and build the castle for which I have made preparation."

²⁰Then David besought the whole assembly, "Now bless the LORD your God!" And the whole assembly blessed the LORD, the God of their fathers, bowing down and prostrating themselves before the LORD and before the king.

²¹On the following day they offered sacrifices and holocausts to the LORD, a thousand bulls, a thousand rams, and a thousand lambs, together with their libations and many other sacrifices for all Israel;

²²and on that day they ate and drank in the LORD'S presence with great rejoicing. Then for a second time they proclaimed David's son Solomon king, and they anointed him as the LORD'S prince, and Zadok as priest.

²³Thereafter Solomon sat on the throne of the LORD as king in place of his father David; he prospered, and all Israel obeyed him.

²⁴All the leaders and warriors, and also all the other sons of King David, swore allegiance to King Solomon.

²⁵And the LORD exalted Solomon greatly in the eyes of all Israel, giving him a glorious reign such as had not been enjoyed by any king over Israel before him.

²⁶Thus David, the son of Jesse, had reigned over all Israel.

²⁷The time that he reigned over Israel was forty years: in Hebron he reigned seven years, and in Jerusalem thirty-three.

²⁸He died at a ripe old age, rich in years and wealth and glory, and his son Solomon succeeded him as king.

²⁹Now the deeds of King David, first and last, can be found written in the history of Samuel the seer, the history of Nathan the prophet, and the history of Gad the seer,

³⁰together with the particulars of his reign and valor, and of the events that affected him and all Israel and all the kingdoms of the surrounding lands.

1Solomon, son of David, strengthened his hold on the kingdom, for the LORD, his God, was with him, constantly making him more renowned.

²He sent a summons to all Israel, to the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, the judges, the princes of all Israel, and the family heads;

³and, accompanied by the whole assembly, he went to the high place at Gibeon, because the meeting tent of God, made in the desert by Moses, the LORD'S servant, was there.

⁴(The ark of God, however, David had brought up from Kiriath-jearim to Jerusalem, where he had provided a place and pitched a tent for it.)

⁵The bronze altar made by Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, he put in front of the LORD'S Dwelling on the high place. There Solomon and the assembly consulted the LORD,

⁶and Solomon offered sacrifice in the LORD'S presence on the bronze altar at the meeting tent; he offered a thousand holocausts upon it.

⁷That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, "Make a request of me, and I will grant it to you."

⁸Solomon answered God: "You have shown great favor to my father David, and you have allowed me to succeed him as king.

⁹Now, LORD God, may your promise to my father David be fulfilled, for you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth.

¹⁰Give me, therefore, wisdom and knowledge to lead this people, for otherwise who could rule this great people of yours?"

¹¹God then replied to Solomon: "Since this has been your wish and you have not asked for riches, treasures and glory, nor for the life of those who hate you, nor even for a long life for yourself, but have asked for wisdom and knowledge in order to rule my people over whom I have made you king,

¹²wisdom and knowledge are given you; but I will also give you riches, treasures and glory, such as kings before you never had, nor will those have them who come after you."

¹³Solomon returned to Jerusalem from the high place at Gibeon, from the meeting tent, and became king over Israel.

¹⁴He gathered together chariots and drivers, so that he had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand drivers he could station in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.

¹⁵The king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stones, while cedars became as numerous as the sycamores of the foothills.

¹⁶Solomon also imported horses from Egypt and Cilicia. The king's agents would acquire them by purchase from Cilicia,

¹⁷and would then bring up chariots from Egypt and export them at six hundred silver shekels, with the horses going for a hundred and fifty shekels. At these rates they served as middlemen for all the Hittite and Aramean kings.

¹⁸Solomon gave orders for the building of a house to honor the LORD and also of a house for his own royal estate.

2He conscripted seventy thousand men to carry stone and eighty thousand to cut the stone in the mountains, and over these he placed three thousand six hundred overseers.

²Moreover, Solomon sent this message to Huram, king of Tyre: "As you dealt with my father David, sending him cedars to build a house for his dwelling, so deal with me.

³I intend to build a house for the honor of the LORD, my God, and to consecrate it to him, for the burning of fragrant incense in his presence, for the perpetual display of the showbread, for holocausts morning and evening, and for the sabbaths, new moons, and festivals of the LORD, our God: such is Israel's perpetual obligation.

⁴And the house I intend to build must be large, for our God is greater than all other gods.

⁵Yet who is really able to build him a house, since the heavens and even the highest heavens cannot contain him? And who am I that I should build him a house, unless it be to offer incense in his presence?

⁶Now, send me men skilled at work in gold, silver, bronze and iron, in purple, crimson, and violet fabrics, and who know how to do engraved work, to join the craftsmen who are with me in Judah and Jerusalem, whom my father David appointed.

⁷Also send me boards of cedar, cypress and cabinet wood from Lebanon, for I realize that your servants know how to cut the wood of the Lebanon. My servants will labor with yours

⁸in order to prepare for me a great quantity of wood, since the house I intend to build must be lofty and wonderful.

⁹I will furnish as food for your servants, the hewers who cut the wood, twenty thousand kors of wheat, twenty thousand kors of barley, twenty thousand measures of wine, and twenty thousand measures of oil."

¹⁰Huram, king of Tyre, wrote an answer which he sent to Solomon: "Because the LORD loves his people, he has placed you over them as king."

¹¹He added: "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, for having given King David a wise son of intelligence and understanding, who will build a house for the LORD and also a house for his royal estate.

¹²I am now sending you a craftsman of great skill, Huram-abi,

¹³son of a Danite woman and of a father from Tyre; he knows how to work with gold, silver, bronze and iron, with stone and wood, with purple, violet, fine linen and crimson, and also how to do all kinds of engraved work and to devise every type of artistic work that may be given him and your craftsmen and the craftsmen of my lord David your father.

¹⁴And now, let my lord send to his servants the wheat, barley, oil and wine which he has promised.

¹⁵For our part, we will cut trees on Lebanon, as many as you need, and float them down to you at the port of Joppa, whence you may take them up to Jerusalem."

¹⁶Thereupon Solomon took a census of all the alien men who were in the land of Israel (following the census David his father had taken of them), who were found to number one hundred fifty-three thousand six hundred.

¹⁷Of these he made seventy thousand carriers and eighty thousand cutters in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred overseers to keep the people working.

3Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, which had been pointed out to his father David, on the spot which David had selected, the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

²He began to build in the second month of the fourth year of his reign.

³These were the specifications laid down by Solomon for building the house of God: the length was sixty cubits according to the old measure, and the width was twenty cubits;

⁴the porch which lay before the nave along the width of the house was also twenty cubits, and it was twenty cubits high. He overlaid its interior with pure gold.

⁵The nave he overlaid with cypress wood which he covered with fine gold, embossing on it palms and chains.

⁶He also decorated the building with precious stones.

⁷The house, its beams and thresholds, as well as its walls and its doors, he overlaid with gold, and he engraved cherubim upon the walls. (The gold was from Parvaim.)

⁸He also made the room of the holy of holies. Its length corresponded to the width of the house, twenty cubits, and its width was also twenty cubits. He overlaid it with fine gold to the amount of six hundred talents.

⁹The weight of the nails was fifty gold shekels. The upper chambers he likewise covered with gold.

¹⁰For the room of the holy of holies he made two cherubim of carved workmanship, which were then overlaid with gold.

¹¹The wings of the cherubim spanned twenty cubits:

¹²one wing of each cherub, five cubits in length, extended to a wall of the building, while the other wing, also five cubits in length, touched the corresponding wing of the second cherub.

¹³The combined wingspread of the two cherubim was thus twenty cubits. They stood upon their own feet, facing toward the nave.

¹⁴He made the veil of violet, purple, crimson and fine linen, and had cherubim embroidered upon it.

¹⁵In front of the building he set two columns thirty-five cubits high; the capital topping each was of five cubits.

¹⁶He worked out chains in the form of a collar with which he encircled the capitals of the columns, and he made a hundred pomegranates which he set on the chains.

¹⁷He set up the columns to correspond with the nave, one for the right side and the other for the left, and he called the one to the right Jachin and the one to the left Boaz.

4Then he made a bronze altar twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and ten cubits high.

²He also made the molten sea. It was perfectly round, ten cubits in diameter, five in depth, and thirty in circumference;

³below the rim a ring of figures of oxen encircled the sea, ten to the cubit, all the way around; there were two rows of these cast in the same mold with the sea.

⁴It rested on twelve oxen, three facing north, three west, three south, and three east, with their haunches all toward the center; the sea rested on their backs.

⁵It was a handbreadth thick, and its brim was made like that of a cup, being lily-shaped. It had a capacity of three thousand measures.

⁶Then he made ten basins for washing, placing five of them to the right and five to the left. Here were cleansed the victims for the holocausts; but the sea was for the priests to wash in.

⁷He made the lampstands of gold, ten of them as was prescribed, and placed them in the nave, five to the right and five to the left.

⁸He made ten tables and had them set in the nave, five to the right and five to the left; and he made a hundred golden bowls.

⁹He made the court of the priests and the great courtyard and the gates of the courtyard; the gates he overlaid with bronze.

¹⁰The sea was placed off to the southeast from the right side of the temple.

¹¹Huram also made the pots, the shovels and the bowls. Huram thus completed the work he had to do for King Solomon in the house of God:

¹²two columns, two nodes for the capitals topping these two columns, and two networks covering the nodes of the capitals topping the columns;

¹³also four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, with two rows of pomegranates to each network, to cover the two nodes of the capitals topping the columns.

¹⁴He made the stands, and the basins on the stands;

¹⁵one sea, and the twelve oxen under it;

¹⁶likewise the pots, the shovels and the forks. Huram-abi made all these articles for King Solomon from polished bronze for the house of the LORD.

¹⁷The king had them cast in the Jordan region, in the clayey ground between Succoth and Zeredah.

¹⁸Solomon made all these vessels, so many in number that the weight of the bronze was not ascertained.

¹⁹Solomon had all these articles made for the house of God: the golden altar, the tables on which the showbread lay,

²⁰the lampstands and their lamps of pure gold which were to burn according to prescription before the sanctuary,

²¹flowers, lamps and gold tongs (this was the purest gold),

²²snuffers, bowls, cups and firepans of pure gold. As for the entry to the house, its inner doors to the holy of holies, as well as the doors to the nave, were of gold.

5When all the work undertaken by Solomon for the temple of the LORD had been completed, he brought in the dedicated offerings of his father David, putting the silver, the gold and all the other articles in the treasuries of the house of God.

²At Solomon's order the elders of Israel and all the leaders of the tribes, the princes of the Israelite ancestral houses, came to Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the LORD'S covenant from the City of David (which is Zion).

³All the men of Israel assembled before the king during the festival of the seventh month.

⁴When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the Levites took up the ark,

⁵and they carried the ark and the meeting tent with all the sacred vessels that were in the tent; it was the levitical priests who carried them.

⁶King Solomon and the entire community of Israel gathered about him before the ark were sacrificing sheep and oxen so numerous that they could not be counted or numbered.

⁷The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place beneath the wings of the cherubim in the sanctuary, the holy of holies of the temple.

⁸The cherubim had their wings spread out over the place of the ark, sheltering the ark and its poles from above.

⁹The poles were long enough so that their ends could be seen from that part of the holy place nearest the sanctuary; however, they could not be seen beyond. The ark has remained there to this day.

¹⁰There was nothing in it but the two tablets which Moses put there on Horeb, the tablets of the covenant which the LORD made with the Israelites at their departure from Egypt.

¹¹When the priests came out of the holy place (all the priests who were present had purified themselves without reference to the rotation of their various classes),

¹²the Levites who were singers, all who belonged to Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and brothers, clothed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps and lyres, stood east of the altar, and with them a hundred and twenty priests blowing trumpets.

¹³When the trumpeters and singers were heard as a single voice praising and giving thanks to the LORD, and when they raised the sound of the trumpets, cymbals and other musical instruments to "give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever," the building of the LORD'S temple was filled with a cloud.

¹⁴The priests could not continue to minister because of the cloud, since the LORD'S glory filled the house of God.

6Then Solomon said: "The LORD intends to dwell in the dark cloud.

²I have truly built you a princely house and dwelling, where you may abide forever."

³Turning about, the king greeted the whole community of Israel as they stood.

⁴He said: "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who with his own mouth made a promise to my father David and by his own hands brought it to fulfillment. He said:

⁵'Since the day I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I have not chosen any city from among all the tribes of Israel for the building of a temple to my honor, nor have I chosen any man to be commander of my people Israel;

⁶but now I choose Jerusalem, where I shall be honored, and I choose David to rule my people Israel.'

⁷My father David wished to build a temple to the honor of the LORD, the God of Israel,

⁸but the LORD said to him: 'In wishing to build a temple to my honor, you do well.

⁹However, you shall not build the temple; rather, your son whom you will beget shall build the temple to my honor.'

¹⁰"Now the LORD has fulfilled the promise that he made. I have succeeded my father David and have taken my seat on the throne of Israel, as the LORD foretold, and I have built the temple to the honor of the LORD, the God of Israel.

¹¹And I have placed there the ark, in which abides the covenant of the LORD which he made with the Israelites."

¹²Solomon then took his place before the altar of the LORD in the presence of the whole community of Israel and stretched forth his hands.

¹³He had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, which he had placed in the middle of the courtyard. Having ascended it, Solomon knelt in the presence of the whole of Israel and stretched forth his hands toward heaven.

¹⁴Thus he prayed: "LORD, God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven or on earth; you keep your covenant and show kindness to your servants who are wholeheartedly faithful to you.

¹⁵You have kept the promise you made to my father David, your servant. With your own mouth you spoke it, and by your own hand you have brought it to fulfillment this day.

¹⁶Now, therefore, LORD, God of Israel, keep the further promise you made to my father David, your servant, when you said, 'You shall always have someone from your line to sit before me on the throne of Israel, provided only that your descendants look to their conduct so as always to live according to my law, even as you have lived in my presence.'

¹⁷Now, LORD, God of Israel, may this promise which you made to your servant David be confirmed.

¹⁸"Can it indeed be that God dwells with mankind on earth? If the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain you, how much less this temple which I have built!

¹⁹Look kindly on the prayer and petition of your servant, O LORD, my God, and listen to the cry of supplication your servant makes before you.

²⁰May your eyes watch day and night over this temple, the place where you have decreed you shall be honored; may you heed the prayer which I your servant offer toward this place.

²¹Listen to the petitions of your servant and of your people Israel which they direct toward this place. Listen from your heavenly dwelling, and when you have heard, pardon.

²²"When any man sins against his neighbor and is required to take an oath of execration against himself, and when he comes for the oath before your altar in this temple,

²³listen from heaven: take action and pass judgment on your servants, requiting the wicked man and holding him responsible for his conduct, but absolving the innocent and rewarding him according to his virtue.

²⁴When your people Israel have sinned against you and are defeated by the enemy, but afterward they return and praise your name, and they pray to you and entreat you in this temple,

²⁵listen from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which you gave them and their fathers.

²⁶When the sky is closed so that there is no rain, because they have sinned against you, but then they pray toward this place and praise your name, and they withdraw from sin because you afflict them,

²⁷listen in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants and of your people Israel. But teach them the right way to live, and send rain upon your land which you gave your people as their heritage.

²⁸When there is famine in the land, when there is pestilence, or blight, or mildew, or locusts, or caterpillars; when their enemies besiege them at any of their gates; whenever there is a plague or sickness of any kind;

²⁹when any Israelite of all your people offers a prayer or petition of any kind, and in awareness of his affliction and pain, stretches out his hands toward this temple,

³⁰listen from your heavenly dwelling place, and forgive. Knowing his heart, render to everyone according to his conduct, for you alone know the hearts of men.

³¹So may they fear you and walk in your ways as long as they live on the land you gave our fathers.

³²"For the foreigner, too, who is not of your people Israel, when he comes from a distant land to honor your great name, your mighty power, and your outstretched arm, when they come in prayer to this temple,

³³listen from your heavenly dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner entreats you, that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, fearing you as do your people Israel, and knowing that this house which I have built is dedicated to your honor.

³⁴"When your people go forth to war against their enemies, wherever you send them, and pray to you in the direction of this city and of the house I have built to your honor,

³⁵listen from heaven to their prayer and petition, and defend their cause.

³⁶When they sin against you (for there is no man who does not sin), and in your anger against them you deliver them to the enemy, so that their captors deport them to another land, far or near,

³⁷when they repent in the land where they are captive and are converted, when they entreat you in the land of their captivity and say, 'We have sinned and done wrong; we have been wicked,'

³⁸and with their whole heart and with their whole soul they turn back to you in the land of those who hold them captive, when they pray in the direction of their land which you gave their fathers, and of the city you have chosen, and of the house which I have built to your honor,

³⁹listen from your heavenly dwelling place, hear their prayer and petitions, and uphold their cause. Forgive your people who have sinned against you.

⁴⁰My God, may your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayer of this place.

⁴¹And now, "Advance, LORD God, to your resting place, you and the ark of your majesty. May your priests, LORD God, be clothed with salvation, may your faithful ones rejoice in good things.

⁴²LORD God, reject not the plea of your anointed, remember the devotion of David, your servant."

7When Solomon had ended his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the holocaust and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the house.

²But the priests could not enter the house of the LORD, for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD.

³All the Israelites looked on while the fire came down and the glory of the LORD was upon the house, and they fell down upon the pavement with their faces to the earth and adored, praising the LORD, "for he is good, for his mercy endures forever."

⁴The king and all the people were offering sacrifices before the LORD.

⁵King Solomon offered as sacrifice twenty-two thousand oxen, and one hundred twenty thousand sheep.

⁶Thus the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. The priests were standing at their stations, as were the Levites, with the musical instruments of the LORD which King David had made for "praising the LORD, for his mercy endures forever," when David used them to accompany the hymns. Across from them the priests blew the trumpets and all Israel stood.

⁷Then Solomon consecrated the middle part of the court which lay before the house of the LORD; there he offered the holocausts and the fat of the peace offerings, since the bronze altar which Solomon had made could not hold the holocausts, the cereal offerings and the fat.

⁸On this occasion Solomon and with him all Israel, who had assembled in very large numbers from Labo of Hamath to the Wadi of Egypt, celebrated the festival for seven days.

⁹On the eighth day they held a special meeting, for they had celebrated the dedication of the altar for seven days and the feast for seven days.

¹⁰On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people back to their tents, rejoicing and glad at heart at the good things the LORD had done for David, for Solomon, and for his people Israel.

¹¹Solomon completed the house of the LORD and the royal palace; he successfully accomplished everything he had planned to do in regard to the house of the LORD and his own house.

¹²The LORD appeared to Solomon during the night and said to him: "I have heard your prayer, and I have chosen this place for my house of sacrifice.

¹³If I close heaven so that there is no rain, if I command the locust to devour the land, if I send pestilence among my people,

¹⁴and if my people, upon whom my name has been pronounced, humble themselves and pray, and seek my presence and turn from their evil ways, I will hear them from heaven and pardon their sins and revive their land.

¹⁵Now my eyes shall be open and my ears attentive to the prayer of this place.

¹⁶And now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever; my eyes and my heart also shall be there always.

¹⁷"As for you, if you live in my presence as your father David did, doing all that I have commanded you and keeping my statutes and ordinances,

¹⁸I will establish your royal throne as I covenanted with your father David when I said, 'There shall never be lacking someone of yours as ruler in Israel.'

¹⁹But if you turn away and forsake my statutes and commands which I placed before you, if you proceed to venerate and worship strange gods,

²⁰then I will uproot the people from the land I gave them; I will cast from my sight this house which I have consecrated to my honor, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

²¹This temple which is so exalted--everyone passing by it will be amazed and ask: 'Why has the LORD done this to this land and to this house?'

²²And men will answer: 'They forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they adopted strange gods and worshiped them and served them. That is why he has brought down upon them all this evil.'"

8After the twenty years during which Solomon built the house of the LORD and his own house,

²he built up the cities which Huram had given him, and settled Israelites there.

³Then Solomon went to Hamath of Zoba and conquered it.

⁴He built Tadmor in the desert region and all the supply cities, which he built in Hamath.

⁵He built Upper Beth-horon and Lower Beth-horon, fortified cities with walls, gates and bars;

⁶also Baalath, all the supply cities belonging to Solomon, and all the cities for the chariots, the cities for the horsemen, and whatever else Solomon decided should be built in Jerusalem, in the Lebanon, and in the entire land under his dominion.

⁷All the people that remained of the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not of Israel--

⁸that is, their descendants remaining in the land, whom the Israelites had not destroyed--Solomon subjected to forced labor, as they continue to this day.

⁹But Solomon did not enslave the Israelites for his works. They became soldiers, commanders of his warriors, and commanders of his chariots and his horsemen.

¹⁰They were also King Solomon's two hundred and fifty overseers who had charge of the people.

¹¹Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh up from the City of David to the palace which he had built for her, for he said, "No wife of mine shall dwell in the house of David, king of Israel, for the places where the ark of the LORD has come are holy."

¹²In those times Solomon offered holocausts to the LORD upon the altar of the LORD which he had built in front of the porch,

¹³as was required day by day according to the command of Moses, and in particular on the sabbaths, at the new moons, and on the fixed festivals three times a year: on the feast of the Unleavened Bread, the feast of Weeks and the feast of Booths.

¹⁴And according to the ordinance of his father David he appointed the various classes of the priests for their service, and the Levites according to their functions of praise and ministry alongside the priests, as the daily duty required. The gatekeepers of the various classes stood guard at each gate, since such was the command of David, the man of God.

¹⁵There was no deviation from the king's command in any respect relating to the priests and Levites or the treasuries.

¹⁶All of Solomon's work was carried out successfully from the day the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid until the house of the LORD had been completed in every detail.

¹⁷In those times Solomon went to Ezion-geber and to Elath on the seashore of the land of Edom.

¹⁸Huram, through his servants, sent him ships and crewmen acquainted with the sea, who accompanied Solomon's servants to Ophir and brought back from there four hundred and fifty talents of gold to King Solomon.

9When the queen of Sheba heard of Solomon's fame, she came to Jerusalem to test him with subtle questions, accompanied by a very numerous retinue and by camels bearing spices, much gold, and precious stones. She came to Solomon and questioned him on every subject in which she was interested.

²Solomon explained to her everything she asked about, and there remained nothing hidden from Solomon that he could not explain to her.

³When the queen of Sheba witnessed Solomon's wisdom, the palace he had built,

⁴the food at his table, the seating of his ministers, the attendance of his servants and their dress, his cupbearers and their dress, and the holocausts he offered in the house of the LORD, it took her breath away.

⁵"The account I heard in my country about your deeds and your wisdom is true," she told the king.

⁶"Yet I did not believe the report until I came and saw with my own eyes. I have discovered that they did not tell me the half of your great wisdom; you have surpassed the stories I heard.

⁷Happy are your men, happy these servants of yours, who stand before you always and listen to your wisdom.

⁸Blessed be the LORD, your God, who has been so pleased with you as to place you on his throne as king for the LORD, your God. Because your God has so loved Israel as to will to make it last forever, he has appointed you over them as king to administer right and justice."

⁹Then she gave the king one hundred and twenty gold talents and a very large quantity of spices, as well as precious stones. There was no other spice like that which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

¹⁰The servants of Huram and of Solomon who brought gold from Ophir also brought cabinet wood and precious stones.

¹¹With the cabinet wood the king made stairs for the temple of the LORD and the palace of the king; also lyres and harps for the chanters. The like of these had not been seen before in the land of Judah.

¹²King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba everything she desired and asked him for, more than she had brought to the king. Then she returned to her own country with her servants.

¹³The gold that Solomon received each year weighed six hundred and sixty-six gold talents,

¹⁴in addition to what was collected from travelers and what the merchants brought. All the kings of Arabia also, and the governors of the country, brought gold and silver to Solomon.

¹⁵Moreover, King Solomon made two hundred large shields of beaten gold, six hundred shekels of beaten gold going into each shield,

¹⁶and three hundred bucklers of beaten gold, three hundred shekels of gold going into each buckler; these the king put in the hall of the Forest of Lebanon.

¹⁷King Solomon also made a large ivory throne which he overlaid with fine gold.

¹⁸The throne had six steps; a footstool of gold was fastened to it, and there was an arm on each side of the seat, with two lions standing beside the arms.

¹⁹Twelve other lions also stood there, one on either side of each step. Nothing like this had ever been produced in any other kingdom.

²⁰Furthermore, all of King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the utensils in the hall of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; silver was not considered of value in Solomon's time.

²¹For the king had ships that went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram. Once every three years the fleet of Tarshish would return with a cargo of gold and silver, ivory, apes and monkeys.

²²Thus King Solomon surpassed all the other kings of the earth in riches as well as in wisdom.

²³All the kings of the earth sought audience with Solomon, to hear from him the wisdom which God had put in his heart.

²⁴Year in and year out, each one would bring his tribute-silver and gold articles, garments, weapons, spices, horses and mules.

²⁵Solomon also had four thousand stalls of horses, chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, which he assigned to the chariot cities and to the king in Jerusalem.

²⁶He was ruler over all the kings from the River to the land of the Philistines and down to the border of Egypt.

²⁷The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, while cedars became as numerous as the sycamores of the foothills.

²⁸Horses were imported for Solomon from Egypt and from all the lands.

²⁹The rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are written, as is well known, in the acts of Nathan the prophet, in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer which concern Jeroboam, son of Nebat.

³⁰Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel for forty years.

³¹He rested with his ancestors; he was buried in his father's City of David, and his son Rehoboam succeeded him as king.

10Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to proclaim him king.

²When Jeroboam, son of Nebat, heard of this in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon, he returned from Egypt.

³Jeroboam was summoned to the assembly, and he and all Israel said to Rehoboam:

⁴"Your father laid a heavy yoke upon us. If you now lighten the harsh service and the heavy yoke that your father imposed on us, we will serve you."

⁵"In three days," he answered them, "come back to me." When the people had departed,

⁶King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had been in the service of his father during Solomon's lifetime, asking, "What answer do you advise me to give this people?"

⁷They replied, "If you will deal kindly with this people and give in to them, acceding to their request, they will be your servants forever."

⁸But he ignored the advice the elders had given him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were in his service.

⁹He said to them, "What answer do you advise me to give this people, who have asked me to lighten the yoke my father imposed on them?"

¹⁰The young men who had grown up with him replied: "This is the answer you should give to this people who have said to you, 'Your father laid a heavy yoke upon us, but do you lighten our yoke'; this you should say to them: 'My little finger is thicker than my father's body.

¹¹Whereas my father put a heavy yoke on you, I will make it heavier! My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions!'"

¹²On the third day, Jeroboam and all the people came back to King Rehoboam as he had instructed them to do.

¹³Ignoring the advice the elders had given him, the king gave them a harsh answer,

¹⁴speaking to them according to the advice of the young men: "My father laid a heavy yoke on you, but I will make it heavier. My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions."

¹⁵The king would not listen to the people, for this turn of events was divinely ordained to fulfill the prophecy the LORD had uttered to Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, through Ahijah the Shilonite.

¹⁶When all Israel saw that the king would not listen to them, the people answered the king. "What share have we in David? We have no heritage in the son of Jesse. Everyone to your tents, O Israel! Now look to your own house, David!" So all Israel went off to their tents.

¹⁷Rehoboam, therefore, reigned over only those Israelites who lived in the cities of Judah.

¹⁸King Rehoboam then sent out Hadoram, who was superintendent of the forced labor, but the Israelites stoned him to death. Rehoboam himself managed to mount his chariot and flee to Jerusalem.

¹⁹Thus Israel has been in rebellion against David's house to this day.

11On his arrival in Jerusalem Rehoboam gathered together the house of Judah and Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand seasoned warriors, to have them fight against Israel and restore the kingdom to him.

²However, the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah, a man of God:

³"Say to Rehoboam, son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the Israelites in Judah and Benjamin:

⁴'Thus says the LORD: You must not march out to fight against your brothers. Let every man return home, for what has occurred I have brought about.'" They obeyed this message of the LORD and gave up the expedition against Jeroboam.

⁵Rehoboam took up residence in Jerusalem and built fortified cities in Judah.

⁶He built up Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa,

⁷Beth-zur, Soco, Adullam,

⁸Gath, Mareshah, Ziph,

⁹Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah,

¹⁰Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron; these were fortified cities in Judah and Benjamin.

¹¹Then he strengthened the fortifications and put commanders in them, with supplies of food, oil and wine.

¹²In every city were shields and spears, and he made them very strong. Thus Judah and Benjamin remained his.

¹³Now the priests and Levites throughout Israel presented themselves to him from all parts of their land,

¹⁴for the Levites left their assigned pasture lands and their holdings and came to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons repudiated them as priests of the LORD.

¹⁵In their place, he himself appointed priests for the high places and satyrs and calves he had made.

¹⁶After them, all those of the Israelite tribes who firmly desired to seek the LORD, the God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the LORD, the God of their fathers.

¹⁷Thus they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and made Rehoboam, son of Solomon, prevail for three years; for they walked in the way of David and Solomon three years.

¹⁸Rehoboam took to himself as wife Mahalath, daughter of Jerimoth, son of David and of Abihail, daughter of Eliab, son of Jesse.

¹⁹She bore him sons: Jehush, Shemariah and Zaham.

²⁰After her, he married Maacah, daughter of Absalom, who bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza and Shelomith.

²¹Rehoboam loved Maacah, daughter of Absalom, more than all his other wives and concubines; he had taken eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and he fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.

²²Rehoboam constituted Abijah, son of Maacah, commander among his brothers, for he intended to make him king.

²³He acted prudently, distributing various of his sons throughout all the districts of Judah and Benjamin, in all the fortified cities; and he furnished them with copious provisions and sought an abundance of wives for them.

12After Rehoboam had consolidated his rule and had become powerful, he abandoned the law of the LORD, he and all Israel with him.

²Thus it happened that in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, king of Egypt, attacked Jerusalem, for they had been unfaithful to the LORD.

³He came up with twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen, and there was no counting the army that came with him from Egypt--Libyans, Sukkites and Ethiopians.

⁴They captured the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem.

⁵Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the commanders of Judah who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them: "Thus says the LORD: 'You have abandoned me, and therefore I have abandoned you to the power of Shishak.'"

⁶However, the commanders of Israel and the king humbled themselves saying, "The LORD is just."

⁷When the LORD saw that they had humbled themselves, the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah: "Because they have humbled themselves, I will not destroy them; I will give them some deliverance, and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem through Shishak.

⁸But they shall be his servants, that they may know what it is to serve me and what it is to serve earthly kingdoms."

⁹Therefore Shishak, king of Egypt, attacked Jerusalem and carried off the treasures of the temple of the LORD and of the king's palace. He took everything, including the gold bucklers that Solomon had made.

¹⁰(To replace them, King Rehoboam made bronze bucklers, which he entrusted to the officers of the guard on duty at the entrance of the royal palace.

¹¹Whenever the king visited the temple of the LORD, the troops would come bearing them, and then they would return them to the guardroom.)

¹²Because he had humbled himself, the anger of the LORD turned from him so that it did not destroy him completely; and in Judah, moreover, good deeds were found.

¹³King Rehoboam consolidated his power in Jerusalem and continued to rule; he was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city in which, out of all the tribes of Israel, the LORD chose to be honored. Rehoboam's mother was named Naamah, an Ammonite.

¹⁴He did evil, for he had not truly resolved to seek the LORD.

¹⁵The acts of Rehoboam, first and last, are written, as is well known, in the history of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer (his family record). There was war continually between Rehoboam and Jeroboam.

¹⁶Rehoboam rested with his ancestors; he was buried in the City of David. His son Abijah succeeded him as king.

13In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Abijah became king of Judah;

²he reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother was named Michaiah, daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. There was war between Abijah and Jeroboam.

³Abijah joined battle with a force of four hundred thousand picked warriors, while Jeroboam lined up against him in battle with eight hundred thousand picked and valiant warriors.

⁴Abijah stood on Mount Zemariam, which is in the highlands of Ephraim, and said: "Listen to me, Jeroboam and all Israel!

⁵Do you not know that the LORD, the God of Israel, has given the kingdom of Israel to David forever, to him and to his sons, by a covenant made in salt?

⁶Yet Jeroboam, son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon, son of David, has stood up and rebelled against his lord!

⁷Worthless men, scoundrels, joined him and overcame Rehoboam, son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and unthinking, and no match for them.

⁸But now, do you think you are a match for the kingdom of the LORD commanded by the sons of David, simply because you are a huge multitude and have with you the golden calves which Jeroboam made you for gods?

⁹"Have you not expelled the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and made for yourselves priests like the peoples of foreign lands? Everyone who comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams becomes a priest of no-gods.

¹⁰But as for us, the LORD is our God, and we have not forsaken him. The priests ministering to the LORD are sons of Aaron, and the Levites also have their offices.

¹¹They burn holocausts to the LORD and fragrant incense morning after morning and evening after evening; they display the showbread on the pure table, and the lamps of the golden lampstand burn evening after evening; for we observe our duties to the LORD, our God, but you have abandoned him.

¹²See, God is with us, at our head, and his priests are here with trumpets to sound the attack against you. Do not battle against the LORD, the God of your fathers, O Israelites, for you will not succeed!"

¹³But Jeroboam had an ambush go around them to come at them from the rear; so that while his army faced Judah, his ambush lay behind them.

¹⁴When Judah turned and saw that they had to battle on both fronts, they cried out to the LORD and the priests sounded the trumpets.

¹⁵Then the men of Judah shouted; and when they did so, God defeated Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah.

¹⁶The Israelites fled before Judah, and God delivered them into their hands.

¹⁷Abijah and his people inflicted a severe defeat upon them; five hundred thousand picked men of Israel fell slain.

¹⁸The Israelites were subdued on that occasion and the Judahites were victorious because they relied on the LORD, the God of their fathers.

¹⁹Abijah pursued Jeroboam and took cities from him: Bethel and its dependencies, Jeshanah and its dependencies, and Ephron and its dependencies.

²⁰Jeroboam did not regain power during the time of Abijah; the LORD struck him down and he died,

²¹while Abijah continued to grow stronger. He took to himself fourteen wives and fathered twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.

²²The rest of Abijah's acts, his deeds and his words, are written in the midrash of the prophet Iddo.

²³Abijah rested with his ancestors; they buried him in the City of David. His son Asa succeeded him as king. During his time, ten years of peace began in the land.

14Asa did what was good and pleasing to the LORD, his God,

²removing the heathen altars and the high places, breaking to pieces the sacred pillars, and cutting down the sacred poles.

³He commanded Judah to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, and to observe the law and its commands.

⁴He removed the high places and incense stands from all the cities of Judah, and under him the kingdom had peace.

⁵He built fortified cities in Judah, for the land had peace and no war was waged against him during these years, because the LORD had given him peace.

⁶He said to Judah: "Let us build these cities and surround them with walls, towers, gates and bars. The land is still ours, for we have sought the LORD, our God; we sought him, and he has given us rest on every side." So they built and prospered.

⁷Asa had an army of three hundred thousand shield-and lance-bearers from Judah, and two hundred and eighty thousand from Benjamin who carried bucklers and were archers, all of them valiant warriors.

⁸Zerah the Ethiopian moved against them with a force of one million men and three hundred chariots, and he came as far as Mareshah.

⁹Asa went out to meet him and set himself in battle array in the valley of Zephathah, near Mareshah.

¹⁰Asa called upon the LORD, his God, praying: "O LORD, there is none like you to help the powerless against the strong. Help us, O LORD, our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this multitude. You are the LORD, our God; let no man prevail against you."

¹¹And so the LORD defeated the Ethiopians before Asa and Judah, and they fled.

¹²Asa and those with him pursued them as far as Gerar, and the Ethiopians fell until there were no survivors, for they were crushed before the LORD and his army, which carried away enormous spoils.

¹³Then the Judahites conquered all the cities around Gerar, for the fear of the LORD was upon them; they despoiled all the cities, for there was much booty in them.

¹⁴They attacked also the tents of the cattle-herders and carried off a great number of sheep and camels. Then they returned to Jerusalem.

15Upon Azariah, son of Oded, came the spirit of God.

²He went forth to meet Asa and said to him: "Hear me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin! The LORD is with you when you are with him, and if you seek him he will be present to you; but if you abandon him, he will abandon you.

³For a long time Israel had no true God, no priest-teacher and no law,

⁴but when in their distress they turned to the LORD, the God of Israel, and sought him, he was present to them.

⁵In that former time there was no peace for anyone to go or come, but there were many terrors upon the inhabitants of the lands.

⁶Nation crushed nation and city crushed city, for God destroyed them by every kind of adversity.

⁷But as for you, be strong and do not relax, for your work shall be rewarded."

⁸When Asa heard these words and the prophecy (Oded the prophet), he was encouraged to remove the detestable idols from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had taken in the highlands of Ephraim, and to restore the altar of the LORD which was before the vestibule of the LORD.

⁹Then he convened all Judah and Benjamin, together with those of Ephraim, Manasseh and Simeon who sojourned with them; for many had fled to him from Israel when they saw that the LORD, his God, was with him.

¹⁰They gathered at Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa's reign,

¹¹and sacrificed to the LORD at that time seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep of the booty they had brought.

¹²They entered into a covenant to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul;

¹³and everyone who would not seek the LORD, the God of Israel, was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman.

¹⁴They swore to the LORD with a loud voice, with shouting and with trumpets and horns.

¹⁵All Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn with their whole heart and sought him with complete desire, so that he was present to them. And the LORD gave them rest on every side.

¹⁶Maacah, the mother of King Asa, he deposed as queen mother because she had made an outrageous object for Asherah; Asa cut this down, smashed it, and burnt it in the Kidron Valley.

¹⁷Although the high places did not disappear from Israel, yet Asa's heart was undivided as long as he lived.

¹⁸He brought into the house of God his father's votive offerings and his own: silver, gold, and various utensils.

¹⁹There was no war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa's reign.

16In the thirty-sixth year of Asa's reign, Baasha, king of Israel, attacked Judah and fortified Ramah to prevent any communication with Asa, king of Judah.

²Asa then brought out silver and gold from the treasuries of the temple of the LORD and of the royal palace and sent them to Ben-hadad, king of Aram, who lived in Damascus, with this message:

³"There is a treaty between you and me, as there was between your father and my father. See, I am sending you silver and gold. Go, break your treaty with Baasha, king of Israel, that he may withdraw from me."

⁴Ben-hadad agreed to King Asa's request and sent the leaders of his troops against the cities of Israel. They attacked Ijon, Dan, Abel-maim, and all the store cities of Naphtali.

⁵When Baasha heard of it, he left off fortifying Ramah; he stopped his work.

⁶Then King Asa commandeered all of Judah to carry away the stone and wood with which Baasha had been fortifying Ramah, and with them he fortified Geba and Mizpah.

⁷At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa, king of Judah, and said to him: "Because you relied on the king of Aram and did not rely on the LORD, your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped your hand.

⁸Were not the Ethiopians and Libyans a vast army, with great numbers of chariots and drivers? And yet, because you relied on the LORD, he delivered them into your power.

⁹The eyes of the LORD roam over the whole earth, to encourage those who are devoted to him wholeheartedly. You have acted foolishly in this matter, for from now on you will have wars."

¹⁰But Asa became angry with the seer and imprisoned him in the stocks, so greatly was he enraged at him over this. Asa also oppressed some of his people at this time.

¹¹Now the acts of Asa, first and last, can be found recorded in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

¹²In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa contracted a serious disease in his feet. But even in his sickness he did not seek the LORD, but only the physicians.

¹³Asa rested with his ancestors; he died in the forty-first year of his reign.

¹⁴They buried him in the tomb he had hewn for himself in the City of David, having laid him upon a couch which was filled with spices and various kinds of aromatics compounded into an ointment. They also burned a very great funeral pyre for him.

17His son Jehoshaphat succeeded him as king and strengthened his hold against Israel.

²He placed armed forces in all the fortified cities of Judah, and put garrisons in the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim which his father Asa had taken.

³The LORD was with Jehoshaphat, for he walked in the ways his father had pursued in the beginning, and he did not consult the Baals.

⁴Rather, he sought the God of his father and observed his commands, and not the practices of Israel.

⁵As a result, the LORD made his kingdom secure, and all Judah gave Jehoshaphat gifts, so that he enjoyed great wealth and glory.

⁶Thus he was encouraged to follow the LORD'S ways, and again he removed the high places and the sacred poles from Judah.

⁷In the third year of his reign he sent his leading men, Ben-hail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel and Micaiah, to teach in the cities of Judah.

⁸With them he sent the Levites Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah and Tobijah, together with the priests Elishama and Jehoram.

⁹They taught in Judah, having with them the book containing the law of the LORD; they traveled through all the cities of Judah and taught among the people.

¹⁰Now the fear of the LORD was upon all the kingdoms of the countries surrounding Judah, so that they did not war against Jehoshaphat.

¹¹Some of the Philistines brought Jehoshaphat gifts and a tribute of silver; and the Arabs also brought him a flock of seven thousand seven hundred rams and seven thousand seven hundred he-goats.

¹²Jehoshaphat grew steadily greater. He built strongholds and store cities in Judah.

¹³He carried out many works in the cities of Judah, and he had soldiers, valiant warriors, in Jerusalem.

¹⁴This was their mustering according to their ancestral houses. Of Judah, the commanders of thousands: Adnah the commander, and with him three hundred thousand valiant warriors.

¹⁵Next to him, Jehohanan the commander, and with him two hundred eighty thousand.

¹⁶Next to him, Amasiah, son of Zichri, who offered himself to the LORD, and with him two hundred thousand valiant warriors.

¹⁷From Benjamin: Eliada, a valiant warrior, and with him two hundred thousand armed with bow and buckler.

¹⁸Next to him, Jozabad, and with him one hundred and eighty thousand equipped for war.

¹⁹These were at the service of the king; in addition were those whom the king had placed in the fortified cities throughout all Judah.

18Jehoshaphat therefore had wealth and glory in abundance; but he became related to Ahab by marriage.

²After some years he went down to Ahab at Samaria; Ahab offered numerous sheep and oxen for him and the people with him, and persuaded him to go up against Ramoth-gilead.

³Ahab, king of Israel, asked Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, "Will you come with me to Ramoth-gilead?" "You and I are as one," was his answer; "your people and my people as well. We will be with you in the battle."

⁴But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, "Seek the word of the LORD at once."

⁵The king of Israel gathered his prophets, four hundred in number, and asked them, "Shall we go to attack Ramoth-gilead, or shall I refrain?" "Go up," they answered. "God will deliver it over to the king."

⁶But Jehoshaphat said, "Is there no other prophet of the LORD here whom we may consult?"

⁷The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, "There is still another through whom we may consult the LORD, but I hate him, for he prophesies not good but always evil about me. That is Micaiah, son of Imlah." Jeshoshaphat said, "Let not your Majesty speak of evil against you."

⁸So the king of Israel called an official, to whom he said, "Get Micaiah, son of Imlah, at once."

⁹The king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah were seated each on his throne, clothed in their robes of state on a threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying before them.

¹⁰Zedekiah, son of Chenaanah, made iron horns for himself and said: "The LORD says, 'With these you shall gore Aram until you have destroyed them.'"

¹¹The other prophets prophesied in the same vein, saying: "Go up to Ramoth-gilead. You shall succeed; the LORD will deliver it over to the king."

¹²The messenger who had gone to call Micaiah said to him: "Look now, the prophets unanimously predict good for the king. Let your word, like each of theirs, predict good."

¹³"As the LORD lives," Micaiah answered, "I will say what my God tells me."

¹⁴When he came to the king, the king said to him, "Micaiah, shall we go to fight against Ramoth-gilead, or shall I refrain?" "Go up," he answered, "and succeed; they will be delivered into your power."

¹⁵But the king said to him, "How many times must I adjure you to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?"

¹⁶Then Micaiah answered: "I see all Israel scattered on the mountains, like sheep without a shepherd, and the LORD saying, 'These have no master!' Let each of them go back home in peace.'"

¹⁷The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "Did I not tell you that he prophesies no good about me, but only evil?"

¹⁸But Micaiah continued: "Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD seated on his throne, with the whole host of heaven standing by to his right and to his left.

¹⁹The LORD asked, 'Who will deceive Ahab, king of Israel, so that he will go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?' And one said this, another that,

²⁰until a spirit came forward and presented himself to the LORD, saying, 'I will deceive him.' The LORD asked, 'How?'

²¹He answered, 'I will go forth and become a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.' The LORD agreed: 'You shall succeed in deceiving him. Go forth and do this.'

²²So now the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of these your prophets, but the LORD himself has decreed evil against you."

²³Thereupon Zedekiah, son of Chenaanah, came up and slapped Micaiah on the cheek, saying, "Which way did the spirit of the LORD go when he left me to speak to you?"

²⁴"You shall find out," Micaiah replied, "on that day when you enter an innermost chamber to hide."

²⁵The king of Israel then said: "Seize Micaiah and take him back to Amon, prefect of the city, and to Joash the king's son,

²⁶and say, 'This is the king's order: Put this man in prison and feed him scanty rations of bread and water until I return in safety!'"

²⁷But Micaiah said, "If ever you return in safety, the LORD has not spoken through me." And he said, "Hear, O peoples, all of you!"

²⁸The king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah went up to Ramoth-gilead

²⁹and the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "I will go into battle disguised, but you put on your own clothes." So the king of Israel disguised himself and they entered the fray.

³⁰Meanwhile, the king of Aram had given his chariot commanders the order, "Fight with no one, small or great, except the king of Israel."

³¹When the commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they exclaimed, "That must be the king of Israel!" and shifted to fight him. But Jehoshaphat cried out and the LORD helped him; God induced them to leave him.

³²The chariot commanders became aware that he was not the king of Israel and gave up their pursuit of him.

³³Someone, however, drew his bow at random and hit the king of Israel between the joints of his breastplate. He ordered his charioteer, "Rein about and take me out of the ranks, for I am disabled."

³⁴The battle grew fierce during the day, and the king of Israel braced himself up on his chariot facing the Arameans until evening. He died as the sun was setting.

19King Jehoshaphat of Judah returned in safety to his house in Jerusalem.

²Jehu the seer, son of Hanani, met King Jehoshaphat and said to him: "Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the LORD? For this reason, wrath is upon you from the LORD.

³Yet some good things are to be found in you, since you have removed the sacred poles from the land and have been determined to seek God."

⁴Jehoshaphat dwelt in Jerusalem; but he went out again among the people from Beer-sheba to the highlands of Ephraim and brought them back to the LORD, the God of their fathers.

⁵He appointed judges in the land, in all the fortified cities of Judah, city by city,

⁶and he said to them: "Take care what you do, for you are judging, not on behalf of man, but on behalf of the LORD; he judges with you.

⁷And now, let the fear of the LORD be upon you. Act carefully, for with the LORD, our God there is no injustice, no partiality, no bribe-taking."

⁸In Jerusalem also, Jehoshaphat appointed some Levites and priests and some of the family heads of Israel to judge in the name of the LORD and to settle quarrels among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

⁹He gave them this command: "You shall act faithfully and wholeheartedly in the fear of the LORD.

¹⁰And in every dispute that your brethren living in their cities bring to you, whether it concerns bloodguilt or questions of law, command, statutes, or judgments, warn them lest they become guilty before the LORD and his wrath come upon you and your brethren. Do that and you shall be guiltless.

¹¹See now, Amariah is high priest over you in everything that pertains to the LORD, and Zebadiah, son of Ishmael, is leader of the house of Judah in all that pertains to the king; and the Levites will be your officials. Act firmly, and the LORD will be with the good."

20After this the Moabites, the Ammonites, and with them some Meunites came to fight against Jehoshaphat.

²The message was brought to Jehoshaphat: "A great multitude is coming against you from across the sea, from Edom; they are already in Hazazon-tamar" (which is En-gedi).

³Jehoshaphat was frightened, and he hastened to consult the LORD. He proclaimed a fast for all Judah.

⁴Then Judah gathered to seek help from the LORD; from every one of the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD.

⁵Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the LORD before the new court,

⁶and he said: "LORD, God of our fathers, are you not the God in heaven, and do you not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations? In your hand is power and might, and no one can withstand you.

⁷Was it not you, our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and gave it forever to the descendants of Abraham, your friend?

⁸They have dwelt in it and they built in it a sanctuary to your honor, saying,

⁹'When evil comes upon us, the sword of judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before you, for your name is in this house, and we will cry out to you in our affliction, and you will hear and save!'

¹⁰And now, see the Ammonites, Moabites, and those of Mount Seir whom you did not allow Israel to invade when they came from the land of Egypt, but instead they passed them by and did not destroy them.

¹¹See how they are now repaying us by coming to drive us out of the possession you have given us.

¹²O our God, will you not pass judgment on them? We are powerless before this vast multitude that comes against us. We are at a loss what to do, hence our eyes are turned toward you."

¹³All Judah was standing before the LORD, with their little ones, their wives, and their young sons.

¹⁴And the spirit of the LORD came upon Jahaziel, son of Zechariah, son of Benaiah, son of Jeiel, son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the clan of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly,

¹⁵and he said: "Listen, all of Judah, inhabitants of Jerusalem, and King Jehoshaphat! The LORD says to you: 'Do not fear or lose heart at the sight of this vast multitude, for the battle is not yours but God's.

¹⁶Go down against them tomorrow. You will see them coming up by the ascent of Ziz, and you will come upon them at the end of the wadi which opens on the wilderness of Jeruel.

¹⁷You will not have to fight in this encounter. Take your places, stand firm, and see how the LORD will be with you to deliver you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not fear or lose heart. Tomorrow go out to meet them, and the LORD will be with you.'"

¹⁸Then Jehoshaphat knelt down with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the LORD in worship.

¹⁹Levites from among the Kohathites and Korahites rose to sing the praises of the LORD, the God of Israel, in a resounding chorus.

²⁰In the early morning they hastened out to the wilderness of Tekoa. As they were going out, Jehoshaphat halted and said: "Listen to me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Trust in the LORD, your God, and you will be found firm. Trust in his prophets and you will succeed."

²¹After consulting with the people, he appointed some to sing to the LORD and some to praise the holy Appearance as it went forth at the head of the army. They sang: "Give thanks to the LORD, for his mercy endures forever."

²²At the moment they began their jubilant hymn, the LORD laid an ambush against the Ammonites, Moabites, and those of Mount Seir who were coming against Judah, so that they were vanquished.

²³For the Ammonites and Moabites set upon the inhabitants of Mount Seir and completely exterminated them. And when they had finished with the inhabitants of Seir, they began to destroy each other.

²⁴When Judah came to the watchtower of the desert and looked toward the throng, they saw only corpses fallen on the ground, with no survivors.

²⁵Jehoshaphat and his people came to take plunder, and they found an abundance of cattle and personal property, garments and precious vessels. They took so much that they were unable to carry it all; they were three days taking the spoil, so great was it.

²⁶On the fourth day they held an assembly in the Valley of Beracah--for there they blessed the LORD; therefore that place has ever since been called the Valley of Beracah.

²⁷Then all the men of Judah and Jerusalem, with Jehoshaphat at their head, turned back toward Jerusalem celebrating the joyful victory the LORD had given them over their enemies.

²⁸They came to Jerusalem, to the house of the LORD, with harps, lyres and trumpets.

²⁹And the fear of God came upon all the kingdoms of the surrounding lands when they heard how the LORD had fought against the enemies of Israel.

³⁰Thereafter Jehoshaphat's kingdom enjoyed peace, for his God gave him rest on every side.

³¹Thus Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah. He was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother was named Azubah, daughter of Shilhi.

³²He followed the path of his father Asa unswervingly, doing what was right in the LORD'S sight.

³³But the high places were not removed, nor as yet had the people fixed their hearts on the God of their fathers.

³⁴The rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, first and last, can be found written in the chronicle of Jehu, son of Hanani, which is inserted in the book of the kings of Israel.

³⁵After this, King Jehoshaphat of Judah allied himself with King Ahaziah of Israel, who did evil.

³⁶He joined with him in building ships to sail to Tarshish; the fleet was built at Ezion-geber.

³⁷But Eliezer, son of Dodavahu from Mareshah, prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, "Because you have joined with Ahaziah, the LORD will shatter your work." And the ships were wrecked and were unable to sail to Tarshish.

21Jehoshaphat rested with his ancestors; he was buried with them in the City of David. Jehoram, his son, succeeded him as king.

²His brothers, sons of Jehoshaphat, were Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azariah, Michael and Shephatiah; all these were sons of King Jehoshaphat of Judah.

³Their father gave them numerous gifts of silver, gold and precious objects, together with fortified cities in Judah, but the kingship he gave to Jehoram because he was the first-born.

⁴When Jehoram had come into his father's kingdom and had consolidated his power, he put to the sword all his brothers and also some of the princes of Israel.

⁵Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.

⁶He conducted himself like the kings of Israel of the line of Ahab, because one of Ahab's daughters was his wife. He did evil in the sight of the LORD,

⁷but the LORD would not destroy the house of David because of the covenant he had made with David and because of his promise to give him and his sons a lamp for all time.

⁸During his time Edom revolted against the sovereignty of Judah; they chose a king of their own.

⁹Thereupon Jehoram crossed over with his officers and all the chariots he had. He arose by night and broke through the Edomites when they had surrounded him and the commanders of his chariots.

¹⁰However, Edom has continued in revolt against the sovereignty of Judah down to the present time. Libnah also revolted at that time against Jehoram's sovereignty because he had forsaken the LORD, the God of his fathers.

¹¹He also set up high places in the mountains of Judah; he led the inhabitants of Jerusalem into idolatry and seduced Judah.

¹²He received a letter from the prophet Elijah with this message: "Thus says the LORD, the God of your ancestor David: 'Because you have not followed the path of your father Jehoshaphat, nor of Asa, king of Judah,

¹³but instead have walked in the way of the kings of Israel and have led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem into idolatry, as did the house of Ahab, and also because you have murdered your brothers of your father's house who were better than you,

¹⁴the LORD will strike your people, your children, your wives, and all that is yours with a great plague;

¹⁵and you shall have severe pains from a disease in your bowels, while your bowels issue forth because of the disease, day after day.'"

¹⁶Then the LORD stirred up against Jehoram the animosity of the Philistines and of the Arabs who bordered on the Ethiopians.

¹⁷They came up against Judah, invaded it, and carried away all the wealth found in the king's palace, along with his sons and his wives; there was left to him only one son, Jehoahaz, his youngest.

¹⁸After these events, the LORD afflicted him with an incurable disease of the bowels.

¹⁹As time went on until a period of two years had elapsed, his bowels issued forth because of the disease and he died in great pain. His people did not made a pyre for him like that of his fathers.

²⁰He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. He departed unloved and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.

22Then the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah, his youngest son, king in his stead, since all the older sons had been slain by the band that had come into the fort with the Arabs. Thus Ahaziah, son of Jehoram, reigned as the king of Judah.

²He was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother was named Athaliah, daughter of Omri.

³He, too, followed the ways of the house of Ahab, because his mother counseled him to act sinfully.

⁴To his own destruction, he did evil in the sight of the LORD, as did the house of Ahab, since they were his counselors after the death of his father.

⁵He was also following their counsel when he accompanied Jehoram, son of Ahab, king of Israel, to battle against Hazael, king of Aram, at Ramoth-gilead. There Jehoram was wounded by the Arameans.

⁶He returned to Jezreel to be healed of the wounds he had received at Rama in his battle against Hazael, king of Aram. Because of this illness, Ahaziah, son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to visit Jehoram, son of Ahab, in Jezreel.

⁷Now it was willed by God for Ahaziah's downfall that he should join Jehoram, for after his arrival he rode out with Jehoram to Jehu, son of Nimshi, whom the LORD had anointed to cut down the house of Ahab.

⁸While Jehu was executing judgment on the house of Ahab, he also encountered the princes of Judah and the nephews of Ahaziah who were his attendants, and he slew them.

⁹Then he looked for Ahaziah himself. They caught him where he was hiding in Samaria and brought him to Jehu, who put him to death. They buried him, for they said, "He was the grandson of Jehoshaphat, who sought the LORD with his whole heart." There remained in Ahaziah's house no one powerful enough to wield the kingship.

¹⁰When Athaliah, mother of Ahaziah, learned that her son was dead, she proceeded to kill off all the royal offspring of the house of Judah.

¹¹But Jehosheba, a royal princess, secretly took Ahaziah's son Joash from among the king's sons who were about to be slain, and put him and his nurse in a bedroom. In this way Jehosheba, who was the daughter of King Jehoram, a sister of Ahaziah, and wife of Jehoiada the priest, hid the child from Athaliah's sight, so that she did not put him to death.

¹²For six years he remained hidden with them in the house of God, while Athaliah ruled over the land.

23In the seventh year, Jehoiada took courage and entered a conspiracy with certain captains: Azariah, son of Jehoram; Ishmael, son of Jehohanan; Azariah, son of Obed; Masseiah, son of Adaiah; and Elishaphat, son of Zichri.

²They journeyed about Judah, gathering the Levites from all the cities of Judah and also the heads of the Israelite families. When they had come to Jerusalem,

³the whole assembly made a covenant with the king in the house of God. Jehoiada said to them: "Here is the king's son who must reign, as the LORD promised concerning the sons of David.

⁴This is what you must do: a third of your number, both priests and Levites, who come in on the sabbath must guard the thresholds,

⁵another third must be at the king's palace, and the final third at the Foundation Gate, when all the people will be in the courts of the LORD'S temple.

⁶Let no one enter the LORD'S house except the priests and those Levites who are ministering. They may enter because they are holy; but all the other people must observe the prescriptions of the LORD.

⁷The Levites shall surround the king on all sides, each with his weapon drawn. Whoever tries to enter the house must be slain. Stay with the king wherever he goes."

⁸The Levites and all Judah did just as Jehoiada the priest commanded. Each brought his men, those who were to come in on the sabbath as well as those who were to depart on the sabbath, since Jehoiada the priest had not dismissed any of the divisions.

⁹Jehoiada the priest gave the captains the spears, shields and bucklers of King David which were in the house of God.

¹⁰He stationed all the people, each with his spear in hand, from the southern to the northern extremity of the enclosure, around the altar and the temple on the king's behalf.

¹¹Then they brought out the king's son, set the crown and the insignia upon him, and made him king. Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and they cried, "Long live the king!"

¹²When Athaliah heard the din of the people running and acclaiming the king, she went to the people in the temple of the LORD.

¹³She looked, and there was the king standing beside his pillar at the entrance, the officers and the trumpeters around him, and all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing trumpets, while the singers with their musical instruments were leading the acclaim. Athaliah tore her garments and cried out, "Treason! treason!"

¹⁴Then Jehoiada the priest sent out the captains who were in command of the army; he said to them: "Take her outside through the ranks, and if anyone tries to follow her, let him die by the sword. For," the priest continued, "you must not put her to death in the LORD'S temple."

¹⁵So they seized her, and when she arrived at the entrance to the Horse Gate of the palace, they put her to death there.

¹⁶Then Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and all the people and the king, that they should be the LORD'S people.

¹⁷And all the people went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They smashed its altars and images, and they slew Mattan, the priest of Baal, before the altars.

¹⁸Then Jehoiada gave the charge of the LORD'S temple into the hands of the levitical priests, to whom David had assigned turns in the temple for offering the holocausts of the LORD, as is written in the law of Moses, with rejoicing and song, as David had provided.

¹⁹Moreover, he stationed guards at the gates of the LORD'S temple so that no one unclean in any respect might enter.

²⁰Then he took the captains, the nobles, the rulers among the people, and all the people of the land, and led the king out of the LORD'S house. When they had come within the upper gate of the king's house, they seated the king upon the royal throne.

²¹All the people of the land rejoiced and the city was quiet, now that Athaliah had been put to death by the sword.

24Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother, named Zibiah, was from Beer-sheba.

²Joash did what was pleasing to the LORD as long as Jehoiada the priest lived.

³Jehoiada provided him with two wives, and he became the father of sons and daughters.

⁴After some time, Joash decided to restore the LORD'S temple.

⁵He called together the priests and Levites and said to them: "Go out to all the cities of Judah and collect money from all Israel that you may repair the house of your God over the years. You must hasten this affair." But the Levites did not hasten.

⁶Then the king summoned Jehoiada, who was in charge, and said to him: "Why have you not required the Levites to bring in from Judah and Jerusalem the tax levied by Moses, the servant of the LORD, and by the assembly of Israel, for the tent of the testimony?"

⁷For the wicked Athaliah and her sons had damaged the house of God and had even turned over to the Baals the dedicated resources of the LORD'S temple.

⁸At the king's command, therefore, they made a chest, which they put outside the gate of the LORD'S temple.

⁹They had it proclaimed throughout Judah and Jerusalem that the tax which Moses, the servant of God, had imposed on Israel in the desert should be brought to the LORD.

¹⁰All the princes and the people rejoiced; they brought what was asked and cast it into the chest until it was filled.

¹¹Whenever the chest was brought to the royal officials by the Levites and they saw that it contained much money, the royal scribe and an overseer for the high priest came, emptied the chest, then took it back and returned it to its place. This they did day after day until they had collected a large sum of money.

¹²Then the king and Jehoiada gave it to the workmen in charge of the labor on the LORD'S temple, who hired masons and carpenters to restore the temple, and also iron-and bronze-smiths to repair it.

¹³The workmen labored, and the task of restoration progressed under their hands. They restored the house of God according to its original form, and reinforced it.

¹⁴After they had finished, they brought the rest of the money to the king and to Jehoiada, who had it made into utensils for the LORD'S temple, utensils for the service and the holocausts, and basins and other gold and silver utensils. They offered holocausts in the LORD'S temple continually throughout the lifetime of Jehoiada.

¹⁵Jehoiada lived to a ripe old age; he was a hundred and thirty years old when he died.

¹⁶He was buried in the City of David with the kings, because he had done good in Israel, in particular with respect to God and his temple.

¹⁷After the death of Jehoiada, the princes of Judah came and paid homage to the king, and the king then listened to them.

¹⁸They forsook the temple of the LORD, the God of their fathers, and began to serve the sacred poles and the idols; and because of this crime of theirs, wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem.

¹⁹Although prophets were sent to them to convert them to the LORD, the people would not listen to their warnings.

²⁰Then the spirit of God possessed Zechariah, son of Jehoiada the priest. He took his stand above the people and said to them: "God says, 'Why are you transgressing the LORD'S commands, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have abandoned the LORD, he has abandoned you.'"

²¹But they conspired against him, and at the king's order they stoned him to death in the court of the LORD'S temple.

²²Thus King Joash was unmindful of the devotion shown him by Jehoiada, Zechariah's father, and slew his son. And as he was dying, he said, "May the LORD see and avenge."

²³At the turn of the year a force of Arameans came up against Joash. They invaded Judah and Jerusalem, did away with all the princes of the people, and sent all their spoil to the king of Damascus.

²⁴Though the Aramean force came with few men, the LORD surrendered a very large force into their power, because Judah had abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers. So punishment was meted out to Joash.

²⁵After the Arameans had departed from him, leaving him in grievous suffering, his servants conspired against him because of the murder of the son of Jehoiada the priest. They killed him on his sickbed. He was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.

²⁶These conspired against him: Zabad, son of Shimeath from Ammon, and Jehozabad, son of Shimrith from Moab.

²⁷Of his sons, and the great tribute imposed on him, and of his rebuilding of the house of God, there is a written account in the midrash of the book of the kings. His son Amaziah succeeded him as king.

25Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother, named Jehoaddan, was from Jerusalem.

²He did what was pleasing in the sight of the LORD, though not wholeheartedly.

³After he had strengthened his hold on the kingdom, he slew those of his servants who had killed the king, his father;

⁴but he did not put their children to death, for he acted according to what is written in the law, in the Book of Moses, as the LORD commanded: "Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children for their fathers; but only for his own guilt shall a man be put to death."

⁵Amaziah mustered Judah and placed them, out of all Judah and Benjamin according to their ancestral houses, under leaders of thousands and of hundreds. When he had counted those of twenty years and over, he found them to be three hundred thousand picked men fit for war, capable of handling lance and shield.

⁶He also hired a hundred thousand valiant warriors from Israel for a hundred talents of silver.

⁷But a man of God came to him and said: "O king, let not the army of Israel go with you, for the LORD is not with Israel, with any Ephraimite.

⁸Instead, go on your own, strongly prepared for the conflict; otherwise the LORD will defeat you in the face of the enemy. It is God who has the power to reinforce or to defeat."

⁹Amaziah answered the man of God, "But what is to be done about the hundred talents that I paid for the troops of Israel?" The man of God replied, "The LORD can give you much more than that."

¹⁰Amaziah then disbanded the troops that had come to him from Ephraim, and sent them home. They, however, became furiously angry with Judah, and returned home blazing with resentment.

¹¹Amaziah now assumed command of his army. They proceeded to the Valley of Salt, and there they killed ten thousand men of Seir.

¹²The Judahites also brought back another ten thousand alive, whom they led to the summit of the Rock and then cast down, so that they were all crushed.

¹³Meanwhile, the mercenaries whom Amaziah had dismissed from battle service with him raided the cities of Judah from Samaria to Beth-horon. They killed three thousand of the inhabitants and took away much booty.

¹⁴When Amaziah returned from his conquest of the Edomites he brought back with him the gods of the people of Seir, which he set up as his own gods; he bowed down before them and offered sacrifice to them.

¹⁵Then the anger of the LORD blazed out against Amaziah, and he sent a prophet to him who said: "Why have you had recourse to this people's gods that could not save their own people from your hand?"

¹⁶While he was still speaking, however, the king said to him: "Have you been made the king's counselor? Be silent! Why should it be necessary to kill you?" Therefore the prophet desisted. "I know, however," he said, "that God has let you take counsel to your own destruction, because you have done this thing and have refused to hear my counsel."

¹⁷Having taken counsel, King Amaziah of Judah sent messengers to Joash, son of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, the king of Israel, saying, "Come, let us meet each other face to face."

¹⁸King Joash of Israel sent this reply to King Amaziah of Judah: "The thistle of the Lebanon sent a message to the cedar of the Lebanon, saying, 'Give your daughter to my son for his wife.' But the wild beasts of the Lebanon passed by and trampled the thistle down.

¹⁹You are thinking, 'See, I have beaten Edom!', and thus ambition makes you proud. Remain at home. Why involve yourself, and Judah with you, in misfortune and failure?"

²⁰But Amaziah would not listen, for God had determined to hand them over because they had had recourse to the gods of Edom.

²¹Therefore King Joash of Israel advanced and he and King Amaziah met in battle at Beth-shemesh of Judah.

²²There Judah was defeated by Israel, and all the Judean soldiers fled homeward.

²³King Joash of Israel captured Amaziah, king of Judah, son of Joash, son of Jehoahaz, at Beth-shemesh and brought him to Jerusalem. Then he tore down the wall of Jerusalem from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate, a distance of four hundred cubits.

²⁴He took away all the gold and silver and all the vessels he found in the house of God with Obed-edom, together with the treasures of the palace, and hostages as well. Then he returned to Samaria.

²⁵Amaziah, son of Joash, king of Judah, survived Joash, son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel, by fifteen years.

²⁶The rest of the acts of Amaziah, first and last, can be found written, as is well known, in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

²⁷Now from the time that Amaziah ceased to follow the LORD, a conspiracy was formed against him in Jerusalem; hence he fled to Lachish. But they pursued him to Lachish and put him to death there.

²⁸They brought him back on horses and buried him with his ancestors in the City of Judah.

26All the people of Judah chose Uzziah, though he was but sixteen years of age, and proclaimed him king to succeed his father Amaziah.

²He rebuilt Elath and restored it to Judah; this was after King Amaziah had gone to rest with his ancestors.

³Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother, named Jecoliah, was from Jerusalem.

⁴He pleased the LORD, just as his father Amaziah had done.

⁵He was prepared to seek God as long as Zechariah lived, who taught him to fear God; and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper.

⁶He went out and fought the Philistines and razed the walls of Gath, Jabneh and Ashdod (and built cities in the district of Ashdod and in Philistia).

⁷God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabs who dwelt in Gurbaal, and against the Meunites.

⁸The Ammonites paid tribute to Uzziah and his fame spread as far as Egypt, for he grew stronger and stronger.

⁹Moreover, Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate, and at the Angle, and he fortified them.

¹⁰He built towers in the desert and dug numerous cisterns, for he had many cattle. He had plowmen in the foothills and the plains, and vinedressers in the highlands and the garden land. He was a lover of the soil.

¹¹Uzziah also had a standing army of fit soldiers divided into bands according to the number in which they were mustered by Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the recorder, under the command of Hananiah, one of the king's officials.

¹²The entire number of family heads over these valiant warriors was two thousand six hundred,

¹³and at their disposal was a mighty army of three hundred seven thousand five hundred fighting men of great valor to help the king against his enemies.

¹⁴Uzziah provided for them--for the entire army--bucklers, lances, helmets, breastplates, bows and slingstones.

¹⁵He also built machines in Jerusalem, devices contrived to stand on the towers and at the angles of the walls to shoot arrows and cast large stones. His fame spread far and wide, and his power was ascribed to the marvelous help he had received.

¹⁶But after he had become strong, he became proud to his own destruction and broke faith with the LORD, his God. He entered the temple of the LORD to make an offering on the altar of incense.

¹⁷But Azariah the priest, and with him eighty other priests of the LORD, courageous men, followed him.

¹⁸They opposed King Uzziah, saying to him: "It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who have been consecrated for this purpose. Leave the sanctuary, for you have broken faith and no longer have a part in the glory that comes from the LORD God."

¹⁹Uzziah, who was holding a censer for burning the incense, became angry, but at the moment he showed his anger to the priests, while they were looking at him in the house of the LORD beside the altar of incense, leprosy broke out on his forehead.

²⁰Azariah the chief priest and all the other priests examined him, and when they saw that his forehead was leprous, they expelled him from the temple. He himself fled willingly, for the LORD had afflicted him.

²¹King Uzziah remained a leper to the day of his death. As a leper he dwelt in a segregated house, for he was excluded from the house of the LORD. Therefore his son Jotham was regent of the palace and ruled the people of the land.

²²The prophet Isaiah, son of Amos, wrote the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last.

²³Uzziah rested with his ancestors; he was buried with them in the field adjoining the royal cemetery, for they said, "He was a leper." His son Jotham succeeded him as king.

27Jotham was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother was named Jerusa, daughter of Zadok.

²He pleased the LORD just as his father Uzziah had done, though he did not enter the temple of the LORD; the people, however, continued to act sinfully.

³He built the upper gate of the LORD'S house and had much construction done on the wall of Ophel.

⁴Moreover, he built cities in the hill country of Judah, and in the forest land he set up fortresses and towers.

⁵He fought with the king of the Ammonites and conquered them. That year the Ammonites paid him one hundred talents of silver, together with ten thousand kors of wheat and ten thousand of barley. They brought the same to him also in the second and in the third year.

⁶Thus Jotham continued to grow strong because he lived resolutely in the presence of the LORD, his God.

⁷The rest of the acts of Jotham, his wars and his activities, can be found written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

⁸He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem.

⁹Jotham rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David, and his son Ahaz succeeded him as king.

28Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not please the LORD as his forefather David had done,

²but conducted himself like the kings of Israel and even made molten idols of the Baals.

³Moreover, he offered sacrifice in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, and immolated his sons by fire according to the abominable practice of the nations which the LORD had cleared out before the Israelites.

⁴He offered sacrifice and incense on the high places, on hills, and under every leafy tree.

⁵Therefore the LORD, his God, delivered him into the power of the king of Aram. The Arameans defeated him and carried away captive a large number of his people, whom they brought to Damascus. He was also delivered into the power of the king of Israel, who defeated him with great slaughter.

⁶For Pekah, son of Remaliah, slew one hundred and twenty thousand of Judah in a single day, all of them valiant men, because they had abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers.

⁷Zichri, an Ephraimite warrior, killed Maaseiah, the king's son, and Azrikam, the master of the palace, and also Elkanah, who was second to the king.

⁸The Israelites took away as captives two hundred thousand of their brethren's wives, sons and daughters; they also took from them much plunder, which they brought to Samaria.

⁹In Samaria there was a prophet of the LORD by the name of Oded. He went out to meet the army returning to Samaria and said to them: "It was because the LORD, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah that he delivered them into your hands. You, however, have slaughtered them with a fury that has reached up to heaven.

¹⁰And now you are planning to make the children of Judah and Jerusalem your slaves and bondwomen. Are not you yourselves, therefore, guilty of a crime against the LORD, your God?

¹¹Now listen to me: send back the captives you have carried off from among your brethren, for the burning anger of the LORD is upon you."

¹²At this, some of the Ephraimite leaders, Azariah, son of Johanan, Berechiah, son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah, son of Shallum, and Amasa, son of Hadlai, themselves stood up in opposition to those who had returned from the war.

¹³They said to them: "Do not bring the captives here, for what you propose will make us guilty before the LORD and increase our sins and our guilt. Our guilt is already great, and there is a burning anger upon Israel."

¹⁴Therefore the soldiers left their captives and the plunder before the princes and the whole assembly.

¹⁵Then the men just named proceeded to help the captives. All of them who were naked they clothed from the booty; they clothed them, put sandals on their feet, gave them food and drink, anointed them, and all who were weak they set on asses. They brought them to Jericho, the city of palms, to their brethren. Then they returned to Samaria.

¹⁶At that time King Ahaz sent an appeal for help to the kings of Assyria.

¹⁷The Edomites had returned, attacked Judah, and carried off captives.

¹⁸The Philistines too had raided the cities of the foothills and the Negeb of Judah; they captured Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco and its dependencies, Timnah and its dependencies, and Gimzo and its dependencies, and occupied them.

¹⁹For the LORD had brought Judah low because of Ahaz, king of Israel, who let Judah go its own way and proved utterly faithless to the LORD.

²⁰Tilgath-pilneser, king of Assyria, did indeed come to him, but to oppress him rather than to help him.

²¹Though Ahaz plundered the LORD'S house and the houses of the king and the princes to make payment to the king of Assyria, it availed him nothing.

²²While he was already in distress, the same King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the LORD.

²³He sacrificed to the gods of Damascus who had defeated him, saying, "Since it was the gods of the kings of Aram who helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me also." However, they only caused further disaster to him and to all Israel.

²⁴Ahaz gathered up the utensils of God's house and broke them in pieces. He closed the doors of the LORD'S house and had altars made for himself in every corner of Jerusalem.

²⁵In every city throughout Judah he set up high places to offer sacrifice to other gods. Thus he angered the LORD, the God of his fathers.

²⁶The rest of his deeds and his activities, first and last, can be found written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

²⁷Ahaz rested with his ancestors and was buried in Jerusalem--in the city, for they did not bring him to the tombs of the kings of Israel. His son Hezekiah succeeded him as king.

29Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother was named Abia, daughter of Zechariah.

²He pleased the LORD just as his forefather David had done.

³It was he who, in the first month of the first year of his reign, opened the doors of the LORD'S house and repaired them.

⁴He summoned the priests and Levites, gathered them in the open space to the east,

⁵and said to them: "Listen to me, you Levites! Sanctify yourselves now and sanctify the house of the LORD, the God of your fathers, and clean out the filth from the sanctuary.

⁶Our fathers acted faithlessly and did evil in the eyes of the LORD, our God. They abandoned him, turned away their faces from the LORD'S dwelling, and turned their backs on him.

⁷They also closed the doors of the vestibule, extinguished the lamps, and refused to burn incense and offer holocausts in the sanctuary to the honor of the God of Israel.

⁸Therefore the anger of the LORD has come upon Judah and Jerusalem; he has made them an object of terror, astonishment and mockery, as you see with your own eyes.

⁹For our fathers, as you know, fell by the sword, and our sons, our daughters and our wives have been taken captive because of this.

¹⁰Now, I intend to make a covenant with the LORD, the God of Israel, that his burning anger may withdraw from us.

¹¹My sons, be not negligent any longer, for it is you whom the LORD has chosen to stand before him, to minister to him, to be his ministers and to offer incense."

¹²Then the Levites arose: Mahath, son of Amasai, and Joel, son of Azariah, descendants of the Kohathites; of the sons of Merari: Kish, son of Abdi, and Azariah, son of Jehallel; of the Gershonites: Joah, son of Zimmah, and Eden, son of Joah;

¹³of the sons of Elizaphan: Shimri and Jeuel; of the sons of Asaph: Zechariah and Mattaniah;

¹⁴of the sons of Heman: Jehuel and Shimei; of the sons of Jeduthun: Shemiah and Uzziel.

¹⁵They gathered their brethren together and sanctified themselves; then they came as the king had ordered, to cleanse the LORD'S house in keeping with his words.

¹⁶The priests entered the interior of the LORD'S house to cleanse it; and whatever they found in the LORD'S temple that was unclean they brought out to the court of the LORD'S house, where the Levites took it from them and carried it out to the Kidron Valley.

¹⁷They began the work of consecration on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they arrived at the vestibule of the LORD; they consecrated the LORD'S house during eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the first month, they had finished.

¹⁸Then they went inside to King Hezekiah and said: "We have cleansed the entire house of the LORD, the altar of holocausts with all its utensils, and the table for the showbread with all its utensils.

¹⁹All the articles which King Ahaz during his reign had thrown away because of his apostasy, we have restored and consecrated, and they are now before the LORD'S altar."

²⁰Then King Hezekiah hastened to convoke the princes of the city and went up to the LORD'S house.

²¹Seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs and seven he-goats were brought for a sin offering for the kingdom, for the sanctuary, and for Judah, and he ordered the sons of Aaron, the priests, to offer them on the altar of the LORD.

²²They slaughtered the bulls, and the priests collected the blood and cast it on the altar. Then they slaughtered the rams and cast the blood on the altar; then they slaughtered the lambs and cast the blood on the altar.

²³Then the he-goats for the sin offering were led before the king and the assembly, who laid their hands upon them.

²⁴The priests then slaughtered them and offered their blood on the altar to atone for the sin of all Israel; for "The holocaust and the sin offering," the king had said, "is for all Israel."

²⁵He stationed the Levites in the LORD'S house with cymbals, harps and lyres according to the prescriptions of David, of Gad the king's seer, and of Nathan the prophet; for the prescriptions were from the LORD through his prophets.

²⁶The Levites were stationed with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets.

²⁷Then Hezekiah ordered the holocaust to be sacrificed on the altar, and in the same instant that the holocaust began, they also began the song of the LORD, to the accompaniment of the trumpets and the instruments of David, king of Israel.

²⁸The entire assembly prostrated itself, and they continued to sing the song and to sound the trumpets until the holocaust had been completed.

²⁹As the holocaust was completed, the king and all who were with him knelt and prostrated themselves.

³⁰King Hezekiah and the princes then commanded the Levites to sing the praises of the LORD in the words of David and of Asaph the seer. They sang praises till their joy was full, then fell down and prostrated themselves.

³¹Hezekiah now spoke out this command: "You have undertaken a work for the LORD. Approach, and bring forward the sacrifices and thank offerings for the house of the LORD." Then the assembly brought forward the sacrifices and thank offerings and all the holocausts which were free-will offerings.

³²The number of holocausts that the assembly brought forward was seventy oxen, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs: all of these as a holocaust to the LORD.

³³As consecrated gifts there were six hundred oxen and three thousand sheep.

³⁴Since the priests were too few in number to be able to skin all the victims for the holocausts, their brethren the Levites assisted them until the task was completed and the priests had sanctified themselves; the Levites, in fact, were more willing than the priests to sanctify themselves.

³⁵Also, the holocausts were many, along with the fat of the peace offerings and the libations for the holocausts. Thus the service of the house of the LORD was reestablished.

³⁶Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what God had reestablished for the people, and at how suddenly this had been done.

30Hezekiah sent a message to all Israel and Judah, and even wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh saying that they should come to the house of the LORD in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover in honor of the LORD, the God of Israel.

²The king, his princes, and the entire assembly in Jerusalem had agreed to celebrate the Passover during the second month,

³for they could not celebrate it at the time of the restoration: the priests had not sanctified themselves in sufficient numbers, and the people were not gathered at Jerusalem.

⁴When this proposal had been approved by the king and the entire assembly,

⁵they issued a decree to be proclaimed throughout all Israel from Beer-sheba to Dan, that everyone should come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover in honor of the LORD, the God of Israel; for not many had kept it in the manner prescribed.

⁶Accordingly the couriers, with the letters written by the king and his princes, traversed all Israel and Judah, and at the king's command they said: "Israelites, return to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, that he may return to you, the remnant left from the hands of the Assyrian kings.

⁷Be not like your fathers and your brethren who proved faithless to the LORD, the God of their fathers, so that he delivered them over to desolation, as you yourselves now see.

⁸Be not obstinate, as your fathers were; extend your hands to the LORD and come to his sanctuary that he has consecrated forever, and serve the LORD, your God, that he may turn away his burning anger from you.

⁹For when you return to the LORD, your brethren and your children will find mercy with their captors and return to this land; for merciful and compassionate is the LORD, your God, and he will not turn away his face from you if you return to him."

¹⁰So the couriers passed from city to city in the land of Ephraim and Manasseh and as far as Zebulun, but they were derided and scoffed at.

¹¹Nevertheless, some from Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.

¹²In Judah, however, the power of God brought it about that the people were of one mind to carry out the command of the king and the princes in accordance with the word of the LORD.

¹³Thus many people gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month; it was a very great assembly.

¹⁴They proceeded to take down the altars that were in Jerusalem; also they removed all the altars of incense and cast them into the Kidron Valley.

¹⁵They slaughtered the Passover on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and Levites, touched with shame, sanctified themselves and brought holocausts into the house of the LORD.

¹⁶They stood in the places prescribed for them according to the law of Moses, the man of God. The priests sprinkled the blood given them by the Levites;

¹⁷for many in the assembly had not sanctified themselves, and the Levites were in charge of slaughtering the Passover victims for all who were unclean and therefore could not consecrate them to the LORD.

¹⁸The greater part of the people, in fact, chiefly from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves. Nevertheless they ate the Passover, contrary to the prescription; for Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, "May the LORD, who is good, grant pardon to

¹⁹everyone who has resolved to seek God, the LORD, the God of his fathers, though he be not clean as holiness requires."

²⁰The LORD heard Hezekiah and spared the people.

²¹Thus the Israelites who were in Jerusalem celebrated the feast of Unleavened Bread with great rejoicing for seven days, and the Levites and the priests sang the praises of the LORD day after day with all their strength.

²²Hezekiah spoke encouragingly to all the Levites who had shown themselves well skilled in the service of the LORD. And when they had completed the seven days of festival, slaying peace offerings and singing praises to the LORD, the God of their fathers,

²³the whole assembly agreed to celebrate another seven days. With joy, therefore, they continued the festivity seven days longer.

²⁴King Hezekiah of Judah had contributed a thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep to the assembly, and the princes had contributed to the assembly a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep. The priests sanctified themselves in great numbers,

²⁵and the whole assembly of Judah rejoiced, together with the priests and Levites and the rest of the assembly that had come from Israel, as well as the sojourners from the land of Israel and those that lived in Judah.

²⁶There was great rejoicing in Jerusalem, for since the days of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, there had not been the like in the city.

²⁷Then the levitical priests rose and blessed the people; their voice was heard and their prayer reached heaven, God's holy dwelling.

31After all this was over, those Israelites who had been present went forth to the cities of Judah and smashed the sacred pillars, cut down the sacred poles, and tore down the high places and altars throughout Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim and Manasseh, until all were destroyed. Then the Israelites returned to their various cities, each to his own possession.

²Hezekiah reestablished the classes of the priests and the Levites according to their former classification, assigning to each priest and Levite his proper service, whether in regard to holocausts or peace offerings, thanksgiving or praise, or ministering in the gates of the encampment of the LORD.

³From his own wealth the king allotted a portion for holocausts, those of morning and evening and those on sabbaths, new moons and festivals, as prescribed in the law of the LORD.

⁴He also commanded the people living in Jerusalem to provide the support of the priests and Levites, that they might devote themselves entirely to the law of the LORD.

⁵As soon as the order was promulgated, the Israelites brought, in great quantities, the best of their grain, wine, oil and honey, and all the produce of the fields; they gave a generous tithe of everything.

⁶Israelites and Judahites living in other cities of Judah also brought in tithes of oxen, sheep, and things that had been consecrated to the LORD, their God; these they brought in and set out in heaps.

⁷It was in the third month that they began to establish these heaps, and they completed them in the seventh month.

⁸When Hezekiah and the princes had come and seen the heaps, they blessed the LORD and his people Israel.

⁹Then Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps,

¹⁰and the priest Azariah, head of the house of Zadoc, answered him, "Since they began to bring the offerings to the house of the LORD, we have eaten to the full and have had much left over, for the LORD has blessed his people. This great supply is what was left over."

¹¹Hezekiah then gave orders that chambers be constructed in the house of the LORD. When this had been done,

¹²the offerings, tithes and consecrated things were deposited there in safekeeping. The overseer of these things was Conaniah the Levite, and his brother Shimei was second in charge.

¹³Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath and Benaiah were supervisors subject to Conaniah and his brother Shimei by appointment of King Hezekiah and of Azariah, the prefect of the house of God.

¹⁴Kore, the son of Imnah, a Levite and the keeper of the eastern gate, was in charge of the free-will gifts made to God; he distributed the offerings made to the LORD and the most holy of the consecrated things.

¹⁵Under him in the priestly cities were Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah and Shecaniah, who faithfully made the distribution to their brethren, great and small alike, according to their classes.

¹⁶There was also a register by ancestral houses of males thirty years of age and over, for all priests who were eligible to enter the house of the LORD according to the daily rule to fulfill their service in the order of their classes.

¹⁷The priests were inscribed in their family records according to their ancestral houses, and the Levites of twenty years and over according to their various offices and classes.

¹⁸A distribution was also made to all who were inscribed in the family records, for their little ones, wives, sons and daughters--thus for the entire assembly, since they were to sanctify themselves by sharing faithfully in the consecrated things.

¹⁹The sons of Aaron, the priests who lived on the lands attached to their cities, had in every city men designated by name to distribute portions to every male among the priests and to every Levite listed in the family records.

²⁰This Hezekiah did in all Judah. He did what was good, upright and faithful before the LORD, his God.

²¹Everything that he undertook, for the service of the house of God or for the law and the commandments, was to do the will of his God. He did this wholeheartedly, and he prospered.

32But after he had proved his fidelity by such deeds, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came. He invaded Judah, besieged the fortified cities, and proposed to take them by storm.

²When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was coming with the intention of attacking Jerusalem,

³he decided in counsel with his princes and warriors to stop the waters of the springs outside the city. When they had pledged him their support,

⁴a large crowd was gathered which stopped all the springs and also the running stream in the valley nearby. For they said, "Why should the kings of Assyria come and find an abundance of water?"

⁵He then looked to his defenses: he rebuilt the wall where it was broken down, raised towers upon it, and built another wall outside. He strengthened the Millo of the City of David and had a great number of spears and shields prepared.

⁶Then he appointed army commanders over the people. He gathered them together in his presence in the open space at the gate of the city and encouraged them with these words:

⁷"Be brave and steadfast; do not be afraid or dismayed because of the king of Assyria and all the throng that is coming with him, for there is more with us than with him.

⁸For he has only an arm of flesh, but we have the LORD, our God, to help us and to fight our battles." And the people took confidence from the words of King Hezekiah of Judah.

⁹After this, while Sennacherib, king of Assyria, himself remained at Lachish with all his forces, he sent his officials to Jerusalem with this message for King Hezekiah of Judah, and all the Judahites who were in Jerusalem:

¹⁰"King Sennacherib of Assyria has this to say: On what are you relying, while you remain under siege in Jerusalem?

¹¹Has not Hezekiah deceived you, delivering you over to a death of famine and thirst, by his claim that 'the LORD, our God, will save us from the grasp of the king of Assyria'?

¹²Has not this same Hezekiah removed his high places and altars and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, 'You shall prostrate yourselves before one altar only, and on it alone you shall offer incense'?

¹³Do you not know what my fathers and I have done to all the peoples of other lands? Were the gods of the nations in those lands able to save their lands from my hand?

¹⁴Who among all the gods of those nations which my fathers put under the ban was able to save his people from my hand? Will your god, then, be able to save you from my hand?

¹⁵Let not Hezekiah mislead you further and deceive you in any such way. Do not believe him! Since no other god of any other nation or kingdom has been able to save his people from my hand or the hands of my fathers, how much the less shall your god save you from my hand!"

¹⁶His officials said still more against the LORD God and against his servant Hezekiah,

¹⁷for he had written letters to deride the LORD, the God of Israel, speaking of him in these terms: "As the gods of the nations in other lands have not saved their people from my hand, neither shall Hezekiah's god save his people from my hand."

¹⁸In a loud voice they shouted in the Judean language to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten and terrify them so that they might capture their city.

¹⁹They spoke of the God of Israel as though he were one of the gods of the other peoples of the earth, a work of human hands.

²⁰But because of this, King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah, son of Amos, prayed and called out to heaven.

²¹Then the LORD sent an angel, who destroyed every valiant warrior, leader and commander in the camp of the Assyrian king, so that he had to return shamefaced to his own country. And when he entered the temple of his god, some of his own offspring struck him down there with the sword.

²²Thus the LORD saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib, king of Assyria, as from every other power; he gave them rest on every side.

²³Many brought gifts for the LORD to Jerusalem and costly objects for King Hezekiah of Judah, who thereafter was exalted in the eyes of all the nations.

²⁴In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. He prayed to the LORD, who answered him by giving him a sign.

²⁵Hezekiah, however, did not then discharge his debt of gratitude, for he had become proud. Therefore anger descended upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem.

²⁶But then Hezekiah humbled himself for his pride--both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and therefore the LORD did not vent his anger on them during the time of Hezekiah.

²⁷Hezekiah possessed very great wealth and glory. He had treasuries made for his silver, gold, precious stones, spices, jewels, and other precious things of all kinds;

²⁸also storehouses for the harvest of grain, for wine and oil, and barns for the various kinds of cattle and for the flocks.

²⁹He built cities for himself, and he acquired sheep and oxen in great numbers, for God gave him very great riches.

³⁰This same Hezekiah stopped the upper outflow of water from Gihon and led it underground westward to the City of David. Hezekiah prospered in all his undertakings.

³¹Nevertheless, in respect to the ambassadors (princes) sent to him from Babylon to investigate the sign that had occurred in the land, God forsook him to test him, that he might know all that was in his heart.

³²The rest of Hezekiah's acts, including his pious works, can be found written in the Vision of the Prophet Isaiah, son of Amos, and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

³³Hezekiah rested with his ancestors; he was buried at the approach to the tombs of the descendants of David. All Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem paid him honor at his death. His son Manasseh succeeded him as king.

33Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.

²He did evil in the sight of the LORD, following the abominable practices of the nations whom the LORD had cleared out of the way of the Israelites.

³He rebuilt the high places which his father Hezekiah had torn down, erected altars for the Baals, made sacred poles, and prostrated himself before the whole host of heaven and worshiped them.

⁴He even built altars in the temple of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, "In Jerusalem shall my name be forever":

⁵he built altars to the whole host of heaven in the two courts of the LORD'S house.

⁶It was he, too, who immolated his sons by fire in the Valley of Ben-hinnom. He practiced augury, divination and magic, and appointed necromancers and diviners of spirits, so that he provoked the LORD with the great evil that he did in his sight.

⁷He placed an idol that he had carved in the house of God, of which God had said to David and his son Solomon: "In this house and in Jerusalem which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel I shall place my name forever.

⁸I will not again allow Israel's feet to leave the land which I assigned to your fathers, provided they are careful to observe all that I commanded them, keeping the whole law and the statutes and the ordinances given by Moses."

⁹Manasseh misled Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem into doing even greater evil than the nations which the LORD had destroyed at the coming of the Israelites.

¹⁰The LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention.

¹¹Therefore the LORD brought against them the army commanders of the Assyrian king; they took Manasseh with hooks, shackled him with chains, and transported him to Babylon.

¹²In this distress, he began to appease the LORD, his God. He humbled himself abjectly before the God of his fathers

¹³and prayed to him. The LORD let himself be won over: he heard his prayer and restored him to his kingdom in Jerusalem. Then Manasseh understood that the LORD is indeed God.

¹⁴Afterward he built an outer wall for the City of David to the west of Gihon in the valley, extending to the Fish Gate and encircling Ophel; he built it very high. He stationed army officers in all the fortified cities of Judah.

¹⁵He removed the foreign gods and the idol from the LORD'S house and all the altars he had built on the mount of the LORD'S house and in Jerusalem, and he cast them outside the city.

¹⁶He restored the altar of the LORD, and sacrificed on it peace offerings and thank offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD, the God of Israel.

¹⁷Though the people continued to sacrifice on the high places, they now did so to the LORD, their God.

¹⁸The rest of the acts of Manasseh, his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, can be found written in the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

¹⁹His prayer and how his supplication was heard, all his sins and his infidelity, the sites where he built high places and erected sacred poles and carved images before he humbled himself, all can be found written down in the history of his seers.

²⁰Manasseh rested with his ancestors and was buried in his own palace. His son Amon succeeded him as king.

²¹Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem.

²²He did evil in the sight of the LORD, just as his father Manasseh had done. Amon offered sacrifice to all the idols which his father Manasseh had made, and worshiped them.

²³Moreover, he did not humble himself before the LORD as his father Manasseh had done; on the contrary, Amon only increased his guilt.

²⁴His servants conspired against him and put him to death in his own house.

²⁵But the people of the land slew all those who had conspired against King Amon, and then they, the people of the land, made his son Josiah king in his stead.

34Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem.

²He pleased the LORD, following the path of his ancestor David.

³In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still a youth, he began to seek after the God of his forefather David, and in his twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the sacred poles and the carved and molten images.

⁴In his presence, the altars of the Baals were destroyed; the incense stands erected above them were torn down; the sacred poles and the carved and molten images were shattered and beaten into dust, which was strewn over the tombs of those who had sacrificed to them;

⁵and the bones of the priests he burned upon their altars. Thus he purged Judah and Jerusalem.

⁶He did likewise in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, Simeon, and in the ruined villages of the surrounding country as far as Naphtali;

⁷he destroyed the altars, broke up the sacred poles and carved images and beat them into dust, and tore down the incense stands throughout the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

⁸In the eighteenth year of his reign, in order to cleanse the temple as well as the land, he sent Shaphan, son of Azaliah, Maaseiah, the ruler of the city, and Joah, son of Joahaz, the chamberlain, to restore the house of the LORD, his God.

⁹They came to Hilkiah the high priest and turned over the money brought to the house of God which the Levites, the guardians of the threshold, had collected from Manasseh, Ephraim, and all the remnant of Israel, as well as from all of Judah, Benjamin, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁰They turned it over to the master workmen in the house of the LORD, and these in turn used it to pay the workmen in the LORD'S house who were restoring and repairing the temple.

¹¹They also gave it to the carpenters and the masons to buy hewn stone and timber for the tie beams and rafters of the buildings which the kings of Judah had allowed to fall into ruin.

¹²The men worked faithfully at their task; their overseers were Jahath and Obadiah, Levites of the line of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the Kohathites, who directed them. All those Levites who were skillful with musical instruments

¹³were in charge of the men who carried the burdens, and they directed all the workers in every kind of labor. Some of the other Levites were scribes, officials and gatekeepers.

¹⁴When they brought out the money that had been deposited in the house of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law of the LORD given through Moses.

¹⁵He reported this to Shaphan the scribe, saying, "I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD." Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan,

¹⁶who brought it to the king at the same time that he was making his report to him. He said, "Your servants are doing everything that has been entrusted to them;

¹⁷they have turned into bullion the metals deposited in the LORD'S house and have handed it over to the overseers and the workmen."

¹⁸Then Shaphan the scribe announced to the king, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." And Shaphan read from it before the king.

¹⁹When the king heard the words of the law, he tore his garments

²⁰and issued this command to Hilkiah, to Ahikam, son of Shaphan, to Abdon, son of Michah, to Shaphan the scribe, and to Asaiah, the king's servant:

²¹"On behalf of myself and those who are left in Israel and Judah, go, consult the LORD concerning the words of the book that has been found. For the anger of the LORD has been set furiously ablaze against us, since our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD and have not done all that is written in this book."

²²Then Hilkiah and the other men from the king went to the prophetess Huldah, the wife of Shallum, son of Tokhath, son of Hasrah, the guardian of the wardrobe; she dwelt in Jerusalem, in the new quarter. They spoke to her as they had been instructed,

²³and she said to them: "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: 'Tell the one who sent you to me,

²⁴The LORD says: I am prepared to bring evil upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the curses written in the book that has been read before the king of Judah.

²⁵Because they have abandoned me and have offered incense to other gods, provoking me by every deed that they have performed, my anger is ablaze against this place and cannot be extinguished.'

²⁶"But to the king of Judah who sent you to consult the LORD, give this response: 'Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the threats you have heard:

²⁷Because you were heartsick and have humbled yourself before God on hearing his words spoken against this place and its inhabitants; because you have humbled yourself before me, have torn your garments, and have wept before me, I in turn have listened--so declares the LORD.

²⁸I will gather you to your ancestors and you shall be taken to your grave in peace. Your eyes shall not see all the evil I will bring upon this place and upon its inhabitants.'" They brought back this message to the king.

²⁹The king now convened all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.

³⁰He went up to the house of the LORD with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the Levites, and all the people, great and small; and he had read aloud to them the entire text of the book of the covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD.

³¹Standing at his post, the king made a covenant before the LORD to follow the LORD and to keep his commandments, decrees, and statutes with his whole heart and soul, thus observing the terms of the covenant written in this book.

³²He thereby committed all who were of Jerusalem and Benjamin, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem conformed themselves to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.

³³Josiah removed every abominable thing from all the territory belonging to the Israelites, and he obliged all who were in Israel to serve the LORD, their God. During his lifetime they did not desert the LORD, the God of their fathers.

35Josiah celebrated in Jerusalem a Passover to honor the LORD; the Passover sacrifice was slaughtered on the fourteenth day of the first month.

²He reappointed the priests to their duties and encouraged them in the service of the LORD'S house.

³He said to the Levites who were to instruct all Israel, and who were consecrated to the LORD: "Put the holy ark in the house built by Solomon, son of David, king of Israel. It shall no longer be a burden on your shoulders. Serve now the LORD, your God, and his people Israel.

⁴Prepare yourselves in your ancestral houses and your classes according to the prescriptions of King David of Israel and his son Solomon.

⁵Stand in the sanctuary according to the divisions of the ancestral houses of your brethren, the common people, so that the distribution of the Levites and the families may be the same.

⁶Slay the Passover sacrifice, sanctify yourselves, and be at the disposition of your brethren, that all may be carried out according to the word of the LORD given through Moses."

⁷Josiah contributed to the common people a flock of lambs and kids, thirty thousand in number, each to serve as a Passover victim for any who were present, and also three thousand oxen; these were from the king's property.

⁸His princes also gave a free-will gift to the people, the priests and the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah and Jehiel, prefects of the house of God, gave to the priests two thousand six hundred Passover victims together with three hundred oxen.

⁹Conaniah and his brothers Shemaiah, Nethanel, Hashabiah, Jehiel and Jozabad, the rulers of the Levites, contributed to the Levites five thousand Passover victims, together with five hundred oxen.

¹⁰When the service had been arranged, the priests took their places, as did the Levites in their classes according to the king's command.

¹¹The Passover sacrifice was slaughtered, whereupon the priests sprinkled some of the blood and the Levites proceeded to the skinning.

¹²They separated what was destined for the holocaust and gave it to various groups of the ancestral houses of the common people to offer to the LORD, as is prescribed in the book of Moses. They did the same with the oxen.

¹³They cooked the Passover on the fire as prescribed, and also cooked the sacred meals in pots, caldrons and pans, then brought them quickly to all the common people.

¹⁴Afterward they prepared the Passover for themselves and for the priests. Indeed the priests, the sons of Aaron, were busy offering holocausts and the fatty portions until night; therefore the Levites prepared for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron.

¹⁵The singers, the sons of Asaph, were at their posts as prescribed by David: Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun, the king's seer. The gatekeepers were at every gate; there was no need for them to leave their stations, for their brethren, the Levites, prepared for them.

¹⁶Thus the entire service of the LORD was arranged that day so that the Passover could be celebrated and the holocausts offered on the altar of the LORD, as King Josiah had commanded.

¹⁷The Israelites who were present on that occasion kept the Passover and the feast of the Unleavened Bread for seven days.

¹⁸No such Passover had been observed in Israel since the time of the prophet Samuel, nor had any king of Israel kept a Passover like that of Josiah, the priests and Levites, all of Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁹It was in the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign that this Passover was observed.

²⁰After Josiah had done all this to restore the temple, Neco, king of Egypt, came up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to intercept him.

²¹Neco sent messengers to him, saying: "What quarrel is between us, king of Judah? I have not come against you this day, for my war is with another kingdom, and God has told me to hasten. Do not interfere with God who is with me, as otherwise he will destroy you."

²²But Josiah would not withdraw from him, for he had sought a pretext for fighting with him. Therefore he would not listen to the words of Neco that came from the mouth of God, but went out to fight in the plain of Megiddo.

²³Then the archers shot King Josiah, who said to his servants, "Take me away, for I am seriously wounded."

²⁴His servants removed him from his own chariot, placed him in another he had in reserve, and brought him to Jerusalem, where he died. He was buried in the tombs of his ancestors, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned him.

²⁵Jeremiah also composed a lamentation over Josiah, which is recited to this day by all the male and female singers in their lamentations over Josiah. These have been made obligatory for Israel, and can be found written in the Lamentations.

²⁶The rest of the chronicle of Josiah, his pious deeds in regard to what is written in the law of the LORD, and his acts, first and last, can be found written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

36The people of the land took Jehoahaz, son of Josiah, and made him king in Jerusalem in his father's stead.

²Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.

³The king of Egypt deposed him in Jerusalem and fined the land one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

⁴Then the king of Egypt made his brother Eliakim king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Neco took his brother Jehoahaz away and brought him to Egypt.

⁵Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. He did evil in the sight of the LORD, his God.

⁶Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up against him and bound him with chains to take him to Babylon.

⁷Nebuchadnezzar also carried away to Babylon some of the vessels of the house of the LORD and put them in his palace in Babylon.

⁸The rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, the abominable things that he did, and what therefore happened to him, can be found written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. His son Jehoiachin succeeded him as king.

⁹Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months (and ten days) in Jerusalem. He did evil in the sight of the LORD.

¹⁰At the turn of the year, King Nebuchadnezzar sent for him and had him brought to Babylon, along with precious vessels from the temple of the LORD. He made his brother Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.

¹¹Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.

¹²He did evil in the sight of the LORD, his God, and he did not humble himself before the prophet Jeremiah, who spoke the word of the LORD.

¹³He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God. He became stiff-necked and hardened his heart rather than return to the LORD, the God of Israel.

¹⁴Likewise all the princes of Judah, the priests and the people added infidelity to infidelity, practicing all the abominations of the nations and polluting the LORD'S temple which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.

¹⁵Early and often did the LORD, the God of their fathers, send his messengers to them, for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place.

¹⁶But they mocked the messengers of God, despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets, until the anger of the LORD against his people was so inflamed that there was no remedy.

¹⁷Then he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who slew their young men in their own sanctuary building, sparing neither young man nor maiden, neither the aged nor the decrepit; he delivered all of them over into his grip.

¹⁸All the utensils of the house of God, the large and the small, and the treasures of the LORD'S house and of the king and his princes, all these he brought to Babylon.

¹⁹They burnt the house of God, tore down the walls of Jerusalem, set all its palaces afire, and destroyed all its precious objects.

²⁰Those who escaped the sword he carried captive to Babylon, where they became his and his sons' servants until the kingdom of the Persians came to power.

²¹All this was to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah: "Until the land has retrieved its lost sabbaths, during all the time it lies waste it shall have rest while seventy years are fulfilled."

²²In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD inspired King Cyrus of Persia to issue this proclamation throughout his kingdom, both by word of mouth and in writing:

²³"Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: 'All the kingdoms of the earth the LORD, the God of heaven, has given to me, and he has also charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever, therefore, among you belongs to any part of his people, let him go up, and may his God be with him!'"

1The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hacaliah. In the month Chislev of the twentieth year, I was in the citadel of Susa

²when Hanani, one of my brothers, came with other men from Judah. I asked them about the Jews, the remnant preserved after the captivity, and about Jerusalem,

³and they answered me: "The survivors of the captivity there in the province are in great distress and under reproach. Also, the wall of Jerusalem lies breached, and its gates have been gutted with fire."

⁴When I heard this report, I began to weep and continued mourning for several days; I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.

⁵I prayed: "O LORD, God of heaven, great and awesome God, you who preserve your covenant of mercy toward those who love you and keep your commandments,

⁶may your ear be attentive, and your eyes open, to heed the prayer which I, your servant, now offer in your presence day and night for your servants the Israelites, confessing the sins which we of Israel have committed against you, I and my father's house included.

⁷Grievously have we offended you, not keeping the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances which you committed to your servant Moses.

⁸But remember, I pray, the promise which you gave through Moses, your servant, when you said: 'Should you prove faithless, I will scatter you among the nations;

⁹but should you return to me and carefully keep my commandments, even though your outcasts have been driven to the farthest corner of the world, I will gather them from there, and bring them back to the place which I have chosen as the dwelling place for my name.'

¹⁰They are your servants, your people, whom you freed by your great might and your strong hand.

¹¹O Lord, may your ear be attentive to my prayer and that of all your willing servants who revere your name. Grant success to your servant this day, and let him find favor with this man"-for I was cupbearer to the king.

2In the month Nisan of the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when the wine was in my charge, I took some and offered it to the king. As I had never before been sad in his presence,

²the king asked me, "Why do you look sad? If you are not sick, you must be sad at heart." Though I was seized with great fear,

³I answered the king: "May the king live forever! How could I not look sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been eaten out by fire?"

⁴The king asked me, "What is it, then, that you wish?" I prayed to the God of heaven

⁵and then answered the king: "If it please the king, and if your servant is deserving of your favor, send me to Judah, to the city of my ancestors' graves, to rebuild it."

⁶Then the king, and the queen seated beside him, asked me how long my journey would take and when I would return. I set a date that was acceptable to him, and the king agreed that I might go.

⁷I asked the king further: "If it please the king, let letters be given to me for the governors of West-of-Euphrates, that they may afford me safe-conduct till I arrive in Judah;

⁸also a letter for Asaph, the keeper of the royal park, that he may give me wood for timbering the gates of the temple-citadel and for the city wall and the house that I shall occupy." The king granted my requests, for the favoring hand of my God was upon me.

⁹Thus I proceeded to the governors of West-of-Euphrates and presented the king's letters to them. The king also sent with me army officers and cavalry.

¹⁰When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite slave had heard of this, they were very much displeased that someone had come to seek the welfare of the Israelites.

¹¹When I had arrived in Jerusalem, I first rested there for three days.

¹²Then I set out by night with only a few other men (for I had not told anyone what my God had inspired me to do for Jerusalem) and with no other animals but my own mount.

¹³I rode out at night by the Valley Gate, passed by the Dragon Spring, and came to the Dung Gate, observing how the walls of Jerusalem lay in ruins and its gates had been eaten out by fire.

¹⁴Then I passed over to the Spring Gate and to the King's Pool. Since there was no room here for my mount to pass with me astride,

¹⁵I continued on foot up the wadi by night, inspecting the wall all the while till I once more reached the Valley Gate, by which I went back in.

¹⁶The magistrates knew nothing of where I had gone or what I was doing, for as yet I had disclosed nothing to the Jews, neither to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the magistrates, nor to the others who would be concerned about the matter.

¹⁷Afterward I said to them: "You see the evil plight in which we stand: how Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates have been gutted by fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so that we may no longer be an object of derision!"

¹⁸Then I explained to them how the favoring hand of my God had rested upon me, and what the king had said to me. They replied, "Let us be up and building!" And they undertook the good work with vigor.

¹⁹On hearing of this, Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite slave, and Geshem the Arab mocked us and ridiculed us. "What is this that you are about?" they asked. "Are you rebelling against the king?"

²⁰My answer to them was this: "It is the God of heaven who will grant us success. We, his servants, shall set about the rebuilding; but for you there is to be neither share nor claim nor memorial in Jerusalem."

3Eliashib the high priest and his priestly brethren took up the task of rebuilding the Sheep Gate. They timbered it and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars, then continued the rebuilding to the Tower of Hananel.

²At their side the men of Jericho were rebuilding, and next to them was Zaccur, son of Imri.

³The Fish Gate was rebuilt by the sons of Hassenaah; they timbered it and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars.

⁴At their side Meremoth, son of Uriah, son of Hakkoz, carried out the work of repair; next to him was Meshullam, son of Berechiah, son of Meshezabel; and next to him was Zadok, son of Baana.

⁵Next to him the Tekoites carried out the work of repair; however, some of their outstanding men would not submit to the labor asked by their lords.

⁶The New City Gate was repaired by Joiada, son of Paseah; and Meshullam, son of Besodeiah; they timbered it and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars.

⁷At their side were Melatiah the Gibeonite, Jadon the Meronothite, and the men of Gibeon and of Mizpah, who were under the jurisdiction of the governor of West-of-Euphrates.

⁸Next to them the work of repair was carried out by Uzziel, son of Harhaiah, a member of the goldsmiths' guild, and at his side was Hananiah, one of the perfumers' guild. They restored Jerusalem as far as the wall of the public square.

⁹Next to them the work of repair was carried out by Rephaiah, son of Hur, leader of half the district of Jerusalem,

¹⁰and at his side was Jedaiah, son of Harumaph, who repaired opposite his own house. Next to him Hattush, son of Hashabneiah, carried out the work of repair.

¹¹The adjoining sector, as far as the Oven Tower, was repaired by Malchijah, son of Harim, and Hasshub, of Pahath-moab.

¹²At their side the work of repair was carried out by Shallum, son of Hallohesh, leader of half the district of Jerusalem, by himself and his daughters.

¹³The Valley Gate was repaired by Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah; they rebuilt it and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars. They also repaired a thousand cubits of the wall up to the Dung Gate.

¹⁴The Dung Gate was repaired by Malchijah, son of Rechab, leader of the district of Beth-haccherem; he rebuilt it and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars.

¹⁵The Spring Gate was repaired by Shallum, son of Colhozeh, leader of the district of Mizpah; he rebuilt it, roofed it over, and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars. He also repaired the wall of the Aqueduct Pool near the king's garden as far as the steps that lead down from the City of David.

¹⁶After him, the work of repair was carried out by Nehemiah, son of Azbuk, leader of half the district of Beth-zur, to a place opposite the tombs of David, as far as the artificial pool and the barracks.

¹⁷After him, the Levites carried out the work of repair: Rehum, son of Bani. Next to him, for his own district, was Hashabiah, leader of half the district of Keilah.

¹⁸After him, their brethren carried out the work of repair: Binnui, son of Henadad, leader of half the district of Keilah;

¹⁹next to him Ezer, son of Jeshua, leader of Mizpah, who repaired the adjoining sector, the Corner, opposite the ascent to the arsenal.

²⁰After him, Baruch, son of Zabbai, repaired the adjoining sector from the Corner to the entrance of the house of Eliashib, the high priest.

²¹After him, Meremoth, son of Uriah, son of Hakkoz, repaired the adjoining sector from the entrance of Eliashib's house to the end of the house.

²²After him, the work of repair was carried out by the priests, men of the surrounding country.

²³After them, Benjamin and Hasshub carried out the repair in front of their houses; after them, Azariah, son of Maaseiah, son of Ananiah, made the repairs alongside his house.

²⁴After him, Binnui, son of Henadad, repaired the adjoining sector from the house of Azariah to the Corner (that is, to the Angle).

²⁵After him, Palal, son of Uzai, carried out the work of repair opposite the Corner and the tower projecting from the Upper Palace at the quarters of the guard. After him, Pedaiah, son of Parosh, carried out the work of repair

²⁶to a point opposite the Water Gate on the east, and the projecting tower.

²⁷After him, the Tekoites repaired the adjoining sector opposite the great projecting tower, to the wall of Ophel (the temple slaves were dwelling on Ophel).

²⁸Above the Horse Gate the priests carried out the work of repair, each before his own house.

²⁹After them Zadok, son of Immer, carried out the repair before his house, and after him the repair was carried out by Shemaiah, son of Shecaniah, keeper of the East Gate.

³⁰After him, Hananiah, son of Shelemiah, and Hanun, the sixth son of Zalaph, repaired the adjoining sector; after them, Meshullam, son of Berechiah, repaired the place opposite his own lodging.

³¹After him, Malchijah, a member of the goldsmiths' guild, carried out the work of repair as far as the quarters of the temple slaves and the merchants, before the Gate of Inspection and as far as the upper chamber of the Angle.

³²Between the upper chamber of the Angle and the Sheep Gate, the goldsmiths and the merchants carried out the work of repair.

³³When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, it roused his anger and he became very much incensed. He ridiculed the Jews,

³⁴saying in the presence of his brethren and the troops of Samaria: "What are these miserable Jews trying to do? Will they complete their restoration in a single day? Will they recover these stones, burnt as they are, from the heaps of dust?"

³⁵Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said: "It is a rubble heap they are building. Any fox that attacked it would breach their wall of stones!"

³⁶Take note, O our God, how we were mocked! Turn back their derision upon their own heads and let them be carried away to a land of captivity!

³⁷Hide not their crime and let not their sin be blotted out in your sight, for they insulted the builders to their face!

³⁸We, however, continued to build the wall, which was soon filled in and completed up to half its height. The people worked with a will.

4When Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem was progressing--for the gaps were beginning to be closed up--they became extremely angry.

²Thereupon they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and thus to throw us into confusion.

³We prayed to our God and posted a watch against them day and night for fear of what they might do.

⁴Meanwhile the Judahites were saying: "Slackened is the bearers' strength, there is no end to the rubbish; Never shall we be able the wall to rebuild."

⁵Our enemies thought, "Before they are aware of it or see us, we shall come into their midst, kill them, and put an end to the work."

⁶When the Jews who lived near them had come to us from one place after another, and had told us ten times over that they were about to attack us,

⁷I stationed guards down below, behind the wall, near the exposed points, assigning them by family groups with their swords, their spears, and their bows.

⁸I made an inspection, then addressed these words to the nobles, the magistrates, and the rest of the people: "Have no fear of them! Keep in mind the LORD, who is great and to be feared, and fight for your brethren, your sons and daughters, your wives and your homes."

⁹When our enemies became aware that we had been warned and that God had upset their plan, we all went back, each to his own task at the wall.

¹⁰From that time on, however, only half my able men took a hand in the work, while the other half, armed with spears, bucklers, bows, and breastplates, stood guard behind the whole house of Judah

¹¹as they rebuilt the wall. The load carriers, too, were armed; each did his work with one hand and held a weapon with the other.

¹²Every builder, while he worked, had his sword girt at his side. Also, a trumpeter stood beside me,

¹³for I had said to the nobles, the magistrates, and the rest of the people: "Our work is scattered and extensive, and we are widely separated from one another along the wall;

¹⁴wherever you hear the trumpet sound, join us there; our God will fight with us."

¹⁵Thus we went on with the work, half of the men with spears at the ready, from daybreak till the stars came out.

¹⁶At the same time I told the people to spend the nights inside Jerusalem, each man with his own attendant, so that they might serve as a guard by night and a working force by day.

¹⁷Neither I, nor my kinsmen, nor any of my attendants, nor any of the bodyguard that accompanied me took off his clothes; everyone kept his weapon at his right hand.

5Then there rose a great outcry of the common people and their wives against certain of their fellow Jews.

²Some said: "We are forced to pawn our sons and daughters in order to get grain to eat that we may live."

³Others said: "We are forced to pawn our fields, our vineyards, and our houses, that we may have grain during the famine."

⁴Still others said: "To pay the king's tax we have borrowed money on our fields and our vineyards.

⁵And though these are our own kinsmen and our children are as good as theirs, we have had to reduce our sons and daughters to slavery, and violence has been done to some of our daughters! Yet we can do nothing about it, for our fields and our vineyards belong to others."

⁶I was extremely angry when I heard the reasons they had for complaint.

⁷After some deliberation, I called the nobles and magistrates to account, saying to them, "You are exacting interest from your own kinsmen!" I then rebuked them severely,

⁸saying to them: "As far as we were able, we bought back our fellow Jews who had been sold to Gentiles; you, however, are selling your own brothers, to have them bought back by us." They remained silent, for they could find no answer.

⁹I continued: "What you are doing is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God, and put an end to the derision of our Gentile enemies?

¹⁰I myself, my kinsmen, and my attendants have lent the people money and grain without charge. Let us put an end to this usury!

¹¹I ask that you return to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, together with the interest on the money, the grain, the wine, and the oil that you have lent them."

¹²They answered: "We will return everything and exact nothing further from them. We will do just what you ask." Then I called for the priests and had them administer an oath to these men that they would do as they had promised.

¹³I also shook out the folds of my garment, saying, "Thus may God shake from his home and his fortune every man who fails to keep this promise, and may he thus be shaken out and emptied!" And the whole assembly answered, "Amen," and praised the LORD. Then the people did as they had promised.

¹⁴Moreover, from the time that King Artaxerxes appointed me governor in the land of Judah, from his twentieth to his thirty-second year--during these twelve years neither I nor my brethren lived from the governor's allowance.

¹⁵The earlier governors, my predecessors, had laid a heavy burden on the people, taking from them each day forty silver shekels for their food; then too, their men oppressed the people. But I, because I feared God, did not act thus.

¹⁶Moreover, though I had acquired no land of my own, I did my part in this work on the wall, and all my men were gathered there for the work.

¹⁷Though I set my table for a hundred and fifty persons, Jews and magistrates, as well as those who came to us from the nations round about,

¹⁸and though the daily preparations were made at my expense--one beef, six choice muttons, poultry--besides all kinds of wine in abundance every ten days, despite this I did not claim the governor's allowance, for the labor lay heavy upon this people.

¹⁹Keep in mind, O my God, in my favor all that I did for this people.

6When it had been reported to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and our other enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and that there was no breach left in it (though up to that time I had not yet set up the doors in the gates),

²Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: "Come, let us hold council together at Caphirim in the plain of Ono." They were planning to do me harm.

³However, I sent messengers to them with this reply: "I am engaged in a great enterprise and am unable to come down; why should the work stop, while I leave it to come down to you?"

⁴Four times they sent me this same proposal, and each time I gave the same reply.

⁵Then, the fifth time, Sanballat sent me the same message by one of his servants, who bore an unsealed letter

⁶containing this text: "Among the nations it has been reported--Geshem is witness to this--that you and the Jews are planning a rebellion; that for this reason you are rebuilding the wall; and that you are to be their king"--and so on.

⁷"Also, that you have set up prophets in Jerusalem to proclaim you king of Judah. Now, since matters like these must reach the ear of the king, come, let us hold council together."

⁸I sent him this answer: "Nothing of what you report has taken place; rather, it is the invention of your own mind."

⁹They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, "Their hands will slacken in the work, and it will never be completed." But instead, I now redoubled my efforts.

¹⁰I went to the house of Shemaiah, son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, who was unable to go about, and he said: "Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple building; let us lock the doors of the temple. For men are coming to kill you; by night they are coming to kill you."

¹¹My answer was: "A man like me take flight? Can a man like me enter the temple to save his life? I will not go!"

¹²For on consideration it was plain to me that God had not sent him; rather, because Tobiah and Sanballat had bribed him, he voiced this prophecy concerning me

¹³that I might act on it out of fear and commit this sin. Then they would have had a shameful story with which to discredit me.

¹⁴Keep in mind Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, because of these things they did; keep in mind as well Noadiah the prophetess and the other prophets who were trying to frighten me.

¹⁵The wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of Elul; it had taken fifty-two days.

¹⁶When all our enemies had heard of this, and all the nations round about had taken note of it, our enemies lost much face in the eyes of the nations, for they knew that it was with our God's help that this work had been completed.

¹⁷At that same time, however, many letters were going to Tobiah from the nobles of Judah, and Tobiah's letters were reaching them,

¹⁸for many in Judah were in league with him, since he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah, son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam, son of Berechiah.

¹⁹Thus they would praise his good deeds in my presence and relate to him whatever I said; and Tobiah sent letters trying to frighten me.

7When the wall had been rebuilt, I had the doors set up, and the gatekeepers (and the singers and the Levites) were put in charge of them.

²Over Jerusalem I placed Hanani, my brother, and Hananiah, the commander of the citadel, who was a more trustworthy and God-fearing man than most.

³I said to them: "The gates of Jerusalem are not to be opened until the sun is hot, and while the sun is still shining they shall shut and bar the doors. Appoint as watchmen the inhabitants of Jerusalem, some at their watch posts, and others before their own houses."

⁴Now the city was quite wide and spacious, but its population was small, and none of the houses had been rebuilt.

⁵When my God had put it into my mind to gather together the nobles, the magistrates, and the common people, and to examine their family records, I came upon the family list of those who had returned in the earliest period. There I found the following written:

⁶These are the inhabitants of the province who returned from the captivity of the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had carried away, and who came back to Jerusalem and Judah, each man to his own city

⁷(those who returned with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, and Baanah). The census of the men of Israel:

⁸sons of Parosh, two thousand one hundred and seventy-two;

⁹sons of Shephatiah, three hundred and seventy-two;

¹⁰sons of Arah, six hundred and fifty-two;

¹¹sons of Pahath-moab who were sons of Jeshua and Joab, two thousand eight hundred and eighteen;

¹²sons of Elam, one thousand two hundred and fifty-four;

¹³sons of Zattu, eight hundred and forty-five;

¹⁴sons of Zaccai, seven hundred and sixty;

¹⁵sons of Binnui, six hundred and forty-eight;

¹⁶sons of Bebai, six hundred and twenty-eight;

¹⁷sons of Azgad, two thousand three hundred and twenty-two;

¹⁸sons of Adonikam, six hundred and sixty-seven;

¹⁹sons of Bigvai, two thousand and sixty-seven;

²⁰sons of Adin, six hundred and fifty-five;

²¹sons of Ater who were sons of Hezekiah, ninety-eight;

²²sons of Hashum, three hundred and twenty-eight;

²³sons of Bezai, three hundred and twenty-four;

²⁴sons of Hariph, one hundred and twelve;

²⁵sons of Gibeon, ninety-five;

²⁶men of Bethlehem and Netophah, one hundred and eighty-eight;

²⁷men of Anathoth, one hundred and twenty-eight;

²⁸men of Beth-azmaveth, forty-two;

²⁹men of Kiriath-jearim, Chephirah, and Beeroth, seven hundred and forty-three;

³⁰men of Ramah and Geba, six hundred and twenty-one;

³¹men of Michmas, one hundred and twenty-two;

³²men of Bethel and Ai, one hundred and twenty-three;

³³men of Nebo, fifty-two;

³⁴sons of another Elam, one thousand two hundred and fifty-four;

³⁵sons of Harim, three hundred and twenty;

³⁶sons of Jericho, three hundred and forty-five;

³⁷sons of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, seven hundred and twenty-one;

³⁸sons of Senaah, three thousand nine hundred and thirty.

³⁹The priests: sons of Jedaiah who were of the house of Jeshua, nine hundred and seventy-three;

⁴⁰sons of Immer, one thousand and fifty-two;

⁴¹sons of Pashhur, one thousand two hundred and forty-seven;

⁴²sons of Harim, one thousand and seventeen.

⁴³The Levites: sons of Jeshua, Kadmiel, Binnui, Hodeviah, seventy-four.

⁴⁴The singers: sons of Asaph, one hundred and forty-eight.

⁴⁵The gatekeepers: sons of Shallum, sons of Ater, sons of Talmon, sons of Akkub, sons of Hatita, sons of Shobai, one hundred and thirty-eight.

⁴⁶The temple slaves: sons of Ziha, sons of Hasupha, sons of Tabbaoth,

⁴⁷sons of Keros, sons of Sia, sons of Padon,

⁴⁸sons of Lebana, sons of Hagaba, sons of Shalmai,

⁴⁹sons of Hanan, sons of Giddel, sons of Gahar,

⁵⁰sons of Reaiah, sons of Rezin, sons of Nekoda,

⁵¹sons of Gazzam, sons of Uzza, sons of Paseah,

⁵²sons of Besai, sons of the Meunites, sons of the Nephusites,

⁵³sons of Bakbuk, sons of Hakupha, sons of Harhur,

⁵⁴sons of Bazlith, sons of Mehida, sons of Harsha,

⁵⁵sons of Barkos, sons of Sisera, sons of Temah,

⁵⁶sons of Neziah, sons of Hatipha.

⁵⁷Descendants of the slaves of Solomon: sons of Sotai, sons of Sophereth, sons of Perida,

⁵⁸sons of Jaala, sons of Darkon, sons of Giddel,

⁵⁹sons of Shephatiah, sons of Hattil, sons of Pochereth-hazzebaim, sons of Amon.

⁶⁰The total of the temple slaves and the descendants of the slaves of Solomon was three hundred and ninety-two.

⁶¹The following who returned from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer were unable to prove that their ancestral houses and their descent were Israelite:

⁶²sons of Delaiah, sons of Tobiah, sons of Nekoda, six hundred and forty-two.

⁶³Also, of the priests: sons of Hobaiah, sons of Hakkoz, sons of Barzillai (he had married one of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite and became known by his name).

⁶⁴These men searched their family records, but their names could not be found written there; hence they were degraded from the priesthood,

⁶⁵and His Excellency ordered them not to partake of the most holy foods until there should be a priest bearing the Urim and Thummim.

⁶⁶The entire assembly taken together came to forty-two thousand three hundred and sixty,

⁶⁷not counting their male and female slaves, who were seven thousand three hundred and thirty-seven. They also had two hundred male and female singers. Their horses were seven hundred and thirty-six, their mules two hundred and forty-five,

⁶⁸their camels four hundred and thirty-five, their asses six thousand seven hundred and twenty.

⁶⁹Certain of the family heads contributed to the service. His Excellency put into the treasury one thousand drachmas of gold, fifty basins, thirty garments for priests, and five hundred minas of silver.

⁷⁰Some of the family heads contributed to the treasury for the temple service: twenty thousand drachmas of gold and two thousand two hundred minas of silver.

⁷¹The contributions of the rest of the people amounted to twenty thousand drachmas of gold, two thousand minas of silver, and sixty-seven garments for priests.

⁷²The priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple slaves, and all Israel took up residence in their cities.

8Now when the seventh month came, the whole people gathered as one man in the open space before the Water Gate, and they called upon Ezra the scribe to bring forth the book of the law of Moses which the LORD prescribed for Israel.

²On the first day of the seventh month, therefore, Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, which consisted of men, women, and those children old enough to understand.

³Standing at one end of the open place that was before the Water Gate, he read out of the book from daybreak till midday, in the presence of the men, the women, and those children old enough to understand; and all the people listened attentively to the book of the law.

⁴Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that had been made for the occasion; at his right side stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, and on his left Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, Meshullam.

⁵Ezra opened the scroll so that all the people might see it (for he was standing higher up than any of the people); and, as he opened it, all the people rose.

⁶Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people, their hands raised high, answered, "Amen, amen!" Then they bowed down and prostrated themselves before the LORD, their faces to the ground.

⁷(The Levites Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, and Pelaiah explained the law to the people, who remained in their places.)

⁸Ezra read plainly from the book of the law of God, interpreting it so that all could understand what was read.

⁹Then (Nehemiah, that is, His Excellency, and) Ezra the priest-scribe (and the Levites who were instructing the people) said to all the people: "Today is holy to the LORD your God. Do not be sad, and do not weep"-for all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the law.

¹⁰He said further: "Go, eat rich foods and drink sweet drinks, and allot portions to those who had nothing prepared; for today is holy to our LORD. Do not be saddened this day, for rejoicing in the LORD must be your strength!"

¹¹(And the Levites quieted all the people, saying, "Hush, for today is holy, and you must not be saddened.")

¹²Then all the people went to eat and drink, to distribute portions, and to celebrate with great joy, for they understood the words that had been expounded to them.

¹³On the second day, the family heads of the whole people and also the priests and the Levites gathered around Ezra the scribe and examined the words of the law more closely.

¹⁴They found it written in the law prescribed by the LORD through Moses that the Israelites must dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month;

¹⁵and that they should have this proclamation made throughout their cities and in Jerusalem: "Go out into the hill country and bring in branches of olive trees, oleasters, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees, to make booths, as the law prescribes."

¹⁶The people went out and brought in branches with which they made booths for themselves, on the roof of their houses, in their courtyards, in the courts of the house of God, and in the open spaces of the Water Gate and the Gate of Ephraim.

¹⁷Thus the entire assembly of the returned exiles made booths and dwelt in them. Now the Israelites had done nothing of this sort from the days of Jeshua, son of Nun, until this occasion; therefore there was very great joy.

¹⁸Ezra read from the book of the law of God day after day, from the first day to the last. They kept the feast for seven days, and the solemn assembly on the eighth day, as was required.

9On the twenty-fourth day of this month, the Israelites gathered together fasting and in sackcloth, their heads covered with dust.

²Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all who were of foreign extraction, then stood forward and confessed their sins and the guilty deeds of their fathers.

³When they had taken their places, they read from the book of the law of the LORD their God, for a fourth part of the day, and during another fourth part they made their confession and prostrated themselves before the LORD their God.

⁴Standing on the platform of the Levites were Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani, who cried out to the LORD their God, with a loud voice.

⁵The Levites Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah said, "Arise, bless the LORD, your God, from eternity to eternity!" The Israelites answered with the blessing, "Blessed is your glorious name, and exalted above all blessing and praise."

⁶Then Ezra said: "It is you, O LORD, you are the only one; you made the heavens, the highest heavens and all their host, the earth and all that is upon it, the seas and all that is in them. To all of them you give life, and the heavenly hosts bow down before you.

⁷"You, O LORD, are the God who chose Abram, who brought him out from Ur of the Chaldees, and named him Abraham.

⁸When you had found his heart faithful in your sight, you made the covenant with him to give to him and his posterity the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites, and Girgashites. These promises of yours you fulfilled, for you are just.

⁹"You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, you heard their cry by the Red Sea;

¹⁰You worked signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his servants and the people of his land, Because you knew of their insolence toward them; thus you made for yourself a name even to this day.

¹¹The sea you divided before them, on dry ground they passed through the midst of the sea; Their pursuers you hurled into the depths, like a stone into the mighty waters.

¹²With a column of cloud you led them by day, and by night with a column of fire, To light the way of their journey, the way in which they must travel.

¹³On Mount Sinai you came down, you spoke with them from heaven; You gave them just ordinances, firm laws, good statutes, and commandments;

¹⁴Your holy sabbath you made known to them, commandments, statutes, and law you prescribed for them, by the hand of Moses your servant.

¹⁵Food from heaven you gave them in their hunger, water from a rock you sent them in their thirst. You bade them enter and occupy the land which you had sworn with upraised hand to give them.

¹⁶"But they, our fathers, proved to be insolent; they held their necks stiff and would not obey your commandments.

¹⁷They refused to obey and no longer remembered the miracles you had worked for them. They stiffened their necks and turned their heads to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God of pardons, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in mercy; you did not forsake them.

¹⁸Though they made for themselves a molten calf, and proclaimed, 'Here is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,' and were guilty of great effronteries,

¹⁹yet in your great mercy you did not forsake them in the desert. The column of cloud did not cease to lead them by day on their journey, nor did the column of fire by night cease to light for them the way by which they were to travel.

²⁰"Your good spirit you bestowed on them, to give them understanding; your manna you did not withhold from their mouths, and you gave them water in their thirst.

²¹Forty years in the desert you sustained them: they did not want; their garments did not become worn, and their feet did not become swollen.

²²You gave them kingdoms and peoples, which you divided up among them as border lands. They possessed the land of Sihon, king of Heshbon, and the land of Og, king of Bashan.

²³"You made their children as numerous as the stars of the heavens, and you brought them into the land which you had commanded their fathers to enter and possess.

²⁴The sons went in to take possession of the land, and you humbled before them the Canaanite inhabitants of the land and delivered them over into their power, their kings as well as the peoples of the land, to do with them as they would.

²⁵They captured fortified cities and fertile land; they took possession of houses filled with all good things, cisterns already dug, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. They could eat and have their fill, fatten and feast themselves on your immense good gifts.

²⁶"But they were contemptuous and rebellious: they cast your law behind their backs, they slew your prophets who bore witness against them in order to bring them back to you, and they were guilty of great effronteries.

²⁷Therefore you delivered them into the power of their enemies, who oppressed them. But in the time of their oppression they would cry out to you, and you would hear them from heaven, and according to your great mercy give them saviors to deliver them from the power of their enemies.

²⁸"As soon as they had relief, they would go back to doing evil in your sight. Then again you abandoned them to the power of their enemies, who crushed them. Then they cried out to you, and you heard them from heaven and delivered them according to your mercy, many times over.

²⁹You bore witness against them, in order to bring them back to your law. But they were insolent and would not obey your commandments; they sinned against your ordinances, from which men draw life when they practice them. They turned stubborn backs, stiffened their necks, and would not obey.

³⁰You were patient with them for many years, bearing witness against them through your spirit, by means of your prophets; still they would not listen. Thus you delivered them over into the power of the peoples of the lands.

³¹Yet in your great mercy you did not completely destroy them and you did not forsake them, for you are a kind and merciful God.

³²"Now, therefore, O our God, great, mighty, and awesome God, you who in your mercy preserve the covenant, take into account all the disasters that have befallen us, our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and your entire people, from the time of the kings of Assyria until this day!

³³In all that has come upon us you have been just, for you kept faith while we have done evil.

³⁴Yes, our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept your law; they paid no attention to your commandments and the obligations of which you reminded them.

³⁵While they were yet in their kingdom, in the midst of the many good things that you had given them and in the wide and fertile land that you had spread out before them, they did not serve you nor did they turn away from their evil deeds.

³⁶But, see, we today are slaves; and as for the land which you gave our fathers that they might eat its fruits and good things--see, we have become slaves upon it!

³⁷Its rich produce goes to the kings whom you set over us because of our sins, who rule over our bodies and our cattle as they please. We are in great distress!"

10In view of all this, we are entering into a firm pact, which we are putting into writing. On the sealed document appear the names of our princes, our Levites, and our priests.

²On the sealed document: His Excellency Nehemiah, son of Hacaliah, and Zedekiah.

³Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah,

⁴Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah,

⁵Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch,

⁶Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah,

⁷Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch,

⁸Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin,

⁹Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah: these are the priests.

¹⁰The Levites: Jeshua, son of Azaniah; Binnui, of the sons of Henadad; Kadmiel;

¹¹and their brethren Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan,

¹²Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah,

¹³Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah,

¹⁴Hodiah, Bani, Beninu.

¹⁵The leaders of the people: Parosh, Pahath-moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani,

¹⁶Bunni, Azgad, Bebai,

¹⁷Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin,

¹⁸Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur,

¹⁹Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai,

²⁰Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai,

²¹Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir,

²²Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua,

²³Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah,

²⁴Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub,

²⁵Halhohesh, Pilha, Shobek,

²⁶Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah,

²⁷Ahiah, Hanan, Anan,

²⁸Malluch, Harim, Baanah.

²⁹The rest of the people, priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, temple slaves, and all others who have separated themselves from the peoples of the lands in favor of the law of God, with their wives, their sons, their daughters, all who are of the age of discretion,

³⁰join with their brethren who are their princes, and with the sanction of a curse take this oath to follow the law of God which was given through Moses, the servant of God, and to observe carefully all the commandments of the LORD, our LORD, his ordinances and his statutes.

³¹Agreed, that we will not marry our daughters to the peoples of the land, and that we will not take their daughters for our sons.

³²When the peoples of the land bring in merchandise or any kind of grain for sale on the sabbath day, we will not buy from them on the sabbath or on any other holyday. We will forgo the seventh year, as well as every kind of debt.

³³We impose these commandments on ourselves: to give a third of a shekel each year for the service of the house of our God,

³⁴for the showbread, for the daily cereal offering, for the daily holocaust, for the sabbaths, new moons, and festivals, for the holy offerings, for sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for every service of the house of our God.

³⁵We, priests, Levites, and people, have determined by lot concerning the procurement of wood: it is to be brought to the house of our God by each of our family houses at stated times each year, to be burnt on the altar of the LORD, our God, as the law prescribes.

³⁶We have agreed to bring each year to the house of the LORD the first fruits of our fields and of our fruit trees, of whatever kind;

³⁷also, as is prescribed in the law, to bring to the house of our God, to the priests who serve in the house of our God, the first-born of our children and our animals, including the first-born of our flocks and herds.

³⁸The first batch of our dough, and our offerings of the fruit of every tree, of wine and of oil, we will bring to the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God. The tithe of our fields we will bring to the Levites; they, the Levites, shall take the tithe in all the cities of our service.

³⁹An Aaronite priest shall be with the Levites when they take the tithe, and the Levites shall bring the tithe of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers of the treasury.

⁴⁰For to these chambers the Israelites and Levites bring the offerings of grain, wine, and oil; there also are housed the utensils of the sanctuary, and the ministering priests, the gatekeepers, and the singers. We will not neglect the house of our God.

11The leaders of the people took up residence in Jerusalem, and the rest of the people cast lots to bring one man in ten to reside in Jerusalem, the holy city, while the other nine would remain in the other cities.

²The people applauded all those men who willingly agreed to take up residence in Jerusalem.

³These are the heads of the province who took up residence in Jerusalem. (In the cities of Judah dwelt lay Israelites, priests, Levites, temple slaves, and the descendants of the slaves of Solomon, each man on the property he owned in his own city.)

⁴In Jerusalem dwelt both Judahites and Benjaminites. Of the Judahites: Athaiah, son of Uzziah, son of Zechariah, son of Amariah, son of Shephatiah, son of Mehallalel, of the sons of Perez;

⁵Maaseiah, son of Baruch, son of Colhozeh, son of Hazaiah, son of Adaiah, son of Joiarib, son of Zechariah, a son of the Shelanites.

⁶The total of the sons of Perez who dwelt in Jerusalem was four hundred and sixty-eight valiant men.

⁷These were the Benjaminites: Sallu, son of Meshullam, son of Joed, son of Pedaiah, son of Kolaiah, son of Maaseiah, son of Ithiel, son of Jeshaiah,

⁸and his brethren, warriors, nine hundred and twenty-eight in number.

⁹Joel, son of Zichri, was their commander, and Judah, son of Hassenuah, was second in charge of the city.

¹⁰Among the priests were: Jedaiah; Joiarib; Jachin;

¹¹Seraiah, son of Hilkiah, son of Meshullam, son of Zadok, son of Meraioth, son of Ahitub, the ruler of the house of God,

¹²and their brethren who carried out the temple service, eight hundred and twenty-two; Adaiah, son of Jeroham, son of Pelaliah, son of Amzi, son of Zechariah, son of Pashhur, son of Malchijah,

¹³and his brethren, family heads, two hundred and forty-two; and Amasai, son of Azarel, son of Ahzai, son of Meshillemoth, son of Immer,

¹⁴and his brethren, warriors, one hundred and twenty-eight. Their commander was Zabdiel, son of Haggadol.

¹⁵Among the Levites were Shemaiah, son of Hasshub, son of Azrikam, son of Hashabiah, son of Bunni;

¹⁶Shabbethai and Jozabad, levitical chiefs who were placed over the external affairs of the house of God;

¹⁷Mattaniah, son of Micah, son of Zabdi, son of Asaph, director of the psalms, who led the thanksgiving at prayer; Bakbukiah, second in rank among his brethren; and Abda, son of Shammua, son of Galal, son of Jeduthun.

¹⁸The total of the Levites in the holy city was two hundred and eighty-four.

¹⁹The gatekeepers were Akkub, Talmon, and their brethren, who kept watch over the gates; one hundred and seventy-two in number.

²⁰The rest of Israel, including priests and Levites, were in all the other cities of Judah, each man in his inheritance.

²¹The temple slaves lived on Ophel. Ziha and Gishpa were in charge of the temple slaves.

²²The prefect of the Levites in Jerusalem was Uzzi, son of Bani, son of Hashabiah, son of Mattaniah, son of Micah; he was one of the sons of Asaph, the singers appointed to the service of the house of God--

²³for they had been appointed by royal decree, and there was a fixed schedule for the singers assigning them their daily duties.

²⁴Pethahiah, son of Meshezabel, a descendant of Zerah, son of Judah, was royal deputy in all affairs that concerned the people.

²⁵As concerns their villages in the country: Judahites lived in Kiriath-arba and its dependencies, in Dibon and its dependencies, in Jekabzeel and its villages,

²⁶in Jeshua, Moladah, Beth-pelet,

²⁷in Hazarshual, in Beer-sheba and its dependencies,

²⁸in Ziklag, in Meconah and its dependencies,

²⁹in En-rimmon, Zorah, Jarmuth,

³⁰Zanoah, Adullam, and their villages, Lachish and its countryside, Azekah and its dependencies. They were settled from Beer-sheba to Ge-hinnom.

³¹Benjaminites were in Geba, Michmash, Aija, Bethel and its dependencies,

³²Anathoth, Nob, Ananiah,

³³Hazor, Ramah, Gittaim,

³⁴Hadid, Zeboim, Neballat,

³⁵Lod, Ono, and the Valley of the Artisans.

³⁶Some sections of the Levites from Judah settled in Benjamin.

12The following are the priests and Levites who returned with Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra,

²Amariah, Malluch, Hattush,

³Shecaniah, Rehum, Meremoth,

⁴Iddo, Ginnethon, Abijah,

⁵Mijamin, Maadiah, Bilgah,

⁶Shemaiah, and Joiarib, Jedaiah,

⁷Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah, Jedaiah. These were the priestly heads and their brethren in the days of Jeshua.

⁸The Levites were Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, Mattaniah; the last-mentioned, together with his brethren, was in charge of the hymns,

⁹while Bakbukiah and Unno and their brethren ministered opposite them by turns.

¹⁰Jeshua became the father of Joiakim, Joiakim became the father of Eliashib, and Eliashib became the father of Joiada.

¹¹Joiada became the father of Johanan, and Johanan became the father of Jaddua.

¹²In the days of Joiakim these were the priestly family heads: for Seraiah, Meraiah; for Jeremiah, Hananiah;

¹³for Ezra, Meshullam; for Amariah, Jehohanan;

¹⁴for Malluchi, Jonathan; for Shebaniah, Joseph;

¹⁵for Harim, Adna; for Meremoth, Helkai;

¹⁶for Iddo, Zechariah; for Ginnethon, Meshullam;

¹⁷for Abijah, Zichri; for Miamin, . . . ; for Maadiah, Piltai;

¹⁸for Bilgah, Shammua; for Shemaiah, Jehonathan;

¹⁹and for Joiarib, Mattenai; for Jedaiah, Uzzi;

²⁰for Sallu, Kallai; for Amok, Eber;

²¹for Hilkiah, Hashabiah; for Jedaiah, Nethanel.

²²In the time of Eliashib, Joiada, Johanan, and Jaddua, the family heads of the priests were written down in the Book of Chronicles, up until the reign of Darius the Persian.

²³The sons of Levi: the family heads were written down in the Book of Chronicles, up until the time of Johanan, the son of Eliashib.

²⁴The heads of the Levites were Hashabiah, Sherebiah, Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel. Their brethren who stood opposite them to sing praises and thanksgiving in fulfillment of the command of David, the man of God, one section opposite the other,

²⁵were Mattaniah, Bakbukiah, Obadiah.Meshullam, Talmon, and Akkub were gatekeepers. They kept watch over the storerooms at the gates.

²⁶All these lived in the time of Joiakim, son of Jeshua, son of Jozadak (and in the time of Nehemiah the governor and of Ezra the priest-scribe).

²⁷At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, the Levites were sought out wherever they lived and were brought to Jerusalem to celebrate a joyful dedication with thanksgiving hymns and the music of cymbals, harps, and lyres.

²⁸The levitical singers gathered together from the region about Jerusalem, from the villages of the Netophathites,

²⁹from Beth-gilgal, and from the plains of Geba and Azmaveth (for the singers had built themselves settlements about Jerusalem).

³⁰The priests and Levites first purified themselves, then they purified the people, the gates, and the wall.

³¹I had the princes of Judah mount the wall, and I arranged two great choirs. The first of these proceeded to the right, along the top of the wall, in the direction of the Dung Gate,

³²followed by Hoshaiah and half the princes of Judah,

³³along with Azariah, Ezra, Meshullam,

³⁴Judah, Benjamin, Shemaiah, and Jeremiah,

³⁵priests with the trumpets, and also Zechariah, son of Jonathan, son of Shemaiah, son of Mattaniah, son of Micaiah, son of Zaccur, son of Asaph,

³⁶and his brethren Shemaiah, Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, Judah, and Hanani, with the musical instruments of David, the man of God. (Ezra the scribe was at their head.)

³⁷At the Spring Gate they went straight up by the steps of the City of David and continued along the top of the wall above the house of David until they came to the Water Gate on the east.

³⁸The second choir proceeded to the left, followed by myself and the other half of the princes of the people, along the top of the wall past the Oven Tower as far as the Broad Wall,

³⁹then past the Ephraim Gate (the New City Gate), the Fish Gate, the Tower of Hananel, and the Hundred Tower, as far as the Sheep Gate (and they came to a halt at the Prison Gate).

⁴⁰The two choirs took up a position in the house of God; I, too, who had with me half the magistrates,

⁴¹the priests Eliakim, Maaseiah, Minjamin, Micaiah, Elioenai, Zechariah, Hananiah, with the trumpets,

⁴²and Maaseiah, Shemaiah, Eleazar, Uzzi, Jehohanan, Malchijah, Elam, and Ezer. The singers were heard under the leadership of Jezrahiah.

⁴³Great sacrifices were offered on that day, and there was rejoicing over the great feast of the LORD in which they shared. The women and the children joined in, and the rejoicing at Jerusalem could be heard from afar off.

⁴⁴At that time men were appointed over the chambers set aside for stores, offerings, first fruits, and tithes; in them they were to collect from the fields of the various cities the portions legally assigned to the priests and Levites. For Judah rejoiced in its appointed priests and Levites

⁴⁵who carried out the ministry of their God and the ministry of purification (as did the singers and the gatekeepers) in accordance with the prescriptions of David and of Solomon, his son.

⁴⁶For the heads of the families of the singers and the hymns of praise and thanksgiving to God came down from the days of David and Asaph in times of old.

⁴⁷Thus all Israel, in the days of Zerubbabel (and in the days of Nehemiah), gave the singers and the gatekeepers their portions, according to their daily needs. They made their consecrated offering to the Levites, and the Levites made theirs to the sons of Aaron.

13At that time, when there was reading from the book of Moses in the hearing of the people, it was found written there that "no Ammonite or Moabite may ever be admitted into the assembly of God;

²for they would not succor the Israelites with food and water, but they hired Balaam to curse them, though our God turned the curse into a blessing."

³When they had heard the law, they separated from Israel every foreign element.

⁴Before this, the priest Eliashib, who had been placed in charge of the chambers of the house of our God and who was an associate of Tobiah,

⁵had set aside for the latter's use a large chamber in which had previously been stored the cereal offerings, incense and utensils, the tithes in grain, wine, and oil allotted to the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, and the offerings due the priests.

⁶During all this time I had not been in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, I had gone back to the king. After due time, however, I asked leave of the king

⁷and returned to Jerusalem, where I discovered the evil thing that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, in setting aside for him a chamber in the courts of the house of God.

⁸This displeased me very much, and I had all of Tobiah's household goods thrown outside the chamber.

⁹Then I gave orders to purify the chambers, and I had them replace there the utensils of the house of God, the cereal offerings, and the incense.

¹⁰I learned, too, that the portions due the Levites were no longer being given, so that the Levites and the singers who should have been carrying out the services had deserted, each man to his own field.

¹¹I took the magistrates to task, demanding, "Why is the house of God abandoned?" Then I brought the Levites together and had them resume their stations.

¹²All Judah once more brought in the tithes of grain, wine, and oil to the storerooms;

¹³and in charge of the storerooms I appointed the priest Shelemiah, Zadok the scribe, and Pedaiah, one of the Levites, together with Hanan, son of Zaccur, son of Mattaniah, as their assistant; for these men were held to be trustworthy. It was their duty to make the distribution to their brethren.

¹⁴Remember this to my credit, O my God! Let not the devotion which I showed for the house of my God and its services be forgotten!

¹⁵In those days I perceived that men in Judah were treading the winepresses on the sabbath; that they were bringing in sheaves of grain, loading them on their asses, together with wine, grapes, figs, and every other kind of burden, and bringing them to Jerusalem on the sabbath day. I warned them to sell none of these victuals.

¹⁶In Jerusalem itself the Tyrians who were resident there were importing fish and every other kind of merchandise and selling it to the Judahites on the sabbath.

¹⁷I took the nobles of Judah to task, demanding of them: "What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the sabbath day?

¹⁸Did not your fathers act in this same way, with the result that our God has brought all this evil upon us and upon this city? Would you add to the wrath against Israel by once more profaning the sabbath?"

¹⁹When the shadows were falling on the gates of Jerusalem before the sabbath, I ordered the doors to be closed and forbade them to be reopened till after the sabbath. I posted some of my own men at the gates so that no burden might enter on the sabbath day.

²⁰The merchants and sellers of various kinds of merchandise spent the night once or twice outside Jerusalem,

²¹but then I warned them, saying to them: "Why do you spend the night alongside the wall? If you keep this up, I will lay hands on you!" From that time on, they did not return on the sabbath.

²²Then I ordered the Levites to purify themselves and to go and watch the gates, so that the sabbath day might be kept holy. This, too, remember in my favor, O my God, and have mercy on me in accordance with your great mercy!

²³Also in those days I saw Jews who had married Ashdodite, Ammonite, or Moabite wives.

²⁴Of their children, half spoke Ashdodite, and none of them knew how to speak Jewish; and so it was in regard to the languages of the various other peoples.

²⁵I took them to task and cursed them; I had some of them beaten and their hair pulled out; and I adjured them by God: "You shall not marry your daughters to their sons nor take any of their daughters for your sons or for yourselves!

²⁶Did not Solomon, the king of Israel, sin because of them? Though among the many nations there was no king like him, and though he was beloved of his God and God had made him king over all Israel, yet even he was made to sin by foreign women.

²⁷Must it also be heard of you that you have done this same very great evil, betraying our God by marrying foreign women?"

²⁸One of the sons of Joiada, son of Eliashib the high priest, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite! I drove him from my presence.

²⁹Remember against them, O my God, how they defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites!

³⁰Thus I cleansed them of all foreign contamination. I established the various functions for the priests and Levites, so that each had his appointed task.

³¹I also provided for the procurement of wood at stated times and for the first fruits. Remember this in my favor, O my God!

1It was the twelfth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyriansin the great city of Nineveh. At that time Arphaxad ruled over the Medes in Ecbatana.

²Around this city he built a wall of blocks of stone, each three cubits inheight and six in length. He made the wall seventy cubits high and fifty thick.

³At the gates he raised towers of a hundred cubits, with a thickness of sixty cubits at the base.

⁴The gateway he built to a height of seventy cubits, with an opening forty cubits wide for the passage of his chariot forces and the marshaling of his infantry.

⁵Then King Nebuchadnezzar waged war against King Arphaxad in the vast plain, in the district of Ragae.

⁶To him there rallied all the inhabitants of the mountain region, all who dwelt along the Euphrates, the Tigris, and the Hydaspes, and King Arioch of the Elamites, in the plain. Thus many nations came together to resist the people of Cheleoud.

⁷Now Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians, sent messengers to all the inhabitants of Persia, and to all those who dwelt in the West: to the inhabitants of Cilicia and Damascus, Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, to all who dwelt along the seacoast,

⁸to the peoples of Carmel, Gilead, Upper Galilee, and the vast plain of Esdraelon,

⁹to all those in Samaria and its cities, and west of the Jordan as far as Jerusalem, Bethany, Chelous, Kadesh, and the River of Egypt; to Tahpanhes, Raamses, all the land of Goshen,

¹⁰Tanis, Memphis and beyond, and to all the inhabitants of Egypt as far as the borders of Ethiopia.

¹¹But the inhabitants of all that land disregarded the summons of Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians, and would not go with him to the war. They were not afraid of him but regarded him as a lone individual opposed to them, and turned away his envoys empty-handed, in disgrace.

¹²Then Nebuchadnezzar fell into a violent rage against all that land, and swore by his throne and his kingdom that he would avenge himself on all the territories of Cilicia and Damascus and Syria, and also destroy with his sword all the inhabitants of Moab, Ammon, the whole of Judea, and those living anywhere in Egypt as far as the borders of the two seas.

¹³In the seventeenth year he proceeded with his army against King Arphaxad, and was victorious in his campaign. He routed the whole force of Arphaxad, his entire cavalry and all his chariots,

¹⁴and took possession of his cities. He pressed on to Ecbatana and took its towers, sacked its marketplaces, and turned its glory into shame.

¹⁵Arphaxad himself he overtook in the mountains of Ragae, ran him through with spears, and utterly destroyed him.

¹⁶Then he returned home with all his numerous, motley horde of warriors; and there he and his army relaxed and feasted for a hundred and twenty days.

2In the eighteenth year, on the twenty-second day of the first month, there was a discussion in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians, about taking revenge on the whole world, as he had threatened.

²He summoned all his ministers and nobles, laid before them his secret plan, and urged the total destruction of those countries.

³They decided to do away with all those who had refused to comply with the order he had issued.

⁴When he had completed his plan, Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians, summoned Holofernes, general in chief of his forces, second to himself in command, and said to him:

⁵"Thus says the great king, the lord of all the earth: Go forth from my presence, take with you men of proven valor, a hundred and twenty thousand infantry and twelve thousand cavalry,

⁶and proceed against all the land of the West, because they did not comply with the order I issued.

⁷Tell them to have earth and water ready, for I will come against them in my wrath; I will cover all the land with the feet of my soldiers, to whom I will deliver them as spoils.

⁸Their slain shall fill their ravines and wadies, the swelling torrent shall be choked with their dead;

⁹and I will deport them as exiles to the very ends of the earth.

¹⁰"You go before me and take possession of all their territories for me. If they surrender to you, guard them for me till the day of their punishment.

¹¹As for those who resist, show them no quarter, but deliver them up to slaughter and plunder in each country you occupy.

¹²For as I live, and by the strength of my kingdom, what I have spoken I will accomplish by my power.

¹³Do not disobey a single one of the orders of your lord; fulfill them exactly as I have commanded you, and do it without delay."

¹⁴So Holofernes left the presence of his lord, and summoned all the princes, and the generals and officers of the Assyrian army.

¹⁵He mustered a hundred and twenty thousand picked troops, as his lord had commanded, and twelve thousand mounted archers,

¹⁶and grouped them into a complete combat force.

¹⁷He took along a very large number of camels, asses, and mules for their baggage; innumerable sheep, cattle, and goats for their food supply;

¹⁸abundant provisions for each man, and much gold and silver from the royal palace.

¹⁹Then he and his whole army proceeded on their expedition in advance of King Nebuchadnezzar, to cover all the western region with their chariots and cavalry and regular infantry.

²⁰A huge, irregular force, too many to count, like locusts or the dust of the earth, went along with them.

²¹After a three-day march from Nineveh, they reached the plain of Bectileth, and from Bectileth they next encamped near the mountains to the north of Upper Cilicia.

²²From there Holofernes took his whole force, the infantry, cavalry, and chariots, and marched into the mountain region.

²³He devastated Put and Lud, and plundered all the Rassisites and the Ishmaelites on the border of the desert toward the south of Chaldea.

²⁴Then, following the Euphrates, he went through Mesopotamia, and battered down every fortified city along the Wadi Abron, until he reached the sea.

²⁵He seized the territory of Cilicia, and cut down everyone who resisted him. Then he proceeded to the southern borders of Japheth, toward Arabia.

²⁶He surrounded all the Midianites, burned their tents, and plundered their sheepfolds.

²⁷Descending to the plain of Damascus at the time of the wheat harvest, he set fire to all their fields, destroyed their flocks and herds, despoiled their cities, devastated their plains, and put all their youths to the sword.

²⁸The fear and dread of him fell upon all the inhabitants of the coastland, upon those in Sidon and Tyre, and those who dwelt in Sur and Ocina, and the inhabitants of Jamnia. Those in Azotus and Ascalon also feared him greatly.

3They therefore sent messengers to him to sue for peace in these words:

²"We, the servants of Nebuchadnezzar the great king, lie prostrate before you; do with us as you will.

³Our dwellings and all our wheat fields, our flocks and herds, and all our encampments are at your disposal; make use of them as you please.

⁴Our cities and their inhabitants are also at your service; come and deal with them as you see fit."

⁵After the spokesmen had reached Holofernes and given him this message,

⁶he went down with his army to the seacoast, and stationed garrisons in the fortified cities; from them he impressed picked troops as auxiliaries.

⁷The people of these cities and all the inhabitants of the countryside received him with garlands and dancing to the sound of timbrels.

⁸Nevertheless, he devastated their whole territory and cut down their sacred groves, for he had been commissioned to destroy all the gods of the earth, so that every nation might worship Nebuchadnezzar alone, and every people and tribe invoke him as a god.

⁹At length Holofernes reached Esdraelon in the neighborhood of Dothan, the approach to the main ridge of the Judean mountains;

¹⁰he set up his camp between Geba and Scythopolis, and stayed there a whole month to refurbish all the equipment of his army.

4When the Israelites who dwelt in Judea heard of all that Holofernes, commander-in-chief of Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians, had done to the nations, and how he had despoiled all their temples and destroyed them,

²they were in extreme dread of him, and greatly alarmed for Jerusalem and the temple of the Lord, their God.

³Now, they had lately returned from exile, and only recently had all the people of Judea been gathered together, and the vessels, the altar, and the temple been purified from profanation.

⁴So they sent word to the whole region of Samaria, to Kona, Beth-horon, Belmain, and Jericho, to Choba and Aesora, and to the valley of Salem.

⁵The people there posted guards on all the summits of the high mountains, fortified their villages, and since their fields had recently been harvested, stored up provisions in preparation for war.

⁶Joakim, who was high priest in Jerusalem in those days, wrote to the inhabitants of Bethulia (and Betomesthaim), which is on the way to Esdraelon, facing the plain near Dothan,

⁷and instructed them to keep firm hold of the mountain passes, since these offered access to Judea. It would be easy to ward off the attacking forces, as the defile was only wide enough for two abreast.

⁸The Israelites carried out the orders given them by Joakim, the high priest, and the senate of the whole people of Israel, which met in Jerusalem.

⁹All the men of Israel cried to God with great fervor and did penance--

¹⁰they, along with their wives, and children, and domestic animals. All their resident aliens, hired laborers, and slaves also girded themselves with sackcloth.

¹¹And all the Israelite men, women and children who lived in Jerusalem prostrated themselves in front of the temple building, with ashes strewn on their heads, displaying their sackcloth covering before the Lord.

¹²The altar, too, they draped in sackcloth; and with one accord they cried out fervently to the God of Israel not to allow their children to be seized, their wives to be taken captive, the cities of their inheritance to be ruined, or the sanctuary to be profaned and mocked for the nations to gloat over.

¹³The Lord heard their cry and had regard for their distress. For the people observed a fast of many days' duration throughout Judea, and before the sanctuary of the Lord Almighty in Jerusalem.

¹⁴The high priest Joakim, and all the priests in attendance on the Lord who served his altar, were also girded with sackcloth as they offered the daily holocaust, the votive offerings, and the freewill offerings of the people.

¹⁵With ashes upon their turbans, they cried to the Lord with all their strength to look with favor on the whole house of Israel.

5It was reported to Holofernes, commander-in-chief of the Assyrian army, that the Israelites were ready for battle, and had blocked the mountain passes, fortified the summits of all the higher peaks, and placed roadblocks in the plains.

²In great anger he summoned all the rulers of the Moabites, the generals of the Ammonites, and all the satraps of the seacoast

³and said to them: "Now tell me, you Canaanites, what sort of people is this that dwells in the mountains? Which cities do they inhabit? How large is their army? In what does their power and strength consist? Who has set himself up as their king and the leader of their army?

⁴Why have they refused to come out to meet me along with all the other inhabitants of the West?"

⁵Then Achior, the leader of all the Ammonites said to him: "My lord, hear this account from your servant; I will tell you the truth about this people that lives near you (that inhabits this mountain region); no lie shall escape your servant's lips.

⁶"These people are descendants of the Chaldeans.

⁷They formerly dwelt in Mesopotamia, for they did not wish to follow the gods of their forefathers who were born in the land of the Chaldeans.

⁸Since they abandoned the way of their ancestors, and acknowledged with divine worship the God of heaven, their forefathers expelled them from the presence of their gods. So they fled to Mesopotamia and dwelt there a long time.

⁹Their God bade them leave their abode and proceed to the land of Canaan. Here they settled, and grew very rich in gold, silver, and a great abundance of livestock.

¹⁰Later, when famine had gripped the whole land of Canaan, they went down into Egypt. They stayed there as long as they found sustenance, and grew into such a great multitude that the number of their race could not be counted.

¹¹The king of Egypt, however, rose up against them, shrewdly forced them to labor at brickmaking, oppressed and enslaved them.

¹²But they cried to their God, and he struck the land of Egypt with plagues for which there was no remedy. When the Egyptians expelled them,

¹³God dried up the Red Sea before them,

¹⁴and led them along the route to Sinai and Kadesh-barnea. First they drove out all the inhabitants of the desert;

¹⁵then they settled in the land of the Amorites, destroyed all the Heshbonites by main force, crossed the Jordan, and took possession of the whole mountain region.

¹⁶They expelled the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Shechemites, and all the Gergesites; and they lived in these mountains a long time.

¹⁷"As long as the Israelites did not sin in the sight of their God, they prospered, for their God, who hates wickedness, was with them.

¹⁸But when they deviated from the way he prescribed for them, they were ground down steadily, more and more, by frequent wars, and finally taken as captives into foreign lands. The temple of their God was razed to the ground, and their cities were occupied by their enemies.

¹⁹But now that they have returned to their God, they have come back from the Dispersion wherein they were scattered, and have repossessed Jerusalem, where their sanctuary is, and have settled again in the mountain region which was unoccupied.

²⁰"So now, my lord and master, if these people are at fault, and are sinning against their God, and if we verify this offense of theirs, then we shall be able to go up and conquer them.

²¹But if they are not a guilty nation, then your lordship should keep his distance; otherwise their Lord and God will shield them, and we shall become the laughing stock of the whole world."

²²Now when Achior had concluded his recommendation, all the people standing round about the tent murmured; and the officers of Holofernes and all the inhabitants of the seacoast and of Moab alike said he should be cut to pieces.

²³"We are not afraid of the Israelites," they said, "for they are a powerless people, incapable of a strong defense.

²⁴Let us therefore attack them; your great army, Lord Holofernes, will swallow them up."

6When the noise of the crowd surrounding the council had subsided, Holofernes, commander-in-chief of the Assyrian army, said to Achior, in the presence of the whole throng of coastland peoples, of the Moabites, and of the Ammonite mercenaries:

²"Who are you, Achior, to prophesy among us as you have done today, and to tell us not to fight against the Israelites because their God protects them? What god is there beside Nebuchadnezzar? He will send his force and destroy them from the face of the earth. Their God will not save them;

³but we, the servants of Nebuchadnezzar, will strike them down as one man, for they will be unable to withstand the force of our cavalry.

⁴We will overwhelm them with it, and the mountains shall be drunk with their blood, and their plains filled with their corpses. Not a trace of them shall survive our attack: they shall utterly perish, says King Nebuchadnezzar, lord of all the earth; for he has spoken, and his words shall not remain unfulfilled.

⁵As for you, Achior, you Ammonite mercenary, for saying these things in a moment of perversity you shall not see my face after today, until I have taken revenge on this race of people from Egypt.

⁶Then at my return, the sword of my army or the spear of my servants will pierce your sides, and you shall fall among their slain.

⁷My servants will now conduct you to the mountain region, and leave you at one of the towns along the ascent.

⁸You shall not die till you are destroyed together with them.

⁹If you still cherish the hope that they will not be taken, then there is no need for you to be downcast. I have spoken, and my words shall not prove false in any respect."

¹⁰Then Holofernes ordered the servants who were standing by in his tent to seize Achior, conduct him to Bethulia, and hand him over to the Israelites.

¹¹So the servants took him in custody and brought him out of the camp into the plain. From there they led him into the mountain region till they reached the springs below Bethulia.

¹²When the men of the city saw them, they seized their weapons and ran out of the city to the crest of the ridge; and all the slingers blocked the ascent of Holofernes' servants by hurling stones upon them.

¹³So they took cover below the mountain, where they bound Achior and left him lying at the foot of the mountain; then they returned to their lord.

¹⁴The Israelites came down to him from their city, loosed him, and brought him into Bethulia. They haled him before the rulers of the city,

¹⁵who in those days were Uzziah, son of Micah of the tribe of Simeon, Chabris, son of Gothoniel, and Charmis, son of Melchiel.

¹⁶They then convened all the elders of the city; and all their young men, as well as the women, gathered in haste at the place of assembly. They placed Achior in the center of the throng, and Uzziah questioned him about what had happened.

¹⁷He replied by giving them an account of what was said in the council of Holofernes, and of all his own words among the Assyrian officers, and of all the boasting threats of Holofernes against the house of Israel.

¹⁸At this the people fell prostrate and worshiped God; and they cried out:

¹⁹"Lord, God of heaven, behold their arrogance! Have pity on the lowliness of our people, and look with favor this day on those who are consecrated to you."

²⁰Then they reassured Achior and praised him highly.

²¹Uzziah brought him from the assembly to his home, where he gave a banquet for the elders. That whole night they called upon the God of Israel for help.

7The following day Holofernes ordered his whole army, and all the allied troops that had come to his support, to move against Bethulia, seize the mountain passes, and engage the Israelites in battle.

²That same day all their fighting men went into action. Their forces numbered a hundred and seventy thousand infantry and twelve thousand horsemen, not counting the baggage train or the men who accompanied it on foot-a very great army.

³They encamped at the spring in the valley near Bethulia, and spread out in breadth toward Dothan as far as Balbaim, and in length from Bethulia to Cyamon, which faces Esdraelon.

⁴When the Israelites saw how many there were, they said to one another in great dismay: "Soon they will devour the whole country. Neither the high mountains nor the valleys and hills can support the mass of them."

⁵Yet they all seized their weapons, lighted fires on their bastions, and kept watch throughout the night.

⁶On the second day Holofernes led out all his cavalry in the sight of the Israelites who were in Bethulia.

⁷He reconnoitered the approaches to their city and located their sources of water; these he seized, stationing armed detachments around them, while he himself returned to his troops.

⁸All the commanders of the Edomites and all the leaders of the Ammonites, together with the generals of the seacoast, came to Holofernes and said:

⁹"Sir, listen to what we have to say, that there may be no losses among your troops.

¹⁰These Israelites do not rely on their spears, but on the height of the mountains where they dwell; it is not easy to reach the summit of their mountains.

¹¹Therefore, sir, do not attack them in regular formation; thus not a single one of your troops will fall.

¹²Stay in your camp, and spare all your soldiers. Have some of your servants keep control of the source of water that flows out at the base of the mountain,

¹³for that is where the inhabitants of Bethulia get their water. Then thirst will begin to carry them off, and they will surrender their city. Meanwhile, we and our men will go up to the summits of the nearby mountains, and encamp there to guard against anyone's leaving the city.

¹⁴They and their wives and children will languish with hunger, and even before the sword strikes them they will be laid low in the streets of their city.

¹⁵Thus you will render them dire punishment for their rebellion and their refusal to meet you peacefully."

¹⁶Their words pleased Holofernes and all his ministers, and he ordered their proposal to be carried out.

¹⁷Thereupon the Moabites moved camp, together with five thousand Assyrians. They encamped in the valley, and held the water supply and the springs of the Israelites.

¹⁸The Edomites and the Ammonites went up and encamped in the mountain region opposite Dothan; and they sent some of their men to the south and to the east opposite Egrebel, near Chusi, which is on Wadi Mochmur. The rest of the Assyrian army was encamped in the plain, covering the whole countryside. Their enormous store of tents and equipment was spread out in profusion everywhere.

¹⁹The Israelites cried to the Lord, their God, for they were disheartened, since all their enemies had them surrounded, and there was no way of slipping through their lines.

²⁰The whole Assyrian camp, infantry, chariots, and cavalry, kept them thus surrounded for thirty-four days. All the reservoirs of water failed the inhabitants of Bethulia,

²¹and the cisterns ran dry, so that on no day did they have enough to drink, but their drinking water was rationed.

²²Their children fainted away, and the women and youths were consumed with thirst and were collapsing in the streets and gateways of the city, with no strength left in them.

²³All the people, therefore, including youths, women, and children, went in a crowd to Uzziah and the rulers of the city. They set up a great clamor and said before the elders:

²⁴"God judge between you and us! You have done us grave injustice in not making peace with the Assyrians.

²⁵There is no help for us now! Instead, God has sold us into their power by laying us prostrate before them in thirst and utter exhaustion.

²⁶Therefore, summon them and deliver the whole city as booty to the troops of Holofernes and to all his forces;

²⁷we would be better off to become their prey. We should indeed be made slaves, but at least we should live, and not have to behold our little ones dying before our eyes and our wives and children breathing out their souls.

²⁸We adjure you by heaven and earth, and by our God, the Lord of our forefathers, who is punishing us for our sins and those of our forefathers, to do as we have proposed, this very day."

²⁹All in the assembly with one accord broke into shrill wailing and loud cries to the Lord their God.

³⁰But Uzziah said to them, "Courage, my brothers! Let us wait five days more for the Lord our God, to show his mercy toward us; he will not utterly forsake us.

³¹But if those days pass without help coming to us, I will do as you say."

³²Then he dispersed the men to their posts, and they returned to the walls and towers of the city; the women and children he sent to their homes. Throughout the city they were in great misery.

8Now in those days Judith, daughter of Merari, son of Joseph, son of Oziel, son of Elkiah, son of Ananias, son of Gideon, son of Raphain, son of Ahitob, son of Elijah, son of Hilkiah, son of Eliab, son of Nathanael, son of Salamiel, son of Sarasadai, son of Simeon, son of Israel, heard of this.

²Her husband, Manasseh, of her own tribe and clan, had died at the time of the barley harvest.

³While he was in the field supervising those who bound the sheaves, he suffered sunstroke; and he died of this illness in Bethulia, his native city. He was buried with his forefathers in the field between Dothan and Balamon.

⁴The widowed Judith remained three years and four months at home,

⁵where she set up a tent for herself on the roof of her house. She put sackcloth about her loins and wore widow's weeds.

⁶She fasted all the days of her widowhood, except sabbath eves and sabbaths, new moon eves and new moons, feastdays and holidays of the house of Israel.

⁷She was beautifully formed and lovely to behold. Her husband, Manasseh, had left her gold and silver, servants and maids, livestock and fields, which she was maintaining.

⁸No one had a bad word to say about her, for she was a very God-fearing woman.

⁹When Judith, therefore, heard of the harsh words which the people, discouraged by their lack of water, had spoken against their ruler, and of all that Uzziah had said to them in reply, swearing that he would hand over the city to the Assyrians at the end of five days,

¹⁰she sent the maid who was in charge of all her things to ask Uzziah, Chabris, and Charmis, the elders of the city, to visit her.

¹¹When they came, she said to them: "Listen to me, you rulers of the people of Bethulia. What you said to the people today is not proper. When you promised to hand over the city to our enemies at the end of five days unless within that time the Lord comes to our aid, you interposed between God and yourselves this oath which you took.

¹²Who are you, then, that you should have put God to the test this day, setting yourselves in the place of God in human affairs?

¹³It is the Lord Almighty for whom you are laying down conditions; will you never understand anything?

¹⁴You cannot plumb the depths of the human heart or grasp the workings of the human mind; how then can you fathom God, who has made all these things, discern his mind, and understand his plan? "No, my brothers, do not anger the Lord our God.

¹⁵For if he does not wish to come to our aid within the five days, he has it equally within his power to protect us at such time as he pleases, or to destroy us in the face of our enemies.

¹⁶It is not for you to make the Lord our God give surety for his plans. "God is not man that he should be moved by threats, nor human, that he may be given an ultimatum.

¹⁷"So while we wait for the salvation that comes from him, let us call upon him to help us, and he will hear our cry if it is his good pleasure.

¹⁸For there has not risen among us in recent generations, nor does there exist today, any tribe, or clan, or town, or city of ours that worships gods made by hands, as happened in former days.

¹⁹It was for such conduct that our forefathers were handed over to the sword and to pillage, and fell with great destruction before our enemies.

²⁰But since we acknowledge no other god but the Lord, we hope that he will not disdain us or any of our people.

²¹If we are taken, all Judea will fall, our sanctuary will be plundered, and God will make us pay for its profanation with our life's blood.

²²For the slaughter of our kinsmen, for the taking of exiles from the land, and for the devastation of our inheritance, he will lay the guilt on our heads. Wherever we shall be enslaved among the nations, we shall be a mockery and a reproach in the eyes of our masters.

²³Our enslavement will not be turned to our benefit, but the Lord our God, will maintain it to our disgrace.

²⁴"Therefore, my brothers, let us set an example for our kinsmen. Their lives depend on us, and the defense of the sanctuary, the temple, and the altar rests with us.

²⁵Besides all this, we should be grateful to the Lord our God, for putting us to the test, as he did our forefathers.

²⁶Recall how he dealt with Abraham, and how he tried Isaac, and all that happened to Jacob in Syrian Mesopotamia while he was tending the flocks of Laban, his mother's brother.

²⁷Not for vengeance did the Lord put them in the crucible to try their hearts, nor has he done so with us. It is by way of admonition that he chastises those who are close to him."

²⁸Then Uzziah said to her: "All that you have said was spoken with good sense, and no one can gainsay your words.

²⁹Not today only is your wisdom made evident, but from your earliest years all the people have recognized your prudence, which corresponds to the worthy dispositions of your heart.

³⁰The people, however, were so tortured with thirst that they forced us to speak to them as we did, and to bind ourselves by an oath that we cannot break.

³¹But now, God-fearing woman that you are, pray for us that the Lord may send rain to fill up our cisterns, lest we be weakened still further."

³²Then Judith said to them: "Listen to me! I will do something that will go down from generation to generation among the descendants of our race.

³³Stand at the gate tonight to let me pass through with my maid; and within the days you have specified before you will surrender the city to our enemies, the Lord will rescue Israel by my hand.

³⁴You must not inquire into what I am doing, for I will not tell you until my plan has been accomplished."

³⁵Uzziah and the rulers said to her, "Go in peace, and may the Lord God go before you to take vengeance upon our enemies!"

³⁶Then they withdrew from the tent and returned to their posts.

9Judith threw herself down prostrate, with ashes strewn upon her head, and wearing nothing over her sackcloth. While the incense was being offered in the temple of God in Jerusalem that evening, Judith prayed to the Lord with a loud voice:

²"Lord, God of my forefather Simeon! You put a sword into his hand to take revenge upon the foreigners who had immodestly loosened the maiden's girdle, shamefully exposed her thighs, and disgracefully violated her body. This they did, though you forbade it.

³Therefore you had their rulers slaughtered; and you covered with their blood the bed in which they lay deceived, the same bed that had felt the shame of their own deceiving. You smote the slaves together with their princes, and the princes together with their servants.

⁴Their wives you handed over to plunder, and their daughters to captivity; and all the spoils you divided among your favored sons, who burned with zeal for you, and in their abhorrence of the defilement of their kinswoman, called on you for help.

⁵"O God, my God, hear me also, a widow. It is you who were the author of those events and of what preceded and followed them. The present, also, and the future you have planned. Whatever you devise comes into being;

⁶the things you decide on come forward and say, 'Here we are!' All your ways are in readiness, and your judgment is made with foreknowledge.

⁷"Here are the Assyrians, a vast force, priding themselves on horse and rider, boasting of the power of their infantry, trusting in shield and spear, bow and sling. They do not know that

⁸" 'You, the Lord, crush warfare; Lord is your name. Shatter their strength in your might, and crush their force in your wrath; for they have resolved to profane your sanctuary, to defile the tent where your glorious name resides, and to overthrow with iron the horns of your altar.

⁹See their pride, and send forth your wrath upon their heads. Give me, a widow, the strong hand to execute my plan.

¹⁰With the guile of my lips, smite the slave together with the ruler, the ruler together with his servant; crush their pride by the hand of a woman.

¹¹"Your strength is not in numbers, nor does your power depend upon stalwart men; but you are the God of the lowly, the helper of the oppressed, the supporter of the weak, the protector of the forsaken, the savior of those without hope.

¹²"Please, please, God of my forefather, God of the heritage of Israel, Lord of heaven and earth, Creator of the waters, King of all you have created, hear my prayer!

¹³Let my guileful speech bring wound and wale on those who have planned dire things against your covenant, your holy temple, Mount Zion, and the homes your children have inherited.

¹⁴Let your whole nation and all the tribes know clearly that you are the god of all power and might, and that there is no other who protects the people of Israel but you alone."

10As soon as Judith had thus concluded, and ceased her invocation to the God of Israel,

²she rose from the ground. She called her maid and they went down into the house, which she used only on sabbaths and feast days.

³She took off the sackcloth she had on, laid aside the garments of her widowhood, washed her body with water, and anointed it with rich ointment. She arranged her hair and bound it with a fillet, and put on the festive attire she had worn while her husband, Manasseh, was living.

⁴She chose sandals for her feet, and put on her anklets, bracelets, rings, earrings, and all her other jewelry. Thus she made herself very beautiful, to captivate the eyes of all the men who should see her.

⁵She gave her maid a leather flask of wine and a cruse of oil. She filled a bag with roasted grain, fig cakes, bread and cheese; all these provisions she wrapped up and gave to the maid to carry.

⁶Then they went out to the gate of the city of Bethulia and found Uzziah and the elders of the city, Chabri and Charmis, standing there.

⁷When these men saw Judith transformed in looks and differently dressed, they were very much astounded at her beauty and said to her,

⁸"May the God of our fathers bring you to favor, and make your undertaking a success, for the glory of the Israelites and the exaltation of Jerusalem." Judith bowed down to God. Then she said to them,

⁹"Order the gate of the city opened for me, that I may go to carry out the business we discussed." So they ordered the youths to open the gate for her as she requested.

¹⁰When they did so, Judith and her maid went out. The men of the city kept her in view as she went down the mountain and crossed the valley; then they lost sight of her.

¹¹As Judith and her maid walked directly across the valley, they encountered the Assyrian outpost.

¹²The men took her in custody and asked her, "To what people do you belong? Where do you come from, and where are you going?" She replied: "I am a daughter of the Hebrews, and I am fleeing from them, because they are about to be delivered up to you as prey.

¹³I have come to see Holofernes, the general in chief of your forces, to give him a trustworthy report; I will show him the route by which he can ascend and take possession of the whole mountain district without a single one of his men suffering injury or loss of life."

¹⁴When the men heard her words and gazed upon her face, which appeared wondrously beautiful to them, they said to her,

¹⁵"By coming down thus promptly to see our master, you have saved your life. Now go to his tent; some of our men will accompany you to present you to him.

¹⁶When you stand before him, have no fear in your heart; give him the report you speak of, and he will treat you well."

¹⁷So they detailed a hundred of their men as an escort for her and her maid, and these conducted them to the tent of Holofernes.

¹⁸When the news of her arrival spread among the tents, a crowd gathered in the camp. They came and stood around her as she waited outside the tent of Holofernes, while he was being informed about her.

¹⁹They marveled at her beauty, regarding the Israelites with wonder because of her, and they said to one another, "Who can despise this people that has such women among them? It is not wise to leave one man of them alive, for if any were to be spared they could beguile the whole world."

²⁰The guard of Holofernes and all his servants came out and ushered her into the tent.

²¹Now Holofernes was reclining on his bed under a canopy with a netting of crimson and gold, emeralds and other precious stones.

²²When they announced her to him, he came out to the antechamber, preceded by silver lamps;

²³and when Holofernes and his servants beheld Judith, they all marveled at the beauty of her face. She threw herself down prostrate before him, but his servants raised her up.

11Then Holofernes said to her: "Take courage, lady; have no fear in your heart! Never have I harmed anyone who chose to serve Nebuchadnezzar, king of all the earth.

²Nor would I have raised my spear against your people who dwell in the mountain region, had they not despised me and brought this upon themselves.

³But now tell me why you fled from them and came to us. In any case, you have come to safety. Take courage! Your life is spared tonight and for the future.

⁴No one at all will harm you. Rather, you will be well treated, as are all the servants of my lord, King Nebuchadnezzar."

⁵Judith answered him: "Listen to the words of your servant, and let your handmaid speak in your presence! I will tell no lie to my lord this night,

⁶and if you follow out the words of your handmaid, God will give you complete success, and my lord will not fail in any of his undertakings.

⁷By the life of Nebuchadnezzar, king of all the earth, and by the power of him who has sent you to set all creatures aright! not only do men serve him through you; but even the wild beasts and the cattle and the birds of the air, because of your strength, will live for Nebuchadnezzar and his whole house.

⁸Indeed, we have heard of your wisdom and sagacity, and all the world is aware that throughout the kingdom you alone are competent, rich in experience, and distinguished in military strategy.

⁹"As for Achior's speech in your council, we have heard of it. When the men of Bethulia spared him, he told them all he had said to you.

¹⁰So then, my lord and master, do not disregard his word, but bear it in mind, for it is true. For our people are not punished, nor does the sword prevail against them, except when they sin against their God.

¹¹But now their guilt has caught up with them, by which they bring the wrath of their God upon them whenever they do wrong; so that my lord will not be repulsed and fail, but death will overtake them.

¹²Since their food gave out and all their water ran low, they decided to kill their animals, and determined to consume all the things which God in his laws forbade them to eat.

¹³They decreed that they would use up the first fruits of grain and the tithes of wine and oil which they had sanctified and reserved for the priests who minister in the presence of our God in Jerusalem: things which no layman should even touch with his hands.

¹⁴They have sent messengers to Jerusalem to bring back to them authorization from the council of the elders; for the inhabitants there have also done these things.

¹⁵On the very day when the response reaches them and they act upon it, they will be handed over to you for destruction.

¹⁶"As soon as I, your handmaid, learned all this, I fled from them. God has sent me to perform with you such deeds that people throughout the world will be astonished on hearing of them.

¹⁷Your handmaid is, indeed, a God-fearing woman, serving the God of heaven night and day. Now I will remain with you, my lord; but each night your handmaid will go out to the ravine and pray to God. He will tell me when the Israelites have committed their crimes.

¹⁸Then I will come and let you know, so that you may go out with your whole force, and not one of them will be able to withstand you.

¹⁹I will lead you through Judea, till you come to Jerusalem, and there I will set up your judgment seat. You will drive them like sheep that have no shepherd, and not even a dog will growl at you. This was told me, and announced to me in advance, and I in turn have been sent to tell you."

²⁰Her words pleased Holofernes and all his servants; they marveled at her wisdom and exclaimed,

²¹"No other woman from one end of the world to the other looks so beautiful and speaks so wisely!"

²²Then Holofernes said to her: "God has done well in sending you ahead of your people, to bring victory to our arms, and destruction to those who have despised my lord.

²³You are fair to behold, and your words are well spoken. If you do as you have said, your God will be my God; you shall dwell in the palace of King Nebuchadnezzar, and shall be renowned throughout the earth."

12Then he ordered them to lead her into the room where his silverware was kept, and bade them set a table for her with his own delicacies to eat and his own wine to drink.

²But Judith said, "I will not partake of them, lest it be an occasion of sin; but I shall be amply supplied from the things I brought with me."

³Holofernes asked her: "But if your provisions give out, where shall we get more of the same to provide for you? None of your people are with us."

⁴Judith answered him, "As surely as you, my lord, live, your handmaid will not use up her supplies till the Lord accomplishes by my hand what he has determined."

⁵Then the servants of Holofernes led her into the tent, where she slept till midnight. In the night watch just before dawn, she rose

⁶and sent this message to Holofernes, "Give orders, my lord, to let your handmaid go out for prayer."

⁷So Holofernes ordered his bodyguard not to hinder her. Thus she stayed in the camp three days. Each night she went out to the ravine of Bethulia, where she washed herself at the spring of the camp.

⁸After bathing, she besought the Lord, the God of Israel, to direct her way for the triumph of his people.

⁹Then she returned purified to the tent, and remained there until her food was brought to her toward evening.

¹⁰On the fourth day Holofernes gave a banquet for his servants alone, to which he did not invite any of the officers.

¹¹And he said to Bagoas, the eunuch in charge of his household: "Go and persuade this Hebrew woman in your care to come and to eat and drink with us.

¹²It would be a disgrace for us to have such a woman with us without enjoying her company. If we do not entice her, she will laugh us to scorn."

¹³So Bagoas left the presence of Holofernes, and came to Judith and said, "So fair a maiden should not be reluctant to come to my lord to be honored by him, to enjoy drinking wine with us, and to be like one of the Assyrian women who live in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar."

¹⁴She replied, "Who am I to refuse my lord? Whatever is pleasing to him I will promptly do. This will be a joy for me till the day of my death."

¹⁵Thereupon she proceeded to put on her festive garments and all her feminine adornments. Meanwhile her maid went ahead and spread out on the ground for her in front of Holofernes the fleece Bagoas had furnished for her daily use in reclining at her dinner.

¹⁶Then Judith came in and reclined on it. The heart of Holofernes was in rapture over her, and his spirit was shaken. He was burning with the desire to possess her, for he had been biding his time to seduce her from the day he saw her.

¹⁷Holofernes said to her, "Drink and be merry with us!"

¹⁸Judith replied, "I will gladly drink, my lord, for at no time since I was born have I ever enjoyed life as much as I do today."

¹⁹She then took the things her maid had prepared, and ate and drank in his presence.

²⁰Holofernes, charmed by her, drank a great quantity of wine, more than he had ever drunk on one single day in his life.

13When it grew late, his servants quickly withdrew. Bagoas closed the tent from the outside and excluded the attendants from their master's presence. They went off to their beds, for they were all tired from the prolonged banquet.

²Judith was left alone in the tent with Holofernes, who lay prostrate on his bed, for he was sodden with wine.

³She had ordered her maid to stand outside the bedroom and wait, as on the other days, for her to come out; she said she would be going out for her prayer. To Bagoas she had said this also.

⁴When all had departed, and no one, small or great, was left in the bedroom, Judith stood by Holofernes' bed and said within herself: "O Lord, God of all might, in this hour look graciously on my undertaking for the exaltation of Jerusalem;

⁵now is the time for aiding your heritage and for carrying out my design to shatter the enemies who have risen against us."

⁶She went to the bedpost near the head of Holofernes, and taking his sword from it,

⁷drew close to the bed, grasped the hair of his head, and said, "Strengthen me this day, O God of Israel!"

⁸Then with all her might she struck him twice in the neck and cut off his head.

⁹She rolled his body off the bed and took the canopy from its supports. Soon afterward, she came out and handed over the head of Holofernes to her maid,

¹⁰who put it into her food pouch; and the two went off together as they were accustomed to do for prayer. They passed through the camp, and skirting the ravine, reached Bethulia on the mountain. As they approached its gates,

¹¹Judith shouted to the guards from a distance: "Open! Open the gate! God, our God, is with us. Once more he has made manifest his strength in Israel and his power against our enemies; he has done it this very day."

¹²When the citizens heard her voice, they quickly descended to their city gate and summoned the city elders.

¹³All the people, from the least to the greatest, hurriedly assembled, for her return seemed unbelievable. They opened the gate and welcomed the two women. They made a fire for light; and when they gathered around the two,

¹⁴Judith urged them with a loud voice: "Praise God, praise him! Praise God, who has not withdrawn his mercy from the house of Israel, but has shattered our enemies by my hand this very night."

¹⁵Then she took the head out of the pouch, showed it to them, and said: "Here is the head of Holofernes, general in charge of the Assyrian army, and here is the canopy under which he lay in his drunkenness. The Lord struck him down by the hand of a woman.

¹⁶As the Lord lives, who has protected me in the path I have followed, I swear that it was my face that seduced Holofernes to his ruin, and that he did not sin with me to my defilement or disgrace."

¹⁷All the people were greatly astonished. They bowed down and worshiped God, saying with one accord, "Blessed are you, our God, who today have brought to nought the enemies of your people."

¹⁸Then Uzziah said to her: "Blessed are you, daughter, by the Most High God, above all the women on earth; and blessed be the Lord God, the creator of heaven and earth, who guided your blow at the head of the chief of our enemies.

¹⁹Your deed of hope will never be forgotten by those who tell of the might of God.

²⁰May God make this redound to your everlasting honor, rewarding you with blessings, because you risked your life when your people were being oppressed, and you averted our disaster, walking uprightly before our God." And all the people answered, "Amen! Amen!"

14Then Judith said to them: "Listen to me, my brothers. Take this head and hang it on the parapet of your wall.

²At daybreak, when the sun rises on the earth, let each of you seize his weapons, and let all the able-bodied men rush out of the city under command of a captain, as if about to go down into the plain against the advance guard of the Assyrians, but without going down.

³They will seize their armor and hurry to their camp to awaken the generals of the Assyrian army. When they run to the tent of Holofernes and do not find him, panic will seize them, and they will flee before you.

⁴Then you and all the other inhabitants of the whole territory of Israel will pursue them and strike them down in their tracks.

⁵But before doing this, summon for me Achior the Ammonite, that he may see and recognize the one who despised the house of Israel and sent him here to meet his death."

⁶So they called Achior from the house of Uzziah. When he came and saw the head of Holofernes in the hand of one of the men in the assembly of the people, he fell forward in a faint.

⁷Then, after they lifted him up, he threw himself at the feet of Judith in homage, saying: "Blessed are you in every tent of Judah; and in every foreign nation, all who hear of you will be struck with terror.

⁸But now, tell me all that you did during these days." So Judith told him, in the presence of the people, all that she had been doing from the day she left till the time she began speaking to them.

⁹When she finished her account, the people cheered loudly, and their city resounded with shouts of joy.

¹⁰Now Achior, seeing all that the God of Israel had done, believed firmly in him. He had the flesh of his foreskin circumcised, and he has been united with the house of Israel to the present day.

¹¹At daybreak they hung the head of Holofernes on the wall. Then all the Israelite men took up their arms and went to the slopes of the mountain.

¹²When the Assyrians saw them, they notified their captains; these, in turn, went to the generals and division leaders and all their other commanders.

¹³They came to the tent of Holofernes and said to the one in charge of all his things, "Waken our master, for the slaves have dared come down to give us battle, to their utter destruction."

¹⁴Bagoas went in, and knocked at the entry of the tent, presuming that he was sleeping with Judith.

¹⁵As no one answered, he parted the curtains, entered the bedroom, and found him lying on the floor, a headless corpse.

¹⁶He broke into a loud clamor of weeping, groaning, and howling, and rent his garments.

¹⁷Then he entered the tent where Judith had her quarters; and, not finding her, he rushed out to the troops and cried:

¹⁸"The slaves have duped us! A single Hebrew woman has brought disgrace on the house of King Nebuchadnezzar. Here is Holofernes headless on the ground!"

¹⁹When the commanders of the Assyrian army heard these words, they rent their tunics and were seized with consternation. Loud screaming and howling arose in the camp.

15On hearing what had happened, those still in their tents were amazed,

²and overcome with fear and trembling. No one kept ranks any longer; they scattered in all directions, and fled along every road, both through the valley and in the mountains.

³Those also who were stationed in the mountain district around Bethulia took to flight. Then all the Israelite warriors overwhelmed them.

⁴Uzziah sent messengers to Betomasthaim, to Choba and Kona, and to the whole country of Israel to report what had happened, that all might fall upon the enemy and destroy them.

⁵On hearing this, all the Israelites, with one accord, attacked them and cut them down as far as Choba. Even those from Jerusalem and the rest of the mountain region took part in this, for they too had been notified of the happenings in the camp of their enemies. The Gileadites and the Galileans struck the enemy's flanks with great slaughter, even beyond Damascus and its territory.

⁶The remaining inhabitants of Bethulia swept down on the camp of the Assyrians, plundered it, and acquired great riches.

⁷The Israelites who returned from the slaughter took possession of what was left, till the towns and villages in the mountains and on the plain were crammed with the enormous quantity of booty they had seized.

⁸The high priest Joakim and the elders of the Israelites, who dwelt in Jerusalem, came to see for themselves the good things that the Lord had done for Israel, and to meet and congratulate Judith.

⁹When they had visited her, all with one accord blessed her, saying: "You are the glory of Jerusalem, the surpassing joy of Israel; You are the splendid boast of our people.

¹⁰With your own hand you have done all this; You have done good to Israel, and God is pleased with what you have wrought. May you be blessed by the Lord Almighty forever and ever!" And all the people answered, "Amen!"

¹¹For thirty days the whole populace plundered the camp, giving Judith the tent of Holofernes, with all his silver, his couches, his dishes, and all his furniture, which she accepted. She harnessed her mules, hitched her wagons to them, and loaded these things on them.

¹²All the women of Israel gathered to see her; and they blessed her and performed a dance in her honor. She took branches in her hands and distributed them to the women around her,

¹³and she and the other women crowned themselves with garlands of olive leaves. At the head of all the people, she led the women in the dance, while the men of Israel followed in their armor, wearing garlands and singing hymns.

¹⁴Judith led all Israel in this song of thanksgiving, and the people swelled this hymn of praise:

16"Strike up the instruments, a song to my God with timbrels, chant to the Lord with cymbals; Sing to him a new song, exalt and acclaim his name.

²For the Lord is God; he crushes warfare, and sets his encampment among his people; he snatched me from the hands of my presecutors.

³"The Assyrian came from the mountains of the north, with the myriads of his forces he came; Their numbers blocked the torrents, their horses covered the hills.

⁴He threatened to burn my land, put my youths to the sword, Dash my babes to the ground, make my children a prey, and seize my virgins as spoil.

⁵"But the Lord Almighty thwarted them, by a woman's hand he confounded them.

⁶Not by youths was their mighty one struck down, nor did titans bring him low, nor huge giants attack him; But Judith, the daughter of Merari, by the beauty of her countenance disabled him.

⁷She took off her widow's garb to raise up the afflicted in Israel. She anointed her face with fragrant oil;

⁸with a fillet she fastened her tresses, and put on a linen robe to beguile him.

⁹Her sandals caught his eyes, and her beauty captivated his mind. The sword cut through his neck.

¹⁰"The Persians were dismayed at her daring, the Medes appalled at her boldness.

¹¹When my lowly ones shouted, they were terrified; when my weaklings cried out, they trembled; at the sound of their war cry, they took to flight.

¹²Sons of slave girls pierced them through; the supposed sons of rebel mothers cut them down; they perished before the ranks of my Lord.

¹³"A new hymn I will sing to my God. O Lord, great are you and glorious, wonderful in power and unsurpassable.

¹⁴Let your every creature serve you; for you spoke, and they were made, You sent forth your spirit, and they were created; no one can resist your word.

¹⁵The mountains to their bases, and the seas, are shaken; the rocks, like wax, melt before your glance. "But to those who fear you, you are very merciful.

¹⁶Though the sweet odor of every sacrifice is a trifle, and the fat of all holocausts but little in your sight, one who fears the Lord is forever great.

¹⁷"Woe to the nations that rise against my people! the Lord Almighty will requite them; in the day of judgment he will punish them: He will send fire and worms into their flesh, and they shall burn and suffer forever."

¹⁸The people then went to Jerusalem to worship God; when they were purified, they offered their holocausts, freewill offerings, and gifts.

¹⁹Judith dedicated, as a votive offering to God, all the things of Holofernes that the people had given her, as well as the canopy that she herself had taken from his bedroom.

²⁰For three months the people continued their celebration in Jerusalem before the sanctuary, and Judith remained with them.

²¹When those days were over, each one returned to his inheritance. Judith went back to Bethulia and remained on her estate. For the rest of her life she was renowned throughout the land.

²²Many wished to marry her, but she gave herself to no man all the days of her life from the time of the death and burial of her husband, Manasseh.

²³She lived to be very old in the house of her husband, reaching the advanced age of a hundred and five. She died in Bethulia, where they buried her in the tomb of her husband, Manasseh;

²⁴and the house of Israel mourned her for seven days. Before she died, she distributed her goods to the relatives of her husband, Manasseh, and to her own relatives; and to the maid she gave her freedom.

²⁵During the life of Judith and for a long time after her death, no one again disturbed the Israelites.

²He fought many campaigns, captured fortresses, and put kings to death.

³He advanced to the ends of the earth, gathering plunder from many nations; the earth fell silent before him, and his heart became proud and arrogant.

⁴He collected a very strong army and conquered provinces, nations, and rulers, and they became his tributaries.

⁵But after all this he took to his bed, realizing that he was going to die.

⁶He therefore summoned his officers, the nobles, who had been brought up with him from his youth, to divide his kingdom among them while he was still alive.

⁷Alexander had reigned twelve years when he died.

⁸So his officers took over his kingdom, each in his own territory,

⁹and after his death they all put on royal crowns, and so did their sons after them for many years, causing much distress over the earth.

¹⁰There sprang from these a sinful offshoot, Antiochus Epiphanes, son of King Antiochus, once a hostage at Rome. He became king in the year one hundred and thirty-seven of the kingdom of the Greeks.

¹¹In those days there appeared in Israel men who were breakers of the law, and they seduced many people, saying: "Let us go and make an alliance with the Gentiles all around us; since we separated from them, many evils have come upon us."

¹²The proposal was agreeable;

¹³some from among the people promptly went to the king, and he authorized them to introduce the way of living of the Gentiles.

¹⁴Thereupon they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem according to the Gentile custom.

¹⁵They covered over the mark of their circumcision and abandoned the holy covenant; they allied themselves with the Gentiles and sold themselves to wrongdoing.

¹⁶When his kingdom seemed secure, Antiochus proposed to become king of Egypt, so as to rule over both kingdoms.

¹⁷He invaded Egypt with a strong force, with chariots and elephants, and with a large fleet,

¹⁸to make war on Ptolemy, king of Egypt. Ptolemy was frightened at his presence and fled, leaving many casualties.

¹⁹The fortified cities in the land of Egypt were captured, and Antiochus plundered the land of Egypt.

²⁰After Antiochus had defeated Egypt in the year one hundred and forty-three, he returned and went up to Israel and to Jerusalem with a strong force.

²¹He insolently invaded the sanctuary and took away the golden altar, the lampstand for the light with all its fixtures,

²²the offering table, the cups and the bowls, the golden censers, the curtain, the crowns, and the golden ornament on the facade of the temple. He stripped off everything,

²³and took away the gold and silver and the precious vessels; he also took all the hidden treasures he could find.

²⁴Taking all this, he went back to his own country, after he had spoken with great arrogance and shed much blood.

²⁵And there was great mourning for Israel, in every place where they dwelt,

²⁶and the rulers and the elders groaned. Virgins and young men languished, and the beauty of the women was disfigured.

²⁷Every bridegroom took up lamentation, she who sat in the bridal chamber mourned,

²⁸And the land was shaken on account of its inhabitants, and all the house of Jacob was covered with shame.

²⁹Two years later, the king sent the Mysian commander to the cities of Judah, and he came to Jerusalem with a strong force.

³⁰He spoke to them deceitfully in peaceful terms, and won their trust. Then he attacked the city suddenly, in a great onslaught, and destroyed many of the people in Israel.

³¹He plundered the city and set fire to it, demolished its houses and its surrounding walls,

³²took captive the women and children, and seized the cattle.

³³Then they built up the City of David with a high, massive wall and strong towers, and it became their citadel.

³⁴There they installed a sinful race, perverse men, who fortified themselves inside it,

³⁵storing up weapons and provisions, and depositing there the plunder they had collected from Jerusalem. And they became a great threat.

³⁶The citadel became an ambush against the sanctuary, and a wicked adversary to Israel at all times.

³⁷And they shed innocent blood around the sanctuary; they defiled the sanctuary.

³⁸Because of them the inhabitants of Jerusalem fled away, and she became the abode of strangers. She became a stranger to her own offspring, and her children forsook her.

³⁹Her sanctuary was as desolate as a wilderness; her feasts were turned into mourning, Her sabbaths to shame, her honor to contempt.

⁴⁰Her dishonor was as great as her glory had been, and her exalation was turned into mourning.

⁴¹Then the king wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people,

⁴²each abandoning his particular customs. All the Gentiles conformed to the command of the king,

⁴³and many Israelites were in favor of his religion; they sacrificed to idols and profaned the sabbath.

⁴⁴The king sent messengers with letters to Jerusalem and to the cities of Judah, ordering them to follow customs foreign to their land;

⁴⁵to prohibit holocausts, sacrifices, and libations in the sanctuary, to profane the sabbaths and feast days,

⁴⁶to desecrate the sanctuary and the sacred ministers,

⁴⁷to build pagan altars and temples and shrines, to sacrifice swine and unclean animals,

⁴⁸to leave their sons uncircumcised, and to let themselves be defiled with every kind of impurity and abomination,

⁴⁹so that they might forget the law and change all their observances.

⁵⁰Whoever refused to act according to the command of the king should be put to death.

⁵¹Such were the orders he published throughout his kingdom. He appointed inspectors over all the people, and he ordered the cities of Judah to offer sacrifices, each city in turn.

⁵²Many of the people, those who abandoned the law, joined them and committed evil in the land.

⁵³Israel was driven into hiding, wherever places of refuge could be found.

⁵⁴On the fifteenth day of the month Chislev, in the year one hundred and forty-five, the king erected the horrible abomination upon the altar of holocausts, and in the surrounding cities of Judah they built pagan altars.

⁵⁵They also burnt incense at the doors of houses and in the streets.

⁵⁶Any scrolls of the law which they found they tore up and burnt.

⁵⁷Whoever was found with a scroll of the covenant, and whoever observed the law, was condemned to death by royal decree.

⁵⁸So they used their power against Israel, against those who were caught, each month, in the cities.

⁵⁹On the twenty-fifth day of each month they sacrificed on the altar erected over the altar of holocausts.

⁶⁰Women who had had their children circumcised were put to death, in keeping with the decree,

⁶¹with the babies hung from their necks; their families also and those who had circumcised them were killed.

⁶²But many in Israel were determined and resolved in their hearts not to eat anything unclean;

⁶³they preferred to die rather than to be defiled with unclean food or to profane the holy covenant; and they did die. Terrible affliction was upon Israel.ä»…

2In those days Mattathias, son of John, son of Simeon, a priest of the family of Joarib, left Jerusalem and settled in Modein.

²He had five sons: John, who was called Gaddi;

³Simon, who was called Thassi;

⁴Judas, who was called Maccabeus;

⁵Eleazar, who was called Avaran; and Jonathan, who was called Apphus.

⁶When he saw the sacrileges that were being committed in Judah and in Jerusalem,

⁷he said: "Woe is me! Why was I born to see the ruin of my people and the ruin of the holy city, and to sit idle while it is given into the hands of enemies, and the sanctuary into the hands of strangers?

⁸"Her temple has become like a man disgraced,

⁹her glorious ornaments have been carried off as spoils, Her infants have been murdered in her streets, her young men by the sword of the enemy.

¹⁰What nation has not taken its share of her realm, and laid its hand on her possessions?

¹¹All her adornment has been taken away. From being free, she has become a slave.

¹²We see our sanctuary and our beauty and our glory laid waste, And the Gentiles have defiled them!

¹³Why are we still alive?"

¹⁴Then Mattathias and his sons tore their garments, put on sackcloth, and mourned bitterly.

¹⁵The officers of the king in charge of enforcing the apostasy came to the city of Modein to organize the sacrifices.

¹⁶Many of Israel joined them, but Mattathias and his sons gathered in a group apart.

¹⁷Then the officers of the king addressed Mattathias: "You are a leader, an honorable and great man in this city, supported by sons and kinsmen.

¹⁸Come now, be the first to obey the king's command, as all the Gentiles and the men of Judah and those who are left in Jerusalem have done. Then you and your sons shall be numbered among the King's Friends, and shall be enriched with silver and gold and many gifts."

¹⁹But Mattathias answered in a loud voice: "Although all the Gentiles in the king's realm obey him, so that each forsakes the religion of his fathers and consents to the king's orders,

²⁰yet I and my sons and my kinsmen will keep to the covenant of our fathers.

²¹God forbid that we should forsake the law and the commandments.

²²We will not obey the words of the king nor depart from our religion in the slightest degree."

²³As he finished saying these words, a certain Jew came forward in the sight of all to offer sacrifice on the altar in Modein according to the king's order.

²⁴When Mattathias saw him, he was filled with zeal; his heart was moved and his just fury was aroused; he sprang forward and killed him upon the altar.

²⁵At the same time, he also killed the messenger of the king who was forcing them to sacrifice, and he tore down the altar.

²⁶Thus he showed his zeal for the law, just as Phinehas did with Zimri, son of Salu.

²⁷Then Mattathias went through the city shouting, "Let everyone who is zealous for the law and who stands by the covenant follow after me!"

²⁸Thereupon he fled to the mountains with his sons, leaving behind in the city all their possessions.

²⁹Many who sought to live according to righteousness and religious custom went out into the desert to settle there,

³⁰they and their sons, their wives and their cattle, because misfortunes pressed so hard on them.

³¹It was reported to the officers and soldiers of the king who were in the City of David, in Jerusalem, that certain men who had flouted the king's order had gone out to the hiding places in the desert.

³²Many hurried out after them, and having caught up with them, camped opposite and prepared to attack them on the sabbath.

³³"Enough of this!" the pursuers said to them. "Come out and obey the king's command, and your lives will be spared."

³⁴But they replied, "We will not come out, nor will we obey the king's command to profane the sabbath."

³⁵Then the enemy attacked them at once;

³⁶but they did not retaliate; they neither threw stones, nor blocked up their own hiding places.

³⁷They said, "Let us all die without reproach; heaven and earth are our witnesses that you destroy us unjustly."

³⁸So the officers and soldiers attacked them on the sabbath, and they died with their wives, their children and their cattle, to the number of a thousand persons.

³⁹When Mattathias and his friends heard of it, they mourned deeply for them.

⁴⁰"If we all do as our kinsmen have done," they said to one another, "and do not fight against the Gentiles for our lives and our traditions, they will soon destroy us from the earth."

⁴¹On that day they came to this decision: "Let us fight against anyone who attacks us on the sabbath, so that we may not all die as our kinsmen died in the hiding places."

⁴²Then they were joined by a group of Hasideans, valiant Israelites, all of them devout followers of the law.

⁴³And all those who were fleeing from the disaster joined them and supported them.

⁴⁴They gathered an army and struck down sinners in their anger and lawbreakers in their wrath, and the survivors fled to the Gentiles for safety.

⁴⁵Mattathias and his friends went about and tore down the pagan altars;

⁴⁶they also enforced circumcision for any uncircumcised boys whom they found in the territory of Israel.

⁴⁷They put to flight the arrogant, and the work prospered in their hands.

⁴⁸They saved the law from the hands of the Gentiles and of the kings and did not let the sinner triumph.

⁴⁹When the time came for Mattathias to die, he said to his sons: "Arrogance and scorn have now grown strong; it is a time of disaster and violent anger.

⁵⁰Therefore, my sons, be zealous for the law and give your lives for the covenant of our fathers.

⁵¹"Remember the deeds that our fathers did in their times, and you shall win great glory and an everlasting name.

⁵²Was not Abraham found faithful in trial, and it was reputed to him as uprightness?

⁵³Joseph, when in distress, kept the commandment, and he became master of Egypt.

⁵⁴Phinehas our father, for his burning zeal, received the covenant of an everlasting priesthood.

⁵⁵Joshua, for executing his commission, became a judge in Israel.

⁵⁶Caleb, for bearing witness before the assembly, received an inheritance in the land.

⁵⁷David, for his piety, received as a heritage a throne of everlasting royalty.

⁵⁸Elijah, for his burning zeal for the law, was taken up to heaven.

⁵⁹Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael, for their faith, were saved from the fire.

⁶⁰Daniel, for his innocence, was delivered from the jaws of lions.

⁶¹And so, consider this from generation to generation, that none who hope in him shall fail in strength.

⁶²Do not fear the words of a sinful man, for his glory ends in corruption and worms.

⁶³Today he is exalted, and tomorrow he is not to be found, because he has returned to his dust, and his schemes have perished.

⁶⁴Children! be courageous and strong in keeping the law, for by it you shall be glorified.

⁶⁵"Here is your brother Simeon who I know is a wise man; listen to him always, and he will be a father to you.

⁶⁶And Judas Maccabeus, a warrior from his youth, shall be the leader of your army and direct the war against the nations.

⁶⁷You shall also gather about you all who observe the law, and you shall avenge the wrongs of your people.

⁶⁸Pay back the Gentiles what they deserve, and observe the precepts of the law."

⁶⁹Then he blessed them, and he was united with his fathers.

⁷⁰He died in the year one hundred and forty-six, and was buried in the tombs of his fathers in Modein, and all Israel mourned him greatly.

3Then his son Judas, who was called Maccabeus, took his place.

²All his brothers and all who had joined his father supported him, and they carried on Israel's war joyfully.

³He spread abroad the glory of his people, and put on his breastplate like a giant. He armed himself with weapons of war; he planned battles and protected the camp with his sword.

⁴In his actions he was like a lion, like a young lion roaring for prey.

⁵He pursued the wicked, hunting them out, and those who troubled his people he destroyed by fire.

⁶The lawbreakers were cowed by fear of him, and all evildoers were dismayed. By his hand redemption was happily achieved,

⁷and he afflicted many kings; He made Jacob glad by his deeds, and his memory is blessed forever.

⁸He went about the cities of Judah destroying the impious there. He turned away wrath from Israel

⁹and was renowned to the ends of the earth; he gathered together those who were perishing.

¹⁰Then Apollonius gathered the Gentiles, together with a large army from Samaria, to fight against Israel.

¹¹When Judas learned of it, he went out to meet him and defeated and killed him. Many fell wounded, and the rest fled.

¹²Their possessions were seized and the sword of Apollonius was taken by Judas, who fought with it the rest of his life.

¹³But Seron, commander of the Syrian army, heard that Judas had gathered many about him, an assembly of faithful men ready for war.

¹⁴So he said, "I will make a name for myself and win glory in the kingdom by defeating Judas and his followers, who have despised the king's command."

¹⁵And again a large company of renegades advanced with him to help him take revenge on the Israelites.

¹⁶When he reached the ascent of Beth-horon, Judas went out to meet him with a few men.

¹⁷But when they saw the army coming against them, they said to Judas: "How can we, few as we are, fight such a mighty host as this? Besides, we are weak today from fasting."

¹⁸But Judas said: "It is easy for many to be overcome by a few; in the sight of Heaven there is no difference between deliverance by many or by few;

¹⁹for victory in war does not depend upon the size of the army, but on strength that comes from Heaven.

²⁰With great presumption and lawlessness they come against us to destroy us and our wives and children and to despoil us;

²¹but we are fighting for our lives and our laws.

²²He himself will crush them before us; so do not be afraid of them."

²³When he finished speaking, he rushed suddenly upon Seron and his army, who were crushed before him.

²⁴He pursued Seron down the descent of Beth-horon into the plain. About eight hundred of their men fell, and the rest fled to the country of the Philistines.

²⁵Then Judas and his brothers began to be feared, and dread fell upon the Gentiles about them.

²⁶His fame reached the king, and all the Gentiles talked about the battles of Judas.

²⁷When Antiochus heard about these events, he was angry; so he ordered a muster of all the forces of his kingdom, a very strong army.

²⁸He opened his treasure chests, gave his soldiers a year's pay, and commanded them to be prepared for anything.

²⁹He then found that this exhausted the money in his treasury; moreover the income from the province was small, because of the dissension and distress he had brought upon the land by abolishing the laws which had been in effect from of old.

³⁰He feared that, as had happened more than once, he would not have enough for his expenses and for the gifts that he had previously given with a more liberal hand than the preceding kings.

³¹Greatly perplexed, he decided to go to Persia and levy tribute on those provinces, and so raise a large sum of money.

³²He left Lysias, a nobleman of royal blood, in charge of the king's affairs from the Euphrates River to the frontier of Egypt,

³³and commissioned him to take care of his son Antiochus until his own return.

³⁴He entrusted to him half of the army, and the elephants, and gave him instructions concerning everything he wanted done. As for the inhabitants of Judea and Jerusalem,

³⁵Lysias was to send an army against them to crush and destroy the power of Israel and the remnant of Jerusalem and efface their memory from the land.

³⁶He was to settle foreigners in all their territory and distribute their land by lot.

³⁷The king took the remaining half of the army and set out from Antioch, his capital, in the year one hundred and forty-seven; he crossed the Euphrates River and advanced inland.

³⁸Lysias chose Ptolemy, son of Dorymenes, and Nicanor and Gorgias, capable men among the King's Friends,

³⁹and with them he sent forty thousand men and seven thousand cavalry to invade the land of Judah and ravage it according to the king's orders.

⁴⁰Setting out with all their forces, they came and pitched their camp near Emmaus in the plain.

⁴¹When the merchants of the country heard of their fame, they came to the camp, bringing fetters and a large sum of silver and gold, to buy the Israelites as slaves. A force from Idumea and from Philistia joined with them.

⁴²Judas and his brothers saw that the situation had become critical now that armies were encamped within their territory; they knew of the orders which the king had given to destroy and utterly wipe out the people.

⁴³So they said to one another, "Let us restore our people from their ruined estate, and fight for our people and our sanctuary!"

⁴⁴The assembly gathered together to prepare for battle and to pray and implore mercy and compassion.

⁴⁵Jerusalem was uninhabited, like a desert; not one of her children entered or came out. The sanctuary was trampled on, and foreigners were in the citadel; it was a habitation of Gentiles. Joy had disappeared from Jacob, and the flute and the harp were silent.

⁴⁶Thus they assembled and went to Mizpah near Jerusalem, because there was formerly at Mizpah a place of prayer for Israel.

⁴⁷That day they fasted and wore sackcloth; they sprinkled ashes on their heads and tore their clothes.

⁴⁸They unrolled the scroll of the law, to learn about the things for which the Gentiles consulted the images of their idols.

⁴⁹They brought with them the priestly vestments, the first fruits, and the tithes; and they brought forward the nazirites who had completed the time of their vows.

⁵⁰And they cried aloud to Heaven: "What shall we do with these men, and where shall we take them?

⁵¹For your sanctuary has been trampled on and profaned, and your priests are in mourning and humiliation.

⁵²Now the Gentiles are gathered together against us to destroy us. You know what they plot against us.

⁵³How shall we be able to resist them unless you help us?"

⁵⁴Then they blew the trumpets and cried out loudly.

⁵⁵After this Judas appointed officers among the people, over thousands, over hundreds, over fifties, and over tens.

⁵⁶He proclaimed that those who were building houses, or were just married, or were planting vineyards, and those who were afraid, could each return to his home, according to the law.

⁵⁷Then the army moved off, and they camped to the south of Emmaus.

⁵⁸Judas said: "Arm yourselves and be brave; in the morning be ready to fight these Gentiles who have assembled against us to destroy us and our sanctuary.

⁵⁹It is better for us to die in battle than to witness the ruin of our nation and our sanctuary. Whatever Heaven wills, he will do."

4Now Gorgias took five thousand infantry and a thousand picked cavalry, and this detachment set out at night

²in order to attack the camp of the Jews and take them by surprise. Some men from the citadel were their guides.

³Judas heard of it, and himself set out with his soldiers to attack the king's army at Emmaus,

⁴while the latter's forces were still scattered away from the camp.

⁵During the night Gorgias came into the camp of Judas, and found no one there; so he began to hunt for them in the mountains, saying, "They are fleeing from us."

⁶But at daybreak Judas appeared in the plain with three thousand men, who lacked such armor and swords as they would have wished.

⁷They saw the army of the Gentiles, strong and breastplated, flanked with cavalry, and made up of expert soldiers.

⁸Judas said to the men with him: "Do not be afraid of their numbers or dread their attack.

⁹Remember how our fathers were saved in the Red Sea, when Pharaoh pursued them with an army.

¹⁰So now let us cry to Heaven in the hope that he will favor us, remember his covenant with our fathers, and destroy this army before us today.

¹¹All the Gentiles shall know that there is One who redeems and delivers Israel."

¹²When the foreigners looked up and saw them marching toward them,

¹³they came out of their camp for battle, and the men with Judas blew the trumpet.

¹⁴The battle was joined and the Gentiles were defeated and fled toward the plain.

¹⁵Their whole rearguard fell by the sword, and they were pursued as far as Gazara and the plains of Judea, to Azotus and Jamnia. About three thousand of their men fell.

¹⁶When Judas and the army returned from the pursuit,

¹⁷he said to the people: "Do not be greedy for the plunder, for there is a fight ahead of us,

¹⁸and Gorgias and his army are near us on the mountain. But now stand firm against our enemies and overthrow them. Afterward you can freely take the plunder."

¹⁹As Judas was finishing this speech, a detachment appeared, looking down from the mountain.

²⁰They saw that their army had been put to flight and their camp was being burned. The smoke that could be seen indicated what had happened.

²¹When they realized this, they were terrified; and when they also saw the army of Judas in the plain ready to attack,

²²they all fled to Philistine territory.

²³Then Judas went back to plunder the camp, and his men collected much gold and silver, violet and crimson cloth, and great treasure.

²⁴As they returned, they were singing hymns and glorifying Heaven, "for he is good, for his mercy endures forever."

²⁵Thus Israel had a great deliverance that day.

²⁶But those of the foreigners who had escaped went and told Lysias all that had occurred.

²⁷When he heard it he was disturbed and discouraged, because things in Israel had not turned out as he intended and as the king had ordered.

²⁸So the following year he gathered together sixty thousand picked men and five thousand cavalry, to subdue them.

²⁹They came into Idumea and camped at Beth-zur, and Judas met them with ten thousand men.

³⁰Seeing that the army was strong, he prayed thus: "Blessed are you, O Savior of Israel, who broke the rush of the mighty one by the hand of your servant David and delivered the camp of the Philistines into the hand of Jonathan, the son of Saul, and his armor-bearer.

³¹Give this army into the hands of your people Israel; make them ashamed of their troops and their cavalry.

³²Strike them with fear, weaken the boldness of their strength, and let them tremble at their own destruction.

³³Strike them down by the sword of those who love you, that all who know your name may hymn your praise."

³⁴Then they engaged in battle, and about five thousand of Lysias' men fell in hand-to-hand fighting.

³⁵When Lysias saw his ranks beginning to give way, and the increased boldness of Judas, whose men were ready either to live or to die bravely, he withdrew to Antioch and began to recruit mercenaries so as to return to Judea with greater numbers.

³⁶Then Judas and his brothers said, "Now that our enemies have been crushed, let us go up to purify the sanctuary and rededicate it."

³⁷So the whole army assembled, and went up to Mount Zion.

³⁸They found the sanctuary desolate, the altar desecrated, the gates burnt, weeds growing in the courts as in a forest or on some mountain, and the priests' chambers demolished.

³⁹Then they tore their clothes and made great lamentation; they sprinkled their heads with ashes

⁴⁰and fell with their faces to the ground. And when the signal was given with trumpets, they cried out to Heaven.

⁴¹Judas appointed men to attack those in the citadel, while he purified the sanctuary.

⁴²He chose blameless priests, devoted to the law;

⁴³these purified the sanctuary and carried away the stones of the Abomination to an unclean place.

⁴⁴They deliberated what ought to be done with the altar of holocausts that had been desecrated.

⁴⁵The happy thought came to them to tear it down, lest it be a lasting shame to them that the Gentiles had defiled it; so they tore down the altar.

⁴⁶They stored the stones in a suitable place on the temple hill, until a prophet should come and decide what to do with them.

⁴⁷Then they took uncut stones, according to the law, and built a new altar like the former one.

⁴⁸They also repaired the sanctuary and the interior of the temple and purified the courts.

⁴⁹They made new sacred vessels and brought the lampstand, the altar of incense, and the table into the temple.

⁵⁰Then they burned incense on the altar and lighted the lamps on the lampstand, and these illuminated the temple.

⁵¹They also put loaves on the table and hung up curtains. Thus they finished all the work they had undertaken.

⁵²Early in the morning on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, that is, the month of Chislev, in the year one hundred and forty-eight,

⁵³they arose and offered sacrifice according to the law on the new altar of holocausts that they had made.

⁵⁴On the anniversary of the day on which the Gentiles had defiled it, on that very day it was reconsecrated with songs, harps, flutes, and cymbals.

⁵⁵All the people prostrated themselves and adored and praised Heaven, who had given them success.

⁵⁶For eight days they celebrated the dedication of the altar and joyfully offered holocausts and sacrifices of deliverance and praise.

⁵⁷They ornamented the facade of the temple with gold crowns and shields; they repaired the gates and the priests' chambers and furnished them with doors.

⁵⁸There was great joy among the people now that the disgrace of the Gentiles was removed.

⁵⁹Then Judas and his brothers and the entire congregation of Israel decreed that the days of the dedication of the altar should be observed with joy and gladness on the anniversary every year for eight days, from the twenty-fifth day of the month Chislev.

⁶⁰At that time they built high walls and strong towers around Mount Zion, to prevent the Gentiles from coming and trampling over it as they had done before.

⁶¹Judas also placed a garrison there to protect it, and likewise fortified Beth-zur, that the people might have a stronghold facing Idumea.

5When the Gentiles round about heard that the altar had been rebuilt and the sanctuary consecrated as before, they were very angry.

²So they decided to destroy the descendants of Jacob who were among them, and they began to massacre and persecute the people.

³Then Judas attacked the sons of Esau at Akrabattene in Idumea, because they were blockading Israel; he defeated them heavily, overcame and despoiled them.

⁴He also remembered the malice of the sons of Baean, who had become a snare and a stumbling block to the people by ambushing them along the roads.

⁵He forced them to take refuge in towers, which he besieged; he vowed their annihilation and burned down the towers along with all the persons in them.

⁶Then he crossed over to the Ammonites, where he found a strong army and a large body of people with Timothy as their leader.

⁷He fought many battles with them, routed them, and struck them down.

⁸After seizing Jazer and its villages, he returned to Judea.

⁹The Gentiles in Gilead assembled to attack and destroy the Israelites who were in their territory; these then fled to the stronghold of Dathema.

¹⁰They sent a letter to Judas and his brothers saying: "The Gentiles around us have combined against us to destroy us,

¹¹and they are preparing to come and seize this stronghold to which we have fled. Timothy is the leader of their army.

¹²Come at once and rescue us from them, for many of us have fallen.

¹³All our kinsmen who were among the Tobiads have been killed; the Gentiles have carried away their wives and children and their goods, and they have slain there about a thousand men."

¹⁴While they were reading this letter, suddenly other messengers, in torn clothes, arrived from Galilee to deliver a similar message:

¹⁵that the inhabitants of Ptolemais, Tyre, and Sidon, and the whole of Gentile Galilee had joined forces to destroy them.

¹⁶When Judas and the people heard this, a great assembly convened to consider what they should do for their unfortunate kinsmen who were being attacked by enemies.

¹⁷Judas said to his brother Simon: "Choose men for yourself, and go, rescue your kinsmen in Galilee; I and my brother Jonathan will go to Gilead."

¹⁸In Judea he left Joseph, son of Zechariah, and Azariah, leader of the people, with the rest of the army to guard it.

¹⁹"Take charge of these people," he commanded them, "but do not fight against the Gentiles until we return."

²⁰Three thousand men were allotted to Simon, to go into Galilee, and eight thousand men to Judas, for Gilead.

²¹Simon went into Galilee and fought many battles with the Gentiles. They were crushed before him,

²²and he pursued them to the very gate of Ptolemais. About three thousand men of the Gentiles fell, and he gathered their spoils.

²³He took with him the Jews who were in Galilee and in Arbatta, with their wives and children and all that they had, and brought them to Judea with great rejoicing.

²⁴Judas Maccabeus and his brother Jonathan crossed the Jordan and marched for three days through the desert.

²⁵There they met some Nabateans, who received them peacefully and told them all that had happened to the Jews in Gilead:

²⁶"Many of them have been imprisoned in Bozrah, in Bosor near Alema, in Chaspho, Maked, and Carnaim"--all of these are large, fortified cities--

²⁷"and some have been imprisoned in other cities of Gilead. Tomorrow their enemies plan to attack the strongholds and to seize and destroy all these people in one day."

²⁸Thereupon Judas suddenly changed direction with his army, marched across the desert to Bozrah, and captured the city. He slaughtered all the male population, took all their possessions, and set fire to the city.

²⁹He led his army from that place by night, and they marched toward the stronghold of Dathema.

³⁰When morning came, they looked ahead and saw a countless multitude of people, with ladders and devices for capturing the stronghold, and beginning to attack the people within.

³¹When Judas perceived that the struggle had begun and that the noise of the battle was resounding to heaven with trumpet blasts and loud shouting,

³²he said to the men of his army, "Fight for our kinsmen today."

³³He came up behind them with three columns blowing their trumpets and shouting in prayer.

³⁴When the army of Timothy realized that it was Maccabeus, they fell back before him, and he inflicted on them a crushing defeat. About eight thousand of their men fell that day.

³⁵Then he turned toward Alema and attacked and captured it; he killed all the male population, plundered the place, and burned it down.

³⁶From there he moved on and took Chaspho, Maked, Bosor, and the other cities of Gilead.

³⁷After these events Timothy assembled another army and camped opposite Raphon, on the other side of the stream.

³⁸Judas sent men to spy on the camp, and they reported to him: "All the Gentiles around us have rallied to him, making a very large force;

³⁹they have also hired Arabs to help them, and have camped beyond the stream, ready to attack you." So Judas went forward to attack them.

⁴⁰As Judas and his army were approaching the running stream, Timothy said to the officers of his army: "If he crosses over to us first, we shall not be able to resist him; he will certainly defeat us.

⁴¹But if he is afraid and camps on the other side of the river, we will cross over to him and defeat him."

⁴²But when Judas reached the running stream, he stationed the officers of the people beside the stream and gave them this order: "Do not allow any man to pitch a tent; all must go into battle."

⁴³He was the first to cross to the attack, with all the people behind him, and the Gentiles were crushed before them; they threw away their arms and fled to the temple enclosure at Carnaim.

⁴⁴The Jews captured that city and burnt the enclosure with all who were in it. So Carnaim was subdued, and Judas met with no more resistance.

⁴⁵Then he assembled all the Israelites, great and small, who were in Gilead, with their wives and children and their goods, a great crowd of people, to go into the land of Judah.

⁴⁶When they reached Ephron, a large and strongly fortified city along the way, they found it impossible to encircle it on either the right or the left; they would have to march right through it.

⁴⁷But the men in the city shut them out and blocked up the gates with stones.

⁴⁸Then Judas sent them this peaceful message: "We wish to cross your territory in order to reach our own; no one will harm you; we will only march through." But they would not open to him.

⁴⁹So Judas ordered a proclamation to be made in the camp that everyone make an attack from the place where he was.

⁵⁰When the men of the army took up their positions, he assaulted the city all that day and night, and it was delivered to him.

⁵¹He slaughtered every male, razed and plundered the city, and passed through it over the slain.

⁵²Then they crossed the Jordan to the great plain in front of Beth-shan;

⁵³and Judas kept rounding up the stragglers and encouraging the people the whole way, until he reached the land of Judah.

⁵⁴They ascended Mount Zion in joy and gladness and offered holocausts, because not one of them had fallen; they had returned in safety.

⁵⁵During the time that Judas and Jonathan were in the land of Gilead, and Simon his brother was in Galilee opposite Ptolemais,

⁵⁶Joseph, son of Zechariah, and Azariah, the leaders of the army, heard about the brave deeds and the fighting that they were doing.

⁵⁷They said, "Let us also make a name for ourselves by going out and fighting against the Gentiles around us."

⁵⁸They gave orders to the men of their army who were with them, and marched toward Jamnia.

⁵⁹But Gorgias and his men came out of the city to meet them in battle.

⁶⁰Joseph and Azariah were beaten, and were pursued to the frontiers of Judea, and about two thousand Israelites fell that day.

⁶¹It was a bad defeat for the people, because they had not obeyed Judas and his brothers, thinking that they would do brave deeds.

⁶²But they did not belong to the family of those men to whom it was granted to achieve Israel's salvation.

⁶³The valiant Judas and his brothers were greatly renowned in all Israel and among all the Gentiles, wherever their name was heard;

⁶⁴and men gathered about them and praised them.

⁶⁵Then Judas and his brothers went out and attacked the sons of Esau in the country toward the south; he took Hebron and its villages, and he destroyed its strongholds and burned the towers around it.

⁶⁶He then set out for the land of the Philistines and passed through Marisa.

⁶⁷At that time some priests fell in battle who had gone out rashly to fight in their desire to distinguish themselves.

⁶⁸Judas then turned toward Azotus in the land of the Philistines. He destroyed their altars and burned the statues of their gods; and after plundering their cities he returned to the land of Judah.

6As King Antiochus was traversing the inland provinces, he heard that in Persia there was a city called Elymais, famous for its wealth in silver and gold,

²and that its temple was very rich, containing gold helmets, breastplates, and weapons left there by Alexander, son of Philip, king of Macedon, the first king of the Greeks.

³He went therefore and tried to capture and pillage the city. But he could not do so, because his plan became known to the people of the city

⁴who rose up in battle against him. So he retreated and in great dismay withdrew from there to return to Babylon.

⁵While he was in Persia, a messenger brought him news that the armies sent into the land of Judah had been put to flight;

⁶that Lysias had gone at first with a strong army and been driven back by the Israelites; that they had grown strong by reason of the arms, men, and abundant possessions taken from the armies they had destroyed;

⁷that they had pulled down the Abomination which he had built upon the altar in Jerusalem; and that they had surrounded with high walls both the sanctuary, as it had been before, and his city of Beth-zur.

⁸When the king heard this news, he was struck with fear and very much shaken. Sick with grief because his designs had failed, he took to his bed.

⁹There he remained many days, overwhelmed with sorrow, for he knew he was going to die.

¹⁰So he called in all his Friends and said to them: "Sleep has departed from my eyes, for my heart is sinking with anxiety.

¹¹I said to myself: 'Into what tribulation have I come, and in what floods of sorrow am I now!

¹²Yet I was kindly and beloved in my rule.' But I now recall the evils I did in Jerusalem, when I carried away all the vessels of gold and silver that were in it, and for no cause gave orders that the inhabitants of Judah be destroyed.

¹³I know that this is why these evils have overtaken me; and now I am dying, in bitter grief, in a foreign land."

¹⁴Then he summoned Philip, one of his Friends, and put him in charge of his whole kingdom.

¹⁵He gave him his crown, his robe, and his signet ring, so that he might guide the king's son Antiochus and bring him up to be king.

¹⁶King Antiochus died in Persia in the year one hundred and forty-nine.

¹⁷When Lysias learned that the king was dead, he set up the king's son Antiochus, whom he had reared as a child, to be king in his place; and he gave him the title Eupator.

¹⁸The men in the citadel were hemming in Israel around the sanctuary, continually trying to harm them and to strengthen the Gentiles.

¹⁹But Judas planned to destroy them, and called all the people together to besiege them.

²⁰So in the year one hundred and fifty they assembled and stormed the citadel, for which purpose he constructed catapults and other devices.

²¹Some of the besieged escaped, joined by impious Israelites;

²²they went to the king and said: "How long will you fail to do justice and avenge our kinsmen?

²³We agreed to serve your father and to follow his orders and obey his edicts.

²⁴And for this the sons of our people have become our enemies; they have put to death as many of us as they could find and have plundered our estates.

²⁵They have acted aggressively not only against us, but throughout their whole territory.

²⁶Look! They have now besieged the citadel in Jerusalem in order to capture it, and they have fortified the sanctuary and Beth-zur.

²⁷Unless you quickly forestall them, they will do even worse things than these, and you will not be able to stop them."

²⁸When the king heard this he was angry, and he called together all his Friends, the officers of his army, and the commanders of the cavalry.

²⁹Mercenary forces also came to him from other kingdoms and from the islands of the seas.

³⁰His army numbered a hundred thousand foot-soldiers, twenty thousand cavalry, and thirty-two elephants trained for war.

³¹They passed through Idumea and camped before Beth-zur. For many days they attacked it; they constructed siege-devices, but the besieged made a sortie and burned these, and they fought bravely.

³²Then Judas marched away from the citadel and moved his camp to Beth-zechariah, on the way to the king's camp.

³³The king, rising before dawn, moved his force hastily along the road to Beth-zechariah; and the armies prepared for battle, while the trumpets sounded.

³⁴They showed the elephants the juice of grapes and mulberries to provoke them to fight.

³⁵The beasts were distributed along the phalanxes, each elephant having assigned to it a thousand men in coats of mail, with bronze helmets, and five hundred picked cavalry.

³⁶These anticipated the beast wherever it was; and wherever it moved, they moved too and never left it.

³⁷A strong wooden tower covering each elephant, and fastened to it by a harness, held, besides the Indian mahout, three soldiers who fought from it.

³⁸The remaining cavalry were stationed on one or the other of the two flanks of the army, to harass the enemy and to be protected from the phalanxes.

³⁹When the sun shone on the gold and bronze shields, the mountains gleamed with their brightness and blazed like flaming torches.

⁴⁰Part of the king's army extended over the heights, while some were on low ground, but they marched forward steadily and in good order.

⁴¹All who heard the noise of their numbers, the tramp of their marching, and the clashing of the arms, trembled; for the army was very great and strong.

⁴²Judas with his army advanced to fight, and six hundred men of the king's army fell.

⁴³Eleazar, called Avaran, saw one of the beasts bigger than any of the others and covered with royal armor, and he thought the king must be on it.

⁴⁴So he gave up his life to save his people and win an everlasting name for himself.

⁴⁵He dashed up to it in the middle of the phalanx, killing men right and left, so that they fell back from him on both sides.

⁴⁶He ran right under the elephant and stabbed it in the belly, killing it. The beast fell to the ground on top of him, and he died there.

⁴⁷When the Jews saw the strength of the royal army and the ardor of its forces, they retreated from them.

⁴⁸A part of the king's army went up to Jerusalem to attack them, and the king established camps in Judea and at Mount Zion.

⁴⁹He made peace with the men of Beth-zur, and they evacuated the city, because they had no food there to enable them to stand a siege, for that was a sabbath year in the land.

⁵⁰The king took Beth-zur and stationed a garrison there to hold it.

⁵¹For many days he besieged the sanctuary, setting up artillery and machines, fire-throwers, catapults and mechanical bows for shooting arrows and slingstones.

⁵²The Jews countered by setting up machines of their own, and kept up the fight a long time.

⁵³But there were no provisions in the storerooms, because it was the seventh year, and the tide-over provisions had been eaten up by those who had been rescued from the Gentiles and brought to Judea.

⁵⁴Few men remained in the sanctuary; the rest scattered, each to his own home, for the famine was too much for them.

⁵⁵Lysias heard that Philip, whom King Antiochus, before his death, had appointed to train his son Antiochus to be king,

⁵⁶had returned from Persia and Media with the army that accompanied the king, and that he was seeking to take over the government.

⁵⁷So he hastily resolved to withdraw. He said to the king, the leaders of the army, and the soldiers: "We are grow-ing weaker every day, our provisions are scanty, the place we are besieging is strong, and it is our duty to take care of the affairs of the kingdom.

⁵⁸Therefore let us now come to terms with these men, and make peace with them and all their nation.

⁵⁹Let us grant them freedom to live according to their own laws as formerly; it was on account of their laws, which we abolished, that they became angry and did all these things."

⁶⁰The proposal found favor with the king and the leaders;

⁶¹he sent peace terms to the Jews, and they accepted. So the king and the leaders swore an oath to them, and on these terms they evacuated the fortification.

⁶²But when the king entered Mount Zion and saw how the place was fortified, he broke the oath he had sworn and gave orders for the encircling wall to be destroyed.

⁶³Then he departed in haste and returned to Antioch, where he found Philip in possession of the city. He fought against him and took the city by force.

7In the year one hundred and fifty-one, Demetrius, son of Seleucus, set out from Rome, arrived with a few men in a city on the seacoast, and began to rule there.

²As he was preparing to enter the royal palace of his ancestors, the soldiers seized Antiochus and Lysias to bring them to him.

³When he was informed of this, he said, "Do not show me their faces."

⁴So the soldiers killed them, and Demetrius sat on the royal throne.

⁵Then all the lawless and impious men of Israel came to him. They were led by Alcimus, who desired to be high priest.

⁶They made this accusation to the king against the people: "Judas and his brothers have destroyed all your friends and have driven us out of our country.

⁷So now, send a man whom you trust to go and see all the havoc Judas has done to us and to the king's land, and let him punish them and all their supporters."

⁸Then the king chose Bacchides, one of the King's Friends, governor of West-of-Euphrates, a great man in the kingdom, and faithful to the king.

⁹He sent him and the impious Alcimus, to whom he granted the high priesthood, with orders to take revenge on the Israelites.

¹⁰They set out and, on arriving in the land of Judah with a great army, sent messengers who spoke deceitfully to Judas and his brothers in peaceful terms.

¹¹But these paid no attention to their words, seeing that they had come with a great army.

¹²A group of scribes, however, gathered about Alcimus and Bacchides to ask for a just agreement.

¹³The Hasideans were the first among the Israelites to seek peace with them,

¹⁴for they said, "A priest of the line of Aaron has come with the army, and he will not do us any wrong."

¹⁵He spoke with them peacefully and swore to them, "We will not try to injure you or your friends."

¹⁶So they trusted him. But he arrested sixty of them and killed them in one day, according to the text of Scripture:

¹⁷"The flesh of your saints they have strewn, and their blood they have shed round about Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them."

¹⁸Then fear and dread of them came upon all the people, who said: "There is no truth or justice among them; they violated the agreement and the oath that they swore."

¹⁹Bacchides withdrew from Jerusalem and pitched his camp in Beth-zaith. He had many of the men arrested who deserted to him, throwing them into the great pit.

²⁰He handed the province over to Alcimus, leaving troops to help him, while he himself returned to the king.

²¹Alcimus spared no pains to maintain his high priesthood,

²²and all those who were disturbing their people gathered about him. They took possession of the land of Judah and caused great distress in Israel.

²³When Judas saw all the evils that Alcimus and his men were bringing upon the Israelites, more than even the Gentiles had done,

²⁴he went about all the borders of Judea and took revenge on the men who had deserted, preventing them from going out into the country.

²⁵But when Alcimus saw that Judas and his followers were gaining strength and realized that he could not oppose them, he returned to the king and accused them of grave crimes.

²⁶Then the king sent Nicanor, one of his famous officers, who was a bitter enemy of Israel, with orders to destroy the people.

²⁷Nicanor came to Jerusalem with a large force and deceitfully sent to Judas and his brothers this peaceable message:

²⁸"Let there be no fight between me and you. I will come with a few men to meet you peaceably."

²⁹So he came to Judas, and they greeted one another peaceably. But Judas' enemies were prepared to seize him.

³⁰When he became aware that Nicanor had come to him with treachery in mind, Judas was afraid and would not meet him again.

³¹When Nicanor saw that his plan had been discovered, he went out to fight Judas near Capharsalama.

³²About five hundred men of Nicanor's army fell; the rest fled to the City of David.

³³After this, Nicanor went up to Mount Zion. Some of the priests from the sanctuary and some of the elders of the people came out to greet him peaceably and to show him the holocaust that was being offered for the king.

³⁴But he mocked and ridiculed them, defiled them, and spoke disdainfully.

³⁵In a rage he swore: "If Judas and his army are not delivered to me at once, when I return victorious I will burn this temple down." He went away in great anger.

³⁶The priests, however, went in and stood before the altar and the sanctuary. They wept and said:

³⁷"You have chosen this house to bear your name, to be a house of prayer and petition for your people.

³⁸Take revenge on this man and his army, and let them fall by the sword. Remember their blasphemies, and do not let them continue."

³⁹Nicanor left Jerusalem and pitched his camp at Beth-horon, where the Syrian army joined him.

⁴⁰But Judas camped in Adasa with three thousand men. Here Judas uttered this prayer:

⁴¹"When they who were sent by the king blasphemed, your angel went out and killed a hundred and eighty-five thousand of them.

⁴²In the same way, crush this army before us today, and let the rest know that Nicanor spoke wickedly against your sanctuary; judge him according to his wickedness."

⁴³The armies met in battle on the thirteenth day of the month Adar. Nicanor's army was crushed, and he himself was the first to fall in the battle.

⁴⁴When his army saw that Nicanor was dead, they threw down their arms and fled.

⁴⁵The Jews pursued them a day's journey, from Adasa to near Gazara, blowing the trumpets behind them as signals.

⁴⁶From all the surrounding villages of Judea people came out and closed in on them. They hemmed them in, and all the enemies fell by the sword; not a single one escaped.

⁴⁷Then the Jews collected the spoils and the booty; they cut off Nicanor's head and his right arm, which he had lifted up so arrogantly. These they brought to Jerusalem and displayed there.

⁴⁸The people rejoiced greatly, and observed that day as a great festival.

⁴⁹They decreed that it should be observed every year on the thirteenth of Adar.

⁵⁰And for a short time the land of Judah was quiet.

8Judas had heard of the reputation of the Romans. They were valiant fighters and acted amiably to all who took their side. They established a friendly alliance with all who applied to them.

²He was also told of their battles and the brave deeds that they had performed against the Gauls, conquering them and forcing them to pay tribute.

³They had gotten possession of the silver and gold mines in Spain,

⁴and by planning and persistence had conquered the whole country, although it was very remote from their own. They had crushed the kings who had come against them from the far corners of the earth and had inflicted on them severe defeat, and the rest paid tribute to them every year.

⁵Philip and Perseus, king of the Macedonians, and the others who opposed them in battle had been overwhelmed and subjugated.

⁶Antiochus the Great, king of Asia, who had fought against them with a hundred and twenty elephants and with cavalry and chariots and a very great army, had been defeated by them.

⁷They had taken him alive and obliged him and the kings who succeeded him to pay a heavy tribute, to give hostages and a section of

⁸Lycia, Mysia, and Lydia from among their best provinces. The Romans took these from him and gave them to King Eumenes.

⁹When the men of Greece had planned to come and destroy them,

¹⁰the Romans discovered it, and sent against the Greeks a single general who made war on them. Many were wounded and fell, and the Romans took their wives and children captive. They plundered them, took possession of their land, tore down their strongholds and reduced them to slavery even to this day.

¹¹All the other kingdoms and islands that had ever opposed them they destroyed and enslaved;

¹²with their friends, however, and those who relied on them, they maintained friendship. They had conquered kings both far and near, and all who heard of their fame were afraid of them.

¹³In truth, those whom they desired to help to a kingdom became kings, and those whom they wished to depose they deposed; and they were greatly exalted.

¹⁴Yet with all this, none of them put on a crown or wore purple as a display of grandeur.

¹⁵They had made for themselves a senate house, and every day three hundred and twenty men took counsel, deliberating on all that concerned the people and their well-being.

¹⁶They entrusted their government to one man every year, to rule over their entire country, and they all obeyed that one, and there was no envy or jealousy among them.

¹⁷So Judas chose Eupolemus, son of John, son of Accos, and Jason, son of Eleazar, and sent them to Rome to establish an alliance of friendship with them.

¹⁸He did this to get rid of the yoke, for it was obvious that the kingdom of the Greeks was subjecting Israel to slavery.

¹⁹After making a very long journey to Rome, the envoys entered the senate and spoke as follows:

²⁰"Judas, called Maccabeus, and his brothers, with the Jewish people, have sent us to you to make a peaceful alliance with you, and to enroll ourselves among your allies and friends."

²¹The proposal pleased the Romans,

²²and this is a copy of the reply they inscribed on bronze tablets and sent to Jerusalem, to remain there with the Jews as a record of peace and alliance:

²³"May it be well with the Romans and the Jewish nation at sea and on land forever; may sword and enemy be far from them.

²⁴But if war is first made on Rome, or any of its allies in any of their dominions,

²⁵the Jewish nation will help them wholeheartedly, as the occasion shall demand;

²⁶and to those who wage war they shall not give nor provide grain, arms, money, or ships; this is Rome's decision. They shall fulfill their obligations without receiving any recompense.

²⁷In the same way, if war is made first on the Jewish nation, the Romans will help them willingly, as the occasion shall demand,

²⁸and to those who are attacking them there shall not be given grain, arms, money, or ships; this is Rome's decision. They shall fulfill their obligations without deception.

²⁹On these terms the Romans have made an agreement with the Jewish people.

³⁰But if both parties hereafter decide to add or take away anything, they shall do as they choose, and whatever they shall add or take away shall be valid.

³¹"Moreover, concerning the wrongs that King Demetrius has done to them, we have written to him thus: 'Why have you made your yoke heavy upon our friends and allies the Jews?

³²If they complain about you again, we will do them justice and make war on you by land and sea.'"

9When Demetrius heard that Nicanor and his army had fallen in battle, he again sent Bacchides and Alcimus into the land of Judah, along with the right wing of his army.

²They took the road to Galilee, and camping opposite the ascent at Arbela, they captured it and killed many people.

³In the first month of the year one hundred and fifty-two, they encamped against Jerusalem.

⁴Then they set out for Berea with twenty thousand men and two thousand cavalry.

⁵Judas, with three thousand picked men, had camped at Elasa.

⁶When his men saw the great number of the troops, they were very much afraid, and many slipped away from the camp, until only eight hundred men remained.

⁷As Judas saw that his army was melting away just when the battle was imminent, he was panic-stricken, because he had no time to gather them together.

⁸But in spite of his discouragement, he said to those who remained: "Let us go forward to meet our enemies; perhaps we can put up a good fight against them."

⁹They tried to dissuade him, saying: "We certainly cannot. Let us save our lives now, and come back with our kinsmen, and then fight against them. Now we are too few."

¹⁰But Judas said: "Far be it from me to do such a thing as to flee from them! If our time has come, let us die bravely for our kinsmen and not leave a stain upon our glory!"

¹¹Then the army of Bacchides moved out of camp and took its position for combat. The cavalry were divided into two squadrons, and the slingers and the archers came on ahead of the army, and all the valiant men were in the front line.

¹²Bacchides was on the right wing. Flanked by the two squadrons, the phalanx attacked as they blew their trumpets. Those who were on Judas' side also blew their trumpets.

¹³The earth shook with the noise of the armies, and the battle raged from morning until evening.

¹⁴Seeing that Bacchides was on the right, with the main force of his army, Judas, with all the most stouthearted rallying to him,

¹⁵drove back the right wing and pursued them as far as the mountain slopes.

¹⁶But when the men on the left wing saw that the right wing was driven back, they turned and followed Judas and his men, taking them in the rear.

¹⁷The battle was fought desperately, and many on both sides fell wounded.

¹⁸Then Judas fell, and the rest fled.

¹⁹Jonathan and Simon took their brother Judas and buried him in the tomb of their fathers at Modein.

²⁰All Israel bewailed him in great grief. They mourned for him many days, and they said,

²¹"How the mighty one has fallen, the savior of Israel!"

²²The other acts of Judas, his battles, the brave deeds he performed, and his greatness have not been recorded; but they were very many.

²³After the death of Judas, the transgressors of the law raised their heads in every part of Israel, and all kinds of evildoers appeared.

²⁴In those days there was a very great famine, and the country deserted to them.

²⁵Bacchides chose impious men and made them masters of the country.

²⁶These sought out and hunted down the friends of Judas and brought them to Bacchides, who punished and derided them.

²⁷There had not been such great distress in Israel since the time prophets ceased to appear among the people.

²⁸Then all the friends of Judas came together and said to Jonathan:

²⁹"Since your brother Judas died, there has been no one like him to oppose our enemies, Bacchides and those who are hostile to our nation.

³⁰Now therefore we have chosen you today to be our ruler and leader in his place, and to fight our battle."

³¹From that moment Jonathan accepted the leadership, and took the place of Judas his brother.

³²When Bacchides learned of it, he sought to kill him.

³³But Jonathan and his brother Simon and all the men with him discovered this, and they fled to the desert of Tekoa and camped by the waters of the pool of Asphar.

³⁴

³⁵Jonathan sent his brother as leader of the convoy to ask permission of his friends, the Nabateans, to deposit with them their great quantity of baggage.

³⁶But the sons of Jambri from Medaba made a raid and seized and carried off John and everything he had.

³⁷After this, word was brought to Jonathan and his brother Simon: "The sons of Jambri are celebrating a great wedding, and with a large escort they are bringing the bride, the daughter of one of the great princes of Canaan, from Nadabath."

³⁸Remembering the blood of John their brother, they went up and hid themselves under cover of the mountain.

³⁹They watched, and suddenly saw a noisy crowd with baggage; the bridegroom and his friends and kinsmen had come out to meet the bride's party with tambourines and musicians and much equipment.

⁴⁰The Jews rose up against them from their ambush and killed them. Many fell wounded, and after the survivors fled toward the mountain, all their spoils were taken.

⁴¹Thus the wedding was turned into mourning, and the sound of music into lamentation.

⁴²Having taken their revenge for the blood of their brother, the Jews returned to the marshes of the Jordan.

⁴³When Bacchides heard of it, he came on the sabbath to the banks of the Jordan with a large force.

⁴⁴Then Jonathan said to his companions, "Let us get up now and fight for our lives, for today is not like yesterday and the day before.

⁴⁵The battle is before us, and behind us are the waters of the Jordan on one side, marsh and thickets on the other, and there is no way of escape.

⁴⁶Cry out now to Heaven for deliverance from our enemies."

⁴⁷When they joined battle, Jonathan raised his arm to strike Bacchides, but Bacchides backed away from him.

⁴⁸Jonathan and his men jumped into the Jordan and swam across to the other side, but the enemy did not pursue them across the Jordan.

⁴⁹A thousand men on Bacchides' side fell that day.

⁵⁰On returning to Jerusalem, Bacchides built strongholds in Judea: the Jericho fortress, as well as Emmaus, Beth-horon, Bethel, Timnath, Pharathon, and Tephon, with high walls and gates and bars.

⁵¹In each he put a garrison to oppose Israel.

⁵²He fortified the city of Beth-zur, Gazara and the citadel, and put soldiers in them and stores of provisions.

⁵³He took as hostages the sons of the leaders of the country and put them in custody in the citadel at Jerusalem.

⁵⁴In the year one hundred and fifty-three, in the second month, Alcimus ordered the wall of the inner court of the sanctuary to be torn down, thus destroying the work of the prophets. But he only began to tear it down.

⁵⁵Just at that time he had a stroke, and his work was interrupted; his mouth was closed and he was paralyzed, so that he could no longer utter a word to give orders concerning his house.

⁵⁶Finally he died in great agony.

⁵⁷Seeing that Alcimus was dead, Bacchides returned to the king, and the land of Judah was quiet for two years. Bacchides and Jonathan

⁵⁸Then all the transgressors of the law held a council and said: "Jonathan and his companions are living in peace and security. Now then, let us have Bacchides return, and he will capture all of them in a single night."

⁵⁹So they went and took counsel with him.

⁶⁰When Bacchides was setting out with a large force, he sent letters secretly to all his allies in Judea, telling them to seize Jonathan and his companions. They were not able to do this, however, because their plot became known.

⁶¹In fact, Jonathan's men seized about fifty of the men of the country who were ringleaders in the mischief and put them to death.

⁶²Then Jonathan and Simon and their companions withdrew to Bethbasi in the desert; they rebuilt and strengthened its fortifications that had been demolished.

⁶³When Bacchides learned of this, he gathered together his whole force and sent word to those who were in Judea.

⁶⁴He came and pitched his camp before Bethbasi, and constructing siege-machines, he fought against it for many days.

⁶⁵Leaving his brother Simon in the city, Jonathan, accompanied by a small group of men, went out into the field.

⁶⁶He struck down Odomera and his kinsmen and the sons of Phasiron in their encampment; these men had set out to go up to the siege with their forces.

⁶⁷Simon and his men then sallied forth from the city and set fire to the machines.

⁶⁸They fought against Bacchides, and he was beaten. This caused him great distress. Because the enterprise he had planned came to nought,

⁶⁹he was angry with the lawless men who had advised him to invade the province. He killed many of them and resolved to return to his own country.

⁷⁰Jonathan learned of this and sent ambassadors to make peace with him and to obtain the release of the prisoners.

⁷¹He agreed to do as Jonathan had asked. He swore an oath to him that he would never try to injure him for the rest of his life;

⁷²and he released the prisoners he had previously taken from the land of Judah. He returned to his own country and never came into their territory again.

⁷³Then the sword ceased in Israel. Jonathan settled in Michmash; he began to judge the people and he destroyed the impious in Israel.

10In the year one hundred and sixty, Alexander, who was called Epiphanes, son of Antiochus, came up and took Ptolemais. He was accepted and began to reign there.

²When King Demetrius heard of it, he mustered a very large army and marched out to engage him in combat.

³Demetrius sent a letter to Jonathan written in peaceful terms, to pay him honor;

⁴for he said: "Let us be the first to make peace with him, before he makes peace with Alexander against us,

⁵since he will remember all the wrongs we have done to him, his brothers, and his nation."

⁶So Demetrius authorized him to gather an army and procure arms as his ally; and he ordered that the hostages in the citadel be released to him.

⁷Accordingly Jonathan went up to Jerusalem and read the letter to all the people. The men in the citadel

⁸were struck with fear when they heard that the king had given him authority to gather an army.

⁹They released the hostages to Jonathan, and he gave them back to their parents.

¹⁰Thereafter Jonathan dwelt in Jerusalem, and began to build and restore the city.

¹¹He ordered the workmen to build the walls and encircle Mount Zion with square stones for its fortification, which they did.

¹²The foreigners in the strongholds that Bacchides had built, took flight;

¹³each one of them left his place and returned to his own country.

¹⁴Only in Beth-zur did some remain of those who had abandoned the law and the commandments, for they used it as a place of refuge.

¹⁵King Alexander heard of the promises that Demetrius had made to Jonathan; he was also told of the battles and valiant deeds of Jonathan and his brothers and the troubles that they had endured.

¹⁶He said, "Shall we ever find another man like him? Let us now make him our friend and ally."

¹⁷So he sent Jonathan a letter written in these terms:

¹⁸"King Alexander sends greetings to his brother Jonathan.

¹⁹We have heard of you, that you are a mighty warrior and worthy to be our friend.

²⁰We have therefore appointed you today to be high priest of your nation; you are to be called the King's Friend, and you are to look after our interests and preserve amity with us." He also sent him a purple robe and a crown of gold.

²¹Jonathan put on the sacred vestments in the seventh month of the year one hundred and sixty at the feast of Booths, and he gathered an army and procured many arms.

²²When Demetrius heard of these things, he was distressed and said:

²³"Why have we allowed Alexander to get ahead of us by gaining the friendship of the Jews and thus strengthening himself?

²⁴I too will write them conciliatory words and offer dignities and gifts, so that they may be an aid to me."

²⁵So he sent them this message: "King Demetrius sends greetings to the Jewish nation.

²⁶We have heard how you have kept the treaty with us and continued in our friendship and not gone over to our enemies, and we are glad.

²⁷Continue, therefore, to keep faith with us, and we will reward you with favors in return for what you do in our behalf.

²⁸We will grant you many exemptions and will bestow gifts on you.

²⁹"I now free you, as I also exempt all the Jews, from the tribute, the salt tax, and the crown levies.

³⁰Instead of collecting the third of the grain and the half of the fruit of the trees that should be my share, I renounce the right from this day forward: Neither now nor in the future will I collect them from the land of Judah or from the three districts annexed from Samaria.

³¹Let Jerusalem and her territory, her tithes and her tolls, be sacred and free from tax.

³²I also yield my authority over the citadel in Jerusalem, and I transfer it to the high priest, that he may put in it such men as he shall choose to guard it.

³³Every one of the Jews who has been carried into captivity from the land of Judah into any part of my kingdom I set at liberty without ransom; and let all their taxes, even those on their cattle, be canceled.

³⁴Let all feast days, sabbaths, new moon festivals, appointed days, and the three days that precede each feast day, and the three days that follow, be days of immunity and exemption for every Jew in my kingdom.

³⁵Let no man have authority to exact payment from them or to molest any of them in any matter.

³⁶"Let thirty thousand Jews be enrolled in the king's army and allowances be given them, as is due to all the king's soldiers.

³⁷Let some of them be stationed in the king's principal strongholds, and of these let some be given positions of trust in the affairs of the kingdom. Let their superiors and their rulers be taken from among them, and let them follow their own laws, as the king has commanded in the land of Judah.

³⁸"Let the three districts that have been added to Judea from the province of Samaria be incorporated with Judea so that they may be under one man and obey no other authority than the high priest.

³⁹Ptolemais and its confines I give as a present to the sanctuary in Jerusalem for the necessary expenses of the sanctuary.

⁴⁰I make a yearly personal grant of fifteen thousand silver shekels out of the royal revenues, from appropriate places.

⁴¹All the additional funds that the officials did not hand over as they had done in the first years, shall henceforth be handed over for the services of the temple.

⁴²Moreover, the dues of five thousand silver shekels that used to be taken from the revenue of the sanctuary every year shall be canceled, since these funds belong to the priests who perform the services.

⁴³Whoever takes refuge in the temple of Jerusalem or in any of its precincts, because of money he owes the king, or because of any other debt, shall be released, together with all the goods he possesses in my kingdom.

⁴⁴The cost of rebuilding and restoring the structures of the sanctuary shall be covered out of the royal revenue.

⁴⁵Likewise the cost of building the walls of Jerusalem and fortifying it all around, and of building walls in Judea, shall be donated from the royal revenue."

⁴⁶When Jonathan and the people heard these words, they neither believed nor accepted them, for they remembered the great evil that Demetrius had done in Israel, and how sorely he had afflicted them.

⁴⁷They therefore decided in favor of Alexander, for he had been the first to address them peaceably, and they remained his allies for the rest of his life.

⁴⁸King Alexander gathered together a large army and encamped opposite Demetrius.

⁴⁹The two kings joined battle, and when the army of Demetrius fled, Alexander pursued him, and overpowered his soldiers.

⁵⁰He pressed the battle hard until sunset, and Demetrius fell that day.

⁵¹Alexander sent ambassadors to Ptolemy, king of Egypt, with this message:

⁵²"Now that I have returned to my realm, taken my seat on the throne of my fathers, and established my rule by crushing Demetrius and gaining control of my country--

⁵³for I engaged him in battle, defeated him and his army, and recovered the royal throne--

⁵⁴let us now establish friendship with each other. Give me your daughter for my wife; and as your son-in-law, I will give to you and to her gifts worthy of you."

⁵⁵King Ptolemy answered in these words: "Happy the day on which you returned to the land of your fathers and took your seat on their royal throne!

⁵⁶I will do for you what you have written; but meet me in Ptolemais, so that we may see each other, and I will become your father-in-law as you have proposed."

⁵⁷So Ptolemy with his daughter Cleopatra set out from Egypt and came to Ptolemais in the year one hundred and sixty-two.

⁵⁸There King Alexander met him, and Ptolemy gave him his daughter Cleopatra in marriage. Their wedding was celebrated at Ptolemais with great splendor according to the custom of kings.

⁵⁹King Alexander also wrote to Jonathan to come and meet him.

⁶⁰So he went with pomp to Ptolemais, where he met the two kings and gave them and their friends silver and gold and many gifts and thus won their favor.

⁶¹Some pestilent Israelites, transgressors of the law, united against him to accuse him, but the king paid no heed to them.

⁶²He ordered Jonathan to be divested of his ordinary garments and to be clothed in royal purple; and so it was done.

⁶³The king also had him seated at his side. He said to his magistrates: "Go with him to the center of the city and make a proclamation that no one is to bring charges against him on any grounds or be troublesome to him in any way."

⁶⁴When his accusers saw the honor paid to him in the proclamation, and the purple with which he was clothed, they all fled.

⁶⁵The king also honored him by numbering him among his Chief Friends and made him military commander and governor of the province.

⁶⁶So Jonathan returned in peace and happiness to Jerusalem.

⁶⁷In the year one hundred and sixty-five, Demetrius, son of Demetrius, came from Crete to the land of his fathers.

⁶⁸When King Alexander heard of it he was greatly troubled, and returned to Antioch.

⁶⁹Demetrius appointed Apollonius governor of Coelesyria. Having gathered a large army, Appollonius pitched his camp at Jamnia. From there he sent this message to Jonathan the high priest:

⁷⁰"You are the only one who resists us. I am laughed at and put to shame on your account. Why are you displaying power against us in the mountains?

⁷¹If you have confidence in your forces, come down now to us in the plain, and let us test each other's strength there; the city forces are on my side.

⁷²Inquire and learn who I am and who the others are who are helping me. Men say that you cannot make a stand against us because your fathers were twice put to flight in their own land.

⁷³Now you too will be unable to withstand our cavalry and such a force as this in the plain, where there is not a stone or a pebble or a place to flee."

⁷⁴When Jonathan heard the message of Apollonius, he was roused. Choosing ten thousand men, he set out from Jerusalem, and Simon his brother joined him to help him.

⁷⁵He pitched camp near Joppa, but the men in the city shut him out because Apollonius had a garrison there. When the Jews besieged it,

⁷⁶the men of the city became afraid and opened the gates, and so Jonathan took possession of Joppa.

⁷⁷When Apollonius heard of it, he drew up three thousand horsemen and an innumerable infantry. He marched on Azotus as though he were going on through the country, but at the same time he advanced into the plain, because he had such a large number of horsemen to rely on.

⁷⁸Jonathan followed him to Azotus, and they engaged in battle.

⁷⁹Apollonius, however, had left a thousand cavalry in hiding behind them.

⁸⁰When Jonathan discovered that there was an ambush behind him, his army was surrounded. From morning until evening they showered his men with arrows.

⁸¹But his men held their ground, as Jonathan had commanded, whereas the enemy's horses became tired out.

⁸²When the horsemen were exhausted, Simon attacked the phalanx, overwhelmed it and put it to flight.

⁸³The horsemen too were scattered over the plain. The enemy fled to Azotus and entered Beth-dagon, the temple of their idol, to save themselves.

⁸⁴But Jonathan burned and plundered Azotus with its neighboring towns, and destroyed by fire both the temple of Dagon and the men who had taken refuge in it.

⁸⁵Those who fell by the sword, together with those who were burned alive, came to about eight thousand men.

⁸⁶Then Jonathan left there and pitched his camp at Ashkalon, and the people of that city came out to meet him with great pomp.

⁸⁷He and his men then returned to Jerusalem, laden with much booty.

⁸⁸When King Alexander heard of these events, he accorded new honors to Jonathan.

⁸⁹He sent him a gold buckle, such as is usually given to King's Kinsmen; he also gave him Ekron and all its territory as a possession.

11The king of Egypt gathered his forces, as numerous as the sands of the seashore, and many ships; and he sought by deceit to take Alexander's kingdom and add it to his own.

²He entered Syria with peaceful words, and the people in the cities opened their gates to welcome him, as King Alexander had ordered them to do, since Ptolemy was his father-in-law.

³But when Ptolemy entered the cities, he stationed garrison troops in each one.

⁴When he reached Azotus, he was shown the temple of Dagon destroyed by fire, Azotus and its suburbs demolished, corpses lying about, and the charred bodies of those burned by Jonathan in the war and stacked up along his route.

⁵To prejudice the king against Jonathan, he was told what the latter had done; but the king said nothing.

⁶Jonathan met the king with pomp at Joppa, and they greeted each other and spent the night there.

⁷Jonathan accompanied the king as far as the river called Eleutherus and then returned to Jerusalem.

⁸Plotting evil against Alexander, King Ptolemy took possession of the cities along the seacoast as far as Seleucia-by-the-Sea.

⁹He sent ambassadors to King Demetrius, saying: "Come, let us make a pact with each other; I will give you my daughter whom Alexander has married, and you shall reign over your father's kingdom.

¹⁰I regret that I gave him my daughter, for he has sought to kill me."

¹¹His real reason for accusing Alexander, however, was that he coveted Alexander's kingdom.

¹²After taking his daughter away and giving her to Demetrius, Ptolemy broke with Alexander; their enmity became open.

¹³Then Ptolemy entered Antioch and assumed the crown of Asia; he thus wore two crowns on his head, that of Egypt and that of Asia.

¹⁴King Alexander was in Cilicia at that time, because the people of that region had revolted.

¹⁵When Alexander heard the news, he came to challenge Ptolemy in battle. Ptolemy marched out and met him with a strong force and put him to flight.

¹⁶Alexander fled to Arabia to seek protection. King Ptolemy's triumph was complete

¹⁷when the Arab Zabdiel cut off Alexander's head and sent it to Ptolemy.

¹⁸But three days later King Ptolemy himself died, and his men in the fortified cities were killed by the inhabitants of the strongholds.

¹⁹Thus Demetrius became king in the year one hundred and sixty-seven.

²⁰At that time Jonathan gathered together the men of Judea to attack the citadel in Jerusalem, and they set up many machines against it.

²¹Some transgressors of the law, enemies of their own nation, went to the king and informed him that Jonathan was besieging the citadel.

²²When Demetrius heard this, he was furious, and set out immediately for Ptolemais. He wrote to Jonathan to discontinue the siege and to meet him for a conference at Ptolemais as soon as possible.

²³On hearing this, Jonathan ordered the siege to continue. He selected some elders and priests of Israel and exposed himself to danger

²⁴by going to the king at Ptolemais. He brought with him silver, gold apparel, and many other presents, and found favor with the king.

²⁵Although some impious men of his own nation brought charges against him,

²⁶the king treated him just as his predecessors had done and showed him great honor in the presence of all his Friends.

²⁷He confirmed him in the high priesthood and in all the honors he had previously held, and had him enrolled among his Chief Friends.

²⁸Jonathan asked the king to exempt Judea and the three districts of Samaria from tribute, promising him in return three hundred talents.

²⁹The king agreed and wrote the following letter to Jonathan about all these matters: Pact with Demetrius

³⁰"King Demetrius sends greetings to his brother Jonathan and to the Jewish nation.

³¹We are sending you, for your information, a copy of the letter that we wrote to Lasthenes our kinsman concerning you.

³²"'King Demetrius sends greetings to his father Lasthenes.

³³Because of the good will they show us, we have decided to bestow benefits on the Jewish nation, who are our friends and who observe their obligations to us.

³⁴Therefore we confirm their possession, not only of the territory of Judea, but also of the three districts of Aphairema, Lydda, and Ramathaim. These districts, together with all their dependencies, were transferred from Samaria to Judea in favor of all those who offer sacrifices for us in Jerusalem instead of paying the royal taxes that formerly the king received from them each year from the produce of the soil and the fruit of the trees.

³⁵From this day on we grant them release from payment of all other things that would henceforth be due to us, that is, of tithes and tribute and of the tax on the salt pans and the crown tax.

³⁶Henceforth none of these provisions shall ever be revoked.

³⁷Be sure, therefore, to have a copy of these instructions made and given to Jonathan, that it may be displayed in a conspicuous place on the holy hill.'"

³⁸When King Demetrius saw that the land was peaceful under his rule and that he had no opposition, he dismissed his entire army, every man to his home, except the foreign troops which he had hired from the islands of the nations. So all the soldiers who had served under his predecessors hated him.

³⁹When a certain Trypho, who had previously belonged to Alexander's party, saw that all the troops were grumbling at Demetrius, he went to Imalkue the Arab, who was bringing up Alexander's young son Antiochus.

⁴⁰Trypho kept urging Imalkue to hand over the boy to him, that he might make him king in his father's place. During his stay there of many days, he told him of all that Demetrius had done and of the hatred that his soldiers had for him.

⁴¹Meanwhile Jonathan sent the request to King Demetrius to withdraw his troops from the citadel of Jerusalem and from the other strongholds, for they were constantly hostile to Israel.

⁴²Demetrius, in turn, sent this word to Jonathan: "I will not only do this for you and your nation, but I will greatly honor you and your nation when I find the opportunity.

⁴³Do me the favor, therefore, of sending men to fight for me, because all my troops have revolted."

⁴⁴So Jonathan sent three thousand good fighting men to him at Antioch. When they came to the king, he was delighted over their arrival,

⁴⁵for the populace, one hundred and twenty thousand strong, had massed in the center of the city in an attempt to kill him.

⁴⁶But he took refuge in the palace, while the populace gained control of the main streets and began to fight.

⁴⁷So the king called the Jews to his aid. They all rallied around him and spread out through the city. On that day they killed about a hundred thousand men in the city,

⁴⁸which, at the same time, they set on fire and plundered on a large scale. Thus they saved the king's life.

⁴⁹When the populace saw that the Jews held the city at their mercy, they lost courage and cried out to the king in supplication,

⁵⁰"Give us your terms and let the Jews stop attacking us and our city." So they threw down their arms and made peace.

⁵¹The Jews thus gained glory in the eyes of the king and all his subjects, and they became renowned throughout his kingdom. Finally they returned to Jerusalem with much spoil.

⁵²But when King Demetrius was sure of his royal throne, and the land was peaceful under his rule,

⁵³he broke all his promises and became estranged from Jonathan. Instead of rewarding Jonathan for all the favors he had received from him, he caused him much trouble.

⁵⁴After this, Trypho returned and brought with him the young boy Antiochus, who became king and wore the royal crown.

⁵⁵All the soldiers whom Demetrius had discharged rallied around Antiochus and fought against Demetrius, who was routed and fled.

⁵⁶Trypho captured the elephants and occupied Antioch.

⁵⁷Then young Antiochus wrote to Jonathan: "I confirm you in the high priesthood and appoint you ruler over the four districts and wish you to be one of the King's Friends."

⁵⁸He also sent him gold dishes and a dinner service, gave him the right to drink from gold cups, to dress in royal purple, and to wear a gold buckle.

⁵⁹Likewise, he made Jonathan's brother Simon governor of the region from the Ladder of Tyre to the frontier of Egypt.

⁶⁰Jonathan set out and traveled through West-of-Euphrates and its cities, and all the forces of Syria espoused his cause as allies. When he arrived at Ashkalon, the citizens welcomed him with pomp.

⁶¹But when he set out for Gaza, the people of Gaza locked their gates against him. So he besieged it and burned and plundered its suburbs.

⁶²Then the people of Gaza appealed to him for mercy, and he granted them peace. He took the sons of their chief men as hostages and sent them to Jerusalem. He then traveled on through the province as far as Damascus.

⁶³Jonathan heard that the generals of Demetrius had come with a strong force to Kadesh in Galilee, intending to remove him from office.

⁶⁴So he went to meet them, leaving his brother Simon in the province.

⁶⁵Simon besieged Beth-zur, attacked it for many days, and blockaded the inhabitants.

⁶⁶When they sued for peace, he granted it to them. He expelled them from the city, took possession of it, and put a garrison there.

⁶⁷Meanwhile, Jonathan and his army pitched their camp near the waters of Gennesaret, and at daybreak they went to the plain of Hazor.

⁶⁸There, in front of him on the plain, was the army of the foreigners. This army attacked him in the open, having first detached an ambush against him in the mountains.

⁶⁹Then the men in ambush rose out of their places and joined in the battle.

⁷⁰All of Jonathan's men fled; no one stayed except the army commanders Mattathias, son of Absalom, and Judas, son of Chalphi.

⁷¹Jonathan tore his clothes, threw earth on his head, and prayed.

⁷²Then he went back to the combat and so overwhelmed the enemy that they took to flight.

⁷³Those of his men who were running away saw it and returned to him; and with him they pursued the enemy as far as their camp in Kadesh, where they pitched their own camp.

⁷⁴Three thousand of the foreign troops fell on that day. Then Jonathan returned to Jerusalem.

12When Jonathan saw that the times favored him, he sent selected men to Rome to confirm and renew his friendship with the Romans.

²He also sent letters to Sparta and other places for the same purpose.

³After reaching Rome, the men entered the senate chamber and said, "The high priest Jonathan and the Jewish people have sent us to renew the earlier friendship and alliance between you and them."

⁴The Romans gave them letters addressed to the authorities in the various places, requesting them to provide the envoys with safe conduct to the land of Judah.

⁵This is a copy of the letter that Jonathan wrote to the Spartans:

⁶"Jonathan the high priest, the senate of the nation, the priests, and the rest of the Jewish people send greetings to their brothers the Spartans.

⁷Long ago a letter was sent to the high priest Onias from Arius, who then reigned over you, stating that you are our brothers, as the attached copy shows.

⁸Onias welcomed the envoy with honor and received the letter, which clearly referred to alliance and friendship.

⁹Though we have no need of these things, since we have for our encouragement the sacred books that are in our possession,

¹⁰we have ventured to send word to you for the renewal of brotherhood and friendship, so as not to become strangers to you altogether; a long time has passed since your mission to us.

¹¹We, on our part, have never ceased to remember you in the sacrifices and prayers that we offer on our feasts and other appropriate days, as it is right and proper to remember brothers.

¹²We likewise rejoice in your renown.

¹³But many hardships and wars have beset us, and the kings around us have attacked us.

¹⁴We did not wish to be troublesome to you and to the rest of our allies and friends in these wars;

¹⁵with the help of Heaven for our support, we have been saved from our enemies, and they have been humbled.

¹⁶So we have chosen Numenius, son of Antiochus, and Antipater, son of Jason, and we have sent them to the Romans to renew our former friendship and alliance with them.

¹⁷We have also ordered them to come to you and greet you, and to deliver to you our letter about the renewal of our brotherhood.

¹⁸Therefore kindly send us an answer on this matter."

¹⁹This is a copy of the letter that was sent to Onias:

²⁰"Arius, king of the Spartans, sends greetings to Onias the high priest.

²¹A document has been found stating that the Spartans and the Jews are brothers; both nations descended from Abraham.

²²Now that we have learned this, kindly write to us about your welfare.

²³We, on our part, are informing you that your cattle and your possessions are ours, and ours are yours. We have, therefore, given orders that you should be told of this."

²⁴Jonathan heard that the generals of Demetrius had returned to attack him with a stronger army than before.

²⁵He set out from Jerusalem and went into the country of Hamath to meet them, giving them no time to enter his province.

²⁶The spies he had sent into their camp came back and reported that the enemy had made ready to attack the Jews that very night.

²⁷Therefore, when the sun set, Jonathan ordered his men to be on guard and to remain armed, ready for combat, throughout the night. He also set outposts all around the camp.

²⁸When the enemy heard that Jonathan and his men were ready for battle, their hearts sank with fear and dread. They lighted fires and then withdrew.

²⁹But because Jonathan and his men were watching the lights burning, they did not know what had happened until morning.

³⁰Then Jonathan pursued them, but he could not overtake them, for they had crossed the river Eleutherus.

³¹So Jonathan turned aside against the Arabs who are called Zabadeans, overwhelming and plundering them.

³²Then he marched on to Damascus and traversed that whole region.

³³Simon also set out and went as far as Ashkalon and its neighboring strongholds. He then turned to Joppa and occupied it,

³⁴for he heard that its men had intended to hand over this stronghold to the supporters of Demetrius. He left a garrison there to guard it.

³⁵When Jonathan returned, he assembled the elders of the people, and with them he made plans for building strongholds in Judea,

³⁶for making the walls of Jerusalem still higher, and for erecting a high barrier between the citadel and the city, that would isolate the citadel and so prevent its garrison from commerce with the city.

³⁷The people therefore worked together on building up the city, for part of the east wall above the ravine had collapsed. The quarter called Chaphenatha was also repaired.

³⁸Simon likewise built up Adida in the Shephelah, and strengthened its fortifications by providing them with gates and bars.

³⁹Trypho was determined to become king of Asia, assume the crown, and do away with King Antiochus.

⁴⁰But he was afraid that Jonathan would not permit him, but would fight against him. Looking for a way to seize and kill him, he set out and reached Beth-shan.

⁴¹Jonathan marched out against him with forty thousand picked fighting men and came to Beth-shan.

⁴²But when Trypho saw that Jonathan had arrived with a large army he was afraid to offer him violence.

⁴³Instead, he received him with honor, introduced him to all his friends, and gave him presents. He also ordered his friends and soldiers to obey him as they would himself.

⁴⁴Then he said to Jonathan: "Why have you put all your soldiers to so much trouble when we are not at war?

⁴⁵Pick out a few men to stay with you, send the rest back home, and then come with me to Ptolemais. I will hand it over to you together with other strongholds and their garrisons, as well as the officials, then I will leave and go home. That is why I came here."

⁴⁶Jonathan believed him and did as he said. He dismissed his troops, and they returned to the land of Judah.

⁴⁷But he kept with him three thousand men, of whom he sent two thousand to Galilee while one thousand accompanied him.

⁴⁸Then as soon as Jonathan had entered Ptolemais, the men of the city closed the gates and seized him; all who had entered with him, they killed with the sword.

⁴⁹Trypho sent soldiers and cavalry to Galilee and the Great Plain to destroy all Jonathan's men.

⁵⁰These, upon learning that Jonathan had been captured and his companions killed, encouraged one another and went out in compact body ready to fight.

⁵¹As their pursuers saw that they were ready to fight for their lives, they turned back.

⁵²Thus all these men of Jonathan came safely into the land of Judah. They mourned over Jonathan and his men, and were in great fear, and all Israel fell into deep mourning.

⁵³All the nations round about sought to destroy them. They said, "Now that they have no leader to help them, let us make war on them and wipe out their memory from among men."

13When Simon heard that Trypho was gathering a large army to invade and ravage the land of Judah,

²and saw that the people were in dread and terror, he went up to Jerusalem. There he assembled the people

³and exhorted them in these words: "You know what I, my brothers, and my father's house have done for the laws and the sanctuary; what battles and disasters we have been through.

⁴It was for the sake of these, for the sake of Israel, that all my brothers have perished, and I alone am left.

⁵Far be it from me, then, to save my own life in any time of distress, for I am not better than my brothers.

⁶Rather will I avenge my nation and the sanctuary, as well as your wives and children, for all the nations out of hatred have united to destroy us."

⁷As the people heard these words, their spirit was rekindled.

⁸They shouted in reply: "You are our leader in place of your brothers Judas and Jonathan.

⁹Fight our battles, and we will do everything that you tell us."

¹⁰So Simon mustered all the men able to fight, and quickly completing the walls of Jerusalem, fortified it on every side.

¹¹He sent Jonathan, son of Absalom, to Joppa with a large force; Jonathan drove out the occupants and remained there.

¹²Then Trypho moved from Ptolemais with a large army to invade the land of Judah, bringing Jonathan with him as a prisoner.

¹³But Simon pitched his camp at Adida, facing the plain.

¹⁴When Trypho learned that Simon had succeeded his brother Jonathan, and that he intended to fight him, he sent envoys to him with this message:

¹⁵"We have detained your brother Jonathan on account of the money that he owed the royal treasury in connection with the offices that he held.

¹⁶Therefore, if you send us a hundred talents of silver, and two of his sons as hostages to guarantee that when he is set free he will not revolt against us, we will release him."

¹⁷Although Simon knew that they were speaking deceitfully to him, he gave orders to get the money and the boys, for fear of provoking much hostility among the people, who might say

¹⁸that Jonathan perished because Simon would not send Trypho the money and the boys.

¹⁹So he sent the boys and the hundred talents; but Trypho broke his promise and would not let Jonathan go.

²⁰Next he began to invade and ravage the country. His troops went around by the road that leads to Adora, but Simon and his army moved along opposite him everywhere he went.

²¹The men in the citadel sent messengers to Trypho, urging him to come to them by way of the desert, and to send them provisions.

²²Although Trypho got all his cavalry ready to go, there was a heavy fall of snow that night, and he could not go. So he left for Gilead.

²³When he was approaching Baskama, he had Jonathan killed and buried there.

²⁴Then Trypho returned to his own country.

²⁵Simon sent for the remains of his brother Jonathan, and buried him in Modein, the city of his fathers.

²⁶All Israel bewailed him with solemn lamentation, mourning over him for many days.

²⁷Then Simon erected over the tomb of his father and his brothers a monument of stones, polished front and back, and raised high enough to be seen at a distance.

²⁸He set up seven pyramids facing one another for his father and his mother and his four brothers.

²⁹For the pyramids he devised a setting of big columns, on which he carved suits of armor as a perpetual memorial, and next to the armor he placed carved ships, which could be seen by all who sailed the sea.

³⁰This tomb which he built at Modein is there to the present day.

³¹Trypho dealt treacherously with the young King Antiochus. He killed him

³²and assumed the kingship in his place, putting on the crown of Asia. Thus he brought much evil on the land.

³³Simon, on his part, built up the strongholds of Judea, strengthening their fortifications with high towers, thick walls, and gates with bars, and he stored up provisions in the fortresses.

³⁴Simon also sent chosen men to King Demetrius with the request that he grant the land a release from taxation, for all that Trypho did was to plunder the land.

³⁵In reply, King Demetrius sent him the following letter:

³⁶"King Demetrius sends greetings to Simon the high priest, the friend of kings, and to the elders and the Jewish people.

³⁷We have received the gold crown and the palm branch that you sent. We are willing to be on most peaceful terms with you and to write to our official to grant you release from tribute.

³⁸Whatever we have guaranteed to you remains in force, and the strongholds that you have built shall remain yours.

³⁹We remit any oversights and defaults incurred up to now, as well as the crown tax that you owe. Any other tax that may have been collected in Jerusalem shall no longer be collected there.

⁴⁰If any of you are qualified for enrollment in our service, let them be enrolled. Let there be peace between us."

⁴¹Thus in the year one hundred and seventy, the yoke of the Gentiles was removed from Israel,

⁴²and the people began to write in their records and contracts, "In the first year of Simon, high priest, governor, and leader of the Jews."

⁴³In those days Simon besieged Gazara and surrounded it with troops. He made a siege machine, pushed it up against the city, and attacked and captured one of the towers.

⁴⁴The men who had been on the siege machine jumped down into the city and caused a great tumult there.

⁴⁵The men of the city, joined by their wives and children, went up on the wall, with their garments rent, and cried out in loud voices, begging Simon to grant them peace.

⁴⁶"Do not treat us according to our evil deeds," they said, "but according to your mercy."

⁴⁷So Simon came to terms with them and did not destroy them. He made them leave the city, however, and he purified the houses in which there were idols. Then he entered the city with hymns and songs of praise.

⁴⁸After removing from it everything that was impure, he settled there men who observed the law. He improved its fortifications and built himself a residence.

⁴⁹The men in the citadel in Jerusalem were prevented from going out into the country and back for the purchase of food; they suffered greatly from hunger, and many of them died of starvation.

⁵⁰They finally cried out to Simon for peace, and he gave them peace. He expelled them from the citadel and cleansed it of impurities.

⁵¹On the twenty-third day of the second month, in the year one hundred and seventy-one, the Jews entered the citadel with shouts of jubilation, waving of palm branches, the music of harps and cymbals and lyres, and the singing of hymns and canticles, because a great enemy of Israel had been destroyed.

⁵²Simon decreed that this day should be celebrated every year with rejoicing. He also strengthened the fortifications of the temple hill alongside the citadel, and he and his companions dwelt there.

⁵³Seeing that his son John was now a grown man, Simon made him commander of all his soldiers, with his residence in Gazara.

14In the year one hundred and seventy-two, King Demetrius assembled his army and marched into Media to obtain help so that he could fight Trypho.

²When Arsaces, king of Persia and Media, heard that Demetrius had invaded his territory, he sent one of his generals to take him alive.

³The general went forth and defeated the army of Demetrius; he captured him and brought him to Arsaces, who put him in prison.

⁴The land was at rest all the days of Simon, who sought the good of his nation. His people were delighted with his power and his magnificence throughout his reign.

⁵As his crowning glory he captured the port of Joppa and made it a gateway to the isles of the sea.

⁶He enlarged the borders of his nation and gained control of the country.

⁷He took many enemies prisoners of war and made himself master of Gazara, Beth-zur, and the citadel. He cleansed the citadel of its impurities; there was no one to withstand him.

⁸The people cultivated their land in peace; the land yielded its produce and the trees of the field their fruit.

⁹Old men sat in the squares, all talking about the good times, while the young men wore the glorious apparel of war.

¹⁰He supplied the cities with food and equipped them with means of defense, till his glorious name reached the ends of the earth.

¹¹He brought peace to the land, and Israel was filled with happiness.

¹²Every man sat under his vine and his fig tree, with no one to disturb him.

¹³No one was left to attack them in their land; the kings in those days were crushed.

¹⁴He strengthened all the lowly among his people and was zealous for the law; he suppressed all the lawless and the wicked.

¹⁵He made the temple splendid and enriched its equipment.

¹⁶When people heard in Rome and even in Sparta that Jonathan had died, they were deeply grieved.

¹⁷But when the Romans heard that his brother Simon had been made high priest in his place and was master of the country and the cities,

¹⁸they sent him inscribed tablets of bronze to renew with him the friendship and alliance that they had established with his brothers Judas and Jonathan.

¹⁹These were read before the assembly in Jerusalem.

²⁰This is a copy of the letter that the Spartans sent: "The rulers and the citizens of Sparta send greetings to Simon the high priest, the elders, the priests, and the rest of the Jewish people, our brothers.

²¹The envoys you sent to our people have informed us of your glory and fame, and we were happy that they came.

²²In accordance with what they said we have recorded the following in the public decrees: Since Numenius, son of Antiochus, and Antipater, son of Jason, envoys of the Jews, have come to us to renew their friendship with us,

²³the people have voted to receive the men with honor, and to deposit a copy of their words in the public archives, so that the people of Sparta may have a record of them. A copy of this decree has been made for Simon the high priest."

²⁴After this, Simon sent Numenius to Rome with a great gold shield weighing a thousand minas, to confirm the alliance with the Romans.

²⁵When the people heard of these things, they said, "How can we thank Simon and his sons?

²⁶He and his brothers and his father's house have stood firm and repulsed Israel's enemies. They have thus preserved its liberty." So they made an inscription on bronze tablets, which they affixed to pillars on Mount Zion.

²⁷The following is a copy of the inscription: "On the eighteenth day of Elul, in the year one hundred and seventy-two, that is, the third year under Simon the high priest in Asaramel,

²⁸in a great assembly of priests, people, rulers of the nation, and elders of the country, the following proclamation was made:

²⁹"'Since there have often been wars in our country, Simon, son of the priest Mattathias, descendant of Joarib, and his brothers have put themselves in danger and resisted the enemies of their nation, so that their sanctuary and law might be maintained, and they have thus brought great glory to their nation.

³⁰After Jonathan had rallied his nation and become their high priest, he was gathered to his kinsmen.

³¹When the enemies of the Jews sought to invade and devastate their country and to lay hands on their temple,

³²Simon rose up and fought for his nation, spending large sums of his own money to equip the men of his nation's armed forces and giving them their pay.

³³He fortified the cities of Judea, especially the frontier city of Beth-zur, where he stationed a garrison of Jewish soldiers, and where previously the enemy's arms had been stored.

³⁴He also fortified Joppa by the sea and Gazara on the border of Azotus, a place previously occupied by the enemy; these cities he resettled with Jews, and furnished them with all that was necessary for their restoration.

³⁵When the Jewish people saw Simon's loyalty and the glory he planned to bring to his nation, they made him their leader and high priest because of all he had accomplished and the loyalty and justice he had shown his nation. In every way he sought to exalt his people.

³⁶"'In his time and under his guidance they succeeded in driving the Gentiles out of their country, especially those in the City of David in Jerusalem, who had built for themselves a citadel from which they used to sally forth to defile the environs of the temple and inflict grave injury on its purity.

³⁷In this citadel he stationed Jewish soldiers, and he strengthened its fortifications for the defense of the land and the city, while he also raised the wall of Jerusalem to a greater height.

³⁸Consequently, King Demetrius confirmed him in the high priesthood,

³⁹made him one of his Friends, and conferred the highest honors on him.

⁴⁰He had indeed heard that the Romans had addressed the Jews as friends, allies, and brothers and that they had received Simon's envoys with honor.

⁴¹"'The Jewish people and their priest have, therefore, made the following decisions. Simon shall be their permanent leader and high priest until a true prophet arises.

⁴²He shall act as governor general over them, and shall have charge of the temple, to make regulations concerning its functions and concerning the country, its weapons and strongholds,

⁴³he shall be obeyed by all. All contracts made in the country shall be dated by his name. He shall have the right to wear royal purple and gold ornaments.

⁴⁴It shall not be lawful for any of the people or priests to nullify any of these decisions, or to contradict the orders given by him, or to convene an assembly in the country without his consent, to be clothed in royal purple or wear an official gold brooch.

⁴⁵Whoever acts otherwise or violates any of these prescriptions shall be liable to punishment.

⁴⁶"'All the people approved of granting Simon the right to act in accord with these decisions,

⁴⁷and Simon accepted and agreed to act as high priest, governor general, and ethnarch of the Jewish people and priests and to exercise supreme authority over all.'"

⁴⁸It was decreed that this inscription should be engraved on bronze tablets, to be set up in a conspicuous place in the precincts of the temple,

⁴⁹and that copies of it should be deposited in the treasury, where they would be available to Simon and his sons.

15Antiochus, son of King Demetrius, sent a letter from the islands of the sea to Simon, the priest and ethnarch of the Jews, and to all the nation,

²which read as follows: "King Antiochus sends greetings to Simon, the priest and ethnarch, and to the Jewish nation.

³Whereas certain villains have gained control of the kingdom of my ancestors, I intend to reclaim it, that I may restore it to its former state. I have recruited a large number of mercenary troops and equipped warships

⁴to make a landing in my country and take revenge on those who have ruined it and laid waste many cities in my realm.

⁵"Now, therefore, I confirm to you all the tax exemptions that the kings before me granted you and whatever other privileges they conferred on you.

⁶I authorize you to coin your own money, as legal tender in your country.

⁷Jerusalem and its temple shall be free. All the weapons you have prepared and all the strongholds you have built and now occupy shall remain in your possession.

⁸All debts, present or future, due to the royal treasury shall be canceled for you, now and for all time.

⁹When we recover our kingdom, we will greatly honor you and your nation and the temple, so that your glory will be manifest in all the earth."

¹⁰In the year one hundred and seventy-four Antiochus invaded the land of his ancestors, and all the troops rallied to him, so that few were left with Trypho.

¹¹Pursued by Antiochus, Trypho fled to Dor, by the sea,

¹²realizing what a mass of troubles had come upon him now that his soldiers had deserted him.

¹³Antiochus encamped before Dor with a hundred and twenty thousand infantry and eight thousand horsemen.

¹⁴While he invested the city, his ships closed in along the coast, so that he blockaded it by land and sea and let no one go in or out.

¹⁵Meanwhile, Numenius and his companions left Rome with letters such as this addressed to various kings and countries:

¹⁶"Lucius, Consul of the Romans, sends greetings to King Ptolemy.

¹⁷Certain envoys of the Jews, our friends and allies, have come to us to renew their earlier alliance of friendship. They had been sent by Simon the high priest and the Jewish people,

¹⁸and they brought with them a gold shield worth a thousand minas.

¹⁹Therefore we have decided to write to various kings and countries, that they are not to harm them, or wage war against them or their cities or their country, and are not to assist those who fight against them.

²⁰We have also decided to accept the shield from them.

²¹If, then, any troublemakers from their country take refuge with you, hand them over to Simon the high priest, so that he may punish them according to their law."

²²The consul sent similar letters to Kings Demetrius, Attalus, Ariarthes and Arsaces;

²³to all the countries--Sampsames, Sparta, Delos, Myndos, Sicyon, Caria, Samos, Pamphylia, Lycia, Halicarnassus, Rhodes, Phaselis, Cos, Side, Aradus, Gortyna, Cnidus, Cyprus, and Cyrene.

²⁴A copy of the letter was also sent to Simon the high priest.

²⁵When King Antiochus was encamped before Dor, he assaulted it continuously both with troops and with the siege machines he had made. He blockaded Trypho by preventing anyone from going in or out.

²⁶Simon sent to Antiochus' support two thousand elite troops, together with gold and silver and much equipment.

²⁷But he refused to accept the aid; in fact, he broke all the agreements he had previously made with Simon and became hostile toward him.

²⁸He sent Athenobius, one of his Friends, to confer with Simon and say: "You are occupying Joppa and Gazara and the citadel of Jerusalem; these are cities of my kingdom.

²⁹You have laid waste their territories, done great harm to the land, and taken possession of many districts in my realm.

³⁰Therefore, give up the cities you have seized and the tribute money of the districts outside the territory of Judea of which you have taken possession;

³¹or instead, pay me five hundred talents of silver for the devastation you have caused and five hundred talents more for the tribute money of the cities. If you do not do this, we will come and make war on you."

³²So Athenobius, the king's Friend, came to Jerusalem and on seeing the splendor of Simon's court, the gold and silver plate on the sideboard, and the rest of his rich display, he was amazed. When he gave him the king's message,

³³Simon said to him in reply: "We have not seized any foreign land; what we took is not the property of others, but our ancestral heritage which for a time had been unjustly held by our enemies.

³⁴Now that we have the opportunity, we are holding on to the heritage of our ancestors.

³⁵As for Joppa and Gazara, which you demand, the men of these cities were doing great harm to our people and laying waste our country; however, we are willing to pay you a hundred talents for these cities."

³⁶Athenobius made no reply, but returned to the king in anger. When he told him of Simon's words, of his splendor, and of all he had seen, the king fell into a violent rage.

³⁷Trypho had gotten aboard a ship and escaped to Orthosia.

³⁸Then the king appointed Cendebeus commander-in-chief of the seacoast, and gave him infantry and cavalry forces.

³⁹He ordered him to move his troops against Judea and to fortify Kedron and strengthen its gates, so that he could launch attacks against the Jewish people. Meanwhile the king went in pursuit of Trypho.

⁴⁰When Cendebeus came to Jamnia, he began to harass the people and to make incursions into Judea, where he took people captive or massacred them.

⁴¹As the king ordered, he fortified Kedron and stationed horsemen and infantry there, so that they could go out and patrol the roads of Judea.

16John then went up from Gazara and told his father Simon what Cendebeus was doing.

²Simon called his two oldest sons, Judas and John, and said to them: "I and my brothers and my father's house have fought the battles of Israel from our youth until today, and many times we succeeded in saving Israel.

³I have now grown old, but you, by the mercy of Heaven, have come to man's estate. Take my place and my brother's, and go out and fight for our nation; and may the help of Heaven be with you!"

⁴John then mustered in the land twenty thousand warriors and horsemen. Setting out against Cendebeus, they spent the night at Modein,

⁵rose early, and marched into the plain. There, facing them, was an immense army of foot soldiers and horsemen, and between the two armies was a stream.

⁶John and his men took their position against the enemy. Seeing that his men were afraid to cross the stream, John crossed first. When his men saw this, they crossed over after him.

⁷Then he divided his infantry into two corps and put his cavalry between them, for the enemy's horsemen were very numerous.

⁸They blew the trumpets, and Cendebeus and his army were put to flight; many of them fell wounded, and the rest fled toward the stronghold.

⁹It was then that John's brother Judas fell wounded; but John pursued them until Cendebeus reached Kedron, which he had fortified.

¹⁰Some took refuge in the towers on the plain of Azotus, but John set fire to these, and about two thousand of the enemy perished. He then returned to Judea in peace.

¹¹Ptolemy, son of Abubus, had been appointed governor of the plain of Jericho, and he had much silver and gold,

¹²being the son-in-law of the high priest.

¹³But he became ambitious and sought to get control of the country. So he made treacherous plans to do away with Simon and his sons.

¹⁴As Simon was inspecting the cities of the country and providing for their needs, he and his sons Mattathias and Judas went down to Jericho in the year one hundred and seventy-seven, in the eleventh month (that is, the month Shebat).

¹⁵The son of Abubus gave them a deceitful welcome in the little stronghold called Dok which he had built. While serving them a sumptuous banquet, he had his men hidden there.

¹⁶Then, when Simon and his sons had drunk freely, Ptolemy and his men sprang up, weapons in hand, rushed upon Simon in the banquet hall, and killed him, his two sons, and some of his servants.

¹⁷By this vicious act of treason he repaid good with evil.

¹⁸Then Ptolemy wrote an account of this and sent it to the king, asking that troops be sent to help him and that the country be turned over to him.

¹⁹He sent other men to Gazara to do away with John. To the army officers he sent letters inviting them to come to him so that he might present them with silver, gold, and gifts.

²⁰He also sent others to seize Jerusalem and the mount of the temple.

²¹But someone ran ahead and brought word to John at Gazara that his father and his brothers had perished, and that Ptolemy had sent men to kill him also.

²²On hearing this, John was utterly astounded. When the men came to kill him, he had them arrested and put to death, for he knew what they meant to do.

²³Now the rest of the history of John, his wars and the brave deeds he performed, his rebuilding of the walls, and his other achievements-

²⁴these things are recorded in the chronicle of his pontificate, from the time that he succeeded his father as high priest.

1The Jews in Jerusalem and in the land of Judea send greetings to their brethren, the Jews in Egypt, and wish them true peace!

²May God bless you and remember his covenant with his faithful servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

³May he give to all of you a heart to worship him and to do his will readily and generously.

⁴May he open your heart to his law and his commandments and grant you peace.

⁵May he hear your prayers, and be reconciled to you, and never forsake you in time of adversity.

⁶Even now we are praying for you here.

⁷In the reign of Demetrius, the year one hundred and sixty-nine, we Jews wrote to you during the trouble and violence that overtook us in those years after Jason and his followers had revolted against the holy land and the kingdom,

⁸setting fire to the gatehouse and shedding innocent blood. But we prayed to the Lord, and our prayer was heard; we offered sacrifices and fine flour; we lighted the lamps and set out the loaves of bread.

⁹We are now reminding you to celebrate the feast of Booths in the month of Chislev.

¹⁰Dated in the year one hundred and eighty-eight. The people of Jerusalem and Judea, the senate, and Judas send greetings and good wishes to Aristobulus, counselor of King Ptolemy and member of the family of the anointed priests, and to the Jews in Egypt.

¹¹Since we have been saved by God from grave dangers, we give him great thanks for having fought on our side against the king;

¹²it was he who drove out those who fought against the holy city.

¹³When their leader arrived in Persia with his seemingly irresistible army, they were cut to pieces in the temple of the goddess Nanea through a deceitful stratagem employed by Nanea's priests.

¹⁴On the pretext of marrying the goddess, Antiochus with his Friends had come to the place to get its great treasures by way of dowry.

¹⁵When the priests of the Nanaeon had displayed the treasures, Antiochus with a few attendants came to the temple precincts. As soon as he entered the temple, the priests locked the doors.

¹⁶Then they opened a hidden trapdoor in the ceiling, hurled stones at the leader and his companions and struck them down. They dismembered the bodies, cut off their heads and tossed them to the people outside.

¹⁷Forever blessed be our God, who has thus punished the wicked!

¹⁸We shall be celebrating the purification of the temple on the twenty-fifth day of the month Chislev, so we thought it right to inform you, that you too may celebrate the feast of Booths and of the fire that appeared when Nehemiah, the rebuilder of the temple and the altar, offered sacrifices.

¹⁹When our fathers were being exiled to Persia, devout priests of the time took some of the fire from the altar and hid it secretly in the hollow of a dry cistern, making sure that the place would be unknown to anyone.

²⁰Many years later, when it so pleased God, Nehemiah, commissioned by the king of Persia, sent the descendants of the priests who had hidden the fire to look for it.

²¹When they informed us that they could not find any fire, but only muddy water, he ordered them to scoop some out and bring it. After the material for the sacrifices had been prepared, Nehemiah ordered the priests to sprinkle with the water the wood and what lay on it.

²²When this was done and in time the sun, which had been clouded over, began to shine, a great fire blazed up, so that everyone marveled.

²³While the sacrifice was being burned, the priests recited a prayer, and all present joined in with them, Jonathan leading and the rest responding with Nehemiah.

²⁴The prayer was as follows: "Lord, Lord God, creator of all things, awesome and strong, just and merciful, the only king and benefactor,

²⁵who alone are gracious, just, almighty, and eternal, Israel's savior from all evil, who chose our forefathers and sanctified them:

²⁶accept this sacrifice on behalf of all your people Israel and guard and sanctify your heritage.

²⁷Gather together our scattered people, free those who are the slaves of the Gentiles, look kindly on those who are despised and detested, and let the Gentiles know that you are our God.

²⁸Punish those who tyrannize over us and arrogantly mistreat us.

²⁹Plant your people in your holy place, as Moses promised."

³⁰Then the priests began to sing hymns.

³¹After the sacrifice was burned, Nehemiah ordered the rest of the liquid to be poured upon large stones.

³²As soon as this was done, a flame blazed up, but its light was lost in the brilliance cast from a light on the altar.

³³When the event became known and the king of the Persians was told that, in the very place where the exiled priests had hidden the fire, a liquid was found with which Nehemiah and his people had burned the sacrifices,

³⁴the king, after verifying the fact, fenced the place off and declared it sacred.

³⁵To those on whom the king wished to bestow favors he distributed the large revenues he received there.

³⁶Nehemiah and his companions called the liquid nephthar, meaning purification, but most people named it naphtha.

2You will find in the records, not only that Jeremiah the prophet ordered the deportees to take some of the aforementioned fire with them,

²but also that the prophet, in giving them the law, admonished them not to forget the commandments of the Lord or be led astray in their thoughts, when seeing the gold and silver idols and their ornaments.

³With other similar words he urged them not to let the law depart from their hearts.

⁴The same document also tells how the prophet, following a divine revelation, ordered that the tent and the ark should accompany him and how he went off to the mountain which Moses climbed to see God's inheritance.

⁵When Jeremiah arrived there, he found a room in a cave in which he put the tent, the ark, and the altar of incense; then he blocked up the entrance.

⁶Some of those who followed him came up intending to mark the path, but they could not find it.

⁷When Jeremiah heard of this, he reproved them: "The place is to remain unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows them mercy.

⁸Then the Lord will disclose these things, and the glory of the Lord will be seen in the cloud, just as it appeared in the time of Moses and when Solomon prayed that the Place might be gloriously sanctified."

⁹It is also related how Solomon in his wisdom offered a sacrifice at the dedication and the completion of the temple.

¹⁰Just as Moses prayed to the Lord and fire descended from the sky and consumed the sacrifices, so Solomon also prayed and fire came down and burned up the holocausts.

¹¹Moses had said, "Because it had not been eaten, the sin offering was burned up."

¹²Solomon also celebrated the feast in the same way for eight days.

¹³Besides these things, it is also told in the records and in Nehemiah's Memoirs how he collected the books about the kings, the writings of the prophets and of David, and the royal letters about sacred offerings.

¹⁴In like manner Judas also collected for us the books that had been scattered because of the war, and we now have them in our possession.

¹⁵If you need them, send messengers to get them for you.

¹⁶As we are about to celebrate the feast of the purification of the temple, we are writing to you requesting you also to please celebrate the feast.

¹⁷It is God who has saved all his people and has restored to all of them their heritage, the kingdom, the priesthood, and the sacred rites,

¹⁸as he promised through the law. We trust in God, that he will soon have mercy on us and gather us together from everywhere under the heavens to his holy Place, for he has rescued us from great perils and has purified his Place.

¹⁹This is the story of Judas Maccabeus and his brothers, of the purification of the great temple, the dedication of the altar,

²⁰the campaigns against Antiochus Epiphanes and his son Eupator,

²¹and of the heavenly manifestations accorded to the heroes who fought bravely for Judaism, so that, few as they were, they seized the whole land, put to flight the barbarian hordes,

²²regained possession of the world-famous temple, liberated the city, and reestablished the laws that were in danger of being abolished, while the Lord favored them with all his generous assistance.

²³All this, which Jason of Cyrene set forth in detail in five volumes, we will try to condense into a single book.

²⁴In view of the flood of statistics, and the difficulties encountered by those who wish to plunge into historical narratives where the material is abundant,

²⁵we have aimed to please those who prefer simple reading, as well as to make it easy for the studious who wish to commit things to memory, and to be helpful to all.

²⁶For us who have taken upon ourselves the labor of making this digest, the task, far from being easy, is one of sweat and of sleepless nights,

²⁷just as the preparation of a festive banquet is no light matter for one who thus seeks to give enjoyment to others. Similarly, to win the gratitude of many we will gladly endure these inconveniences,

²⁸while we leave the responsibility for exact details to the original author, and confine our efforts to giving only a summary outline.

²⁹As the architect of a new house must give his attention to the whole structure, while the man who undertakes the decoration and the frescoes has only to concern himself with what is needed for ornamentation, so I think it is with us.

³⁰To enter into questions and examine them thoroughly from all sides is the task of the professional historian;

³¹but the man who is making an adaptation should be allowed to aim at brevity of expression and to omit detailed treatment of the matter.

³²Here, then, we shall begin our account without further ado; it would be nonsense to write a long preface to a story and then abbreviate the story itself.

3While the holy city lived in perfect peace and the laws were strictly observed because of the piety of the high priest Onias and his hatred of evil,

²the kings themselves honored the Place and glorified the temple with the most magnificent gifts.

³Thus Seleucus, king of Asia, defrayed from his own revenues all the expenses necessary for the sacrificial services.

⁴But a certain Simon, of the priestly course of Bilgah, who had been appointed superintendent of the temple, had a quarrel with the high priest about the supervision of the city market.

⁵Since he could not prevail against Onias, he went to Apollonius of Tarsus, who at that time was governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia,

⁶and reported to him that the treasury in Jerusalem was so full of untold riches that the total sum of money was incalculable and out of all proportion to the cost of the sacrifices, and that it would be possible to bring it all under the control of the king.

⁷When Apollonius had an audience with the king, he informed him about the riches that had been reported to him. The king chose his minister Heliodorus and sent him with instructions to expropriate the aforesaid wealth.

⁸So Heliodorus immediately set out on his journey, ostensibly to visit the cities of Coelesyria and Phoenicia, but in reality to carry out the king's purpose.

⁹When he arrived in Jerusalem and had been graciously received by the high priest of the city, he told him about the information that had been given, and explained the reason for his presence, and he asked if these things were really true.

¹⁰The high priest explained that part of the money was a care fund for widows and orphans,

¹¹and a part was the property of Hyrcanus, son of Tobias, a man who occupied a very high position. Contrary to the calumnies of the impious Simon, the total amounted to four hundred talents of silver and two hundred of gold.

¹²He added that it was utterly unthinkable to defraud those who had placed their trust in the sanctity of the Place and in the sacred inviolability of a temple venerated all over the world.

¹³But because of the orders he had from the king, Heliodorus said that in any case the money must be confiscated for the royal treasury.

¹⁴So on the day he had set he went in to take an inventory of the funds. There was great distress throughout the city.

¹⁵Priests prostrated themselves in their priestly robes before the altar, and loudly begged him in heaven who had given the law about deposits to keep the deposits safe for those who had made them.

¹⁶Whoever saw the appearance of the high priest was pierced to the heart, for the changed color of his face manifested the anguish of his soul.

¹⁷The terror and bodily trembling that had come over the man clearly showed those who saw him the pain that lodged in his heart.

¹⁸People rushed out of their houses in crowds to make public supplication, because the Place was in danger of being profaned.

¹⁹Women, girded with sackcloth below their breasts, filled the streets; maidens secluded indoors ran together, some to the gates, some to the walls, others peered through the windows,

²⁰all of them with hands raised toward heaven, making supplication.

²¹It was pitiful to see the populace variously prostrated in prayer and the high priest full of dread and anguish.

²²While they were imploring the almighty Lord to keep the deposits safe and secure for those who had placed them in trust,

²³Heliodorus went on with his plan.

²⁴But just as he was approaching the treasury with his bodyguards, the Lord of spirits who holds all power manifested himself in so striking a way that those who had been bold enough to follow Heliodorus were panic-stricken at God's power and fainted away in terror.

²⁵There appeared to them a richly caparisoned horse, mounted by a dreadful rider. Charging furiously, the horse attacked Heliodorus with its front hoofs. The rider was seen to be wearing golden armor.

²⁶Then two other young men, remarkably strong, strikingly beautiful, and splendidly attired, appeared before him. Standing on each side of him, they flogged him unceasingly until they had given him innumerable blows.

²⁷Suddenly he fell to the ground, enveloped in great darkness. Men picked him up and laid him on a stretcher.

²⁸The man who a moment before had entered that treasury with a great retinue and his whole bodyguard was carried away helpless, having clearly experienced the sovereign power of God.

²⁹While he lay speechless and deprived of all hope of aid, due to an act of God's power,

³⁰the Jews praised the Lord who had marvelously glorified his holy Place; and the temple, charged so shortly before with fear and commotion, was filled with joy and gladness, now that the almighty Lord had manifested himself.

³¹Soon some of the companions of Heliodorus begged Onias to invoke the Most High, praying that the life of the man who was about to expire might be spared.

³²Fearing that the king might think that Heliodorus had suffered some foul play at the hands of the Jews, the high priest offered a sacrifice for the man's recovery.

³³While the high priest was offering the sacrifice of atonement, the same young men in the same clothing again appeared and stood before Heliodorus. "Be very grateful to the high priest Onias," they told him. "It is for his sake that the Lord has spared your life.

³⁴Since you have been scourged by Heaven, proclaim to all men the majesty of God's power." When they had said this, they disappeared.

³⁵After Heliodorus had offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made most solemn vows to him who had spared his life, he bade Onias farewell, and returned with his soldiers to the king.

³⁶Before all men he gave witness to the deeds of the most high God that he had seen with his own eyes.

³⁷When the king asked Heliodorus who would be a suitable man to be sent to Jerusalem next, he answered:

³⁸"If you have an enemy or a plotter against the government, send him there, and you will receive him back well-flogged, if indeed he survives at all; for there is certainly some special divine power about the Place.

³⁹He who has his dwelling in heaven watches over that Place and protects it, and he strikes down and destroys those who come to harm it."

⁴⁰This was how the matter concerning Heliodorus and the preservation of the treasury turned out.

4The Simon mentioned above as the informer about the funds against his own country, made false accusation that it was Onias who threatened Heliodorus and instigated the whole miserable affair.

²He dared to brand as a plotter against the government the man who was a benefactor of the city, a protector of his compatriots, and a zealous defender of the laws.

³When Simon's hostility reached such a point that murders were being committed by one of his henchmen,

⁴Onias saw that the opposition was serious and that Apollonius, son of Menestheus, the governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia, was abetting Simon's wickedness.

⁵So he had recourse to the king, not as an accuser of his countrymen, but as a man looking to the general and particular good of all the people.

⁶He saw that, unless the king intervened, it would be impossible to have a peaceful government, and that Simon would not desist from his folly.

⁷But Seleucus died, and when Antiochus surnamed Epiphanes succeeded him on the throne, Onias' brother Jason obtained the high priesthood by corrupt means:

⁸in an interview, he promised the king three hundred and sixty talents of silver, as well as eighty talents from another source of income.

⁹Besides this he agreed to pay a hundred and fifty more, if he were given authority to establish a gymnasium and a youth club for it and to enroll men in Jerusalem as Antiochians.

¹⁰When Jason received the king's approval and came into office, he immediately initiated his countrymen into the Greek way of life.

¹¹He set aside the royal concessions granted to the Jews through the mediation of John, father of Eupolemus (that Eupolemus who would later go on an embassy to the Romans to establish a treaty of friendship with them); he abrogated the lawful institutions and introduced customs contrary to the law.

¹²He quickly established a gymnasium at the very foot of the acropolis, where he induced the noblest young men to wear the Greek hat.

¹³The craze for Hellenism and foreign customs reached such a pitch, through the outrageous wickedness of the ungodly pseudo-high-priest Jason,

¹⁴that the priests no longer cared about the service of the altar. Disdaining the temple and neglecting the sacrifices, they hastened, at the signal for the discus-throwing, to take part in the unlawful exercises on the athletic field.

¹⁵They despised what their ancestors had regarded as honors, while they highly prized what the Greeks esteemed as glory.

¹⁶Precisely because of this, they found themselves in serious trouble: the very people whose manner of life they emulated, and whom they desired to imitate in everything, became their enemies and oppressors.

¹⁷It is no light matter to flout the laws of God, as the following period will show.

¹⁸When the quinquennial games were held at Tyre in the presence of the king,

¹⁹the vile Jason sent envoys as representatives of the Antiochians of Jerusalem, to bring there three hundred silver drachmas for the sacrifice to Hercules. But the bearers themselves decided that the money should not be spent on a sacrifice, as that was not right, but should be used for some other purpose.

²⁰So the contribution destined by the sender for the sacrifice to Hercules was in fact applied, by those who brought it, to the construction of triremes.

²¹When Apollonius, son of Menestheus, was sent to Egypt for the coronation of King Philometor, Antiochus learned that the king was opposed to his policies; so he took measures for his own security.

²²After going to Joppa, he proceeded to Jerusalem. There he was received with great pomp by Jason and the people of the city, who escorted him with torchlights and acclamations; following this, he led his army into Phoenicia.

²³Three years later Jason sent Menelaus, brother of the aforementioned Simon, to deliver the money to the king, and to obtain decisions on some important matters.

²⁴When he had been introduced to the king, he flattered him with such an air of authority that he secured the high priesthood for himself, outbidding Jason by three hundred talents of silver.

²⁵He returned with the royal commission, but with nothing that made him worthy of the high priesthood; he had the temper of a cruel tyrant and the rage of a wild beast.

²⁶Then Jason, who had cheated his own brother and now saw himself cheated by another man, was driven out as a fugitive to the country of the Ammonites.

²⁷Although Menelaus had obtained the office, he did not make any payments of the money he had promised to the king,

²⁸in spite of the demand of Sostratus, the commandant of the citadel, whose duty it was to collect the taxes. For this reason, both were summoned before the king.

²⁹Menelaus left his brother Lysimachus as his substitute in the high priesthood, while Sostratus left Crates, commander of the Cypriots, as his substitute.

³⁰While these things were taking place, the people of Tarsus and Mallus rose in revolt, because their cities had been given as a gift to Antiochis, the king's mistress.

³¹The king, therefore, went off in haste to settle the affair, leaving Andronicus, one of his nobles, as his deputy.

³²Then Menelaus, thinking this a good opportunity, stole some gold vessels from the temple and presented them to Andronicus; he had already sold some other vessels in Tyre and in the neighboring cities.

³³When Onias had clear evidence of the facts, he made a public protest, after withdrawing to the inviolable sanctuary at Daphne, near Antioch.

³⁴Thereupon Menelaus approached Andronicus privately and asked him to lay hands on Onias. So Andronicus went to Onias, and by treacherously reassuring him through sworn pledges with right hands joined, persuaded him, in spite of his suspicions, to leave the sanctuary. Then, without any regard for justice, he immediately put him to death.

³⁵As a result, not only the Jews, but many people of other nations as well, were indignant and angry over the unjust murder of the man.

³⁶When the king returned from the region of Cilicia, the Jews of the city, together with the Greeks who detested the crime, went to see him about the murder of Onias.

³⁷Antiochus was deeply grieved and full of pity; he wept as he recalled the prudence and noble conduct of the deceased.

³⁸Inflamed with anger, he immediately stripped Andronicus of his purple robe, tore off his other garments, and had him led through the whole city to the very place where he had committed the outrage against Onias; and there he put the murderer to death. Thus the Lord rendered him the punishment he deserved.

³⁹Many sacrilegious thefts had been committed by Lysimachus in the city with the connivance of Menelaus. When word was spread that a large number of gold vessels had been stolen, the people assembled in protest against Lysimachus.

⁴⁰As the crowds, now thoroughly enraged, began to riot, Lysimachus launched an unjustified attack against them with about three thousand armed men under the leadership of Auranus, a man as advanced in folly as he was in years.

⁴¹Reacting against Lysimachus' attack, the people picked up stones or pieces of wood or handfuls of the ashes lying there and threw them in wild confusion at Lysimachus and his men.

⁴²As a result, they wounded many of them and even killed a few, while they put all the rest to flight. The sacrilegious thief himself they slew near the treasury.

⁴³Charges about this affair were brought against Menelaus.

⁴⁴When the king came to Tyre, three men sent by the senate presented to him the justice of their cause.

⁴⁵But Menelaus, seeing himself on the losing side, promised Ptolemy, son of Dorymenes, a substantial sum of money if he would win the king over.

⁴⁶So Ptolemy retired with the king under a colonnade, as if to get some fresh air, and persuaded him to change his mind.

⁴⁷Menelaus, who was the cause of all the trouble, the king acquitted of the charges, while he condemned to death those poor men who would have been declared innocent even if they had pleaded their case before Scythians.

⁴⁸Thus, those who had prosecuted the case for the city, for the people, and for the sacred vessels, quickly suffered unjust punishment.

⁴⁹For this reason, even some Tyrians were indignant over the crime and provided sumptuously for their burial.

⁵⁰But Menelaus, thanks to the covetousness of the men in power, remained in office, where he grew in wickedness and became the chief plotter against his fellow citizens.

5About this time Antiochus sent his second expedition into Egypt.

²It then happened that all over the city, for nearly forty days, there appeared horsemen charging in midair, clad in garments interwoven with gold--companies fully armed with lances

³and drawn swords; squadrons of cavalry in battle array, charges and countercharges on this side and that, with brandished shields and bristling spears, flights of arrows and flashes of gold ornaments, together with armor of every sort.

⁴Therefore all prayed that this vision might be a good omen.

⁵But when a false rumor circulated that Antiochus was dead, Jason gathered fully a thousand men and suddenly attacked the city. As the defenders on the walls were forced back and the city was finally being taken, Menelaus took refuge in the citadel.

⁶Jason then slaughtered his fellow citizens without mercy, not realizing that triumph over one's own kindred was the greatest failure, but imagining that he was winning a victory over his enemies, not his fellow countrymen.

⁷Even so, he did not gain control of the government, but in the end received only disgrace for his treachery, and once again took refuge in the country of the Ammonites.

⁸At length he met a miserable end. Called to account before Aretas, king of the Arabs, he fled from city to city, hunted by all men, hated as a transgressor of the laws, abhorred as the butcher of his country and his countrymen. After being driven into Egypt,

⁹he crossed the sea to the Spartans, among whom he hoped to find protection because of his relations with them. There he who had exiled so many from their country perished in exile;

¹⁰and he who had cast out so many to lie unburied went unmourned himself with no funeral of any kind or any place in the tomb of his ancestors.

¹¹When these happenings were reported to the king, he thought that Judea was in revolt. Raging like a wild animal, he set out from Egypt and took Jerusalem by storm.

¹²He ordered his soldiers to cut down without mercy those whom they met and to slay those who took refuge in their houses.

¹³There was a massacre of young and old, a killing of women and children, a slaughter of virgins and infants.

¹⁴In the space of three days, eighty thousand were lost, forty thousand meeting a violent death, and the same number being sold into slavery.

¹⁵Not satisfied with this, the king dared to enter the holiest temple in the world; Menelaus, that traitor both to the laws and to his country, served as guide.

¹⁶He laid his impure hands on the sacred vessels and gathered up with profane hands the votive offerings made by other kings for the advancement, the glory, and the honor of the Place.

¹⁷Puffed up in spirit, Antiochus did not realize that it was because of the sins of the city's inhabitants that the Lord was angry for a little while and hence disregarded the holy Place.

¹⁸If they had not become entangled in so many sins, this man, like Heliodorus, who was sent by King Seleucus to inspect the treasury, would have been flogged and turned back from his presumptuous action as soon as he approached.

¹⁹The Lord, however, had not chosen the people for the sake of the Place, but the Place for the sake of the people.

²⁰Therefore, the Place itself, having shared in the people's misfortunes, afterward participated in their good fortune; and what the Almighty had forsaken in his anger was restored in all its glory, once the great Sovereign became reconciled.

²¹Antiochus carried off eighteen hundred talents from the temple, and hurried back to Antioch. In his arrogance he planned to make the land navigable and the sea passable on foot, so carried away was he with pride.

²²But he left governors to harass the nation: at Jerusalem, Philip, a Phrygian by birth, and in character more cruel than the man who appointed him;

²³at Mount Gerizim, Andronicus; and besides these, Menelaus, who lorded it over his fellow citizens worse than the others did. Out of hatred for the Jewish citizens,

²⁴the king sent Appollonius, commander of the Mysians, at the head of an army of twenty-two thousand men, with orders to kill all the grown men and sell the women and young men into slavery.

²⁵When this man arrived in Jerusalem, he pretended to be peacefully disposed and waited until the holy day of the sabbath; then, finding the Jews refraining from work, he ordered his men to parade fully armed.

²⁶All those who came out to watch, he massacred, and running through the city with armed men, he cut down a large number of people.

²⁷But Judas Maccabeus and about nine others withdrew to the wilderness, where he and his companions lived like wild animals in the hills, continuing to eat what grew wild to avoid sharing the defilement.

6Not long after this the king sent an Athenian senator to force the Jews to abandon the customs of their ancestors and live no longer by the laws of God;

²also to profane the temple in Jerusalem and dedicate it to Olympian Zeus, and that on Mount Gerizim to Zeus the Hospitable, as the inhabitants of the place requested.

³This intensified the evil in an intolerable and utterly disgusting way.

⁴The Gentiles filled the temple with debauchery and revelry; they amused themselves with prostitutes and had intercourse with women even in the sacred court. They also brought into the temple things that were forbidden,

⁵so that the altar was covered with abominable offerings prohibited by the laws.

⁶A man could not keep the sabbath or celebrate the traditional feasts, nor even admit that he was a Jew.

⁷Moreover, at the monthly celebration of the king's birthday the Jews had, from bitter necessity, to partake of the sacrifices, and when the festival of Dionysus was celebrated, they were compelled to march in his procession, wearing wreaths of ivy.

⁸At the suggestion of the citizens of Ptolemais, a decree was issued ordering the neighboring Greek cities to act in the same way against the Jews: oblige them to partake of the sacrifices,

⁹and put to death those who would not consent to adopt the customs of the Greeks. It was obvious, therefore, that disaster impended.

¹⁰Thus, two women who were arrested for having circumcised their children were publicly paraded about the city with their babies hanging at their breasts and then thrown down from the top of the city wall.

¹¹Others, who had assembled in nearby caves to observe the sabbath in secret, were betrayed to Philip and all burned to death. In their respect for the holiness of that day, they had scruples about defending themselves.

¹²Now I beg those who read this book not to be disheartened by these misfortunes, but to consider that these chastisements were meant not for the ruin but for the correction of our nation.

¹³It is, in fact, a sign of great kindness to punish sinners promptly instead of letting them go for long.

¹⁴Thus, in dealing with other nations, the Lord patiently waits until they reach the full measure of their sins before he punishes them; but with us he has decided to deal differently,

¹⁵in order that he may not have to punish us more severely later, when our sins have reached their fullness.

¹⁶He never withdraws his mercy from us. Although he disciplines us with misfortunes, he does not abandon his own people.

¹⁷Let these words suffice for recalling this truth. Without further ado we must go on with our story.

¹⁸Eleazar, one of the foremost scribes, a man of advanced age and noble appearance, was being forced to open his mouth to eat pork.

¹⁹But preferring a glorious death to a life of defilement, he spat out the meat, and went forward of his own accord to the instrument of torture,

²⁰as men ought to do who have the courage to reject the food which it is unlawful to taste even for love of life.

²¹Those in charge of that unlawful ritual meal took the man aside privately, because of their long acquaintance with him, and urged him to bring meat of his own providing, such as he could legitimately eat, and to pretend to be eating some of the meat of the sacrifice prescribed by the king;

²²in this way he would escape the death penalty, and be treated kindly because of their old friendship with him.

²³But he made up his mind in a noble manner, worthy of his years, the dignity of his advanced age, the merited distinction of his gray hair, and of the admirable life he had lived from childhood; and so he declared that above all he would be loyal to the holy laws given by God. He told them to send him at once to the abode of the dead, explaining:

²⁴"At our age it would be unbecoming to make such a pretense; many young men would think the ninety-year-old Eleazar had gone over to an alien religion.

²⁵Should I thus dissimulate for the sake of a brief moment of life, they would be led astray by me, while I would bring shame and dishonor on my old age.

²⁶Even if, for the time being, I avoid the punishment of men, I shall never, whether alive or dead, escape the hands of the Almighty.

²⁷Therefore, by manfully giving up my life now, I will prove myself worthy of my old age,

²⁸and I will leave to the young a noble example of how to die willingly and generously for the revered and holy laws." He spoke thus, and went immediately to the instrument of torture.

²⁹Those who shortly before had been kindly disposed, now became hostile toward him because what he had said seemed to them utter madness.

³⁰When he was about to die under the blows, he groaned and said: "The Lord in his holy knowledge knows full well that, although I could have escaped death, I am not only enduring terrible pain in my body from this scourging, but also suffering it with joy in my soul because of my devotion to him."

³¹This is how he died, leaving in his death a model of courage and an unforgettable example of virtue not only for the young but for the whole nation.

7It also happened that seven brothers with their mother were arrested and tortured with whips and scourges by the king, to force them to eat pork in violation of God's law.

²One of the brothers, speaking for the others, said: "What do you expect to achieve by questioning us? We are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our ancestors."

³At that the king, in a fury, gave orders to have pans and caldrons heated.

⁴While they were being quickly heated, he commanded his executioners to cut out the tongue of the one who had spoken for the others, to scalp him and cut off his hands and feet, while the rest of his brothers and his mother looked on.

⁵When he was completely maimed but still breathing, the king ordered them to carry him to the fire and fry him. As a cloud of smoke spread from the pan, the brothers and their mother encouraged one another to die bravely, saying such words as these:

⁶"The Lord God is looking on, and he truly has compassion on us, as Moses declared in his canticle, when he protested openly with the words, 'And he will have pity on his servants.'"

⁷When the first brother had died in this manner, they brought the second to be made sport of. After tearing off the skin and hair of his head, they asked him, "Will you eat the pork rather than have your body tortured limb by limb?"

⁸Answering in the language of his forefathers, he said, "Never!" So he too in turn suffered the same tortures as the first.

⁹At the point of death he said: "You accursed fiend, you are depriving us of this present life, but the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever. It is for his laws that we are dying."

¹⁰After him the third suffered their cruel sport. He put out his tongue at once when told to do so, and bravely held out his hands,

¹¹as he spoke these noble words: "It was from Heaven that I received these; for the sake of his laws I disdain them; from him I hope to receive them again."

¹²Even the king and his attendants marveled at the young man's courage, because he regarded his sufferings as nothing.

¹³After he had died, they tortured and maltreated the fourth brother in the same way.

¹⁴When he was near death, he said, "It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the God-given hope of being restored to life by him; but for you, there will be no resurrection to life."

¹⁵They next brought forward the fifth brother and maltreated him. Looking at the king,

¹⁶he said: "Since you have power among men, mortal though you are, do what you please. But do not think that our nation is forsaken by God.

¹⁷Only wait, and you will see how his great power will torment you and your descendants."

¹⁸After him they brought the sixth brother. When he was about to die, he said: "Have no vain illusions. We suffer these things on our own account, because we have sinned against our God; that is why such astonishing things have happened to us.

¹⁹Do not think, then, that you will go unpunished for having dared to fight against God."

²⁰Most admirable and worthy of everlasting remembrance was the mother, who saw her seven sons perish in a single day, yet bore it courageously because of her hope in the Lord.

²¹Filled with a noble spirit that stirred her womanly heart with manly courage, she exhorted each of them in the language of their forefathers with these words:

²²"I do not know how you came into existence in my womb; it was not I who gave you the breath of life, nor was it I who set in order the elements of which each of you is composed.

²³Therefore, since it is the Creator of the universe who shapes each man's beginning, as he brings about the origin of everything, he, in his mercy, will give you back both breath and life, because you now disregard yourselves for the sake of his law." Martyrdom of Mother and Sons

²⁴Antiochus, suspecting insult in her words, thought he was being ridiculed. As the youngest brother was still alive, the king appealed to him, not with mere words, but with promises on oath, to make him rich and happy if he would abandon his ancestral customs: he would make him his Friend and entrust him with high office.

²⁵When the youth paid no attention to him at all, the king appealed to the mother, urging her to advise her boy to save his life.

²⁶After he had urged her for a long time, she went through the motions of persuading her son.

²⁷In derision of the cruel tyrant, she leaned over close to her son and said in their native language: "Son, have pity on me, who carried you in my womb for nine months, nursed you for three years, brought you up, educated and supported you to your present age.

²⁸I beg you, child, to look at the heavens and the earth and see all that is in them; then you will know that God did not make them out of existing things; and in the same way the human race came into existence.

²⁹Do not be afraid of this executioner, but be worthy of your brothers and accept death, so that in the time of mercy I may receive you again with them."

³⁰She had scarcely finished speaking when the youth said: "What are you waiting for? I will not obey the king's command. I obey the command of the law given to our forefathers through Moses.

³¹But you, who have contrived every kind of affliction for the Hebrews, will not escape the hands of God.

³²We, indeed, are suffering because of our sins.

³³Though our living Lord treats us harshly for a little while to correct us with chastisements, he will again be reconciled with his servants.

³⁴But you, wretch, vilest of all men! do not, in your insolence, concern yourself with unfounded hopes, as you raise your hand against the children of Heaven.

³⁵You have not yet escaped the judgment of the almighty and all-seeing God.

³⁶My brothers, after enduring brief pain, have drunk of never-failing life, under God's covenant, but you, by the judgment of God, shall receive just punishments for your arrogance.

³⁷Like my brothers, I offer up my body and my life for our ancestral laws, imploring God to show mercy soon to our nation, and by afflictions and blows to make you confess that he alone is God.

³⁸Through me and my brothers, may there be an end to the wrath of the Almighty that has justly fallen on our whole nation."

³⁹At that, the king became enraged and treated him even worse than the others, since he bitterly resented the boy's contempt.

⁴⁰Thus he too died undefiled, putting all his trust in the Lord.

⁴¹The mother was last to die, after her sons.

⁴²Enough has been said about the sacrificial meals and the excessive cruelties.

8Judas Maccabeus and his companions entered the villages, secretly, summoned their kinsmen, and by also enlisting others who remained faithful to Judaism, assembled about six thousand men.

²They implored the Lord to look kindly upon his people, who were being oppressed on all sides; to have pity on the temple, which was profaned by godless men;

³to have mercy on the city, which was being destroyed and about to be leveled to the ground; to hearken to the blood that cried out to him;

⁴to remember the criminal slaughter of innocent children and the blasphemies uttered against his name; and to manifest his hatred of evil.

⁵Once Maccabeus got his men organized, the Gentiles could not withstand him, for the Lord's wrath had now changed to mercy.

⁶Coming unexpectedly upon towns and villages, he would set them on fire. He captured strategic positions, and put to flight a large number of the enemy.

⁷He preferred the nights as being especially helpful for such attacks. Soon the fame of his valor spread everywhere.

⁸When Philip saw that Judas was gaining ground little by little and that his successful advances were becoming more frequent, he wrote to Ptolemy, governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia, to come to the aid of the king's government.

⁹Ptolemy promptly selected Nicanor, son of Patroclus, one of the Chief Friends, and sent him at the head of at least twenty thousand armed men of various nations to wipe out the entire Jewish race. With him he associated Gorgias, a professional military commander, well-versed in the art of war.

¹⁰Nicanor planned to raise the two thousand talents of tribute owed by the king to the Romans by selling captured Jews into slavery.

¹¹So he immediately sent word to the coastal cities, inviting them to buy Jewish slaves and promising to deliver ninety slaves for a talent--little did he dream of the punishment that was to fall upon him from the Almighty.

¹²When Judas learned of Nicanor's advance and informed his companions about the approach of the army,

¹³the cowardly and those who lacked faith in God's justice deserted and got away.

¹⁴But the others sold everything they had left, and at the same time besought the Lord to deliver those whom the ungodly Nicanor had sold before even meeting them.

¹⁵They begged the Lord to do this, if not for their sake, at least for the sake of the covenants made with their forefathers, and because they themselves bore his holy, glorious name.

¹⁶Maccabeus assembled his men, six thousand strong, and exhorted them not to be panic-stricken before the enemy, nor to fear the large number of the Gentiles attacking them unjustly, but to fight courageously,

¹⁷keeping before their eyes the lawless outrage perpetrated by the Gentiles against the holy Place and the affliction of the humiliated city, as well as the subversion of their ancestral way of life.

¹⁸"They trust in weapons and acts of daring," he said, "but we trust in almighty God, who can by a mere nod destroy not only those who attack us, but the whole world."

¹⁹He went on to tell them of the times when help had been given their ancestors: both the time of Sennacherib, when a hundred and eighty-five thousand of his men were destroyed,

²⁰and the time of the battle in Babylonia against the Galatians, when only eight thousand Jews fought along with four thousand Macedonians; yet when the Macedonians were hard pressed, the eight thousand routed one hundred and twenty thousand and took a great quantity of booty, because of the help they received from Heaven.

²¹With such words he encouraged them and made them ready to die for their laws and their country. Then Judas divided his army into four,

²²placing his brothers, Simon, Joseph, and Jonathan, each over a division, assigning to each fifteen hundred men.

²³(There was also Eleazar.) After reading to them from the holy book and giving them the watchword, "The Help of God," he himself took charge of the first division and joined in battle with Nicanor.

²⁴With the Almighty as their ally, they killed more than nine thousand of the enemy, wounded and disabled the greater part of Nicanor's army, and put all of them to flight.

²⁵They also seized the money of those who had come to buy them as slaves. When they had pursued the enemy for some time,

²⁶they were obliged to return by reason of the late hour, it was the day before the sabbath, and for that reason they could not continue the pursuit.

²⁷They collected the enemy's arms and stripped them of their spoils, and then observed the sabbath with fervent praise and thanks to the Lord who kept them safe for that day on which he let descend on them the first dew of his mercy.

²⁸After the sabbath, they gave a share of the booty to the persecuted and to widows and orphans; the rest they divided among themselves and their children.

²⁹When this was done, they made supplication in common, imploring the merciful Lord to be completely reconciled with his servants.

³⁰They also challenged the forces of Timothy and Bacchides, killed more than twenty thousand of them, and captured some very high fortresses. They divided the enormous plunder, allotting half to themselves and the rest to the persecuted, to orphans, widows, and the aged.

³¹They collected the enemies' weapons and carefully stored them in suitable places; the rest of the spoils they carried to Jerusalem.

³²They also killed the commander of Timothy's forces, a most wicked man, who had done great harm to the Jews.

³³While celebrating the victory in their ancestral city, they burned both those who had set fire to the sacred gates and Callisthenes, who had taken refuge in a little house; so he received the reward his wicked deeds deserved.

³⁴The accursed Nicanor, who had brought the thousand slave dealers to buy the Jews,

³⁵after being humbled through the Lord's help by those whom he had thought of no account, laid aside his fine clothes and fled alone across country like a runaway slave, until he reached Antioch. He was eminently successful in destroying his own army.

³⁶So he who had promised to provide tribute for the Romans by the capture of the people of Jerusalem testified that the Jews had a champion, and that they were invulnerable for the very reason that they followed the laws laid down by him. Death of Antiochus

9About that time Antiochus retreated in disgrace from the region of Persia.

²He had entered the city called Persepolis and attempted to rob the temple and gain control of the city. Thereupon the people had swift recourse to arms, and Antiochus' men were routed, so that in the end Antiochus was put to flight by the natives and forced to beat a shameful retreat.

³On his arrival in Ecbatana, he learned what had happened to Nicanor and to Timothy's forces.

⁴Overcome with anger, he planned to make the Jews suffer for the injury done by those who had put him to flight. Therefore he ordered his charioteer to drive without stopping until he finished the journey. Yet the condemnation of Heaven rode with him, since he said in his arrogance, "I will make Jerusalem the common graveyard of the Jews as soon as I arrive there."

⁵So the all-seeing Lord, the God of Israel, struck him down with an unseen but incurable blow; for scarcely had he uttered those words when he was seized with excruciating pains in his bowels and sharp internal torment,

⁶a fit punishment for him who had tortured the bowels of others with many barbarous torments.

⁷Far from giving up his insolence, he was all the more filled with arrogance. Breathing fire in his rage against the Jews, he gave orders to drive even faster. As a result he hurtled from the dashing chariot, and every part of his body was racked by the violent fall.

⁸Thus he who previously, in his superhuman presumption, thought he could command the waves of the sea, and imagined he could weigh the mountaintops in his scales, was now thrown to the ground and had to be carried on a litter, clearly manifesting to all the power of God.

⁹The body of this impious man swarmed with worms, and while he was still alive in hideous torments, his flesh rotted off, so that the entire army was sickened by the stench of his corruption.

¹⁰Shortly before, he had thought that he could reach the stars of heaven, and now, no one could endure to transport the man because of this intolerable stench.

¹¹At last, broken in spirit, he began to give up his excessive arrogance, and to gain some understanding, under the scourge of God, for he was racked with pain unceasingly.

¹²When he could no longer bear his own stench, he said, "It is right to be subject to God, and not to think one's mortal self divine."

¹³Then this vile man vowed to the Lord, who would no longer have mercy on him,

¹⁴that he would set free the holy city, toward which he had been hurrying with the intention of leveling it to the ground and making it a common graveyard;

¹⁵he would put on perfect equality with the Athenians all the Jews, whom he had judged not even worthy of burial, but fit only to be thrown out with their children to be eaten by vultures and wild animals;

¹⁶he would adorn with the finest offerings the holy temple which he had previously despoiled; he would restore all the sacred vessels many times over; and would provide from his own revenues the expenses required for the sacrifices.

¹⁷Besides all this, he would become a Jew himself and visit every inhabited place to proclaim there the power of God.

¹⁸But since God's punishment had justly come upon him, his sufferings were not lessened, so he lost hope for himself and wrote the following letter to the Jews in the form of a supplication. It read thus: Death of Antiochus

¹⁹"To my esteemed Jewish citizens, Antiochus, their king and general, sends hearty greetings and best wishes for their health and happiness.

²⁰If you and your children are well and your affairs are going as you wish, I thank God very much, for my hopes are in heaven.

²¹Now that I am ill, I recall with affection the esteem and good will you bear me. On returning from the regions of Persia, I fell victim to a troublesome illness; so I thought it necessary to form plans for the general welfare of all.

²²Actually, I do not despair about my health, since I have great hopes of recovering from my illness.

²³Nevertheless, I know that my father, whenever he went on campaigns in the hinterland, would name his successor,

²⁴so that, if anything unexpected happened or any unwelcome news came, the people throughout the realm would know to whom the government had been entrusted, and so not be disturbed.

²⁵I am also bearing in mind that the neighboring rulers, especially those on the borders of our kingdom, are on the watch for opportunities and waiting to see what will happen. I have therefore appointed as king my son Antiochus, whom I have often before entrusted and commended to most of you, when I made hurried visits to the outlying provinces. I have written to him the letter copied below.

²⁶Therefore I beg and entreat each of you to remember the general and individual benefits you have received, and to continue to show good will toward me and my son.

²⁷I am confident that, following my policy, he will treat you with mildness and kindness in his relations with you."

²⁸So this murderer and blasphemer, after extreme sufferings, such as he had inflicted on others, died a miserable death in the mountains of a foreign land.

²⁹His foster brother Philip brought the body home; but fearing Antiochus' son, he later withdrew into Egypt, to Ptolemy Philometor.

10When Maccabeus and his companions, under the Lord's leadership, had recovered the temple and the city,

²they destroyed the altars erected by the Gentiles in the marketplace and the sacred enclosures.

³After purifying the temple, they made a new altar. Then, with fire struck from flint, they offered sacrifice for the first time in two years, burned incense, and lighted lamps. They also set out the showbread.

⁴When they had done this, they prostrated themselves and begged the Lord that they might never again fall into such misfortunes, and that if they should sin at any time, he might chastise them with moderation and not hand them over to blasphemous and barbarous Gentiles.

⁵On the anniversary of the day on which the temple had been profaned by the Gentiles, that is, the twenty-fifth of the same month Chislev, the purification of the temple took place.

⁶The Jews celebrated joyfully for eight days as on the feast of Booths, remembering how, a little while before, they had spent the feast of Booths living like wild animals in caves on the mountains.

⁷Carrying rods entwined with leaves, green branches and palms, they sang hymns of grateful praise to him who had brought about the purification of his own Place.

⁸By public edict and decree they prescribed that the whole Jewish nation should celebrate these days every year.

⁹Such was the end of Antiochus surnamed Epiphanes.

¹⁰Now we shall relate what happened under Antiochus Eupator, the son of that godless man, and shall give a summary of the chief evils caused by the wars.

¹¹When Eupator succeeded to the kingdom, he put a certain Lysias in charge of the government as commander-in-chief of Coelesyria and Phoenicia.

¹²Ptolemy, surnamed Macron, had taken the lead in treating the Jews fairly because of the previous injustice that had been done them, and he endeavored to have peaceful relations with them.

¹³As a result, he was accused before Eupator by the King's Friends. In fact, on all sides he heard himself called a traitor for having abandoned Cyprus, which Philometor had entrusted to him, and for having gone over to Antiochus Epiphanes. Since he could not command the respect due to his high office, he ended his life by taking poison.

¹⁴When Gorgias became governor of the region, he employed foreign troops and used every opportunity to attack the Jews.

¹⁵At the same time the Idumeans, who held some important strongholds, were harassing the Jews; they welcomed fugitives from Jerusalem and endeavored to continue the war.

¹⁶Maccabeus and his companions, after public prayers asking God to be their ally, moved quickly against the strongholds of the Idumeans.

¹⁷Attacking vigorously, they gained control of the places, drove back all who manned the walls, and cut down those who opposed them, killing as many as twenty thousand men.

¹⁸When at least nine thousand took refuge in two very strong towers, containing everything necessary to sustain a siege,

¹⁹Maccabeus left Simon and Joseph, along with Zacchaeus and his men, in sufficient numbers to besiege them, while he himself went off to places where he was more urgently needed.

²⁰But some of the men in Simon's force who were money lovers let themselves be bribed by some of the men in the towers; on receiving seventy thousand drachmas, they allowed a number of them to escape.

²¹When Maccabeus was told what had happened, he assembled the rulers of the people and accused those men of having sold their kinsmen for money by setting their enemies free to fight against them.

²²So he put them to death as traitors, and without delay captured the two towers.

²³As he was successful at arms in all his undertakings, he destroyed more than twenty thousand men in the two strongholds.

²⁴Timothy, who had previously been defeated by the Jews, gathered a tremendous force of foreign troops and collected a large number of cavalry from Asia; then he appeared in Judea, ready to conquer it by force.

²⁵At his approach, Maccabeus and his men made supplication to God, sprinkling earth upon their heads and girding their loins in sackcloth.

²⁶Lying prostrate at the foot of the altar, they begged him to be gracious to them, and to be an enemy to their enemies, and a foe to their foes, as the law declares.

²⁷After the prayer, they took up their arms and advanced a considerable distance from the city, halting when they were close to the enemy.

²⁸As soon as dawn broke, the armies joined battle, the one having as pledge of success and victory not only their valor but also their reliance on the Lord, and the other taking fury as their leader in the fight.

²⁹In the midst of the fierce battle, there appeared to the enemy from the heavens five majestic men riding on golden-bridled horses, who led the Jews on.

³⁰They surrounded Maccabeus, and shielding him with their own armor, kept him from being wounded. They shot arrows and hurled thunderbolts at the enemy, who were bewildered and blinded, thrown into confusion and routed.

³¹Twenty-five hundred of their foot soldiers and six hundred of their horsemen were slain.

³²Timothy, however, fled to a well-fortified stronghold called Gazara, where Chaereas was in command.

³³For four days Maccabeus and his men eagerly besieged the fortress.

³⁴Those inside, relying on the strength of the place, kept repeating outrageous blasphemies and uttering abominable words.

³⁵When the fifth day dawned, twenty young men in the army of Maccabeus, angered over such blasphemies, bravely stormed the wall and with savage fury cut down everyone they encountered.

³⁶Others who climbed up the same way swung around on the defenders, taking the besieged in the rear; they put the towers to the torch, spread the fire and burned the blasphemers alive. Still others broke down the gates and let in the rest of the troops, who took possession of the city.

³⁷Timothy had hidden in a cistern, but they killed him, along with his brother Chaereas, and Apollophanes.

³⁸On completing these exploits, they blessed, with hymns of grateful praise, the Lord who shows great kindness to Israel and grants them victory.

11Very soon afterward, Lysias, guardian and kinsman of the king and head of the government, being greatly displeased at what had happened,

²mustered about eighty thousand infantry and all his cavalry and marched against the Jews. His plan was to make Jerusalem a Greek settlement;

³to levy tribute on the temple, as he did on the sanctuaries of the other nations; and to put the high priesthood up for sale every year.

⁴He did not take God's power into account at all, but felt exultant confidence in his myriads of foot soldiers, his thousands of horsemen, and his eighty elephants.

⁵So he invaded Judea, and when he reached Beth-zur, a fortified place about twenty miles from Jerusalem, launched a strong attack against it.

⁶When Maccabeus and his men learned that Lysias was besieging the strongholds, they and all the people begged the Lord with lamentations and tears to send a good angel to save Israel.

⁷Maccabeus himself was the first to take up arms, and he exhorted the others to join him in risking their lives to help their kinsmen. Then they resolutely set out together.

⁸Suddenly, while they were still near Jerusalem, a horseman appeared at their head, clothed in white garments and brandishing gold weapons.

⁹Then all of them together thanked God for his mercy, and their hearts were filled with such courage that they were ready to assault not only men, but the most savage beasts, yes, even walls of iron.

¹⁰Now that the Lord had shown his mercy toward them, they advanced in battle order with the aid of their heavenly ally.

¹¹Hurling themselves upon the enemy like lions, they laid low eleven thousand foot soldiers and sixteen hundred horsemen, and put all the rest to flight.

¹²Most of those who got away were wounded and stripped of their arms, while Lysias himself escaped only by shameful flight.

¹³But Lysias was not a stupid man. He reflected on the defeat he had suffered, and came to realize that the Hebrews were invincible because the mighty God was their ally. He therefore sent a message

¹⁴persuading them to settle everything on just terms, and promising to persuade the king also, and to induce him to become their friend.

¹⁵Maccabeus, solicitous for the common good, agreed to all that Lysias proposed; and the king, on his part, granted in behalf of the Jews all the written requests of Maccabeus to Lysias.

¹⁶These are the terms of the letter which Lysias wrote to the Jews: "Lysias sends greetings to the Jewish people.

¹⁷John and Absalom, your envoys, have presented your signed communication and asked about the matters contained in it.

¹⁸Whatever had to be referred to the king I called to his attention, and the things that were acceptable he has granted.

¹⁹If you maintain your loyalty to the government, I will endeavor to further your interests in the future.

²⁰On the details of these matters I have authorized my representatives, as well as your envoys, to confer with you.

²¹Farewell." The year one hundred and forty-eight, the twenty-fourth of Dioscorinthius.

²²The king's letter read thus: "King Antiochus sends greetings to his brother Lysias.

²³Now that our father has taken his place among the gods, we wish the subjects of our kingdom to be undisturbed in conducting their own affairs.

²⁴We understand that the Jews do not agree with our father's policy concerning Greek customs but prefer their own way of life. They are petitioning us to let them retain their own customs.

²⁵Since we desire that this people too should be undisturbed, our decision is that their temple be restored to them and that they live in keeping with the customs of their ancestors.

²⁶Accordingly, please send them messengers to give them our assurances of friendship, so that, when they learn of our decision, they may have nothing to worry about but may contentedly go about their own business."

²⁷The king's letter to the people was as follows: "King Antiochus sends greetings to the Jewish senate and to the rest of the Jews.

²⁸If you are well, it is what we desire. We too are in good health.

²⁹Menelaus has told us of your wish to return home and attend to your own affairs.

³⁰Therefore, those who return by the thirtieth of Xanthicus will have our assurance of full permission

³¹to observe their dietary laws and other laws, just as before, and none of the Jews shall be molested in any way for faults committed through ignorance.

³²I have also sent Menelaus to reassure you.

³³Farewell." In the year one hundred and forty-eight, the fifteenth of Xanthicus.

³⁴The Romans also sent them a letter as follows: "Quintus Memmius and Titus Manius, legates of the Romans, send greetings to the Jewish people.

³⁵Whatever Lysias, kinsman of the king, has granted you, we also approve.

³⁶But the matters on which he passed judgment should be submitted to the king. As soon as you have considered them, send someone to us with your decisions so that we may present them to your advantage, for we are on our way to Antioch.

³⁷Make haste, then, to send us those who can inform us of your intentions.

³⁸Farewell." In the year one hundred and forty-eight, the fifteenth of Xanthicus.

12After these agreements were made, Lysias returned to the king, and the Jews went about their farming.

²But some of the local governors, Timothy and Apollonius, son of Gennaeus, as also Hieronymus and Demophon, to say nothing of Nicanor, the commander of the Cyprians, would not allow them to live in peace.

³Some people of Joppa also committed this outrage: they invited the Jews who lived among them, together with their wives and children, to embark on boats which they had provided. There was no hint of enmity toward them;

⁴this was done by public vote of the city. When the Jews, not suspecting treachery and wishing to live on friendly terms, accepted the invitation, the people of Joppa took them out to sea and drowned at least two hundred of them.

⁵As soon as Judas heard of the barbarous deed perpetrated against his countrymen, he summoned his men;

⁶and after calling upon God, the just judge, he marched against the murderers of his kinsmen. In a night attack he set the harbor on fire, burnt the boats, and put to the sword those who had taken refuge there.

⁷When the gates of the town were shut, he withdrew, intending to come back later and wipe out the entire population of Joppa.

⁸On hearing that the men of Jamnia planned to give like treatment to the Jews who lived among them,

⁹he attacked the Jamnian populace by night, setting fire to the harbor and the fleet, so that the glow of the flames was visible as far as Jerusalem, thirty miles away.

¹⁰When the Jews had gone about a mile from there in the campaign against Timothy, they were attacked by Arabs numbering at least five thousand foot soldiers, and five hundred horsemen.

¹¹After a hard fight, Judas and his companions, with God's help, were victorious. The defeated nomads begged Judas to make friends with them and promised to supply the Jews with cattle and to help them in every other way.

¹²Realizing that they could indeed be useful in many respects, Judas agreed to make peace with them. After the pledge of friendship had been exchanged, the Arabs withdrew to their tents.

¹³He also attacked a certain city called Caspin, fortified with earthworks and ramparts and inhabited by a mixed population of Gentiles.

¹⁴Relying on the strength of their walls and their supply of provisions, the besieged treated Judas and his men with contempt, insulting them and even uttering blasphemies and profanity.

¹⁵But Judas and his men invoked the aid of the great Sovereign of the world, who, in the day of Joshua, overthrew Jericho without battering-ram or siege machine; then they furiously stormed the ramparts.

¹⁶Capturing the city by the will of God, they inflicted such indescribable slaughter on it that the adjacent pool, which was about a quarter of a mile wide, seemed to be filled with the blood that flowed into it.

¹⁷When they had gone on some ninety miles, they reached Charax, where there were certain Jews known as Toubiani.

¹⁸But they did not find Timothy in that region, for he had already departed from there without having done anything except to leave behind in one place a very strong garrison.

¹⁹But Dositheus and Sosipater, two of Maccabeus' captains, marched out and destroyed the force of more than ten thousand men that Timothy had left in the stronghold.

²⁰Meanwhile, Maccabeus divided his army into cohorts, with a commander over each cohort, and went in pursuit of Timothy, who had a force of a hundred and twenty thousand foot soldiers and twenty-five hundred horsemen.

²¹When Timothy learned of the approach of Judas, he sent on ahead of him the women and children, as well as the baggage, to a place called Karnion, which was hard to besiege and even hard to reach because of the difficult terrain of that region.

²²But when Judas' first cohort appeared, the enemy was overwhelmed with fear and terror at the manifestation of the All-seeing. Scattering in every direction, they rushed away in such headlong flight that in many cases they wounded one another, pierced by the swords of their own men.

²³Judas pressed the pursuit vigorously, putting the sinners to the sword and destroying as many as thirty thousand men.

²⁴Timothy himself fell into the hands of the men under Dositheus and Sosipater; but with great cunning, he asked them to spare his life and let him go, because he had in his power the parents and relatives of many of them, and could make these suffer.

²⁵When he had fully confirmed his solemn pledge to restore them unharmed, they let him go for the sake of saving their brethren.

²⁶Judas then marched to Karnion and the shrine of Atargatis, where he killed twenty-five thousand people.

²⁷After the defeat and destruction of these, he moved his army to Ephron, a fortified city inhabited by people of many nationalities. Robust young men took up their posts in defense of the walls, from which they fought valiantly; inside were large supplies of machines and missiles.

²⁸But the Jews, invoking the Sovereign who forcibly shatters the might of his enemies, got possession of the city and slaughtered twenty-five thousand of the people in it.

²⁹Then they set out from there and hastened on to Scythopolis, seventy-five miles from Jerusalem.

³⁰But when the Jews who lived there testified to the good will shown by the Scythopolitans and to their kind treatment even in times of adversity,

³¹Judas and his men thanked them and exhorted them to be well disposed to their race in the future also. Finally they arrived in Jerusalem, shortly before the feast of Weeks.

³²After this feast called Pentecost, they lost no time in marching against Gorgias, governor of Idumea,

³³who opposed them with three thousand foot soldiers and four hundred horsemen.

³⁴In the ensuing battle, a few of the Jews were slain.

³⁵A man called Dositheus, a powerful horseman and one of Bacenor's men, caught hold of Gorgias, grasped his military cloak and dragged him along by main strength, intending to capture the vile wretch alive, when a Thracian horseman attacked Dositheus and cut off his arm at the shoulder. Then Gorgias fled to Marisa.

³⁶After Esdris and his men had been fighting for a long time and were weary, Judas called upon the Lord to show himself their ally and leader in the battle.

³⁷Then, raising a battle cry in his ancestral language, and with songs, he charged Gorgias' men when they were not expecting it and put them to flight.

³⁸Judas rallied his army and went to the city of Adullam. As the week was ending, they purified themselves according to custom and kept the sabbath there.

³⁹On the following day, since the task had now become urgent, Judas and his men went to gather up the bodies of the slain and bury them with their kinsmen in their ancestral tombs.

⁴⁰But under the tunic of each of the dead they found amulets sacred to the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids the Jews to wear. So it was clear to all that this was why these men had been slain.

⁴¹They all therefore praised the ways of the Lord, the just judge who brings to light the things that are hidden.

⁴²Turning to supplication, they prayed that the sinful deed might be fully blotted out. The noble Judas warned the soldiers to keep themselves free from sin, for they had seen with their own eyes what had happened because of the sin of those who had fallen.

⁴³He then took up a collection among all his soldiers, amounting to two thousand silver drachmas, which he sent to Jerusalem to provide for an expiatory sacrifice. In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection of the dead in view;

⁴⁴for if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been useless and foolish to pray for them in death.

⁴⁵But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought.

⁴⁶Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from this sin.

13In the year one hundred and forty-nine, Judas and his men learned that Antiochus Eupator was invading Judea with a large force,

²and that with him was Lysias, his guardian, who was in charge of the government. They led a Greek army of one hundred and ten thousand foot soldiers, fifty-three hundred horsemen, twenty-two elephants, and three hundred chariots armed with scythes.

³Menelaus also joined them, and with great duplicity kept urging Antiochus on, not for the welfare of his country, but in the hope of being established in office.

⁴But the King of kings aroused the anger of Antiochus against the scoundrel. When the king was shown by Lysias that Menelaus was to blame for all the trouble, he ordered him to be taken to Beroea and executed there in the customary local method.

⁵There is at that place a tower seventy-five feet high, full of ashes, with a circular rim sloping down steeply on all sides toward the ashes.

⁶A man guilty of sacrilege or notorious for certain other crimes is brought up there and then hurled down to destruction.

⁷In such a manner was Menelaus, the transgressor of the law, fated to die; he was deprived even of decent burial.

⁸It was altogether just that he who had committed so many sins against the altar with its pure fire and ashes should meet his death in ashes.

⁹The king was advancing, his mind full of savage plans for inflicting on the Jews worse things than those they suffered in his father's time.

¹⁰When Judas learned of this, he urged the people to call upon the LORD night and day, to help them now, if ever,

¹¹when they were about to be deprived of their law, their country, and their holy temple; and not to allow this nation, which had just begun to revive, to be subjected again to blasphemous Gentiles.

¹²When they had all joined in doing this, and had implored the merciful LORD continuously with weeping and fasting and prostrations for three days, Judas encouraged them and told them to stand ready.

¹³After a private meeting with the elders, he decided that, before the king's army could invade Judea and take possession of the city, the Jews should march out and settle the matter with God's help.

¹⁴Leaving the outcome to the Creator of the world, and exhorting his followers to fight nobly to death for the laws, the temple, the city, the country, and the government, he pitched his camp near Modein.

¹⁵Giving his men the battle cry "God's Victory," he made a night attack on the king's pavilion with a picked force of the bravest young men and killed about two thousand in the camp. They also slew the lead elephant and its rider.

¹⁶Finally they withdrew in triumph, having filled the camp with terror and confusion.

¹⁷Day was just breaking when this was accomplished with the help and protection of the LORD.

¹⁸The king, having had a taste of the Jews' daring, tried to take their positions by a stratagem.

¹⁹So he marched against Beth-zur, a strong fortress of the Jews; but he was driven back, checked, and defeated.

²⁰Judas then sent supplies to the men inside,

²¹but Rhodocus, of the Jewish army, betrayed military secrets to the enemy. He was found out, arrested, and imprisoned.

²²The king made a second attempt by negotiating with the men of Beth-zur. After giving them his pledge and receiving theirs, he withdrew

²³and attacked Judas and his men. But he was defeated. Next he heard that Philip, who was left in charge of the government in Antioch had rebelled. Dismayed, he parleyed with the Jews, submitted to their terms, and swore to observe their rights. Having come to this agreement, he offered a sacrifice, and honored the temple with a generous donation.

²⁴He approved of Maccabeus and left him as military and civil governor of the territory from Ptolemais to the region of the Gerrenes.

²⁵When he came to Ptolemais, the people of that city were angered by the peace treaty; in fact they were so indignant that they wanted to annul its provisions.

²⁶But Lysias took the platform, defended the treaty as well as he could and won them over by persuasion. After calming them and gaining their good will, he returned to Antioch. That is how the king's attack and withdrawal went.

14Three years later, Judas and his men learned that Demetrius, son of Seleucus, had sailed into the port of Tripolis with a powerful army and a fleet,

²and that he had occupied the country, after doing away with Antiochus and his guardian Lysias.

³A certain Alcimus, a former high priest, who had willfully incurred defilement at the time of the revolt, realized that there was no way for him to salvage his position and regain access to the holy altar.

⁴So he went to King Demetrius in the year one hundred and fifty-one and presented him with a gold crown and a palm branch, as well as some of the customary olive branches from the temple. On that occasion he kept quiet.

⁵But he found an opportunity to further his mad scheme when he was invited to the council by Demetrius and questioned about the dispositions and intentions of the Jews. He replied:

⁶"Those Jews called Hasideans, led by Judas Maccabeus, are warmongers, who stir up sedition and keep the kingdom from enjoying peace and quiet.

⁷For this reason, now that I am deprived of my ancestral dignity, that is to say, the high priesthood, I have come here--

⁸first, out of my genuine concern for the king's interests, and secondly, out of consideration for my own countrymen, since our entire nation is suffering great affliction from the unreasonable conduct of the people just mentioned.

⁹When you have informed yourself in detail on these matters, O king, act in the interest of our country and its hard-pressed people with the same gracious consideration that you show toward all.

¹⁰As long as Judas is around, it is impossible for the state to enjoy peace."

¹¹When he had said this, the other Friends who were hostile to Judas quickly added fuel to Demetrius' indignation.

¹²The king immediately chose Nicanor, who had been in command of the elephants, and appointed him governor of Judea. He sent him off

¹³with orders to put Judas to death, to disperse his followers, and to set up Alcimus as high priest of the great temple.

¹⁴The Gentiles from Judea, who would have banished Judas, came flocking to Nicanor, thinking that the misfortunes and calamities of the Jews would mean prosperity for themselves.

¹⁵When the Jews heard of Nicanor's coming, and that the Gentiles were rallying to him, they sprinkled themselves with earth and prayed to him who established his people forever, and who always comes to the aid of his heritage.

¹⁶At their leader's command, they set out at once and came upon the enemy at the village of Adasa.

¹⁷Judas' brother Simon had engaged Nicanor, but because of the sudden appearance of the enemy suffered a slight repulse.

¹⁸However, when Nicanor heard of the valor of Judas and his men, and the great courage with which they fought for their country, he shrank from deciding the issue by bloodshed.

¹⁹So he sent Posidonius, Theodotus and Mattathias to arrange an agreement.

²⁰After a long discussion of the terms, each leader communicated them to his troops; and when general agreement was expressed, they assented to the treaty.

²¹A day was set on which the leaders would meet by themselves. From each side a chariot came forward and thrones were set in place.

²²Judas had posted armed men in readiness at suitable points for fear that the enemy might suddenly carry out some treacherous plan. But the conference was held in the proper way.

²³Nicanor stayed on in Jerusalem, where he did nothing out of place. He got rid of the throngs of ordinary people who gathered around him;

²⁴but he always kept Judas in his company, for he had a cordial affection for the man.

²⁵He urged him to marry and have children; so Judas married, settled down, and shared the common life.

²⁶When Alcimus saw their friendship for each other, he took the treaty that had been made, went to Demetrius, and said that Nicanor was plotting against the state, and that he had appointed Judas, the conspirator against the kingdom, to be his successor.

²⁷Stirred up by the villain's calumnies, the king became enraged. He wrote to Nicanor, stating that he was displeased with the treaty, and ordering him to send Maccabeus as a prisoner to Antioch without delay.

²⁸When this message reached Nicanor he was dismayed, for he hated to break his agreement with a man who had done no wrong.

²⁹However, there was no way of opposing the king, so he watched for an opportunity to carry out this order by a stratagem.

³⁰But Maccabeus noticed that Nicanor was becoming cool in his dealings with him, and acting with unaccustomed rudeness when they met; he concluded that this coldness betokened no good. So he gathered together a large number of his men, and went into hiding from Nicanor.

³¹When Nicanor realized that he had been disgracefully outwitted by the man, he went to the great and holy temple, at a time when the priests were offering the customary sacrifices, and ordered them to surrender Judas.

³²As they declared under oath that they did not know where the wanted man was,

³³he raised his right hand toward the temple and swore this oath: "If you do not hand Judas over to me as prisoner, I will level this shrine of God to the ground; I will tear down the altar, and erect here a splendid temple to Dionysus."

³⁴With these words he went away. The priests stretched out their hands toward heaven, calling upon the unfailing defender of our nation in these words:

³⁵"Lord of all, though you are in need of nothing, you have approved of a temple for your dwelling place among us.

³⁶Therefore, O holy One, Lord of all holiness, preserve forever undefiled this house, which has been so recently purified."

³⁷A certain Razis, one of the elders of Jerusalem, was denounced to Nicanor as a patriot. A man highly regarded, he was called a father of the Jews because of his love for them.

³⁸In the early days of the revolt, he had been convicted of Judaism, and had risked body and life in his ardent zeal for it.

³⁹Nicanor, to show his detestation of the Jews, sent more than five hundred soldiers to arrest him.

⁴⁰He thought that by arresting such a man he would deal the Jews a hard blow.

⁴¹But when these troops, on the point of capturing the tower, were forcing the outer gate and calling for fire to set the door ablaze, Razis, now caught on all sides, turned his sword against himself,

⁴²preferring to die nobly rather than fall into the hands of vile men and suffer outrages unworthy of his noble birth.

⁴³In the excitement of the struggle he failed to strike exactly. So while the troops rushed in through the doors, he gallantly ran up to the top of the wall and with manly courage threw himself down into the crowd.

⁴⁴But as they quickly drew back and left an opening, he fell into the middle of the empty space.

⁴⁵Still breathing, and inflamed with anger, he got up and ran through the crowd, with blood gushing from his frightful wounds.

⁴⁶Then, standing on a steep rock, as he lost the last of his blood, he tore out his entrails and flung them with both hands into the crowd, calling upon the Lord of life and of spirit to give these back to him again. Such was the manner of his death.

15When Nicanor learned that Judas and his companions were in the territory of Samaria, he decided to attack them in all safety on the day of rest.

²The Jews who were forced to follow him pleaded, "Do not massacre them in that way, like a savage barbarian, but show respect for the day which the All-seeing has exalted with holiness above all other days."

³At this the thrice-sinful wretch asked if there was a ruler in heaven who prescribed the keeping of the sabbath day.

⁴When they replied that there was indeed such a ruler in heaven, the living LORD himself, who commanded the observance of the sabbath day,

⁵he said, "I, on my part, am ruler on earth, and my orders are that you take up arms and carry out the king's business." Nevertheless he did not succeed in carrying out his cruel plan.

⁶In his utter boastfulness and arrogance Nicanor had determined to erect a public monument of victory over Judas and his men.

⁷But Maccabeus remained confident, fully convinced that he would receive help from the LORD.

⁸He urged his men not to fear the enemy, but mindful of the help they had received from Heaven in the past, to expect that now, too, victory would be given them by the Almighty.

⁹By encouraging them with words from the law and the prophets, and by reminding them of the battles they had already won, he filled them with fresh enthusiasm.

¹⁰Having stirred up their courage, he gave his orders and pointed out at the same time the perfidy of the Gentiles and their violation of oaths.

¹¹When he had armed each of them, not so much with the safety of shield and spear as with the encouragement of noble words, he cheered them all by relating a dream, a kind of vision, worthy of belief.

¹²What he saw was this: Onias, the former high priest, a good and virtuous man, modest in appearance, gentle in manners, distinguished in speech, and trained from childhood in every virtuous practice, was praying with outstretched arms for the whole Jewish community.

¹³Then in the same way another man appeared, distinguished by his white hair and dignity, and with an air about him of extraordinary, majestic authority.

¹⁴Onias then said of him, "This is God's prophet Jeremiah, who loves his brethren and fervently prays for his people and their holy city."

¹⁵Stretching out his right hand, Jeremiah presented a gold sword to Judas. As he gave it to him he said,

¹⁶"Accept this holy sword as a gift from God; with it you shall crush your adversaries."

¹⁷Encouraged by Judas' noble words, which had power to instill valor and stir young hearts to courage, the Jews determined not to delay, but to charge gallantly and decide the issue by hand-to-hand combat with the utmost courage, since their city and its temple with the sacred vessels were in danger.

¹⁸They were not so much concerned about their wives and children or their brothers and kinsmen; their first and foremost fear was for the consecrated sanctuary.

¹⁹Those who remained in the city suffered a like agony, anxious as they were about the battle in the open country.

²⁰Everyone now awaited the decisive moment. The enemy were already drawing near with their troops drawn up in battle line, their elephants placed in strategic positions, and their cavalry stationed on the flanks.

²¹Maccabeus, contemplating the hosts before him, their elaborate equipment, and the fierceness of their elephants, stretched out his hands toward heaven and called upon the LORD who works miracles; for he knew that it is not through arms but through the LORD'S decision that victory is won by those who deserve it.

²²He prayed to him thus: "You, O LORD, sent your angel in the days of King Hezekiah of Judea, and he slew a hundred and eighty-five thousand men of Sennacherib's army.

²³Sovereign of the heavens, send a good angel now to spread fear and dread before us.

²⁴By the might of your arm may those be struck down who have blasphemously come against your holy people!" With this he ended his prayer.

²⁵Nicanor and his men advanced to the sound of trumpets and battle songs.

²⁶But Judas and his men met the army with supplication and prayers.

²⁷Fighting with their hands and praying to God with their hearts, they laid low at least thirty-five thousand, and rejoiced greatly over this manifestation of God's power.

²⁸When the battle was over and they were joyfully departing, they discovered Nicanor lying there in all his armor;

²⁹so they raised tumultuous shouts in their native tongue in praise of the divine Sovereign.

³⁰Then Judas, who was ever in body and soul the chief defender of his fellow citizens, and had maintained from youth his affection for his countrymen, ordered Nicanor's head and whole right arm to be cut off and taken to Jerusalem.

³¹When he arrived there, he assembled his countrymen, stationed the priests before the altar, and sent for those in the citadel.

³²He showed them the vile Nicanor's head and the wretched blasphemer's arm that had been boastfully stretched out against the holy dwelling of the Almighty.

³³He cut out the tongue of the godless Nicanor, saying he would feed it piecemeal to the birds and would hang up the other wages of his folly opposite the temple.

³⁴At this, everyone looked toward heaven and praised the Lord who manifests his divine power, saying, "Blessed be he who has kept his own Place undefiled!"

³⁵Judas hung up Nicanor's head on the wall of the citadel, a clear and evident proof to all of the Lord's help.

³⁶By public vote it was unanimously decreed never to let this day pass unobserved, but to celebrate it on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, called Adar in Aramaic, the eve of Mordecai's Day.

³⁷Since Nicanor's doings ended in this way, with the city remaining in possession of the Hebrews from that time on, I will bring my own story to an end here too.

³⁸If it is well written and to the point, that is what I wanted; if it is poorly done and mediocre, that is the best I could do.

³⁹Just as it is harmful to drink wine alone or water alone, whereas mixing wine with water makes a more pleasant drink that increases delight, so a skillfully composed story delights the ears of those who read the work. Let this, then, be the end.

1In the land of Uz there was a blameless and upright man named Job, who feared God and avoided evil.

²Seven sons and three daughters were born to him;

³and he had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred she-asses, and a great number of work animals, so that he was greater than any of the men of the East.

⁴His sons used to take turns giving feasts, sending invitations to their three sisters to eat and drink with them.

⁵And when each feast had run its course, Job would send for them and sanctify them, rising early and offering holocausts for every one of them. For Job said, "It may be that my sons have sinned and blasphemed God in their hearts." This Job did habitually.

⁶One day, when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, Satan also came among them.

⁷And the LORD said to Satan, "Whence do you come?" Then Satan answered the LORD and said, "From roaming the earth and patrolling it."

⁸And the LORD said to Satan, "Have you noticed my servant Job, and that there is no one on earth like him, blameless and upright, fearing God and avoiding evil?"

⁹But Satan answered the LORD and said, "Is it for nothing that Job is God-fearing?

¹⁰Have you not surrounded him and his family and all that he has with your protection? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his livestock are spread over the land.

¹¹But now put forth your hand and touch anything that he has, and surely he will blaspheme you to your face."

¹²And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand upon his person." So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

¹³And so one day, while his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their eldest brother,

¹⁴a messenger came to Job and said, "The oxen were plowing and the asses grazing beside them,

¹⁵and the Sabeans carried them off in a raid. They put the herdsmen to the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you."

¹⁶While he was yet speaking, another came and said, "Lightning has fallen from heaven and struck the sheep and their shepherds and consumed them; and I alone have escaped to tell you."

¹⁷While he was yet speaking, another came and said, "The Chaldeans formed three columns, seized the camels, carried them off, and put those tending them to the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you."

¹⁸While he was yet speaking, another came and said, "Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their eldest brother,

¹⁹when suddenly a great wind came across the desert and smote the four corners of the house. It fell upon the young people and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you."

²⁰Then Job began to tear his cloak and cut off his hair. He cast himself prostrate upon the ground,

²¹and said, "Naked I came forth from my mother's womb, and naked shall I go back again. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD!"

²²In all this Job did not sin, nor did he say anything disrespectful of God.

2Once again the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them.

²And the LORD said to Satan, "Whence do you come?" And Satan answered the LORD and said, "From roaming the earth and patrolling it."

³And the LORD said to Satan, "Have you noticed my servant Job, and that there is no one on earth like him, faultless and upright, fearing God and avoiding evil? He still holds fast to his innocence although you incited me against him to ruin him without cause."

⁴And Satan answered the LORD and said, "Skin for skin! All that a man has will he give for his life.

⁵But now put forth your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and surely he will blaspheme you to your face."

⁶And the LORD said to Satan, "He is in your power; only spare his life."

⁷So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD and smote Job with severe boils from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.

⁸And he took a potsherd to scrape himself, as he sat among the ashes.

⁹Then his wife said to him, "Are you still holding to your innocence? Curse God and die."

¹⁰But he said to her, "Are even you going to speak as senseless women do? We accept good things from God; and should we not accept evil?" Through all this, Job said nothing sinful.

¹¹Now when three of Job's friends heard of all the misfortune that had come upon him, they set out each one from his own place: Eliphaz from Teman, Bildad from Shuh, and Zophar from Naamath. They met and journeyed together to give him sympathy and comfort.

¹²But when, at a distance, they lifted up their eyes and did not recognize him, they began to weep aloud; they tore their cloaks and threw dust upon their heads.

¹³Then they sat down upon the ground with him seven days and seven nights, but none of them spoke a word to him; for they saw how great was his suffering.

3After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed his day.

²Job spoke out and said:

³Perish the day on which I was born, the night when they said, "The child is a boy!"

⁴May that day be darkness: let not God above call for it, nor light shine upon it!

⁵May darkness and gloom claim it, clouds settle upon it, the blackness of night affright it!

⁶May obscurity seize that day; let it not occur among the days of the year, nor enter into the count of the months!

⁷May that night be barren; let no joyful outcry greet it!

⁸Let them curse it who curse the sea, the appointed disturbers of Leviathan!

⁹May the stars of its twilight be darkened; may it look for daylight, but have none, nor gaze on the eyes of the dawn,

¹⁰Because it kept not shut the doors of the womb to shield my eyes from trouble!

¹¹Why did I not perish at birth, come forth from the womb and expire?

¹²Wherefore did the knees receive me? or why did I suck at the breasts?

¹³For then I should have lain down and been tranquil; had I slept, I should then have been at rest

¹⁴With kings and counselors of the earth who built where now there are ruins

¹⁵Or with princes who had gold and filled their houses with silver.

¹⁶Or why was I not buried away like an untimely birth, like babes that have never seen the light?

¹⁷There the wicked cease from troubling, there the weary are at rest.

¹⁸There the captives are at ease together, and hear not the voice of the slave driver.

¹⁹Small and great are there the same, and the servant is free from his master.

²⁰Why is light given to the toilers, and life to the bitter in spirit?

²¹They wait for death and it comes not; they search for it rather than for hidden treasures,

²²Rejoice in it exultingly, and are glad when they reach the grave:

²³Men whose path is hidden from them, and whom God has hemmed in!

²⁴For sighing comes more readily to me than food, and my groans well forth like water.

²⁵For what I fear overtakes me, and what I shrink from comes upon me.

²⁶I have no peace nor ease; I have no rest, for trouble comes!

4Then spoke Eliphaz the Temanite, who said:

²If someone attempts a word with you, will you mind? For how can anyone refrain from speaking?

³Behold, you have instructed many, and have made firm their feeble hands.

⁴Your words have upheld the stumbler; you have strengthened his faltering knees.

⁵But now that it comes to you, you are impatient; when it touches yourself, you are dismayed.

⁶Is not your piety a source of confidence, and your integrity of life your hope?

⁷Reflect now, what innocent person perishes? Since when are the upright destroyed?

⁸As I see it, those who plow for mischief and sow trouble, reap the same.

⁹By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his wrath they are consumed.

¹⁰Though the lion roars, though the king of beasts cries out, yet the teeth of the young lions are broken;

¹¹The old lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

¹²For a word was stealthily brought to me, and my ear caught a whisper of it.

¹³In my thoughts during visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,

¹⁴Fear came upon me, and shuddering, that terrified me to the bones.

¹⁵Then a spirit passed before me, and the hair of my flesh stood up.

¹⁶It paused, but its likeness I could not discern; a figure was before my eyes, and I heard a still voice:

¹⁷"Can a man be righteous as against God? Can a mortal be blameless against his Maker?

¹⁸Lo, he puts no trust in his servants, and with his angels he can find fault.

¹⁹How much more with those that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed more easily than the moth!

²⁰Morning or evening they may be shattered; with no heed paid to it, they perish forever.

²¹The pegs of their tent are plucked up; they die without knowing wisdom."

5Call now! Will anyone respond to you? To which of the holy ones will you appeal?

²Nay, impatience kills the fool and indignation slays the simpleton.

³I have seen a fool spreading his roots, but his household suddenly decayed.

⁴His children shall be far from safety; they shall be crushed at the gate without a rescuer.

⁵What they have reaped the hungry shall eat up; (or God shall take it away by blight;) and the thirsty shall swallow their substance.

⁶For mischief comes not out of the earth, nor does trouble spring out of the ground;

⁷But man himself begets mischief, as sparks fly upward.

⁸In your place, I would appeal to God, and to God I would state my plea.

⁹

¹⁰He gives rain upon the earth and sends water upon the fields;

¹¹He sets up on high the lowly, and those who mourn he exalts to safety.

¹²He frustrates the plans of the cunning, so that their hands achieve no success;

¹³He catches the wise in their own ruses, and the designs of the crafty are routed.

¹⁴They meet with darkness in the daytime, and at noonday they grope as though it were night.

¹⁵But the poor from the edge of the sword and from the hand of the mighty, he saves.

¹⁶Thus the unfortunate have hope, and iniquity closes her mouth.

¹⁷Happy is the man whom God reproves! The Almighty's chastening do not reject.

¹⁸For he wounds, but he binds up; he smites, but his hands give healing.

¹⁹Out of six troubles he will deliver you, and at the seventh no evil shall touch you.

²⁰In famine he will deliver you from death, and in war from the threat of the sword;

²¹From the scourge of the tongue you shall be hidden, and shall not fear approaching ruin.

²²At destruction and want you shall laugh; the beasts of the earth you need not dread.

²³You shall be in league with the stones of the field, and the wild beasts shall be at peace with you.

²⁴And you shall know that your tent is secure; taking stock of your household, you shall miss nothing.

²⁵You shall know that your descendants are many, and your offspring as the grass of the earth.

²⁶You shall approach the grave in full vigor, as a shock of grain comes in at its season.

²⁷Lo, this we have searched out; so it is! This we have heard, and you should know.

6Then Job answered and said:

²Ah, could my anguish but be measured and my calamity laid with it in the scales,

³They would now outweigh the sands of the sea! Because of this I speak without restraint.

⁴For the arrows of the Almighty pierce me, and my spirit drinks in their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.

⁵Does the wild ass bray when he has grass? Does the ox low over his fodder?

⁶Can a thing insipid be eaten without salt? Is there flavor in the white of an egg?

⁷I refuse to touch them; they are loathsome food to me.

⁸Oh, that I might have my request, and that God would grant what I long for:

⁹Even that God would decide to crush me, that he would put forth his hand and cut me off!

¹⁰Then I should still have consolation and could exult through unremitting pain, because I have not transgressed the commands of the Holy One.

¹¹What strength have I that I should endure, and what is my limit that I should be patient?

¹²Have I the strength of stones, or is my flesh of bronze?

¹³Have I no helper, and has advice deserted me?

¹⁴A friend owes kindness to one in despair, though he have forsaken the fear of the Almighty.

¹⁵My brethren are undependable as a brook, as watercourses that run dry in the wadies;

¹⁶Though they may be black with ice, and with snow heaped upon them,

¹⁷Yet once they flow, they cease to be; in the heat, they disappear from their place.

¹⁸Caravans turn aside from their routes; they go into the desert and perish.

¹⁹The caravans of Tema search, the companies of Sheba have hopes;

²⁰They are disappointed, though they were confident; they come there and are frustrated.

²¹It is thus that you have now become for me; you see a terrifying thing and are afraid.

²²Have I asked you to give me anything, to offer a gift for me from your possessions,

²³Or to deliver me from the enemy, or to redeem me from oppressors?

²⁴Teach me, and I will be silent; prove to me wherein I have erred.

²⁵How agreeable are honest words; yet how unconvincing is your argument!

²⁶Do you consider your words as proof, but the sayings of a desperate man as wind?

²⁷You would even cast lots for the orphan, and would barter away your friend!

²⁸Come, now, give me your attention; surely I will not lie to your face.

²⁹Think it over; let there be no injustice. Think it over; I still am right.

³⁰Is there insincerity on my tongue, or cannot my taste discern falsehood?

7Is not man's life on earth a drudgery? Are not his days those of a hireling?

²He is a slave who longs for the shade, a hireling who waits for his wages.

³So I have been assigned months of misery, and troubled nights have been told off for me.

⁴If in bed I say, "When shall I arise?" then the night drags on; I am filled with restlessness until the dawn.

⁵My flesh is clothed with worms and scabs; my skin cracks and festers;

⁶My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle; they come to an end without hope.

⁷Remember that my life is like the wind; I shall not see happiness again.

⁸The eye that now sees me shall no more behold me; as you look at me, I shall be gone.

⁹As a cloud dissolves and vanishes, so he who goes down to the nether world shall come up no more.

¹⁰He shall not again return to his house; his place shall know him no more.

¹¹My own utterance I will not restrain; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

¹²Am I the sea, or a monster of the deep, that you place a watch over me? Why have you set me up as an object of attack; or why should I be a target for you?

¹³When I say, "My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint,"

¹⁴Then you affright me with dreams and with visions terrify me,

¹⁵So that I should prefer choking and death rather than my pains.

¹⁶I waste away: I cannot live forever; let me alone, for my days are but a breath.

¹⁷What is man, that you make much of him, or pay him any heed?

¹⁸You observe him with each new day and try him at every moment!

¹⁹How long will it be before you look away from me, and let me alone long enough to swallow my spittle?

²⁰Though I have sinned, what can I do to you, O watcher of men?

²¹Why do you not pardon my offense, or take away my guilt? For soon I shall lie down in the dust; and should you seek me I shall then be gone.

8Bildad the Shuhite spoke out and said:

²How long will you utter such things? The words from your mouth are like a mighty wind!

³Does God pervert judgment, and does the Almighty distort justice?

⁴If your children have sinned against him and he has left them in the grip of their guilt,

⁵Still, if you yourself have recourse to God and make supplication to the Almighty,

⁶Should you be blameless and upright, surely now he will awake for you and restore your rightful domain;

⁷Your former state will be of little moment, for in time to come you will flourish indeed.

⁸If you inquire of the former generations, and give heed to the experience of the fathers

⁹(As we are but of yesterday and have no knowledge, because our days on earth are but a shadow),

¹⁰Will they not teach you and tell you and utter their words of understanding?

¹¹Can the papyrus grow up without mire? Can the reed grass flourish without water?

¹²While it is yet green and uncut, it withers quicker than any grass.

¹³So is the end of everyone who forgets God, and so shall the hope of the godless man perish.

¹⁴His confidence is but a gossamer thread and his trust is a spider's web.

¹⁵He shall rely upon his family, but it shall not last; he shall cling to it, but it shall not endure.

¹⁶He is full of sap before sunrise, and beyond his garden his shoots go forth;

¹⁷About a heap of stones are his roots entwined; among the rocks he takes hold.

¹⁸Yet if one tears him from his place, it will disown him: "I have never seen you!"

¹⁹There he lies rotting beside the road, and out of the soil another sprouts.

²⁰Behold, God will not cast away the upright; neither will he take the hand of the wicked.

²¹Once more will he fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with rejoicing.

²²They that hate you shall be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked shall be no more.

9Then Job answered and said:

²I know well that it is so; but how can a man be justified before God?

³Should one wish to contend with him, he could not answer him once in a thousand times.

⁴God is wise in heart and mighty in strength; who has withstood him and remained unscathed?

⁵He removes the mountains before they know it; he overturns them in his anger.

⁶He shakes the earth out of its place, and the pillars beneath it tremble.

⁷He commands the sun, and it rises not; he seals up the stars.

⁸He alone stretches out the heavens and treads upon the crests of the sea.

⁹He made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the south;

¹⁰He does great things past finding out, marvelous things beyond reckoning.

¹¹Should he come near me, I see him not; should he pass by, I am not aware of him;

¹²Should he seize me forcibly, who can say him nay? Who can say to him, "What are you doing?"

¹³He is God and he does not relent; the helpers of Rahab bow beneath him.

¹⁴How much less shall I give him any answer, or choose out arguments against him!

¹⁵Even though I were right, I could not answer him, but should rather beg for what was due me.

¹⁶If I appealed to him and he answered my call, I could not believe that he would hearken to my words;

¹⁷With a tempest he might overwhelm me, and multiply my wounds without cause;

¹⁸He need not suffer me to draw breath, but might fill me with bitter griefs.

¹⁹If it be a question of strength, he is mighty; and if of judgment, who will call him to account?

²⁰Though I were right, my own mouth might condemn me; were I innocent, he might put me in the wrong.

²¹Though I am innocent, I myself cannot know it; I despise my life.

²²It is all one! therefore I say: Both the innocent and the wicked he destroys.

²³When the scourge slays suddenly, he laughs at the despair of the innocent.

²⁴The earth is given into the hands of the wicked; he covers the faces of its judges. If it is not he, who then is it?

²⁵My days are swifter than a runner, they flee away; they see no happiness;

²⁶They shoot by like skiffs of reed, like an eagle swooping upon its prey.

²⁷If I say: I will forget my complaining, I will lay aside my sadness and be of good cheer,

²⁸Then I am in dread of all my pains; I know that you will not hold me innocent.

²⁹If I must be accounted guilty, why then should I strive in vain?

³⁰If I should wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye,

³¹Yet you would plunge me in the ditch, so that my garments would abhor me.

³²For he is not a man like myself, that I should answer him, that we should come together in judgment.

³³Would that there were an arbiter between us, who could lay his hand upon us both

³⁴and withdraw his rod from me. Would that his terrors did not frighten me;

³⁵that I might speak without being afraid of him. Since this is not the case with me,

10I loathe my life. I will give myself up to complaint; I will speak from the bitterness of my soul.

²I will say to God: Do not put me in the wrong! Let me know why you oppose me.

³Is it a pleasure for you to oppress, to spurn the work of your hands, and smile on the plan of the wicked?

⁴Have you eyes of flesh? Do you see as man sees?

⁵Are your days as the days of a mortal, and are your years as a man's lifetime,

⁶That you seek for guilt in me and search after my sins,

⁷Even though you know that I am not wicked, and that none can deliver me out of your hand?

⁸Your hands have formed me and fashioned me; will you then turn and destroy me?

⁹Oh, remember that you fashioned me from clay! Will you then bring me down to dust again?

¹⁰Did you not pour me out as milk, and thicken me like cheese?

¹¹With skin and flesh you clothed me, with bones and sinews knit me together.

¹²Grace and favor you granted me, and your providence has preserved my spirit.

¹³Yet these things you have hidden in your heart; I know that they are your purpose:

¹⁴If I should sin, you would keep a watch against me, and from my guilt you would not absolve me.

¹⁵If I should be wicked, alas for me! if righteous, I dare not hold up my head, filled with ignominy and sodden with affliction!

¹⁶Should it lift up, you hunt me like a lion: repeatedly you show your wondrous power against me,

¹⁷You renew your attack upon me and multiply your harassment of me; in waves your troops come against me.

¹⁸Why then did you bring me forth from the womb? I should have died and no eye have seen me.

¹⁹I should be as though I had never lived; I should have been taken from the womb to the grave.

²⁰Are not the days of my life few? Let me alone, that I may recover a little

²¹Before I go whence I shall not return, to the land of darkness and of gloom,

²²The black, disordered land where darkness is the only light.

11And Zophar the Naamathite spoke out and said:

²Should not the man of many words be answered, or must the garrulous man necessarily be right?

³Shall your babblings keep men silent, and shall you deride and no one give rebuke?

⁴Shall you say: "My teaching is pure, and I am clean in your sight"?

⁵But oh, that God would speak, and open his lips against you,

⁶And tell you that the secrets of wisdom are twice as effective: So you might learn that God will make you answer for your guilt.

⁷Can you penetrate the designs of God? Dare you vie with the perfection of the Almighty?

⁸It is higher than the heavens; what can you do? It is deeper than the nether world; what can you know?

⁹It is longer than the earth in measure, and broader than the sea.

¹⁰If he seize and imprison or call to judgment, who then can say him nay?

¹¹For he knows the worthlessness of men and sees iniquity; will he then ignore it?

¹²Will empty man then gain understanding, and the wild jackass be made docile?

¹³If you set your heart aright and stretch out your hands toward him,

¹⁴If you remove all iniquity from your conduct, and let not injustice dwell in your tent,

¹⁵Surely then you may lift up your face in innocence; you may stand firm and unafraid.

¹⁶For then you shall forget your misery, or recall it like waters that have ebbed away.

¹⁷Then your life shall be brighter than the noonday; its gloom shall become as the morning,

¹⁸And you shall be secure, because there is hope; you shall look round you and lie down in safety,

¹⁹and you shall take your rest with none to disturb. Many shall entreat your favor,

²⁰but the wicked, looking on, shall be consumed with envy. Escape shall be cut off from them, they shall wait to expire.

12Then Job replied and said:

²No doubt you are the intelligent folk, and with you wisdom shall die!

³But I have intelligence as well as you; for who does not know such things as these?

⁴I have become the sport of my neighbors: "The one whom God answers when he calls upon him, The just, the perfect man," is a laughing-stock;

⁵The undisturbed esteem my downfall a disgrace such as awaits unsteady feet;

⁶Yet the tents of robbers are prosperous, and those who provoke God are secure.

⁷But now ask the beasts to teach you, and the birds of the air to tell you;

⁸Or the reptiles on earth to instruct you, and the fish of the sea to inform you.

⁹Which of all these does not know that the hand of God has done this?

¹⁰In his hand is the soul of every living thing, and the life breath of all mankind.

¹¹Does not the ear judge words as the mouth tastes food?

¹²So with old age is wisdom, and with length of days understanding.

¹³With him are wisdom and might; his are counsel and understanding.

¹⁴If he breaks a thing down, there is no rebuilding; if he imprisons a man, there is no release.

¹⁵He holds back the waters and there is drought; he sends them forth and they overwhelm the land.

¹⁶With him are strength and prudence; the misled and the misleaders are his.

¹⁷He sends counselors away barefoot, and of judges he makes fools.

¹⁸He loosens the bonds imposed by kings and leaves but a waistcloth to bind the king's own loins.

¹⁹and lets their never-failing waters flow away.

²⁰He silences the trusted adviser, and takes discretion from the aged.

²¹He breaks down the barriers of the streams

²²The recesses of the darkness he discloses, and brings the gloom forth to the light.

²³He makes nations great and he destroys them; he spreads peoples abroad and he abandons them.

²⁴He takes understanding from the leaders of the land,

²⁵till they grope in the darkness without light; he makes them stagger like drunken men.

13Lo, all this my eye has seen; my ear has heard and perceived it.

²What you know, I also know; I fall not short of you.

³But I would speak with the Almighty; I wish to reason with God.

⁴You are glossing over falsehoods and offering vain remedies, every one of you!

⁵Oh, that you would be altogether silent! This for you would be wisdom.

⁶Hear now the rebuke I shall utter and listen to the reproof from my lips.

⁷Is it for God that you speak falsehood? Is it for him that you utter deceit?

⁸Is it for him that you show partiality? Do you play advocate on behalf of God?

⁹Will it be well when he shall search you out? Would you impose on him as one does on men?

¹⁰He will openly rebuke you if even in secret you show partiality.

¹¹Surely will his majesty affright you and the dread of him fall upon you.

¹²Your reminders are ashy maxims, your fabrications are mounds of clay.

¹³Be silent, let me alone! that I may speak and give vent to my feelings.

¹⁴I will carry my flesh between my teeth, and take my life in my hand.

¹⁵Slay me though he might, I will wait for him; I will defend my conduct before him.

¹⁶And this shall be my salvation, that no impious man can come into his presence.

¹⁷Pay careful heed to my speech, and give my statement a hearing.

¹⁸Behold, I have prepared my case, I know that I am in the right.

¹⁹If anyone can make a case against me, then I shall be silent and die.

²⁰These things only do not use against me, then from your presence I need not hide:

²¹Withdraw your hand far from me, and let not the terror of you frighten me.

²²Then call me, and I will respond; or let me speak first, and answer me.

²³What are my faults and my sins? My misdeeds and my sins make known to me!

²⁴Why do you hide your face and consider me your enemy?

²⁵Will you harass a wind-driven leaf, or pursue a withered straw?

²⁶For you draw up bitter indictments against me, and punish in me the faults of my youth.

²⁷You put my feet in the stocks; you watch all my paths and trace out all my footsteps.

²⁸Though he wears out like a leather bottle, like a garment that the moth has consumed?

14Man born of woman is short-lived and full of trouble,

²Like a flower that springs up and fades, swift as a shadow that does not abide.

³Upon such a one will you cast your eyes so as to bring him into judgment before you,

⁴Can a man be found who is clean of defilement? There is none,

⁵however short his days. You know the number of his months; you have fixed the limit which he cannot pass.

⁶Look away from him and let him be, while, like a hireling, he completes his day.

⁷For a tree there is hope, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again and that its tender shoots will not cease.

⁸Even though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump die in the dust,

⁹Yet at the first whiff of water it may flourish again and put forth branches like a young plant.

¹⁰But when a man dies, all vigor leaves him; when man expires, where then is he?

¹¹As when the waters of a lake fail, or a stream grows dry and parches,

¹²So men lie down and rise not again. Till the heavens are no more, they shall not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep.

¹³Oh, that you would hide me in the nether world and keep me sheltered till your wrath is past; would fix a time for me, and then remember me!

¹⁴When a man has died, were he to live again, all the days of my drudgery I would wait, until my relief should come.

¹⁵You would call, and I would answer you; you would esteem the work of your hands.

¹⁶Surely then you would count my steps, and not keep watch for sin in me.

¹⁷My misdeeds would be sealed up in a pouch, and you would cover over my guilt.

¹⁸But as a mountain falls at last and its rock is moved from its place,

¹⁹As waters wear away the stones and floods wash away the soil of the land, so you destroy the hope of man.

²⁰You prevail once for all against him and he passes on; with changed appearance you send him away.

²¹If his sons are honored, he is not aware of it; if they are in disgrace, he does not know about them.

²²Only his own flesh pains him, and his soul grieves for him.

15Then Eliphaz the Temanite spoke and said:

²Should a wise man answer with airy opinions, or puff himself up with wind?

³Should he argue in speech which does not avail, and in words which are to no profit?

⁴You in fact do away with piety, and you lessen devotion toward God,

⁵Because your wickedness instructs your mouth, and you choose to speak like the crafty.

⁶Your own mouth condemns you, not I; you own lips refute you.

⁷Are you indeed the first-born of mankind, or were you brought forth before the hills?

⁸Are you privy to the counsels of God, and do you restrict wisdom to yourself?

⁹What do you know that we do not know? What intelligence have you which we have not?

¹⁰There are gray-haired old men among us more advanced in years than your father.

¹¹Are the consolations of God not enough for you, and speech that deals gently with you?

¹²Why do your notions carry you away, and why do your eyes blink,

¹³So that you turn your anger against God and let such words escape your mouth!

¹⁴What is a man that he should be blameless, one born of woman that he should be righteous?

¹⁵If in his holy ones God places no confidence, and if the heavens are not clean in his sight,

¹⁶How much less so is the abominable, the corrupt: man, who drinks in iniquity like water!

¹⁷I will show you, if you listen to me; what I have seen I will tell--

¹⁸What wise men relate and have not contradicted since the days of their fathers,

¹⁹To whom alone the land was given, when no foreigner moved among them.

²⁰The wicked man is in torment all his days, and limited years are in store for the tyrant;

²¹The sound of terrors is in his ears; when all is prosperous, the spoiler comes upon him.

²²He despairs of escaping the darkness, and looks ever for the sword;

²³A wanderer, food for the vultures, he knows that his destruction is imminent.

²⁴By day the darkness fills him with dread; distress and anguish overpower him.

²⁵Because he has stretched out his hand against God and bade defiance to the Almighty,

²⁶One shall rush sternly upon him with the stout bosses of his shield, like a king prepared for the charge.

²⁷Because he has blinded himself with his crassness, padding his loins with fat,

²⁸He shall dwell in ruinous cities, in houses that are deserted, That are crumbling into clay

²⁹with no shadow to lengthen over the ground. He shall not be rich, and his possessions shall not endure;

³⁰A flame shall wither him up in his early growth, and with the wind his blossoms shall disappear.

³¹for vain shall be his bartering.

³²His stalk shall wither before its time, and his branches shall be green no more.

³³He shall be like a vine that sheds its grapes unripened, and like an olive tree casting off its bloom.

³⁴For the breed of the impious shall be sterile, and fire shall consume the tents of extortioners.

³⁵They conceive malice and bring forth emptiness; they give birth to failure.

16Then Job answered and said:

²I have heard this sort of thing many times. Wearisome comforters are you all!

³Is there no end to windy words? Or what sickness have you that you speak on?

⁴I also could talk as you do, were you in my place. I could declaim over you, or wag my head at you;

⁵I could strengthen you with talk, or shake my head with silent lips.

⁶If I speak, this pain I have will not be checked; if I leave off, it will not depart from me.

⁷But now that I am exhausted and stunned, all my company has closed in on me.

⁸As a witness there rises up my traducer, speaking openly against me;

⁹I am the prey his wrath assails, he gnashes his teeth against me. My enemies lord it over me;

¹⁰their mouths are agape to bite me. They smite me on the cheek insultingly; they are all enlisted against me.

¹¹God has given me over to the impious; into the clutches of the wicked he has cast me.

¹²I was in peace, but he dislodged me; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces. He has set me up for a target;

¹³his arrows strike me from all directions, He pierces my sides without mercy, he pours out my gall upon the ground.

¹⁴He pierces me with thrust upon thrust; he attacks me like a warrior.

¹⁵I have fastened sackcloth over my skin, and have laid my brow in the dust.

¹⁶My face is inflamed with weeping and there is darkness over my eyes,

¹⁷Although my hands are free from violence, and my prayer is sincere.

¹⁸O earth, cover not my blood, nor let my outcry come to rest!

¹⁹Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my spokesman is on high.

²⁰My friends it is who wrong me; before God my eyes drop tears,

²¹That he may do justice for a mortal in his presence and decide between a man and his neighbor.

²²For my years are numbered now, and I am on a journey from which I shall not return.

17My spirit is broken, my lamp of life extinguished; my burial is at hand.

²I am indeed mocked, and, as their provocation mounts, my eyes grow dim.

³Grant me one to offer you a pledge on my behalf: who is there that will give surety for me?

⁴You darken their minds to knowledge; therefore they do not understand.

⁵My lot is described as evil,

⁶and I am made a byword of the people; their object lesson I have become.

⁷My eye has grown blind with anguish, and all my frame is shrunken to a shadow.

⁸Upright men are astonished at this, and the innocent aroused against the wicked.

⁹Yet the righteous shall hold to his way, and he who has clean hands increase in strength.

¹⁰But turn now, and come on again; for I shall not find a wise man among you!

¹¹My days are passed away, my plans are at an end, the cherished purposes of my heart.

¹²Such men change the night into day; where there is darkness they talk of approaching light.

¹³If I look for the nether world as my dwelling, if I spread my couch in the darkness,

¹⁴If I must call corruption "my father," and the maggot "my mother" and "my sister,"

¹⁵Where then is my hope, and my prosperity, who shall see?

¹⁶Will they descend with me into the nether world? Shall we go down together into the dust?

18Then Bildad the Shuhite replied and said:

²When will you put an end to words? Reflect, and then we can have discussion.

³Why are we accounted like the beasts, their equals in your sight?

⁴You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be neglected on your account (or the rock be moved out of its place)?

⁵Truly, the light of the wicked is extinguished; no flame brightens his hearth.

⁶The light is darkened in his tent; in spite of him, his lamp goes out.

⁷His vigorous steps are hemmed in, and his own counsel casts him down.

⁸For he rushes headlong into a net, and he wanders into a pitfall.

⁹A trap seizes him by the heel, and a snare lays hold of him.

¹⁰A noose for him is hid on the ground, and the toils for him on the way.

¹¹On every side terrors affright him; they harry him at each step.

¹²Disaster is ready at his side,

¹³the first-born of death consumes his limbs.

¹⁴Fiery destruction lodges in his tent, and marches him off to the king of terrors. He is plucked from the security of his tent;

¹⁵over his abode brimstone is scattered.

¹⁶Below, his roots dry up, and above, his branches wither.

¹⁷His memory perishes from the land, and he has no name on the earth.

¹⁸He is driven from light into darkness, and banished out of the world.

¹⁹He has neither son nor grandson among his people, nor any survior where once he dwelt.

²⁰They who come after shall be appalled at his fate; they who went before are struck with horror.

²¹So is it then with the dwelling of the impious man, and such is the place of him who knows not God!

19Then Job answered and said:

²How long will you vex my soul, grind me down with words?

³These ten times you have reviled me, have assailed me without shame!

⁴Be it indeed that I am at fault and that my fault remains with me,

⁵Even so, if you would vaunt yourselves against me and cast up to me any reproach,

⁶Know then that God has dealt unfairly with me, and compassed me round with his net.

⁷If I cry out "Injustice!" I am not heard. I cry for help, but there is no redress.

⁸He has barred my way and I cannot pass; he has veiled my path in darkness;

⁹He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the diadem from my brow.

¹⁰He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone; my hope he has uprooted like a tree.

¹¹His wrath he has kindled against me; he counts me among his enemies.

¹²His troops advance as one man; they build up their road to attack me, and they encamp around my tent.

¹³My brethren have withdrawn from me, and my friends are wholly estranged.

¹⁴My kinsfolk and companions neglect me, and my guests have forgotten me.

¹⁵Even my handmaids treat me as a stranger; I am an alien in their sight.

¹⁶I call my servant, but he gives no answer, though in my speech I plead with him.

¹⁷My breath is abhorred by my wife; I am loathsome to the men of my family.

¹⁸The young children, too, despise me; when I appear, they speak against me.

¹⁹All my intimate friends hold me in horror; those whom I loved have turned against me!

²⁰My bones cleave to my skin, and I have escaped with my flesh between my teeth.

²¹Pity me, pity me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has struck me!

²²Why do you hound me as though you were divine, and insatiably prey upon me?

²³Oh, would that my words were written down! Would that they were inscribed in a record:

²⁴That with an iron chisel and with lead they were cut in the rock forever!

²⁵But as for me, I know that my Vindicator lives, and that he will at last stand forth upon the dust;

²⁶And from my flesh I shall see God; my inmost being is consumed with longing.

²⁷Whom I myself shall see: my own eyes, not another's, shall behold him,

²⁸But you who say, "How shall we persecute him, seeing that the root of the matter is found in him?"

²⁹Be afraid of the sword for yourselves, for these crimes deserve the sword; that you may know that there is a judgment.

20Then Zophar the Naamathite spoke and said:

²and because of this I am disturbed. So now my thoughts provide me with an answer, and from my understanding a spirit gives me a reply.

³A rebuke which puts me to shame I hear,

⁴Do you not know this from olden time, since man was placed upon the earth,

⁵That the triumph of the wicked is short and the joy of the impious but for a moment?

⁶Though his pride mount up to the heavens and his head reach to the clouds,

⁷Yet he perishes forever like the fuel of his fire, and the onlookers say, "Where is he?"

⁸Like a dream he takes flight and is not found again; he fades away like a vision of the night.

⁹The eye which saw him does so no more; nor shall his dwelling again behold him.

¹⁰and his hands shall yield up his riches.

¹¹Though his frame is full of youthful vigor, this shall lie with him in the dust.

¹²Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, and he hides it under his tongue,

¹³Though he retains it and will not let it go but keeps it still within his mouth,

¹⁴Yet in his stomach the food shall turn; it shall be venom of asps inside him.

¹⁵The riches he swallowed he shall disgorge; God shall compel his belly to disown them.

¹⁶The poison of asps he shall drink in; the viper's fangs shall slay him.

¹⁷He shall see no streams of oil, no torrents of honey or milk.

¹⁸Restoring his gains, he shall not enjoy them; though his wealth increases, he shall not rejoice.

¹⁹Because he has oppressed the poor, and stolen a patrimony he had not built up,

²⁰Though he has known no quiet in his greed, his treasures shall not save him.

²¹Therefore his prosperity shall not endure,

²²When he abounds to overflowing, he shall be brought into straits, and nought shall be left of his goods.

²³God shall send against him the fury of his wrath and rain down his missiles of war upon him.

²⁴Should he escape the iron weapon, the bow of bronze shall pierce him through;

²⁵The dart shall come out of his back; terrors shall fall upon him.

²⁶Complete darkness is in store for him; the fire which shall consume him needs not to be fanned.

²⁷The heavens shall reveal his guilt, and the earth shall rise up against him.

²⁸The flood shall sweep away his house with the waters that run off in the day of God's anger.

²⁹This is the portion of a wicked man, and the heritage appointed him by God.

21Then Job said in reply:

²At least listen to my words, and let that be the consolation you offer.

³Bear with me while I speak; and after I have spoken, you can mock!

⁴Is my complaint toward man? And why should I not be impatient?

⁵Look at me and be astonished, put your hands over your mouths.

⁶When I think of it, I am dismayed, and horror takes hold on my flesh.

⁷Why do the wicked survive, grow old, become mighty in power?

⁸Their progeny is secure in their sight; they see before them their kinsfolk and their offspring.

⁹Their homes are safe and without fear, nor is the scourge of God upon them.

¹⁰Their bulls gender without fail; their cows calve and do not miscarry.

¹¹These folk have infants numerous as lambs, and their children dance.

¹²They sing to the timbrel and harp, and make merry to the sound of the flute.

¹³They live out their days in prosperity, and tranquilly go down to the nether world.

¹⁴Yet they say to God, "Depart from us, for we have no wish to learn your ways!

¹⁵What is the Almighty that we should serve him? And what gain shall we have if we pray to him?"

¹⁶If their happiness is not in their own hands and if the counsel of the wicked is repulsive to God,

¹⁷How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? How often does destruction come upon them, the portion he allots in his anger?

¹⁸Let them be like straw before the wind, and like chaff which the storm snatches away!

¹⁹May God not store up the man's misery for his children; let him requite the man himself so that he feels it,

²⁰Let his own eyes see the calamity, and the wrath of the Almighty let him drink!

²¹For what interest has he in his family after him, when the number of his months is finished?

²²Can anyone teach God knowledge, seeing that he judges those on high?

²³One dies in his full vigor, wholly at ease and content;

²⁴His figure is full and nourished, and his bones are rich in marrow.

²⁵Another dies in bitterness of soul, having never tasted happiness.

²⁶Alike they lie down in the dust, and worms cover them both.

²⁷Behold, I know your thoughts, and the arguments you rehearse against me.

²⁸For you say, "Where is the house of the magnate, and where the dwelling place of the wicked?"

²⁹Have you not asked the wayfarers and do you not recognize their monuments?

³⁰Nay, the evil man is spared calamity when it comes;

³¹Who will charge him with his conduct to his face, and for what he has done who will repay him?

³²and on the day he is carried to the grave

³³Sweet to him are the clods of the valley, and over him the funeral mound keeps watch, While all the line of mankind follows him, and the countless others who have gone before.

³⁴How then can you offer me vain comfort, while in your answers perfidy remains?

22Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

²Can a man be profitable to God? Though to himself a wise man be profitable!

³Is it of advantage to the Almighty if you are just? Or is it a gain to him if you make your ways perfect?

⁴Is it because of your piety that he reproves you-- that he enters with you into judgment?

⁵Is not your wickedness manifold? Are not your iniquities endless?

⁶You have unjustly kept your kinsmen's goods in pawn, left them stripped naked of their clothing.

⁷To the thirsty you have given no water to drink, and from the hungry you have withheld bread;

⁸As if the land belonged to the man of might, and only the privileged were to dwell in it.

⁹You have sent widows away empty-handed, and the resources of orphans you have destroyed.

¹⁰Therefore snares are round about you, and a sudden terror causes you dismay,

¹¹Or darkness, in which you cannot see; a deluge of waters covers you.

¹²Does not God, in the heights of the heavens, behold the stars, high though they are?

¹³Yet you say, "What does God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness?

¹⁴Clouds hide him so that he cannot see; he walks upon the vault of the heavens!"

¹⁵Do you indeed keep to the ancient way trodden by worthless men,

¹⁶Who were snatched away before their time; whose foundations a flood swept away?

¹⁷These men said to God, "Depart from us!" and, "What can the Almighty do to us?"

¹⁸(Yet he had filled their houses with good things! But far be from me the mind of the impious!)

¹⁹The just look on and are gladdened, and the innocent deride them:

²⁰"Truly these have been destroyed where they stood, and such as were left, fire has consumed!"

²¹Come to terms with him to be at peace. In this shall good come to you:

²²Receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart.

²³If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored; if you put iniquity far from your tent,

²⁴And treat raw gold like dust, and the fine gold of Ophir as pebbles from the brook,

²⁵Then the Almighty himself shall be your gold and your sparkling silver.

²⁶For then you shall delight in the Almighty and you shall lift up your face toward God.

²⁷You shall entreat him and he will hear you, and your vows you shall fulfill.

²⁸When you make a decision, it shall succeed for you, and upon your ways the light shall shine.

²⁹For he brings down the pride of the haughty, but the man of humble mien he saves.

³⁰God delivers him who is innocent; you shall be delivered through cleanness of hands.

23Again Job answered and said:

²Though I know my complaint is bitter, his hand is heavy upon me in my groanings.

³Oh, that today I might find him, that I might come to his judgment seat!

⁴I would set out my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments;

⁵I would learn the words with which he would answer, and understand what he would reply to me.

⁶Even should he contend against me with his great power, yet, would that he himself might heed me!

⁷There the upright man might reason with him, and I should once and for all preserve my rights.

⁸But if I go to the east, he is not there; or to the west, I cannot perceive him;

⁹Where the north enfolds him, I behold him not; by the south he is veiled, and I see him not.

¹⁰Yet he knows my way; if he proved me, I should come forth as gold.

¹¹My foot has always walked in his steps; his way I have kept and have not turned aside.

¹²From the commands of his lips I have not departed; the words of his mouth I have treasured in my heart.

¹³But he had decided, and who can say him nay? What he desires, that he does.

¹⁴For he will carry out what is appointed for me; and many such things may yet be in his mind.

¹⁵Therefore am I dismayed before him; when I take thought, I fear him.

¹⁶Indeed God has made my courage fail; the Almighty has put me in dismay.

¹⁷Yes, would that I had vanished in darkness, and that thick gloom were before me to conceal me.

24Why are not times set by the Almighty, and why do his friends not see his days?

²The wicked remove landmarks; they steal away herds and pasture them.

³The asses of orphans they drive away; they take the widow's ox for a pledge.

⁴They force the needy off the road; all the poor of the land are driven into hiding.

⁵Like wild asses in the desert, these go forth to their task of seeking food; The steppe provides food for the young among them;

⁶they harvest at night in the untilled land.

⁷They pass the night naked, without clothing, for they have no covering against the cold;

⁸They are drenched with the rain of the mountains, and for want of shelter they cling to the rock.

¹⁰and famished are those who carry the sheaves.

¹¹Between the rows they press out the oil; they glean in the the vineyard of the wicked. They tread the wine presses, yet suffer thirst,

¹²From the dust the dying groan, and the souls of the wounded cry out (yet God does not treat it as unseemly).

¹³There are those who are rebels against the light; they know not its ways; they abide not in its paths.

¹⁴When there is no light the murderer rises, to kill the poor and needy.

¹⁵The eye of the adulterer watches for the twilight; he says, "No eye will see me." In the night the thief roams about, and he puts a mask over his face;

¹⁶in the dark he breaks into houses. By day they shut themselves in; none of them know the light,

¹⁷for daylight they regard as darkness.

¹⁸Their portion in the land is accursed,

²⁰and wickedness is splintered like wood.

²²To him who rises without assurance of his life

²³he gives safety and support. He sustains the mighty by his strength, and his eyes are on their ways.

²⁴They are exalted for a while, and then they are gone; they are laid low and, like all others, are gathered up; like ears of grain they shrivel.

²⁵If this be not so, who will confute me, and reduce my argument to nought?

25Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

²Dominion and awesomeness are his who brings about harmony in his heavens.

³Is there any numbering of his troops? Yet to which of them does not his light extend?

⁴How can a man be just in God's sight, or how can any woman's child be innocent?

⁵Behold, even the moon is not bright and the stars are not clear in his sight.

⁶How much less man, who is but a maggot, the son of man, who is only a worm?

26Then Job spoke again and said:

²What help you give to the powerless, what strength to the feeble arm!

³How you counsel, as though he had no wisdom; how profuse is the advice you offer!

⁴With whose help have you uttered those words, and whose is the breath that comes forth from you?

⁵The shades beneath writhe in terror, the waters, and their inhabitants.

⁶Naked before him is the nether world, and Abaddon has no covering.

⁷He stretches out the North over empty space, and suspends the earth over nothing at all;

⁸He binds up the waters in his clouds, yet the cloud is not rent by their weight;

⁹He holds back the appearance of the full moon by spreading his clouds before it.

¹⁰He has marked out a circle on the surface of the deep as the boundary of light and darkness.

¹¹The pillars of the heavens tremble and are stunned at his thunderous rebuke;

¹²By his power he stirs up the sea, and by his might he crushes Rahab;

¹³With his angry breath he scatters the waters, and he hurls the lightning against them relentlessly; His hand pierces the fugitive dragon as from his hand it strives to flee.

¹⁴Lo, these are but the outlines of his ways, and how faint is the word we hear!

²As God lives, who withholds my deserts, the Almighty, who has made bitter my soul,

³So long as I still have life in me and the breath of God is in my nostrils,

⁴My lips shall not speak falsehood, nor my tongue utter deceit!

⁵Far be it from me to account you right; till I die I will not renounce my innocence.

⁶My justice I maintain and I will not relinquish it; my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.

⁷Let my enemy be as the wicked and my adversary as the unjust!

⁸For what can the impious man expect when he is cut off, when God requires his life?

⁹Will God then attend to his cry when calamity comes upon him?

¹⁰Will he then delight in the Almighty and call upon him constantly?

¹¹I will teach you the manner of God's dealings, and the way of the Almighty I will not conceal.

¹²Behold, you yourselves have all seen it; why then do you spend yourselves in idle words!

¹³This is the portion of a wicked man from God, the inheritance an oppressor receives from the Almighty:

¹⁴Though his children be many, the sword is their destiny. His offspring shall not be filled with bread.

¹⁵His survivors, when they die, shall have no burial, and their widows shall not be mourned.

¹⁶Though he heap up silver like dust and store away mounds of clothing,

¹⁷What he has stored the just man shall wear, and the innocent shall divide the silver.

¹⁸He builds his house as of cobwebs, or like a booth put up by the vine-keeper.

¹⁹He lies down a rich man, one last time; he opens his eyes and nothing remains to him.

²⁰Terrors rush upon him by day; at night the tempest carries him off.

²¹The storm wind seizes him and he disappears; it sweeps him out of his place.

28There is indeed a mine for silver, and a place for gold which men refine.

²Iron is taken from the earth, and copper is melted out of stone.

³He has set a boundary for the darkness; to the farthest confines he penetrates.

⁵The earth, though out of it comes forth bread, is in fiery upheaval underneath.

⁶Its stones are the source of sapphires, and there is gold in its dust.

⁷The path to it no bird of prey knows, nor has the hawk's eye seen that path.

⁸The proud beasts have not trodden it, nor has the lion gone that way.

⁹He sets his hand to the flinty rock, and overturns the mountains at their foundations.

¹⁰He splits channels in the rocks; his eyes behold all that is precious.

¹¹He probes the wellsprings of the streams, and brings hidden things to light.

¹²But whence can wisdom be obtained, and where is the place of understanding?

¹³Man knows nothing to equal it, nor is it to be had in the land of the living.

¹⁴The abyss declares, "It is not in me"; and the sea says, "I have it not."

¹⁵Solid gold cannot purchase it, nor can its price be paid with silver.

¹⁶It cannot be bought with gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx or the sapphire.

¹⁷Gold or crystal cannot equal it, nor can golden vessels reach its worth.

¹⁸Neither coral nor jasper should be thought of; it surpasses pearls and

¹⁹Arabian topaz.

²⁰Whence, then, comes wisdom, and where is the place of understanding?

²¹It is hid from the eyes of any beast; from the birds of the air it is concealed.

²²Abaddon and Death say, "Only by rumor have we heard of it."

²³God knows the way to it; it is he who is familiar with its place.

²⁴For he beholds the ends of the earth and sees all that is under the heavens.

²⁵He has weighed out the wind, and fixed the scope of the waters;

²⁶When he made rules for the rain and a path for the thunderbolts,

²⁷Then he saw wisdom and appraised it, gave it its setting, knew it through and through.

²⁸And to man he said: Behold, the fear of the LORD is wisdom; and avoiding evil is understanding.

29Job took up his theme anew and said;

²Oh, that I were as in the months past! as in the days when God watched over me,

³While he kept his lamp shining above my head, and by his light I walked through darkness;

⁴As I was in my flourishing days, when God sheltered my tent;

⁵When the Almighty was yet with me, and my children were round about me;

⁶When my footsteps were bathed in milk, and the rock flowed with streams of oil;

⁷When I went forth to the gate of the city and set up my seat in the square-

⁸Then the young men saw me and withdrew, while the elders rose up and stood;

⁹The chief men refrained from speaking and covered their mouths with their hands;

¹⁰The voice of the princes was silenced, and their tongues stuck to the roofs of their mouths.

¹¹Whoever heard of me blessed me; those who saw me commended me.

¹²For I rescued the poor who cried out for help, the orphans, and the unassisted;

¹³The blessing of those in extremity came upon me, and the heart of the widow I made joyful.

¹⁴I wore my honesty like a garment; justice was my robe and my turban.

¹⁵I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame was I;

¹⁶I was a father to the needy; the rights of the stranger I studied,

¹⁷And I broke the jaws of the wicked man; from his teeth I forced the prey.

¹⁸Then I said: "In my own nest I shall grow old; I shall multiply years like the phoenix.

¹⁹My root is spread out to the waters; the dew rests by night on my branches.

²⁰My glory is fresh within me, and my bow is renewed in my hand!"

²¹For me they listened and waited; they were silent for my counsel.

²²Once I spoke, they said no more, but received my pronouncement drop by drop.

²³They waited for me as for the rain; they drank in my words like the spring rains.

²⁴When I smiled on them they were reassured;

²⁵mourners took comfort from my cheerful glance. I chose out their way and presided; I took a king's place in the armed forces.

30But now they hold me in derision who are younger in years than I; Whose fathers I should have disdained to rank with the dogs of my flock.

²Such strength as they had, to me meant nought; they were utterly destitute.

³In want and hunger was their lot, they who fled to the parched wastelands:

⁴They plucked saltwort and shrubs; the roots of the broom plant were their food.

⁵They were banished from among men, with an outcry like that against a thief--

⁶To dwell on the slopes of the wadies, in caves of sand and stone;

⁷Among the bushes they raised their raucous cry; under the nettles they huddled together.

⁸Irresponsible, nameless men, they were driven out of the land.

⁹Yet now they sing of me in mockery; I am become a byword among them.

¹⁰They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, they do not hesitate to spit in my face!

¹¹Indeed, they have loosed their bonds; they lord it over me, and have thrown off restraint in my presence.

¹²To subvert my paths they rise up; they build their approaches for my ruin.

¹³To destroy me, they attack with none to stay them;

¹⁴as through a wide breach they advance. Amid the uproar they come on in waves;

¹⁵over me rolls the terror. My dignity is borne off on the wind, and my welfare vanishes like a cloud.

¹⁶My soul ebbs away from me;

¹⁷My frame takes no rest by night; my inward parts seethe and will not be stilled.

¹⁸One with great power lays hold of my clothing; by the collar of my tunic he seizes me:

¹⁹He has cast me into the mire; I am leveled with the dust and ashes.

²⁰I cry to you, but you do not answer me; you stand off and look at me,

²¹Then you turn upon me without mercy and with your strong hand you buffet me.

²²You raise me up and drive me before the wind; I am tossed about by the tempest.

²³Indeed I know you will turn me back in death to the destined place of everyone alive.

²⁴Yet should not a hand be held out to help a wretched man in his calamity?

²⁵Or have I not wept for the hardships of others; was not my soul grieved for the destitute?

²⁶Yet when I looked for good, then evil came; when I expected light, then came darkness.

²⁷days of affliction have overtaken me.

²⁸I go about in gloom, without the sun; I rise up in public to voice my grief.

²⁹I have become the brother of jackals, companion to the ostrich.

³⁰My blackened skin falls away from me; the heat scorches my very frame.

³¹My harp is turned to mourning, and my reed pipe to sounds of weeping.

31If I have made an agreement with my eyes and entertained any thoughts against a maiden;

²But what is man's lot from God above, his inheritance from the Almighty on high?

³Is it not calamity for the unrighteous, and woe for evildoers?

⁴Does he not see my ways, and number all my steps?

⁵If I have walked in falsehood and my foot has hastened to deceit;

⁶Let God weigh me in the scales of justice; thus will he know my innocence!

⁷If my steps have turned out of the way, and my heart has followed my eyes, or any stain clings to my hands,

⁸Then may I sow, but another eat of it, or may my planting be rooted up!

⁹If my heart has been enticed toward a woman, and I have lain in wait at my neighbor's door;

¹⁰Then may my wife grind for another, and may others cohabit with her!

¹¹For that would be heinous, a crime to be condemned;

¹²A fire that should burn down to the abyss till it consumed all my possessions to the roots.

¹³Had I refused justice to my manservant or to my maid, when they had a claim against me,

¹⁴What then should I do when God rose up; what could I answer when he demanded an account?

¹⁵Did not he who made me in the womb make him? Did not the same One fashion us before our birth?

¹⁶If I have denied anything to the poor, or allowed the eyes of the widow to languish

¹⁷While I ate my portion alone, with no share in it for the fatherless,

¹⁸Though like a father God has reared me from my youth, guiding me even from my mother's womb--

¹⁹If I have seen a wanderer without clothing, or a poor man without covering,

²⁰Whose limbs have not blessed me when warmed with the fleece of my sheep;

²¹If I have raised my hand against the innocent because I saw that I had supporters at the gate--

²²Then may my arm fall from the shoulder, my forearm be broken at the elbow!

²³For the dread of God will be upon me, and his majesty will overpower me.

²⁴Had I put my trust in gold or called fine gold my security;

²⁵Or had I rejoiced that my wealth was great, or that my hand had acquired abundance--

²⁶Had I looked upon the sun as it shone, or the moon in the splendor of its progress,

²⁷And had my heart been secretly enticed to waft them a kiss with my hand;

²⁸This too would be a crime for condemnation, for I should have denied God above.

²⁹Had I rejoiced at the destruction of my enemy or exulted when evil fell upon him,

³⁰Even though I had not suffered my mouth to sin by uttering a curse against his life--

³¹Had not the men of my tent exclaimed, "Who has not been fed with his meat!"

³²Because no stranger lodged in the street, but I opened my door to wayfarers--

³³Had I, out of human weakness, hidden my sins and buried my guilt in my bosom

³⁴Because I feared the noisy multitude and the scorn of the tribes terrified me- then I should have remained silent, and not come out of doors!

³⁵Oh, that I had one to hear my case, and that my accuser would write out his indictment!

³⁶Surely, I should wear it on my shoulder or put it on me like a diadem;

³⁷Of all my steps I should give him an account; like a prince I should present myself before him. This is my final plea; let the Almighty answer me! The words of Job are ended.

³⁸If my land has cried out against me till its very furrows complained;

³⁹If I have eaten its produce without payment and grieved the hearts of its tenants;

⁴⁰Then let the thistles grow instead of wheat and noxious weeds instead of barley!

32Then the three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.

²But the anger of Elihu, son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, was kindled. He was angry with Job for considering himself rather than God to be in the right.

³He was angry also with the three friends because they had not found a good answer and had not condemned Job.

⁴But since these men were older than he, Elihu bided his time before addressing Job.

⁵When, however, Elihu saw that there was no reply in the mouths of the three men, his wrath was inflamed.

⁶So Elihu, son of Barachel the Buzite, spoke out and said: I am young and you are very old; therefore I held back and was afraid to declare to you my knowledge.

⁷Days should speak, I thought, and many years teach wisdom!

⁸But it is a spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.

⁹It is not those of many days who are wise, nor the aged who understand the right.

¹⁰Therefore I say, hearken to me; let me too set forth my knowledge!

¹¹Behold, I have waited for your discourses, and have given ear to your arguments.

¹²Yes, I followed you attentively as you searched out what to say; And behold, there is none who has convicted Job, not one of you who could refute his statements.

¹³Yet do not say, "We have met wisdom. God may vanquish him but not man!"

¹⁴For had he addressed his words to me, I should not then have answered him as you have done.

¹⁵They are dismayed, they make no more reply; words fail them.

¹⁶Must I wait? Now that they speak no more, and have ceased to make reply,

¹⁷I too will speak my part; I also will show my knowledge!

¹⁸For I am full of matters to utter; the spirit within me compels me.

¹⁹Like a new wineskin with wine under pressure, my bosom is ready to burst.

²⁰Let me speak and obtain relief; let me open my lips, and make reply.

²¹I would not be partial to anyone, nor give flattering titles to any.

²²For I know nought of flattery; if I did, my Maker would soon take me away.

33Therefore, O Job, hear my discourse, and hearken to all my words.

²Behold, now I open my mouth; my tongue and my voice form words.

³I will state directly what is in my mind, my lips shall utter knowledge sincerely;

⁴For the spirit of God has made me, the breath of the Almighty keeps me alive.

⁵If you are able, refute me; draw up your arguments and stand forth.

⁶Behold I, like yourself, have been taken from the same clay by God.

⁷Therefore no fear of me should dismay you, nor should my presence weigh heavily upon you.

⁸But you have said in my hearing, as I listened to the sound of your words:

⁹"I am clean and without transgression; I am innocent; there is no guilt in me.

¹⁰Yet he invents pretexts against me and reckons me as his enemy.

¹¹He puts my feet in the stocks; he watches all my ways!"

¹²In this you are not just, let me tell you; for God is greater than man.

¹³Why, then, do you make complaint against him that he gives no account of his doings?

¹⁴For God does speak, perhaps once, or even twice, though one perceive it not.

¹⁵In a dream, in a vision of the night, (when deep sleep falls upon men) as they slumber in their beds,

¹⁶It is then he opens the ears of men and as a warning to them, terrifies them;

¹⁷By turning man from evil and keeping pride away from him,

¹⁸He withholds his soul from the pit and his life from passing to the grave.

¹⁹Or a man is chastened on his bed by pain and unceasing suffering within his frame,

²⁰So that to his appetite food becomes repulsive, and his senses reject the choicest nourishment.

²¹His flesh is wasted so that it cannot be seen, and his bones, once invisible, appear;

²²His soul draws near to the pit, his life to the place of the dead.

²³If then there be for him an angel, one out of a thousand, a mediator, To show him what is right for him and bring the man back to justice,

²⁴He will take pity on him and say, "Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found him a ransom."

²⁵Then his flesh shall become soft as a boy's; he shall be again as in the days of his youth.

²⁶He shall pray and God will favor him; he shall see God's face with rejoicing.

²⁷He shall sing before men and say, "I sinned and did wrong, yet he has not punished me accordingly.

²⁸He delivered my soul from passing to the pit, and I behold the light of life."

²⁹Lo, all these things God does, twice, or thrice, for a man,

³⁰Bringing back his soul from the pit to the light, in the land of the living.

³¹Be attentive, O Job; listen to me! Be silent and I will speak.

³²If you have aught to say, then answer me. Speak out! I should like to see you justified.

³³If not, then do you listen to me; be silent while I teach you wisdom.

34Then Elihu continued and said:

²Hear, O wise men, my discourse, and you that have knowledge, hear me!

³For the ear tests words, as the taste does food.

⁴Let us discern for ourselves what is right; let us learn between us what is good.

⁵For Job has said, "I am innocent, but God has taken what is my due.

⁶Notwithstanding my right I am set at nought; in my wound the arrow rankles, sinless though I am."

⁷What man is like Job? He drinks in blasphemies like water,

⁸Keeps company with evildoers and goes along with wicked men,

⁹When he says, "It profits a man nought that he is pleasing to God."

¹⁰Therefore, men of understanding, hearken to me: far be it from God to do wickedness; far from the Almighty to do wrong!

¹¹Rather, he requites men for their conduct, and brings home to a man his way of life.

¹²Surely, God cannot act wickedly, the Almighty cannot violate justice.

¹³Who gave him government over the earth, or who else set all the land in its place?

¹⁴If he were to take back his spirit to himself, withdraw to himself his breath,

¹⁵All flesh would perish together, and man would return to the dust.

¹⁶Now, do you, O Job, hear this! Hearken to the words I speak!

¹⁷Can an enemy of justice indeed be in control, or will you condemn the supreme Just One,

¹⁸Who says to a king, "You are worthless!" and to nobles, "You are wicked!"

¹⁹Who neither favors the person of princes, nor respects the rich more than the poor? For they are all the work of his hands;

²⁰in a moment they die, even at midnight. He brings on nobles, and takes them away, removing the powerful without lifting a hand;

²¹For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he beholds all his steps.

²²There is no darkness so dense that evildoers can hide in it.

²³For he forewarns no man of his time to come before God in judgment.

²⁴Without a trial he breaks the mighty, and sets others in their stead,

²⁵Therefore he discerns their works; he turns at night and crushes them.

²⁷Because they turned away from him and heeded none of his ways,

²⁸But caused the cries of the poor to reach him, so that he heard the plea of the afflicted.

²⁹If he remains tranquil, who then can condemn? If he hides his face, who then can behold him?

³¹When anyone says to God, "I was misguided; I will offend no more.

³²Teach me wherein I have sinned; if I have done wrong, I will do so no more,"

³³Would you then say that God must punish, since you reject what he is doing? It is you who must choose, not I; speak, therefore, what you know.

³⁴Men of understanding will say to me, every wise man who hears my views:

³⁵"Job speaks without intelligence, and his words are without sense."

³⁶Let Job be tried to the limit, since his answers are those of the impious;

³⁷For he is adding rebellion to his sin by brushing off our arguments and addressing many words to God.

35Then Elihu proceeded and said:

²Do you think it right to say, "I am just rather than God?"

³To say, "What does it profit me; what advantage have I more than if I had sinned?"

⁴I have words for a reply to you and your three companions as well.

⁵Look up to the skies and behold; regard the heavens high above you.

⁶If you sin, what injury do you do to God? Even if your offenses are many, how do you hurt him?

⁷If you are righteous, what do you give him, or what does he receive from your hand?

⁸Your wickedness can affect only a man like yourself; and your justice only a fellow human being.

⁹In great oppression men cry out; they call for help because of the power of the mighty,

¹⁰Saying, "Where is God, my Maker, who has given visions in the night,

¹¹Taught us rather than the beasts of the earth, and made us wise rather than the birds of the heavens?"

¹²Though thus they cry out, he answers not against the pride of the wicked.

¹³But it is idle to say God does not hear or that the Almighty does not take notice.

¹⁴Even though you say that you see him not, the case is before him; with trembling should you wait upon him.

¹⁵But now that you have done otherwise, God's anger punishes, nor does he show concern that a man will die.

¹⁶Yet Job to no purpose opens his mouth, and without knowledge multiplies words.

36Elihu proceeded further and said:

²Wait yet a little and I will instruct you, for there are still words to be said on God's behalf.

³I will bring my knowledge from afar, and to my Maker I will accord the right.

⁴For indeed, my theme cannot fail me: the one perfect in knowledge I set before you.

⁵Behold, God rejects the obstinate in heart; he preserves not the life of the wicked.

⁶He withholds not the just man's rights, but grants vindication to the oppressed,

⁷And with kings upon thrones he sets them, exalted forever.

⁸Or if they are bound with fetters and held fast by bonds of affliction,

⁹Then he makes known to them what they have done and their sins of boastful pride.

¹⁰He opens their ears to correction and exhorts them to turn back from evil.

¹¹If they obey and serve him, they spend their days in prosperity, their years in happiness.

¹²But if they obey not, they perish; they die for lack of knowledge.

¹³The impious in heart lay up anger for themselves; they cry not for help when he enchains them;

¹⁴Therefore they expire in youth, and perish among the reprobate.

¹⁵But he saves the unfortunate through their affliction, and instructs them through distress.

²⁰

²¹Take heed, turn not to evil; for you have preferred carousal to affliction.

²²Behold, God is sublime in his power. What teacher is there like him?

²³Who prescribes for him his conduct, or who can say, "You have done wrong"?

²⁴Remember, you should extol his work, which men have praised in song.

²⁵All men contemplate it; man beholds it from afar.

²⁶Lo, God is great beyond our knowledge; the number of his years is past searching out.

²⁷He holds in check the waterdrops that filter in rain through his mists,

²⁸Till the skies run with them and the showers rain down on mankind.

³⁰Lo! he spreads the clouds in layers as the carpeting of his tent.

³¹For by these he nourishes the nations, and gives them food in abundance.

³²In his hands he holds the lightning, and he commands it to strike the mark.

³³His thunder speaks for him and incites the fury of the storm.

37At this my heart trembles and leaps out of its place,

²To hear his angry voice as it rumbles forth from his mouth!

³Everywhere under the heavens he sends it, with his lightning, to the ends of the earth.

⁴Again his voice roars-- the majestic sound of his thunder.

⁵He does great things beyond our knowing; wonders past our searching out.

⁶For he says to the snow, "Fall to the earth"; likewise to his heavy, drenching rain.

⁷He shuts up all mankind indoors;

⁸the wild beasts take to cover and remain quietly in their dens.

⁹Out of its chamber comes forth the tempest; from the north winds, the cold.

¹⁰With his breath God brings the frost, and the broad waters become congealed.

¹¹With hail, also, the clouds are laden, as they scatter their flashes of light.

¹²He it is who changes their rounds, according to his plans, in their task upon the surface of the earth,

¹³whether for punishment or mercy, as he commands.

¹⁴Hearken to this, O Job! Stand and consider the wondrous works of God!

¹⁵Do you know how God lays his commands upon them, and makes the light shine forth from his clouds?

¹⁶Do you know how the clouds are banked, the wondrous work of him who is perfect in knowledge?

¹⁷You, whom the streams of water fail when a calm from the south comes over the land,

¹⁸Do you spread out with him the firmament of the skies, hard as a brazen mirror?

¹⁹Teach us then what we shall say to him; we cannot, for the darkness, make our plea.

²⁰Will he be told about it when I speak, or when a man says he is being destroyed?

²¹Nay, rather, it is as the light which men see not while it is obscured among the clouds, till the wind comes by and sweeps the clouds away.

²²From the North the splendor comes, surrounding God's awesome majesty!

²³The Almighty! we cannot discover him, pre-eminent in power and judgment; his great justice owes no one an accounting.

²⁴Therefore men revere him, though none can see him, however wise their hearts.

38Then the LORD addressed Job out of the storm and said:

²Who is this that obscures divine plans with words of ignorance?

³Gird up your loins now, like a man; I will question you, and you tell me the answers!

⁴Where were you when I founded the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.

⁵Who determined its size; do you know? Who stretched out the measuring line for it?

⁶Into what were its pedestals sunk, and who laid the cornerstone,

⁷While the morning stars sang in chorus and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

⁸And who shut within doors the sea, when it burst forth from the womb;

⁹When I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling bands?

¹⁰When I set limits for it and fastened the bar of its door,

¹¹And said: Thus far shall you come but no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stilled!

¹²Have you ever in your lifetime commanded the morning and shown the dawn its place

¹³For taking hold of the ends of the earth, till the wicked are shaken from its surface?

¹⁴The earth is changed as is clay by the seal, and dyed as though it were a garment;

¹⁵But from the wicked the light is withheld, and the arm of pride is shattered.

¹⁶Have you entered into the sources of the sea, or walked about in the depths of the abyss?

¹⁷Have the gates of death been shown to you, or have you seen the gates of darkness?

¹⁸Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth? Tell me, if you know all:

¹⁹Which is the way to the dwelling place of light, and where is the abode of darkness,

²⁰That you may take them to their boundaries and set them on their homeward paths?

²¹You know, because you were born before them, and the number of your years is great!

²²Have you entered the storehouse of the snow, and seen the treasury of the hail

²³Which I have reserved for times of stress, for the days of war and of battle?

²⁴Which way to the parting of the winds, whence the east wind spreads over the earth?

²⁵Who has laid out a channel for the downpour and for the thunderstorm a path

²⁶To bring rain to no man's land, the unpeopled wilderness;

²⁷To enrich the waste and desolate ground till the desert blooms with verdure?

²⁸Has the rain a father; or who has begotten the drops of dew?

²⁹Out of whose womb comes the ice, and who gives the hoarfrost its birth in the skies,

³⁰When the waters lie covered as though with stone that holds captive the surface of the deep?

³¹Have you fitted a curb to the Pleiades, or loosened the bonds of Orion?

³²Can you bring forth the Mazzaroth in their season, or guide the Bear with its train?

³³Do you know the ordinances of the heavens; can you put into effect their plan on the earth?

³⁴Can you raise your voice among the clouds, or veil yourself in the waters of the storm?

³⁵Can you send forth the lightnings on their way, or will they say to you, "Here we are"?

³⁶Who puts wisdom in the heart, and gives the cock its understanding?

³⁷Who counts the clouds in his wisdom? Or who tilts the water jars of heaven

³⁸So that the dust of earth is fused into a mass and its clods made solid?

³⁹Do you hunt the prey for the lioness or appease the hunger of her cubs,

⁴⁰While they crouch in their dens, or lie in wait in the thicket?

⁴¹Who provides nourishment for the ravens when their young ones cry out to God, and they rove abroad without food?

39Do you know about the birth of the mountain goats, watch for the birth pangs of the hinds,

²Number the months that they must fulfill, and fix the time of their bringing forth?

³They crouch down and bear their young; they deliver their progeny in the desert.

⁴When their offspring thrive and grow, they leave and do not return.

⁵Who has given the wild ass his freedom, and who has loosed him from bonds?

⁶I have made the wilderness his home and the salt flats his dwelling.

⁷He scoffs at the uproar of the city, and hears no shouts of a driver.

⁸He ranges the mountains for pasture, and seeks out every patch of green.

⁹Will the wild ox consent to serve you, and to pass the nights by your manger?

¹⁰Will a rope bind him in the furrow, and will he harrow the valleys after you?

¹¹Will you trust him for his great strength and leave to him the fruits of your toil?

¹²Can you rely on him to thresh out your grain and gather in the yield of your threshing floor?

¹³The wings of the ostrich beat idly; her plumage is lacking in pinions.

¹⁴When she leaves her eggs on the ground and deposits them in the sand,

¹⁵Unmindful that a foot may crush them, that the wild beasts may trample them,

¹⁶She cruelly disowns her young and ruthlessly makes nought of her brood;

¹⁷For God has withheld wisdom from her and has given her no share in understanding.

¹⁸Yet in her swiftness of foot she makes sport of the horse and his rider.

¹⁹Do you give the horse his strength, and endow his neck with splendor?

²⁰Do you make the steed to quiver while his thunderous snorting spreads terror?

²¹He jubilantly paws the plain and rushes in his might against the weapons.

²²He laughs at fear and cannot be deterred; he turns not back from the sword.

²³Around him rattles the quiver, flashes the spear and the javelin.

²⁴Frenzied and trembling he devours the ground; he holds not back at the sound of the trumpet,

²⁵but at each blast he cries, "Aha!" Even from afar he scents the battle, the roar of the chiefs and the shouting.

²⁶Is it by your discernment that the hawk soars, that he spreads his wings toward the south?

²⁷Does the eagle fly up at your command to build his nest aloft?

²⁸On the cliff he dwells and spends the night, on the spur of the cliff or the fortress.

²⁹From thence he watches for his prey; his eyes behold it afar off.

³⁰His young ones greedily drink blood; where the slain are, there is he.

40The LORD then said to Job:

²Will we have arguing with the Almighty by the critic? Let him who would correct God give answer!

³Then Job answered the LORD and said:

⁴Behold, I am of little account; what can I answer you? I put my hand over my mouth.

⁵Though I have spoken once, I will not do so again; though twice, I will do so no more.

⁶Then the LORD addressed Job out of the storm and said:

⁷Gird up your loins now, like a man. I will question you, and you tell me the answers!

⁸Would you refuse to acknowledge my right? Would you condemn me that you may be justified?

⁹Have you an arm like that of God, or can you thunder with a voice like his?

¹⁰Adorn yourself with grandeur and majesty, and array yourself with glory and splendor.

¹¹Let loose the fury of your wrath;

¹²tear down the wicked and shatter them. Bring down the haughty with a glance;

¹³bury them in the dust together; in the hidden world imprison them.

¹⁴Then will I too acknowledge that your own right hand can save you.

¹⁵See, besides you I made Behemoth, that feeds on grass like an ox.

¹⁶Behold the strength in his loins, and his vigor in the sinews of his belly.

¹⁷He carries his tail like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are like cables.

¹⁸His bones are like tubes of bronze; his frame is like iron rods.

¹⁹He came at the beginning of God's ways, and was made the taskmaster of his fellows;

²⁰For the produce of the mountains is brought to him, and of all wild animals he makes sport.

²¹Under the lotus trees he lies, in coverts of the reedy swamp.

²²The lotus trees cover him with their shade; all about him are the poplars on the bank.

²³If the river grows violent, he is not disturbed; he is tranquil though the torrent surges about his mouth.

²⁴Who can capture him by his eyes, or pierce his nose with a trap?

²⁵Can you lead about Leviathan with a hook, or curb his tongue with a bit?

²⁶Can you put a rope into his nose, or pierce through his cheek with a gaff?

²⁷Will he then plead with you, time after time, or address you with tender words?

²⁸Will he make an agreement with you that you may have him as a slave forever?

²⁹Can you play with him, as with a bird? Can you put him in leash for your maidens?

³⁰Will the traders bargain for him? Will the merchants divide him up?

³¹Can you fill his hide with barbs, or his head with fish spears?

³²Once you but lay a hand upon him, no need to recall any other conflict!

41Whoever might vainly hope to do so need only see him to be overthrown.

²Is he not relentless when aroused; who then dares stand before him?

³Who has assailed him and come off safe-- Who under all the heavens?

⁴I need hardly mention his limbs, his strength, and the fitness of his armor.

⁵Who can strip off his outer garment, or penetrate his double corselet?

⁶Who can force open the doors of his mouth, close to his terrible teeth?

⁷Rows of scales are on his back, tightly sealed together;

⁸They are fitted each so close to the next that no space intervenes;

⁹So joined one to another that they hold fast and cannot be parted.

¹⁰When he sneezes, light flashes forth; his eyes are like those of the dawn.

¹¹Out of his mouth go forth firebrands; sparks of fire leap forth.

¹²From his nostrils issues steam, as from a seething pot or bowl.

¹³His breath sets coals afire; a flame pours from his mouth.

¹⁴Strength abides in his neck, and terror leaps before him.

¹⁶His heart is hard as stone; his flesh, as the lower millstone.

¹⁷When he rises up, the mighty are afraid; the waves of the sea fall back.

¹⁸Should the sword reach him, it will not avail; nor will the spear, nor the dart, nor the javelin.

¹⁹He regards iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood.

²⁰The arrow will not put him to flight; slingstones used against him are but straws.

²¹Clubs he esteems as splinters; he laughs at the crash of the spear.

²²His belly is sharp as pottery fragments; he spreads like a threshing sledge upon the mire.

²³He makes the depths boil like a pot; the sea he churns like perfume in a kettle.

²⁴Behind him he leaves a shining path; you would think the deep had the hoary head of age.

²⁵Upon the earth there is not his like, intrepid he was made.

²⁶All, however lofty, fear him; he is king over all proud beasts.

42Then Job answered the LORD and said:

²I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be hindered.

³I have dealt with great things that I do not understand; things too wonderful for me, which I cannot know.

⁵I had heard of you by word of mouth, but now my eye has seen you.

⁶Therefore I disown what I have said, and repent in dust and ashes.

⁷And it came to pass after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, that the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "I am angry with you and with your two friends; for you have not spoken rightly concerning me, as has my servant Job.

⁸Now, therefore, take seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up a holocaust for yourselves; and let my servant Job pray for you; for his prayer I will accept, not to punish you severely. For you have not spoken rightly concerning me, as has my servant Job."

⁹Then Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, went and did as the LORD had commanded them. And the LORD accepted the intercession of Job.

¹⁰Also, the LORD restored the prosperity of Job, after he had prayed for his friends; the LORD even gave to Job twice as much as he had before.

¹¹Then all his brethren and his sisters came to him, and all his former acquaintances, and they dined with him in his house. They condoled with him and comforted him for all the evil which the LORD had brought upon him; and each one gave him a piece of money and a gold ring.

¹²Thus the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his earlier ones. For he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she-asses.

¹³And he had seven sons and three daughters,

¹⁴of whom he called the first Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch.

¹⁵In all the land no other women were as beautiful as the daughters of Job; and their father gave them an inheritance among their brethren.

¹⁶After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; and he saw his children, his grandchildren, and even his great-grandchildren.

¹⁷Then Job died, old and full of years.

PSALM 1

¹Happy those who do not follow the counsel of the wicked, Nor go the way of sinners, nor sit in company with scoffers.

²Rather, the law of the LORD is their joy; God's law they study day and night.

³They are like a tree planted near streams of water, that yields its fruit in season; Its leaves never wither; whatever they do prospers.

⁴But not the wicked! They are like chaff driven by the wind.

⁵Therefore the wicked will not survive judgment, nor will sinners in the assembly of the just.

⁶The LORD watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.

PSALM 2

¹Why do the nations protest and the peoples grumble in vain?

²Kings on earth rise up and princes plot together against the LORD and his anointed:

³"Let us break their shackles and cast off their chains!"

⁴The one enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord derides them,

⁵Then speaks to them in anger, terrifies them in wrath:

⁶"I myself have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain."

⁷I will proclaim the decree of the LORD, who said to me, "You are my son; today I am your father.

⁸Only ask it of me, and I will make your inheritance the nations, your possession the ends of the earth.

⁹With an iron rod you shall shepherd them, like a clay pot you will shatter them."

¹⁰And now, kings, give heed; take warning, rulers on earth.

¹¹Serve the LORD with fear; with trembling bow down in homage, Lest God be angry and you perish from the way in a sudden blaze of anger. Happy are all who take refuge in God!

PSALM 3

¹A psalm of David, when he fled from his son Absalom.

²How many are my foes, LORD! How many rise against me!

³How many say of me, "God will not save that one." Selah

⁴But you, LORD, are a shield around me; my glory, you keep my head high.

⁵Whenever I cried out to the LORD, I was answered from the holy mountain. Selah

⁶Whenever I lay down and slept, the LORD preserved me to rise again.

⁷I do not fear, then, thousands of people arrayed against me on every side.

⁸Arise, LORD! Save me, my God! You will shatter the jaws of all my foes; you will break the teeth of the wicked.

⁹Safety comes from the LORD! Your blessing for your people! Selah

PSALM 4

¹For the leader; with stringed instruments. A psalm of David.

²Answer when I call, my saving God. In my troubles, you cleared a way; show me favor; hear my prayer.

³How long will you people mock my honor, love what is worthless, chase after lies? Selah

⁴Know that the LORD works wonders for the faithful; the LORD hears when I call out.

⁵Tremble and do not sin; upon your beds ponder in silence.

⁶Offer fitting sacrifice and trust in the LORD.

⁷Many say, "May we see better times! LORD, show us the light of your face!" Selah

⁸But you have given my heart more joy than they have when grain and wine abound.

⁹In peace I shall both lie down and sleep, for you alone, LORD, make me secure.

PSALM 5

¹For the leader; with wind instruments. A psalm of David.

²Hear my words, O LORD; listen to my sighing.

³Hear my cry for help, my king, my God! To you I pray, O LORD;

⁴at dawn you will hear my cry; at dawn I will plead before you and wait.

⁵You are not a god who delights in evil; no wicked person finds refuge with you;

⁶the arrogant cannot stand before you. You hate all who do evil;

⁷you destroy all who speak falsely. Murderers and deceivers the LORD abhors.

⁸But I can enter your house because of your great love. I can worship in your holy temple because of my reverence for you, LORD.

⁹Guide me in your justice because of my foes; make straight your way before me.

¹⁰For there is no sincerity in their mouths; their hearts are corrupt. Their throats are open graves; on their tongues are subtle lies.

¹¹Declare them guilty, God; make them fall by their own devices. Drive them out for their many sins; they have rebelled against you.

¹²Then all who take refuge in you will be glad and forever shout for joy. Protect them that you may be the joy of those who love your name.

¹³For you, LORD, bless the just; you surround them with favor like a shield.

PSALM 6

¹For the leader; with stringed instruments, "upon the eighth." A psalm of David.

²Do not reprove me in your anger, LORD, nor punish me in your wrath.

³Have pity on me, LORD, for I am weak; heal me, LORD, for my bones are trembling.

⁴In utter terror is my soul-- and you, LORD, how long...?

⁵Turn, LORD, save my life; in your mercy rescue me.

⁶For who among the dead remembers you? Who praises you in Sheol?

⁷I am wearied with sighing; all night long tears drench my bed; my couch is soaked with weeping.

⁸My eyes are dimmed with sorrow, worn out because of all my foes.

⁹Away from me, all who do evil! The LORD has heard my weeping.

¹⁰The LORD has heard my prayer; the LORD takes up my plea.

¹¹My foes will be terrified and disgraced; all will fall back in sudden shame.

PSALM 7

¹A plaintive song of David, which he sang to the LORD concerning Cush, the Benjaminite.

²LORD my God, in you I take refuge; rescue me; save me from all who pursue me,

³Lest they maul me like lions, tear me to pieces with none to save.

⁴LORD my God, if I am at fault in this, if there is guilt on my hands,

⁵If I have repaid my friend with evil-- I spared even those who hated me without cause--

⁶Then let my enemy pursue and overtake me, trample my life to the ground, and leave me dishonored in the dust.Selah

⁷Rise up, LORD, in your anger; rise against the fury of my foes. Wake to judge as you have decreed.

⁸Have the assembly of the peoples gather about you; sit on your throne high above them,

⁹O LORD, judge of the nations. Grant me justice, LORD, for I am blameless, free of any guilt.

¹⁰Bring the malice of the wicked to an end; uphold the innocent, O God of justice, who tries hearts and minds.

¹¹A shield before me is God who saves the honest heart.

¹²God is a just judge, who rebukes in anger every day.

¹³If sinners do not repent, God sharpens his sword, strings and readies the bow,

¹⁴Prepares his deadly shafts, makes arrows blazing thunderbolts.

¹⁵Sinners conceive iniquity; pregnant with mischief, they give birth to failure.

¹⁶They open a hole and dig it deep, but fall into the pit they have dug.

¹⁷Their mischief comes back upon themselves; their violence falls on their own heads.

¹⁸I praise the justice of the LORD; I celebrate the name of the LORD Most High.

PSALM 8

¹For the leader; "upon the gittith." A psalm of David.

²O LORD, our Lord, how awesome is your name through all the earth! You have set your majesty above the heavens!

³Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have drawn a defense against your foes, to silence enemy and avenger.

⁴When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars that you set in place--

⁵What are humans that you are mindful of them, mere mortals that you care for them?

⁶Yet you have made them little less than a god, crowned them with glory and honor.

⁷You have given them rule over the works of your hands, put all things at their feet:

⁸All sheep and oxen, even the beasts of the field,

⁹The birds of the air, the fish of the sea, and whatever swims the paths of the seas.

¹⁰O LORD, our Lord, how awesome is your name through all the earth!

PSALM 9

¹For the leader; according to Muth Labben. A psalm of David.

²I will praise you, LORD, with all my heart; I will declare all your wondrous deeds.

³I will delight and rejoice in you; I will sing hymns to your name, Most High.

⁴For my enemies turn back; they stumble and perish before you.

⁵You upheld my right and my cause, seated on your throne, judging justly.

⁶You rebuked the nations, you destroyed the wicked; their name you blotted out for all time

⁷The enemies have been ruined forever; you destroyed their cities; their memory has perished.

⁸The LORD rules forever, has set up a throne for judgment.

⁹It is God who governs the world with justice, who judges the peoples with fairness.

¹⁰The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, stronghold in times of trouble.

¹¹Those who honor your name trust in you; you never forsake those who seek you, LORD.

¹²Sing hymns to the LORD enthroned on Zion; proclaim God's deeds among the nations!

¹³For the avenger of bloodshed remembers, does not forget the cry of the afflicted.

¹⁴Have mercy on me, LORD; see how my foes afflict me! You alone can raise me from the gates of death.

¹⁵Then I will declare all your praises, sing joyously of your salvation in the gates of daughter Zion.

¹⁶The nations fall into the pit they dig; in the snare they hide, their own foot is caught.

¹⁷The LORD is revealed in this divine rule: by the deeds they do the wicked are trapped. Higgaion. Selah

¹⁸To Sheol the wicked will depart, all the nations that forget God.

¹⁹The needy will never be forgotten, nor will the hope of the afflicted ever fade.

²⁰Arise, LORD, let no mortal prevail; let the nations be judged in your presence.

²¹Strike them with terror, LORD; show the nations they are mere mortals. Selah

PSALM 10

¹Why, LORD, do you stand at a distance and pay no heed to these troubled times?

²Arrogant scoundrels pursue the poor; they trap them by their cunning schemes.

³The wicked even boast of their greed; these robbers curse and scorn the LORD.

⁴In their insolence the wicked boast: "God doesn't care, doesn't even exist."

⁵Yet their affairs always succeed; they ignore your judgment on high; they sneer at all who oppose them.

⁶They say in their hearts, "We will never fall; never will we see misfortune."

⁷Their mouths are full of oaths, violence, and lies; discord and evil are under their tongues.

⁸They wait in ambush near towns; their eyes watch for the helpless. to murder the innocent in secret.

⁹They lurk in ambush like lions in a thicket, hide there to trap the poor, snare them and close the net.

¹⁰The helpless are crushed, laid low; they fall into the power of the wicked,

¹¹Who say in their hearts, "God pays no attention, shows no concern, never bothers to look."

¹²Rise up, LORD God! Raise your arm! Do not forget the poor!

¹³Why should the wicked scorn God, say in their hearts, "God doesn't care"?

¹⁴But you do see; you do observe this misery and sorrow; you take the matter in hand. To you the helpless can entrust their cause; you are the defender of orphans.

¹⁵Break the arms of the wicked and depraved; make them account for their crimes; let none of them survive.

¹⁶The LORD is king forever; the nations have vanished from God's land.

¹⁷You listen, LORD, to the needs of the poor; you encourage them and hear their prayers.

¹⁸You win justice for the orphaned and oppressed; no one on earth will cause terror again.

PSALM 11

¹For the leader. Of David. In the LORD I take refuge; how can you say to me, "Flee like a bird to the mountains!

²See how the wicked string their bows, fit their arrows to the string to shoot from the shadows at the upright.

³When foundations are being destroyed, what can the upright do?"

⁴The LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD'S throne is in heaven. God's eyes keep careful watch; they test all peoples.

⁵The LORD tests the good and the bad, hates those who love violence,

⁶And rains upon the wicked fiery coals and brimstone, a scorching wind their allotted cup.

⁷The LORD is just and loves just deeds; the upright shall see his face.

PSALM 12

¹For the leader; "upon the eighth." A psalm of David.

²Help, LORD, for no one loyal remains; the faithful have vanished from the human race

³Those who tell lies to one another speak with deceiving lips and a double heart.

⁴May the LORD cut off all deceiving lips, and every boastful tongue,

⁵Those who say, "By our tongues we prevail; when our lips speak, who can lord it over us?"

⁶"Because they rob the weak, and the needy groan, I will now arise," says the LORD; "I will grant safety to whoever longs for it."

⁷The promises of the LORD are sure, silver refined in a crucible, silver purified seven times.

⁸LORD, protect us always; preserve us from this generation.

⁹On every side the wicked strut; the shameless are extolled by all.

PSALM 13

¹For the leader. A psalm of David.

²How long, LORD? Will you utterly forget me? How long will you hide your face from me?

³How long must I carry sorrow in my soul, grief in my heart day after day? How long will my enemy triumph over me?

⁴Look upon me, answer me, LORD, my God! Give light to my eyes lest I sleep in death,

⁵Lest my enemy say, "I have prevailed," lest my foes rejoice at my downfall.

⁶I trust in your faithfulness. Grant my heart joy in your help, That I may sing of the LORD, "How good our God has been to me!"

PSALM 14

¹For the leader. Of David. Fools say in their hearts, "There is no God." Their deeds are loathsome and corrupt; not one does what is right.

²The LORD looks down from heaven upon the human race, To see if even one is wise, if even one seeks God.

³All have gone astray; all alike are perverse. Not one does what is right, not even one.

⁴Will these evildoers never learn? They devour my people as they devour bread; they do not call upon the LORD.

⁵They have good reason, then, to fear; God is with the company of the just.

⁶They would crush the hopes of the poor, but the poor have the LORD as their refuge.

⁷Oh, that from Zion might come the deliverance of Israel, That Jacob may rejoice, and Israel be glad when the LORD restores his people!

PSALM 15

¹A psalm of David. LORD, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy mountain?

²IWhoever walks without blame, doing what is right, speaking truth from the heart;

³Who does not slander a neighbor, does no harm to another, never defames a friend;

⁴Who disdains the wicked, but honors those who fear the LORD; Who keeps an oath despite the cost,

⁵lends no money at interest, accepts no bribe against the innocent. III Whoever acts like this shall never be shaken.

PSALM 16

¹A miktam of David. Keep me safe, O God; in you I take refuge

²I say to the Lord, you are my Lord, you are my only good.

³Worthless are all the false gods of the land. Accursed are all who delight in them.

⁴They multiply their sorrows who court other gods. Blood libations to them I will not pour out, nor will I take their names upon my lips.

⁵LORD, my allotted portion and my cup, you have made my destiny secure.

⁶Pleasant places were measured out for me; fair to me indeed is my inheritance.

⁷I bless the LORD who counsels me; even at night my heart exhorts me.

⁸I keep the LORD always before me; with the Lord at my right, I shall never be shaken.

⁹Therefore my heart is glad, my soul rejoices; my body also dwells secure,

¹⁰For you will not abandon me to Sheol, nor let your faithful servant see the pit.

¹¹You will show me the path to life, abounding joy in your presence, the delights at your right hand forever.

PSALM 17

¹A prayer of David. Hear, LORD, my plea for justice; pay heed to my cry; Listen to my prayer spoken without guile.

²From you let my vindication come; your eyes see what is right.

³You have tested my heart, searched it in the night. You have tried me by fire, but find no malice in me. My mouth has not transgressed

⁴as humans often do. As your lips have instructed me, I have kept the way of the law.

⁵My steps have kept to your paths; my feet have not faltered.

⁶I call upon you; answer me, O God. Turn your ear to me; hear my prayer.

⁷Show your wonderful love, you who deliver with your right arm those who seek refuge from their foes.

⁸Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings

⁹from the violence of the wicked.

¹⁰My ravenous enemies press upon me; they close their hearts, they fill their mouths with proud roaring.

¹¹Their steps even now encircle me; they watch closely, keeping low to the ground,

¹²Like lions eager for prey, like young lions lurking in ambush.

¹³Rise, O LORD, confront and cast them down; rescue me so from the wicked.

¹⁴Slay them with your sword; with your hand, LORD, slay them; snatch them from the world in their prime. Their bellies are being filled with your friends; their children are satisfied too, for they share what is left with their young.

¹⁵I am just--let me see your face; when I awake, let me be filled with your presence.

PSALM 18

¹For the leader. Of David, the servant of the LORD, who sang to the LORD the words of this song after the LORD had rescued him from the clutches of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.

²He said: I love you, LORD, my strength,

³LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, My God, my rock of refuge, my shield, my saving horn, my stronghold!

⁴Praised be the LORD, I exclaim! I have been delivered from my enemies.

⁵The breakers of death surged round about me; the menacing floods terrified me.

⁶The cords of Sheol tightened; the snares of death lay in wait for me.

⁷In my distress I called out: LORD! I cried out to my God. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry to him reached his ears.

⁸The earth rocked and shook; the foundations of the mountains trembled; they shook as his wrath flared up.

⁹Smoke rose in his nostrils, a devouring fire poured from his mouth; it kindled coals into flame.

¹⁰He parted the heavens and came down, a dark cloud under his feet.

¹¹Mounted on a cherub he flew, borne along on the wings of the wind.

¹²He made darkness the cover about him; his canopy, heavy thunderheads.

¹³Before him scudded his clouds, hail and lightning too.

¹⁴The LORD thundered from heaven; the Most High made his voice resound.

¹⁵He let fly his arrows and scattered them; shot his lightning bolts and dispersed them.

¹⁶Then the bed of the sea appeared; the world's foundations lay bare, At the roar of the LORD, at the storming breath of his nostrils.

¹⁷He reached down from on high and seized me; drew me out of the deep waters.

¹⁸He rescued me from my mighty enemy, from foes too powerful for me.

¹⁹They attacked me on a day of distress, but the LORD came to my support.

²⁰He set me free in the open; he rescued me because he loves me.

²¹The LORD acknowledged my righteousness, rewarded my clean hands.

²²For I kept the ways of the LORD; I was not disloyal to my God.

²³His laws were all before me, his decrees I did not cast aside.

²⁴I was honest toward him; I was on guard against sin.

²⁵So the LORD rewarded my righteousness, the cleanness of my hands in his sight.

²⁶Toward the faithful you are faithful; to the honest you are honest;

²⁷Toward the sincere, sincere; but to the perverse you are devious.

²⁸Humble people you save; haughty eyes you bring low.

²⁹You, LORD, give light to my lamp; my God brightens the darkness about me.

³⁰With you I can rush an armed band, with my God to help I can leap a wall.

³¹God's way is unerring; the LORD'S promise is tried and true; he is a shield for all who trust in him.

³²Truly, who is God except the LORD? Who but our God is the rock?

³³This God who girded me with might, kept my way unerring,

³⁴Who made my feet swift as a deer's, set me safe on the heights,

³⁵Who trained my hands for war, my arms to bend even a bow of bronze.

³⁶You have given me your protecting shield; your right hand has upheld me; you stooped to make me great.

³⁷You gave me room to stride; my feet never stumbled.

³⁸I pursued my enemies and overtook them; I did not turn back till I destroyed them.

³⁹I struck them down; they could not rise; they fell dead at my feet.

⁴⁰You girded me with strength for war, subdued adversaries at my feet.

⁴¹My foes you put to flight before me; those who hated me I destroyed.

⁴²They cried for help, but no one saved them; cried to the LORD but got no answer.

⁴³I ground them fine as dust in the wind; like mud in the streets I trampled them down.

⁴⁴You rescued me from the strife of peoples; you made me head over nations. A people I had not known became my slaves;

⁴⁵as soon as they heard of me they obeyed. Foreigners cringed before me;

⁴⁶their courage failed; they came trembling from their fortresses.

⁴⁷The LORD lives! Blessed be my rock! Exalted be God, my savior!

⁴⁸O God who granted me vindication, made peoples subject to me,

⁴⁹and preserved me from my enemies, Truly you have exalted me above my adversaries, from the violent you have rescued me.

⁵⁰Thus I will proclaim you, LORD, among the nations; I will sing the praises of your name.

⁵¹You have given great victories to your king, and shown kindness to your anointed, to David and his posterity forever.

PSALM 19

¹For the leader. A psalm of David.

²The heavens declare the glory of God; the sky proclaims its builder's craft.

³One day to the next conveys that message; one night to the next imparts that knowledge.

⁴There is no word or sound; no voice is heard;

⁵Yet their report goes forth through all the earth, their message, to the ends of the world. God has pitched there a tent for the sun;

⁶it comes forth like a bridegroom from his chamber, and like an athlete joyfully runs its course.

⁷From one end of the heavens it comes forth; its course runs through to the other; nothing escapes its heat.

⁸The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul. The decree of the LORD is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple.

⁹The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart. The command of the LORD is clear, enlightening the eye.

¹⁰The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever. The statutes of the LORD are true, all of them just;

¹¹More desirable than gold, than a hoard of purest gold, Sweeter also than honey or drippings from the comb.

¹²By them your servant is instructed; obeying them brings much reward.

¹³Who can detect heedless failings? Cleanse me from my unknown faults.

¹⁴But from willful sins keep your servant; let them never control me. Then shall I be blameless, innocent of grave sin.

¹⁵Let the words of my mouth meet with your favor, keep the thoughts of my heart before you, LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

PSALM 20

¹For the leader. A psalm of David.

²The LORD answer you in time of distress; the name of the God of Jacob defend you!

³May God send you help from the temple, from Zion be your support.

⁴May God remember your every offering, graciously accept your holocaust, Selah

⁵Grant what is in your heart, fulfill your every plan.

⁶May we shout for joy at your victory, raise the banners in the name of our God. The LORD grant your every prayer!

⁷Now I know victory is given to the anointed of the LORD. God will answer him from the holy heavens with a strong arm that brings victory.

⁸Some rely on chariots, others on horses, but we on the name of the LORD our God.

⁹They collapse and fall, but we stand strong and firm.

¹⁰LORD, grant victory to the king; answer when we call upon you.

PSALM 21

¹For the leader. A psalm of David.

²LORD, the king finds joy in your power; in your victory how greatly he rejoices!

³You have granted him his heart's desire; you did not refuse the prayer of his lips. Selah

⁴For you welcomed him with goodly blessings; you placed on his head a crown of pure gold.

⁵He asked life of you; you gave it to him, length of days forever.

⁶Great is his glory in your victory; majesty and splendor you confer upon him.

⁷You make him the pattern of blessings forever, you gladden him with the joy of your presence.

⁸For the king trusts in the LORD, stands firm through the love of the Most High.

⁹Your hand will reach all your enemies; your right hand will reach your foes!

¹⁰At the time of your coming you will drive them into a furnace. Then the LORD'S anger will consume them, devour them with fire.

¹¹Even their descendants you will wipe out from the earth, their offspring from the human race.

¹²Though they intend evil against you, devising plots, they will not succeed,

¹³For you will put them to flight; you will aim at them with your bow.

¹⁴Arise, LORD, in your power! We will sing and chant the praise of your might.

PSALM 22

¹For the leader; according to "The deer of the dawn." A psalm of David.

²My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why so far from my call for help, from my cries of anguish?

³My God, I call by day, but you do not answer; by night, but I have no relief.

⁴Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the glory of Israel.

⁵In you our ancestors trusted; they trusted and you rescued them.

⁶To you they cried out and they escaped; in you they trusted and were not disappointed.

⁷But I am a worm, hardly human, scorned by everyone, despised by the people.

⁸All who see me mock me; they curl their lips and jeer; they shake their heads at me:

⁹"You relied on the LORD--let him deliver you; if he loves you, let him rescue you."

¹⁰Yet you drew me forth from the womb, made me safe at my mother's breast.

¹¹Upon you I was thrust from the womb; since birth you are my God.

¹²Do not stay far from me, for trouble is near, and there is no one to help.

¹³Many bulls surround me; fierce bulls of Bashan encircle me.

¹⁴They open their mouths against me, lions that rend and roar.

¹⁵Like water my life drains away; all my bones grow soft. My heart has become like wax, it melts away within me.

¹⁶As dry as a potsherd is my throat; my tongue sticks to my palate; you lay me in the dust of death.

¹⁷Many dogs surround me; a pack of evildoers closes in on me. So wasted are my hands and feet

¹⁸that I can count all my bones. They stare at me and gloat;

¹⁹they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots.

²⁰But you, LORD, do not stay far off; my strength, come quickly to help me.

²¹Deliver me from the sword, my forlorn life from the teeth of the dog.

²²Save me from the lion's mouth, my poor life from the horns of wild bulls.

²³Then I will proclaim your name to the assembly; in the community I will praise you:

²⁴"You who fear the LORD, give praise! All descendants of Jacob, give honor; show reverence, all descendants of Israel!

²⁵For God has not spurned or disdained the misery of this poor wretch, Did not turn away from me, but heard me when I cried out.

²⁶I will offer praise in the great assembly; my vows I will fulfill before those who fear him.

²⁷The poor will eat their fill; those who seek the LORD will offer praise. May your hearts enjoy life forever!"

²⁸All the ends of the earth will worship and turn to the LORD; All the families of nations will bow low before you.

²⁹For kingship belongs to the LORD, the ruler over the nations.

³⁰All who sleep in the earth will bow low before God; All who have gone down into the dust will kneel in homage.

³¹And I will live for the LORD; my descendants will serve you.

³²The generation to come will be told of the Lord, that they may proclaim to a people yet unborn the deliverance you have brought.

PSALM 23

¹A psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack.

²In green pastures you let me graze; to safe waters you lead me;

³you restore my strength. You guide me along the right path for the sake of your name.

⁴Even when I walk through a dark valley, I fear no harm for you are at my side; your rod and staff give me courage.

⁵You set a table before me as my enemies watch; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

⁶Only goodness and love will pursue me all the days of my life; I will dwell in the house of the LORD for years to come.

PSALM 24

¹A psalm of David. The earth is the LORD'S and all it holds, the world and those who live there.

²For God founded it on the seas, established it over the rivers.

³Who may go up the mountain of the LORD? Who can stand in his holy place?

⁴"The clean of hand and pure of heart, who are not devoted to idols, who have not sworn falsely.

⁵They will receive blessings from the LORD, and justice from their saving God.

⁶Such are the people that love the LORD, that seek the face of the God of Jacob." Selah

⁷Lift up your heads, O gates; rise up, you ancient portals, that the king of glory may enter.

⁸Who is this king of glory? The LORD, a mighty warrior, the LORD, mighty in battle.

⁹Lift up your heads, O gates; rise up, you ancient portals, that the king of glory may enter.

¹⁰Who is this king of glory? The LORD of hosts is the king of glory. Selah

PSALM 25

¹Of David. I wait for you, O LORD; I lift up my soul

²to my God. In you I trust; do not let me be disgraced; do not let my enemies gloat over me.

³No one is disgraced who waits for you, but only those who lightly break faith.

⁴Make known to me your ways, LORD; teach me your paths.

⁵Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior. For you I wait all the long day, because of your goodness, LORD.

⁶Remember your compassion and love, O LORD; for they are ages old.

⁷Remember no more the sins of my youth; remember me only in light of your love.

⁸Good and upright is the LORD, who shows sinners the way,

⁹Guides the humble rightly, and teaches the humble the way.

¹⁰All the paths of the LORD are faithful love toward those who honor the covenant demands.

¹¹For the sake of your name, LORD, pardon my guilt, though it is great.

¹²Who are those who fear the LORD? God shows them the way to choose.

¹³They live well and prosper, and their descendants inherit the land.

¹⁴The counsel of the LORD belongs to the faithful; the covenant instructs them.

¹⁵My eyes are ever upon the LORD, who frees my feet from the snare.

¹⁶Look upon me, have pity on me, for I am alone and afflicted.

¹⁷Relieve the troubles of my heart; bring me out of my distress.

¹⁸Put an end to my affliction and suffering; take away all my sins.

¹⁹See how many are my enemies, see how fiercely they hate me.

²⁰Preserve my life and rescue me; do not let me be disgraced, for I trust in you.

²¹Let honesty and virtue preserve me; I wait for you, O LORD.

²²Redeem Israel, God, from all its distress!

PSALM 26

¹Of David. Grant me justice, LORD! I have walked without blame. In the LORD I have trusted; I have not faltered.

²Test me, LORD, and try me; search my heart and mind.

³Your love is before my eyes; I walk guided by your faithfulness.

⁴I do not sit with deceivers, nor with hypocrites do I mingle.

⁵I hate the company of evildoers; with the wicked I do not sit.

⁶I will wash my hands in innocence and walk round your altar, LORD,

⁷Lifting my voice in thanks, recounting all your wondrous deeds.

⁸LORD, I love the house where you dwell, the tenting-place of your glory.

⁹Do not take me away with sinners, nor my life with the violent.

¹⁰Their hands carry out their schemes; their right hands are full of bribes.

¹¹But I walk without blame; redeem me, be gracious to me!

PSALM 27

¹Of David The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom do I fear? The LORD is my life's refuge; of whom am I afraid?

²When evildoers come at me to devour my flesh, These my enemies and foes themselves stumble and fall.

³Though an army encamp against me, my heart does not fear; Though war be waged against me, even then do I trust.

⁴One thing I ask of the LORD; this I seek: To dwell in the LORD'S house all the days of my life, To gaze on the LORD'S beauty, to visit his temple.

⁵For God will hide me in his shelter in time of trouble, Will conceal me in the cover of his tent; and set me high upon a rock.

⁶Even now my head is held high above my enemies on every side! I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and chant praise to the LORD.

⁷I Hear my voice, LORD, when I call; have mercy on me and answer me.

⁸"Come," says my heart, "seek God's face"; your face, LORD, do I seek!

⁹Do not hide your face from me; do not repel your servant in anger. You are my help; do not cast me off; do not forsake me, God my savior!

¹⁰Even if my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will take me in.

¹¹LORD, show me your way; lead me on a level path because of my enemies.

¹²Do not abandon me to the will of my foes; malicious and lying witnesses have risen against me.

¹³But I believe I shall enjoy the LORD'S goodness in the land of the living.

¹⁴Wait for the LORD, take courage; be stouthearted, wait for the LORD!

PSALM 28

¹Of David. To you, LORD, I call; my Rock, do not be deaf to me. If you fail to answer me, I will join those who go down to the pit.

²Hear the sound of my pleading when I cry to you, lifting my hands toward your holy place.

³Do not drag me off with the wicked, with those who do wrong, Who speak peace to their neighbors though evil is in their hearts.

⁴Repay them for their deeds, for the evil that they do. For the work of their hands repay them; give them what they deserve.

⁵They pay no heed to the LORD'S works, to the deeds of God's hands. God will tear them down, never to be rebuilt.

⁶Blessed be the LORD, who has heard the sound of my pleading.

⁷The LORD is my strength and my shield, in whom my heart trusted and found help. So my heart rejoices; with my song I praise my God.

⁸LORD, you are the strength of your people, the saving refuge of your anointed king.

⁹Save your people, bless your inheritance; feed and sustain them forever!

PSALM 29

¹A psalm of David. Give to the LORD, you heavenly beings, give to the LORD glory and might;

²Give to the LORD the glory due God's name. Bow down before the LORD'S holy splendor!

³The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD, over the mighty waters.

⁴The voice of the LORD is power; the voice of the LORD is splendor.

⁵The voice of the LORD cracks the cedars; the LORD splinters the cedars of Lebanon,

⁶Makes Lebanon leap like a calf, and Sirion like a young bull.

⁷The voice of the LORD strikes with fiery flame;

⁸the voice of the LORD rocks the desert; the LORD rocks the desert of Kadesh.

⁹The voice of the LORD twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. All in his palace say, "Glory!"

¹⁰The LORD sits enthroned above the flood! The LORD reigns as king forever!

¹¹May the LORD give might to his people; may the LORD bless his people with peace!

PSALM 30

¹A psalm. A song for the dedication of the temple. Of David.

²I praise you, LORD, for you raised me up and did not let my enemies rejoice over me.

³O LORD, my God, I cried out to you and you healed me.

⁴LORD, you brought me up from Sheol; you kept me from going down to the pit.

⁵Sing praise to the LORD, you faithful; give thanks to God's holy name.

⁶For divine anger lasts but a moment; divine favor lasts a lifetime. At dusk weeping comes for the night; but at dawn there is rejoicing.

⁷Complacent, I once said, "I shall never be shaken."

⁸LORD, when you showed me favor I stood like the mighty mountains. But when you hid your face I was struck with terror.

⁹To you, LORD, I cried out; with the Lord I pleaded for mercy:

¹⁰"What gain is there from my lifeblood, from my going down to the grave? Does dust give you thanks or declare your faithfulness?

¹¹Hear, O LORD, have mercy on me; LORD, be my helper."

¹²You changed my mourning into dancing; you took off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness.

¹³With my whole being I sing endless praise to you. O LORD, my God, forever will I give you thanks.

PSALM 31

¹For the leader. A psalm of David.

²In you, LORD, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame. In your justice deliver me;

³incline your ear to me; make haste to rescue me! Be my rock of refuge, a stronghold to save me.

⁴You are my rock and my fortress; for your name's sake lead and guide me.

⁵Free me from the net they have set for me, for you are my refuge.

⁶Into your hands I commend my spirit; you will redeem me, LORD, faithful God.

⁷You hate those who serve worthless idols, but I trust in the LORD.

⁸I will rejoice and be glad in your love, once you have seen my misery, observed my distress.

⁹You will not abandon me into enemy hands, but will set my feet in a free and open space.

¹⁰Be gracious to me, LORD, for I am in distress; with grief my eyes are wasted, my soul and body spent.

¹¹My life is worn out by sorrow, my years by sighing. My strength fails in affliction; my bones are consumed.

¹²To all my foes I am a thing of scorn, to my neighbors, a dreaded sight, a horror to my friends. When they see me in the street, they quickly shy away.

¹³I am forgotten, out of mind like the dead; I am like a shattered dish.

¹⁴I hear the whispers of the crowd; terrors are all around me. They conspire against me; they plot to take my life.

¹⁵But I trust in you, LORD; I say, "You are my God."

¹⁶My times are in your hands; rescue me from my enemies, from the hands of my pursuers.

¹⁷Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your kindness.

¹⁸Do not let me be put to shame, for I have called to you, LORD. Put the wicked to shame; reduce them to silence in Sheol.

¹⁹Strike dumb their lying lips, proud lips that attack the just in contempt and scorn.

²⁰How great is your goodness, Lord, stored up for those who fear you. You display it for those who trust you, in the sight of all the people.

²¹You hide them in the shelter of your presence, safe from scheming enemies. You keep them in your abode, safe from plotting tongues.

²²Blessed be the LORD, who has shown me wondrous love, and been for me a city most secure.

²³Once I said in my anguish, "I am shut out from your sight." Yet you heard my plea, when I cried out to you.

²⁴Love the LORD, all you faithful. The LORD protects the loyal, but repays the arrogant in full.

²⁵Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.

PSALM 32

¹Of David. A maskil. Happy the sinner whose fault is removed, whose sin is forgiven.

²Happy those to whom the LORD imputes no guilt, in whose spirit is no deceit.

³As long as I kept silent, my bones wasted away; I groaned all the day.

⁴For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength withered as in dry summer heat. Selah

⁵Then I declared my sin to you; my guilt I did not hide. I said, "I confess my faults to the LORD," and you took away the guilt of my sin. Selah

⁶Thus should all your faithful pray in time of distress. Though flood waters threaten, they will never reach them.

⁷You are my shelter; from distress you keep me; with safety you ring me round. Selah

⁸I will instruct you and show you the way you should walk, give you counsel and watch over you.

⁹Do not be senseless like horses or mules; with bit and bridle their temper is curbed, else they will not come to you.

¹⁰Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but love surrounds those who trust in the LORD.

¹¹Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you just; exult, all you upright of heart.

PSALM 33

¹Rejoice, you just, in the LORD; praise from the upright is fitting.

²Give thanks to the LORD on the harp; on the ten-stringed lyre offer praise.

³Sing to God a new song; skillfully play with joyful chant.

⁴For the LORD'S word is true; all his works are trustworthy.

⁵The LORD loves justice and right and fills the earth with goodness.

⁶By the LORD'S word the heavens were made; by the breath of his mouth all their host.

⁷The waters of the sea were gathered as in a bowl; in cellars the deep was confined.

⁸Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all who dwell in the world show reverence.

⁹For he spoke, and it came to be, commanded, and it stood in place.

¹⁰The LORD foils the plan of nations, frustrates the designs of peoples.

¹¹But the plan of the LORD stands forever, wise designs through all generations.

¹²Happy the nation whose God is the LORD, the people chosen as his very own.

¹³From heaven the LORD looks down and observes the whole human race,

¹⁴Surveying from the royal throne all who dwell on earth.

¹⁵The one who fashioned the hearts of them all knows all their works.

¹⁶A king is not saved by a mighty army, nor a warrior delivered by great strength.

¹⁷Useless is the horse for safety; its great strength, no sure escape.

¹⁸But the LORD'S eyes are upon the reverent, upon those who hope for his gracious help,

¹⁹Delivering them from death, keeping them alive in times of famine.

²⁰Our soul waits for the LORD, who is our help and shield.

²¹For in God our hearts rejoice; in your holy name we trust.

²²May your kindness, LORD, be upon us; we have put our hope in you.

PSALM 34

¹Of David, when he feigned madness before Abimelech, who forced him to depart.

²I will bless the LORD at all times; praise shall be always in my mouth.

³My soul will glory in the LORD that the poor may hear and be glad.

⁴Magnify the LORD with me; let us exalt his name together.

⁵I sought the LORD, who answered me, delivered me from all my fears.

⁶Look to God that you may be radiant with joy and your faces may not blush for shame.

⁷In my misfortune I called, the LORD heard and saved me from all distress.

⁸The angel of the LORD, who encamps with them, delivers all who fear God.

⁹Learn to savor how good the LORD is; happy are those who take refuge in him.

¹⁰Fear the LORD, you holy ones; nothing is lacking to those who fear him.

¹¹The powerful grow poor and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

¹²Come, children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

¹³Who among you loves life, takes delight in prosperous days?

¹⁴Keep your tongue from evil, your lips from speaking lies.

¹⁵Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

¹⁶The LORD has eyes for the just and ears for their cry.

¹⁷The LORD'S face is against evildoers to wipe out their memory from the earth.

¹⁸When the just cry out, the LORD hears and rescues them from all distress.

¹⁹The LORD is close to the brokenhearted, saves those whose spirit is crushed.

²⁰Many are the troubles of the just, but the LORD delivers from them all.

²¹God watches over all their bones; not a one shall be broken.

²²Evil will slay the wicked; those who hate the just are condemned.

²³The LORD redeems loyal servants; no one is condemned whose refuge is God.

PSALM 35

¹Of David. Oppose, LORD, those who oppose me; war upon those who make war upon me.

²Take up the shield and buckler; rise up in my defense.

³Brandish lance and battle-ax against my pursuers. Say to my heart, "I am your salvation."

⁴Let those who seek my life be put to shame and disgrace. Let those who plot evil against me be turned back and confounded.

⁵Make them like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the LORD driving them on.

⁶Make their way slippery and dark, with the angel of the LORD pursuing them.

⁷Without cause they set their snare for me; without cause they dug a pit for me.

⁸Let ruin overtake them unawares; let the snare they have set catch them; let them fall into the pit they have dug.

⁹Then I will rejoice in the LORD, exult in God's salvation.

¹⁰My very bones shall say, "O LORD, who is like you, Who rescue the afflicted from the powerful, the afflicted and needy from the despoiler?"

¹¹Malicious witnesses come forward, accuse me of things I do not know.

¹²They repay me evil for good and I am all alone.

¹³Yet I, when they were ill, put on sackcloth, afflicted myself with fasting, sobbed my prayers upon my bosom.

¹⁴I went about in grief as for my brother, bent in mourning as for my mother.

¹⁵Yet when I stumbled they gathered with glee, gathered against me like strangers. They slandered me without ceasing;

¹⁶without respect they mocked me, gnashed their teeth against me.

¹⁷Lord, how long will you look on? Save me from roaring beasts, my precious life from lions!

¹⁸Then I will thank you in the great assembly; I will praise you before the mighty throng.

¹⁹Do not let lying foes smirk at me, my undeserved enemies wink knowingly.

²⁰They speak no words of peace, but against the quiet in the land they fashion deceitful speech.

²¹They open wide their mouths against me. They say, "Aha! Good! Our eyes relish the sight!"

²²You see this, LORD; do not be silent; Lord, do not withdraw from me.

²³Awake, be vigilant in my defense, in my cause, my God and my Lord.

²⁴Defend me because you are just, LORD; my God, do not let them gloat over me.

²⁵Do not let them say in their hearts, "Aha! Just what we wanted!" Do not let them say, "We have devoured that one!"

²⁶Put to shame and confound all who relish my misfortune. Clothe with shame and disgrace those who lord it over me.

²⁷But let those who favor my just cause shout for joy and be glad. May they ever say, "Exalted be the LORD who delights in the peace of his loyal servant."

²⁸Then my tongue shall recount your justice, declare your praise, all the day long.

PSALM 36

¹For the leader. Of David, the servant of the LORD.

²Sin directs the heart of the wicked; their eyes are closed to the fear of God.

³For they live with the delusion: their guilt will not be known and hated.

⁴Empty and false are the words of their mouth; they have ceased to be wise and do good.

⁵In their beds they hatch plots; they set out on a wicked way; they do not reject evil.

⁶LORD, your love reaches to heaven; your fidelity, to the clouds.

⁷Your justice is like the highest mountains; your judgments, like the mighty deep; all living creatures you sustain, LORD.

⁸How precious is your love, O God! We take refuge in the shadow of your wings.

⁹We feast on the rich food of your house; from your delightful stream you give us drink.

¹⁰For with you is the fountain of life, and in your light we see light.

¹¹Continue your kindness toward your friends, your just defense of the honest heart.

¹²Do not let the foot of the proud overtake me, nor the hand of the wicked disturb me.

¹³There make the evildoers fall; thrust them down, never to rise.

PSALM 37

¹Of David. Do not be provoked by evildoers; do not envy those who do wrong.

²Like grass they wither quickly; like green plants they wilt away.

³Trust in the LORD and do good that you may dwell in the land and live secure.

⁴Find your delight in the LORD who will give you your heart's desire.

⁵Commit your way to the LORD; trust that God will act

⁶And make your integrity shine like the dawn, your vindication like noonday.

⁷Be still before the LORD; wait for God. Do not be provoked by the prosperous, nor by malicious schemers.

⁸Give up your anger, abandon your wrath; do not be provoked; it brings only harm.

⁹Those who do evil will be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD will possess the land.

¹⁰Wait a little, and the wicked will be no more; look for them and they will not be there.

¹¹But the poor will possess the land, will delight in great prosperity.

¹²The wicked plot against the just and grind their teeth at them;

¹³But the LORD laughs at them, knowing their day is coming.

¹⁴The wicked draw their swords; they string their bows To fell the poor and oppressed, to slaughter those whose way is honest.

¹⁵Their swords will pierce their own hearts; their bows will be broken.

¹⁶Better the poverty of the just than the great wealth of the wicked.

¹⁷The arms of the wicked will be broken; the LORD will sustain the just.

¹⁸The LORD watches over the days of the blameless; their heritage lasts forever.

¹⁹They will not be disgraced when times are hard; in days of famine they will have plenty.

²⁰The wicked perish, the enemies of the LORD; Like the beauty of meadows they vanish; like smoke they disappear.

²¹The wicked borrow but do not repay; the just are generous in giving.

²²For those blessed by the Lord will possess the land, but those accursed will be cut off.

²³Those whose steps are guided by the LORD; whose way God approves,

²⁴May stumble, but they will never fall, for the LORD holds their hand.

²⁵Neither in my youth, nor now in old age have I ever seen the just abandoned or their children begging bread.

²⁶The just always lend generously, and their children become a blessing.

²⁷Turn from evil and do good, that you may inhabit the land forever.

²⁸For the LORD loves justice and does not abandon the faithful. When the unjust are destroyed, and the children of the wicked cut off,

²⁹The just will possess the land and live in it forever.

³⁰The mouths of the just utter wisdom; their tongues speak what is right.

³¹God's teaching is in their hearts; their steps do not falter.

³²The wicked spy on the just and seek to kill them.

³³But the LORD does not leave the just in their power, nor let them be condemned when tried.

³⁴Wait eagerly for the LORD, and keep to the way; God will raise you to possess the land; you will gloat when the wicked are cut off.

³⁵I have seen ruthless scoundrels, strong as flourishing cedars.

³⁶When I passed by again, they were gone; though I searched, they could not be found.

³⁷Observe the honest, mark the upright; those at peace with God have a future.

³⁸But all sinners will be destroyed; the future of the wicked will be cut off.

³⁹The salvation of the just is from the LORD, their refuge in time of distress.

⁴⁰The LORD helps and rescues them, rescues and saves them from the wicked, because in God they take refuge.

PSALM 38

¹A psalm of David. For remembrance.

²LORD, punish me no more in your anger; in your wrath do not chastise me!

³Your arrows have sunk deep in me; your hand has come down upon me.

⁴My flesh is afflicted because of your anger; my frame aches because of my sin.

⁵My iniquities overwhelm me, a burden beyond my strength.

⁶Foul and festering are my sores because of my folly.

⁷I am stooped and deeply bowed; all day I go about mourning.

⁸My loins burn with fever; my flesh is afflicted.

⁹I am numb and utterly crushed; I wail with anguish of heart.

¹⁰My Lord, my deepest yearning is before you; my groaning is not hidden from you.

¹¹My heart shudders, my strength forsakes me; the very light of my eyes has failed.

¹²Friends and companions shun my pain; my neighbors stand far off.

¹³Those who seek my life lay snares for me; they seek my misfortune, they speak of ruin; they plot treachery all the day.

¹⁴But I am like the deaf, hearing nothing, like the dumb, saying nothing,

¹⁵Like someone who does not hear, who has no answer ready.

¹⁶LORD, I wait for you; O Lord, my God, answer me.

¹⁷For I fear they will gloat, exult over me if I stumble.

¹⁸I am very near to falling; my pain is with me always.

¹⁹I acknowledge my guilt and grieve over my sin.

²⁰But many are my foes without cause, a multitude of enemies without reason,

²¹Repaying me evil for good, harassing me for pursuing good.

²²Forsake me not, O LORD; my God, be not far from me!

²³Come quickly to help me, my Lord and my salvation!

PSALM 39

¹For the leader, for Jeduthun. A psalm of David.

²I said, "I will watch my ways, lest I sin with my tongue; I will set a curb on my mouth."

³Dumb and silent before the wicked, I refrained from any speech. But my sorrow increased;

⁴my heart smoldered within me. In my thoughts a fire blazed up, and I broke into speech:

⁵LORD, let me know my end, the number of my days, that I may learn how frail I am.

⁶You have given my days a very short span; my life is as nothing before you. All mortals are but a breath. Selah

⁷Mere phantoms, we go our way; mere vapor, our restless pursuits; we heap up stores without knowing for whom.

⁸And now, Lord, what future do I have? You are my only hope.

⁹From all my sins deliver me; let me not be the taunt of fools.

¹⁰I was silent and did not open my mouth because you were the one who did this.

¹¹Take your plague away from me; I am ravaged by the touch of your hand.

¹²You rebuke our guilt and chasten us; you dissolve all we prize like a cobweb. All mortals are but a breath. Selah

¹³Listen to my prayer, LORD, hear my cry; do not be deaf to my weeping! I sojourn with you like a passing stranger, a guest, like all my ancestors.

¹⁴Turn your gaze from me, that I may find peace before I depart to be no more.

PSALM 40

¹For the leader. A psalm of David.

²I waited, waited for the LORD; who bent down and heard my cry,

³Drew me out of the pit of destruction, out of the mud of the swamp, Set my feet upon rock, steadied my steps,

⁴And put a new song in my mouth, a hymn to our God. Many shall look on in awe and they shall trust in the LORD.

⁵Happy those whose trust is the LORD, who turn not to idolatry or to those who stray after falsehood.

⁶How numerous, O LORD, my God, you have made your wondrous deeds! And in your plans for us there is none to equal you. Should I wish to declare or tell them, too many are they to recount.

⁷sacrifice and offering you do not want; but ears open to obedience you gave me. Holocausts and sin-offerings you do not require;

⁸so I said, "Here I am; your commands for me are written in the scroll.

⁹To do your will is my delight; my God, your law is in my heart!"

¹⁰I announced your deed to a great assembly; I did not restrain my lips; you, LORD, are my witness.

¹¹Your deed I did not hide within my heart; your loyal deliverance I have proclaimed. I made no secret of your enduring kindness to a great assembly.

¹²LORD, do not withhold your compassion from me; may your enduring kindness ever preserve me.

¹³For all about me are evils beyond count; my sins so overcome me I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head; my courage fails me.

¹⁴LORD, graciously rescue me! Come quickly to help me, LORD!

¹⁵Put to shame and confound all who seek to take my life. Turn back in disgrace those who desire my ruin.

¹⁶Let those who say "Aha!" know dismay and shame.

¹⁷But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. May those who long for your help always say, "The LORD be glorified."

¹⁸Though I am afflicted and poor, the Lord keeps me in mind. You are my help and deliverer; my God, do not delay!

PSALM 41

¹For the leader. A psalm of David.

²Happy those concerned for the lowly and poor; when misfortune strikes, the LORD delivers them.

³The LORD keeps and preserves them, makes them happy in the land, and does not betray them to their enemies.

⁴The LORD sustains them on their sickbed, allays the malady when they are ill.

⁵Once I prayed, "LORD, have mercy on me; heal me, I have sinned against you.

⁶My enemies say the worst of me: 'When will that one die and be forgotten?'

⁷When people come to visit me, they speak without sincerity. Their hearts store up malice; they leave and spread their vicious lies.

⁸My foes all whisper against me; they imagine the worst about me:

⁹I have a deadly disease, they say; I will never rise from my sickbed.

¹⁰Even the friend who had my trust, who shared my table, has scorned me.

¹¹But you, LORD, have mercy and raise me up that I may repay them as they deserve."

¹²By this I know you are pleased with me, that my enemy no longer jeers at me.

¹³For my integrity you have supported me and let me stand in your presence forever.

¹⁴Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from all eternity and forever. Amen. Amen.

PSALM 42

¹For the leader. A maskil of the Korahites.

²As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God.

³My being thirsts for God, the living God. When can I go and see the face of God?

⁴My tears have been my food day and night, as they ask daily,"Where is your God?"

⁵Those times I recall as I pour out my soul, When I went in procession with the crowd, I went with them to the house of God, Amid loud cries of thanksgiving, with the multitude keeping festival.

⁶Why are you downcast, my soul; why do you groan within me? Wait for God, whom I shall praise again, my savior and my God.

⁷My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you From the land of the Jordan and Hermon, from the land of Mount Mizar.

⁸Here deep calls to deep in the roar of your torrents. All your waves and breakers sweep over me.

⁹At dawn may the LORD bestow faithful love that I may sing praise through the night, praise to the God of my life.

¹⁰I say to God, "My rock, why do you forget me? Why must I go about mourning with the enemy oppressing me?"

¹¹It shatters my bones, when my adversaries reproach me. They say to me daily: "Where is your God?"

¹²Why are you downcast, my soul, why do you groan within me? Wait for God, whom I shall praise again, my savior and my God.

PSALM 43

¹Grant me justice, God; defend me from a faithless people; from the deceitful and unjust rescue me.

²You, God, are my strength. Why then do you spurn me? Why must I go about mourning, with the enemy oppressing me?

³Send your light and fidelity, that they may be my guide And bring me to your holy mountain, to the place of your dwelling,

⁴That I may come to the altar of God, to God, my joy, my delight. Then I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God.

⁵Why are you downcast, my soul? Why do you groan within me? Wait for God, whom I shall praise again, my savior and my God.

PSALM 44

¹For the leader. A maskil of the Korahites.

²O God, we have heard with our own ears; our ancestors have told us The deeds you did in their days, with your own hand in days of old:

³You rooted out nations to plant them, crushed peoples to make room for them.

⁴Not with their own swords did they conquer the land, nor did their own arms bring victory; It was your right hand, your own arm, the light of your face for you favored them.

⁵You are my king and my God, who bestows victories on Jacob.

⁶Through you we batter our foes; through your name, trample our adversaries.

⁷Not in my bow do I trust, nor does my sword bring me victory.

⁸You have brought us victory over our enemies, shamed those who hate us.

⁹In God we have boasted all the day long; your name we will praise forever. Selah

¹⁰But now you have rejected and disgraced us; you do not march out with our armies.

¹¹You make us retreat before the foe; those who hate us plunder us at will.

¹²You hand us over like sheep to be slaughtered, scatter us among the nations.

¹³You sell your people for nothing; you make no profit from their sale.

¹⁴You make us the reproach of our neighbors, the mockery and scorn of those around us.

¹⁵You make us a byword among the nations; the peoples shake their heads at us.

¹⁶All day long my disgrace is before me; shame has covered my face

¹⁷At the sound of those who taunt and revile, at the sight of the spiteful enemy.

¹⁸All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten you, nor been disloyal to your covenant.

¹⁹Our hearts have not turned back, nor have our steps strayed from your path.

²⁰Yet you have left us crushed, desolate in a place of jackals; you have covered us with darkness.

²¹If we had forgotten the name of our God, stretched out our hands to another god,

²²Would not God have discovered this, God who knows the secrets of the heart?

²³For you we are slain all the day long, considered only as sheep to be slaughtered.

²⁴Awake! Why do you sleep, O Lord? Rise up! Do not reject us forever!

²⁵Why do you hide your face; why forget our pain and misery?

²⁶We are bowed down to the ground; our bodies are pressed to the earth.

²⁷Rise up, help us! Redeem us as your love demands.

PSALM 45

¹For the leader; according to "Lilies." A maskil of the Korahites. A love song.

²My heart is stirred by a noble theme, as I sing my ode to the king. My tongue is the pen of a nimble scribe.

³You are the most handsome of men; fair speech has graced your lips, for God has blessed you forever.

⁴Gird your sword upon your hip, mighty warrior! In splendor and majesty ride on triumphant!

⁵In the cause of truth and justice may your right hand show you wondrous deeds.

⁶Your arrows are sharp; peoples will cower at your feet; the king's enemies will lose heart.

⁷Your throne, O god, stands forever; your royal scepter is a scepter for justice.

⁸You love justice and hate wrongdoing; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellow kings.

⁹With myrrh, aloes, and cassia your robes are fragrant. From ivory-paneled palaces stringed instruments bring you joy.

¹⁰Daughters of kings are your lovely wives; a princess arrayed in Ophir's gold comes to stand at your right hand.

¹¹Listen, my daughter, and understand; pay me careful heed. Forget your people and your father's house,

¹²that the king might desire your beauty. He is your lord;

¹³honor him, daughter of Tyre. Then the richest of the people will seek your favor with gifts.

¹⁴All glorious is the king's daughter as she enters, her raiment threaded with gold;

¹⁵In embroidered apparel she is led to the king. The maids of her train are presented to the king.

¹⁶They are led in with glad and joyous acclaim; they enter the palace of the king.

¹⁷The throne of your fathers your sons will have; you shall make them princes through all the land.

¹⁸I will make your name renowned through all generations; thus nations shall praise you forever.

PSALM 46

¹For the leader. A song of the Korahites. According to alamoth.

²God is our refuge and our strength, an ever-present help in distress.

³Thus we do not fear, though earth be shaken and mountains quake to the depths of the sea,

⁴Though its waters rage and foam and mountains totter at its surging. The LORD of hosts is with us; our stronghold is the God of Jacob. Selah

⁵Streams of the river gladden the city of God, the holy dwelling of the Most High.

⁶God is in its midst; it shall not be shaken; God will help it at break of day.

⁷Though nations rage and kingdoms totter, God's voice thunders and the earth trembles.

⁸The LORD of hosts is with us; our stronghold is the God of Jacob. Selah

⁹Come and see the works of the LORD, who has done fearsome deeds on earth;

¹⁰Who stops wars to the ends of the earth, breaks the bow, splinters the spear, and burns the shields with fire;

¹¹Who says: "Be still and confess that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, exalted on the earth."

¹²The LORD of hosts is with us; our stronghold is the God of Jacob. Selah

PSALM 47

¹For the leader. A psalm of the Korahites.

²All you peoples, clap your hands; shout to God with joyful cries.

³For the LORD, the Most High, inspires awe, the great king overall the earth,

⁴Who made people subject to us, brought nations under our feet,

⁵Who chose a land for our heritage, the glory of Jacob, the beloved. Selah

⁶God mounts the throne amid shouts of joy; the LORD, amid trumpet blasts.

⁷Sing praise to God, sing praise; sing praise to our king, sing praise.

⁸God is king over all the earth; sing hymns of praise.

⁹God rules over the nations; God sits upon his holy throne.

¹⁰The princes of the peoples assemble with the people of the God of Abraham. For the rulers of the earth belong to God, who is enthroned on high.

PSALM 48

¹A psalm of the Korahites. A song.

²Great is the LORD and highly praised in the city of our God: The holy mountain,

³fairest of heights, the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, the heights of Zaphon, the city of the great king.

⁴God is its citadel, renowned as a stronghold.

⁵See! The kings assembled, together they invaded.

⁶When they looked they were astounded; terrified, they were put to flight!

⁷Trembling seized them there, anguish, like a woman's labor,

⁸As when the east wind wrecks the ships of Tarshish!

⁹What we had heard we now see in the city of the LORD of hosts, In the city of our God, founded to last forever. Selah

¹⁰O God, within your temple we ponder your steadfast love.

¹¹Like your name, O God, your praise reaches the ends of the earth. Your right hand is fully victorious.

¹²Mount Zion is glad! The cities of Judah rejoice because of your saving deeds!

¹³Go about Zion, walk all around it, note the number of its towers.

¹⁴Consider the ramparts, examine its citadels, that you may tell future generations:

¹⁵"Yes, so mighty is God, our God who leads us always!"

PSALM 49

¹For the leader. A psalm of the Korahites.

²Hear this, all you peoples! Give ear, all who inhabit the world,

³You of lowly birth or high estate, rich and poor alike.

⁴My mouth shall speak wisdom, my heart shall offer insight.

⁵I will turn my attention to a problem, expound my question to the music of a lyre.

⁶Why should I fear in evil days, when my wicked pursuers ring me round,

⁷Those who trust in their wealth and boast of their abundant riches?

⁸One cannot redeem oneself, pay to God a ransom.

⁹Too high the price to redeem a life; one would never have enough

¹⁰To stay alive forever and never see the pit.

¹¹Anyone can see that the wisest die, the fool and the senseless pass away too, and must leave their wealth to others.

¹²Tombs are their homes forever, their dwellings through all generations, though they gave their names to their lands.

¹³For all their riches mortals do not abide; they perish like the beasts.

¹⁴This is the destiny of those who trust in folly, the end of those so pleased with their wealth. Selah

¹⁵Like sheep they are herded into Sheol, where death will be their shepherd. Straight to the grave they descend, where their form will waste away, Sheol will be their palace.

¹⁶But God will redeem my life, will take me from the power of Sheol. Selah

¹⁷Do not fear when others become rich, when the wealth of their houses grows great.

¹⁸When they die they will take nothing with them, their wealth will not follow them down.

¹⁹When living, they congratulate themselves and say: "All praise you, you do so well."

²⁰But they will join the company of their forebears, never again to see the light.

²¹For all their riches, if mortals do not have wisdom, they perish like the beasts.

PSALM 50

¹A psalm of Asaph. The LORD, the God of gods, has spoken and summoned the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.

²From Zion God shines forth. perfect in beauty.

³Our God comes and will not be silent! Devouring fire precedes, storming fiercely round about.

⁴God summons the heavens above and the earth to the judgment of his people:

⁵"Gather my faithful ones before me, those who made a covenant with me by sacrifice."

⁶The heavens proclaim divine justice, for God alone is the judge. Selah

⁷"Listen, my people, I will speak; Israel, I will testify against you; God, your God, am I.

⁸Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you, nor for your holocausts, set before me daily.

⁹I need no bullock from your house, no goats from your fold.

¹⁰For every animal of the forest is mine, beasts by the thousands on my mountains.

¹¹I know every bird of the heavens; the creatures of the field belong to me.

¹²Were I hungry, I would not tell you, for mine is the world and all that fills it.

¹³Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?

¹⁴Offer praise as your sacrifice to God; fulfill your vows to the Most High.

¹⁵Then call on me in time of distress; I will rescue you, and you shall honor me."

¹⁶But to the wicked God says: "Why do you recite my commandments and profess my covenant with your lips?

¹⁷You hate discipline; you cast my words behind you!

¹⁸When you see thieves, you befriend them; with adulterers you throw in your lot.

¹⁹You give your mouth free rein for evil; you harness your tongue to deceit.

²⁰You sit maligning your own kin, slandering the child of your own mother.

²¹When you do these things should I be silent? Or do you think that I am like you? I accuse you, I lay the charge before you.

²²"Understand this, you who forget God, lest I attack you with no one to rescue.

²³Those who offer praise as a sacrifice honor me; to the obedient I will show the salvation of God."

PSALM 51

¹For the leader. A psalm of David,

²when Nathan the prophet came to him after his affair with Bathsheba.

³Have mercy on me, God, in your goodness; in your abundant compassion blot out my offense.

⁴Wash away all my guilt; from my sin cleanse me.

⁵For I know my offense; my sin is always before me.

⁶Against you alone have I sinned; I have done such evil in your sight That you are just in your sentence, blameless when you condemn.

⁷True, I was born guilty, a sinner, even as my mother conceived me.

⁸Still, you insist on sincerity of heart; in my inmost being teach me wisdom.

⁹Cleanse me with hyssop, that I may be pure; wash me, make me whiter than snow.

¹⁰Let me hear sounds of joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

¹¹Turn away your face from my sins; blot out all my guilt.

¹²A clean heart create for me, God; renew in me a steadfast spirit.

¹³Do not drive me from your presence, nor take from me your holy spirit.

¹⁴Restore my joy in your salvation; sustain in me a willing spirit.

¹⁵I will teach the wicked your ways, that sinners may return to you.

¹⁶Rescue me from death, God, my saving God, that my tongue may praise your healing power.

¹⁷Lord, open my lips; my mouth will proclaim your praise.

¹⁸For you do not desire sacrifice; a burnt offering you would not accept.

¹⁹My sacrifice, God, is a broken spirit; God, do not spurn a broken, humbled heart.

²⁰Make Zion prosper in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

²¹Then you will be pleased with proper sacrifice, burnt offerings and holocausts; then bullocks will be offered on your altar.

PSALM 52

¹For the leader. A maskil of David,

²when Doeg the Edomite went and told Saul, "David went to the house of Ahimelech."

³Why do you glory in evil, you scandalous liar? All day long

⁴you plot destruction; your tongue is like a sharpened razor, you skillful deceiver.

⁵You love evil rather than good, lies rather than honest speech. Selah

⁶You love any word that destroys, you deceitful tongue.

⁷Now God will strike you down, leave you crushed forever, Pluck you from your tent, uproot you from the land of the living. Selah

⁸The righteous will look on with awe; they will jeer and say:

⁹"That one did not take God as a refuge, but trusted in great wealth, relied on devious plots."

¹⁰But I, like an olive tree in the house of God, trust in God's faithful love forever.

¹¹I will praise you always for what you have done. I will proclaim before the faithful that your name is good.

PSALM 53

¹For the leader; according to Mahalath. A maskil of David.

²Fools say in their hearts, "There is no God." Their deeds are loathsome and corrupt; not one does what is right.

³God looks down from heaven upon the human race, To see if even one is wise, if even one seeks God.

⁴All have gone astray; all alike are perverse. Not one does what is right, not even one.

⁵Will these evildoers never learn? They devour my people as they devour bread; they do not call upon God.

⁶They have good reason to fear, though now they do not fear. For God will certainly scatter the bones of the godless. They will surely be put to shame, for God has rejected them.

⁷Oh, that from Zion might come the deliverance of Israel, That Jacob may rejoice and Israel be glad when God restores the people!

PSALM 54

¹For the leader. On stringed instruments. A maskil of David,

²when the Ziphites came and said to Saul, "David is hiding among us."

³O God, by your name save me. By your strength defend my cause.

⁴O God, hear my prayer. Listen to the words of my mouth.

⁵The arrogant have risen against me; the ruthless seek my life; they do not keep God before them. Selah

⁶God is present as my helper; the Lord sustains my life.

⁷Turn back the evil upon my foes; in your faithfulness, destroy them.

⁸Then I will offer you generous sacrifice and praise your gracious name, LORD,

⁹Because it has rescued me from every trouble, and my eyes look down on my foes.

PSALM 55

¹For the leader. On stringed instruments. A maskil of David.

²Listen, God, to my prayer; do not hide from my pleading;

³hear me and give answer. I rock with grief; I groan

⁴at the uproar of the enemy, the clamor of the wicked. They heap trouble upon me, savagely accuse me.

⁵My heart pounds within me; death's terrors fall upon me.

⁶Fear and trembling overwhelm me; shuddering sweeps over me.

⁷I say, "If only I had wings like a dove that I might fly away and find rest.

⁸Far away I would flee; I would stay in the desert. Selah

⁹I would soon find a shelter from the raging wind and storm."

¹⁰Lord, check and confuse their scheming. I see violence and strife in the city

¹¹making rounds on its walls day and night. Within are mischief and evil;

¹²treachery is there as well; oppression and fraud never leave its streets.

¹³If an enemy had reviled me, that I could bear; If my foe had viewed me with contempt, from that I could hide.

¹⁴But it was you, my other self, my comrade and friend,

¹⁵You, whose company I enjoyed, at whose side I walked in procession in the house of God.

¹⁶Let death take them by surprise; let them go down alive to Sheol, for evil is in their homes and hearts.

¹⁷But I will call upon God, and the LORD will save me.

¹⁸At dusk, dawn, and noon I will grieve and complain, and my prayer will be heard.

¹⁹God will give me freedom and peace from those who war against me, though there are many who oppose me.

²⁰God, who sits enthroned forever, will hear me and humble them. For they will not mend their ways; they have no fear of God.

²¹They strike out at friends and go back on their promises.

²²Softer than butter is their speech, but war is in their hearts. Smoother than oil are their words, but they are unsheathed swords.

²³Cast your care upon the LORD, who will give you support. God will never allow the righteous to stumble.

²⁴But you, God, will bring them down to the pit of destruction. These bloodthirsty liars will not live half their days, but I put my trust in you.

PSALM 56

¹For the director. According to Yonath elem rehoqim. A miktam of David, when the Philistines seized him at Gath.

²Have mercy on me, God, for I am treated harshly; attackers press me all the day.

³My foes treat me harshly all the day; yes, many are my attackers. O Most High,

⁴when I am afraid, in you I place my trust.

⁵God, I praise your promise; in you I trust, I do not fear. What can mere flesh do to me?

⁶All the day they foil my plans; their every thought is of evil against me.

⁷They hide together in ambush; they watch my every step; they lie in wait for my life.

⁸They are evil; watch them, God! Cast the nations down in your anger!

⁹My wanderings you have noted; are my tears not stored in your vial, recorded in your book?

¹⁰My foes turn back when I call on you. This I know: God is on my side.

¹¹God, I praise your promise;

¹²in you I trust, I do not fear. What can mere mortals do to me?

¹³I have made vows to you, God; with offerings I will fulfill them,

¹⁴Once you have snatched me from death, kept my feet from stumbling, That I may walk before God in the light of the living.

PSALM 57

¹For the director. Do not destroy. A miktam of David, when he fled from Saul into a cave.

²Have mercy on me, God, have mercy on me. In you I seek shelter. In the shadow of your wings I seek shelter till harm pass by.

³I call to God Most High, to God who provides for me.

⁴May God send help from heaven to save me, shame those who trample upon me. May God send fidelity and love. Selah

⁵I must lie down in the midst of lions hungry for human prey. Their teeth are spears and arrows; their tongue, a sharpened sword.

⁶Show yourself over the heavens, God; may your glory appear above all the earth.

⁷They have set a trap for my feet; my soul is bowed down; They have dug a pit before me. May they fall into it themselves! Selah

⁸My heart is steadfast, God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing and chant praise.

⁹Awake, my soul; awake, lyre and harp! I will wake the dawn.

¹⁰I will praise you among the peoples, Lord; I will chant your praise among the nations.

¹¹For your love towers to the heavens; your faithfulness, to the skies.

¹²Show yourself over the heavens, God; may your glory appear above all the earth.

PSALM 58

¹For the leader. Do not destroy. A miktam of David.

²Do you indeed pronounce justice, O gods; do you judge mortals fairly?

³No, you freely engage in crime; your hands dispense violence to the earth.

⁴The wicked have been corrupt since birth; liars from the womb, they have gone astray.

⁵Their poison is like the poison of a snake, like that of a serpent stopping its ears,

⁶So as not to hear the voice of the charmer who casts such cunning spells.

⁷O God, smash the teeth in their mouths; break the jaw-teeth of these lions, LORD!

⁸Make them vanish like water flowing away; trodden down, let them wither like grass.

⁹Let them dissolve like a snail that oozes away, like an untimely birth that never sees the sun.

¹⁰Suddenly, like brambles or thistles, have the whirlwind snatch them away.

¹¹Then the just shall rejoice to see the vengeance and bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked.

¹²Then it will be said: "Truly there is a reward for the just; there is a God who is judge on earth!"

PSALM 59

¹For the director. Do not destroy. A miktam of David, when Saul sent people to watch his house and kill him.

²Rescue me from my enemies, my God; lift me out of reach of my foes.

³Deliver me from evildoers; from the bloodthirsty save me.

⁴They have set an ambush for my life; the powerful conspire against me. For no offense or misdeed of mine, LORD,

⁵for no fault they hurry to take up arms. Come near and see my plight!

⁶You, LORD of hosts, are the God of Israel! Awake! Punish all the nations. Have no mercy on these worthless traitors. Selah

⁷Each evening they return, growling like dogs, prowling the city.

⁸Their mouths pour out insult; sharp words are on their lips. They say: "Who is there to hear?"

⁹You, LORD, laugh at them; you deride all the nations.

¹⁰My strength, for you I watch; you, God, are my fortress,

¹¹my loving God.

¹²May God go before me, and show me my fallen foes. Slay them, God, lest they deceive my people. Shake them by your power; Lord, our shield, bring them down.

¹³For the sinful words of their mouths and lips let them be caught in their pride. For the lies they have told under oath

¹⁴destroy them in anger, destroy till they are no more. Then people will know God rules over Jacob, yes, even to the ends of the earth. Selah

¹⁵Each evening they return, growling like dogs, prowling the city.

¹⁶They roam about as scavengers; if they are not filled, they howl.

¹⁷But I shall sing of your strength, extol your love at dawn, For you are my fortress, my refuge in time of trouble.

¹⁸My strength, your praise I will sing; you, God, are my fortress, my loving God.

PSALM 60

¹For the leader; according to "The Lily of...." A miktam of David (for teaching),

²when he fought against Aram-Naharaim and Aram-Zobah; and Joab, coming back, killed twelve thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt.

³O God, you rejected us, broke our defenses; you were angry but now revive us.

⁴You rocked the earth, split it open; repair the cracks for it totters.

⁵You made your people go through hardship, made us stagger from the wine you gave us.

⁶Raise up a flag for those who revere you, a refuge for them out of bow shot. Selah

⁷Help with your right hand and answer us that your loved ones may escape.

⁸In the sanctuary God promised: "I will exult, will apportion Shechem; the valley of Succoth I will measure out.

⁹Gilead is mine, mine is Manasseh; Ephraim is the helmet for my head, Judah, my own scepter.

¹⁰Moab is my washbowl; upon Edom I cast my sandal. I will triumph over Philistia."

¹¹Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me into Edom?

¹²Was it not you who rejected us, God? Do you no longer march with our armies?

¹³Give us aid against the foe; worthless is human help.

¹⁴We will triumph with the help of God, who will trample down our foes.

PSALM 61

¹For the leader; with stringed instruments. Of David.

²Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer!

³From the brink of Sheol I call; my heart grows faint. Raise me up, set me on a rock,

⁴for you are my refuge, a tower of strength against the foe.

⁵Then I will ever dwell in your tent, take refuge in the shelter of your wings. Selah

⁶O God, when you accept my vows and hear the plea of those who revere your name in prayer:

⁷"Add to the days of the king's life; may his years be many generations;

⁸May he reign before God forever; may your love and fidelity preserve him"--

⁹Then I will sing your name forever, fulfill my vows day after day.

PSALM 62

¹For the leader; al Jeduthun. A psalm of David.

²My soul rests in God alone, from whom comes my salvation.

³God alone is my rock and salvation, my secure height; I shall never fall.

⁴How long will you set upon people, all of you beating them down, As though they were a sagging fence or a battered wall?

⁵Even from my place on high they plot to dislodge me. They delight in lies; they bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse. Selah

⁶My soul, be at rest in God alone, from whom comes my hope.

⁷God alone is my rock and my salvation, my secure height; I shall not fall.

⁸My safety and glory are with God, my strong rock and refuge.

⁹Trust God at all times, my people! Pour out your hearts to God our refuge! Selah

¹⁰Mortals are a mere breath, the powerful but an illusion; On a balance they rise; together they are lighter than air.

¹¹Do not trust in extortion; in plunder put no empty hope. Though wealth increase, do not set your heart upon it.

¹²One thing God has said; two things I have heard: Power belongs to God;

¹³3) so too, Lord, does kindness, And you render to each of us according to our deeds.

PSALM 63

¹A psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

²O God, you are my God-- for you I long! For you my body yearns; for you my soul thirsts, Like a land parched, lifeless, and without water.

³So I look to you in the sanctuary to see your power and glory.

⁴For your love is better than life; my lips offer you worship!

⁵I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands, calling on your name.

⁶My soul shall savor the rich banquet of praise, with joyous lips my mouth shall honor you!

⁷When I think of you upon my bed, through the night watches I will recall

⁸That you indeed are my help, and in the shadow of your wings I shout for joy.

⁹My soul clings fast to you; your right hand upholds me.

¹⁰But those who seek my life will come to ruin; they shall go down to the depths of the earth!

¹¹They shall be handed over to the sword and become the prey of jackals!

¹²But the king shall rejoice in God; all who swear by the Lord shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be shut!

PSALM 64

¹For the leader. A psalm of David.

²O God, hear my anguished voice; from the foes I dread protect my life.

³Hide me from the malicious crowd, the mob of evildoers.

⁴They sharpen their tongues like swords, ready their bows for arrows of poison words.

⁵They shoot at the innocent from ambush, shoot without risk, catch them unawares.

⁶They resolve on their wicked plan; they conspire to set snares; they say: "Who will see us?"

⁷They devise wicked schemes, conceal the schemes they devise; the designs of their hearts are hidden.

⁸But God will shoot arrows at them and strike them unawares.

⁹They will be brought down by their own tongues; all who see them will shake their heads.

¹⁰Then all will fear and proclaim God's deed, pondering what has been done.

¹¹The just will rejoice and take refuge in the LORD; all the upright will glory in their God.

PSALM 65

¹For the leader. A psalm of David. A song.

²To you we owe our hymn of praise, O God on Zion; To you our vows must be fulfilled,

³you who hear our prayers. To you all flesh must come

⁴with its burden of wicked deeds. We are overcome by our sins; only you can pardon them.

⁵Happy the chosen ones you bring to dwell in your courts. May we be filled with the good things of your house, the blessings of your holy temple!

⁶You answer us with awesome deeds of justice, O God our savior, The hope of all the ends of the earth and of far distant islands.

⁷You are robed in power, you set up the mountains by your might.

⁸You still the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples.

⁹Distant peoples stand in awe of your marvels; east and west you make resound with joy.

¹⁰You visit the earth and water it, make it abundantly fertile. God's stream is filled with water; with it you supply the world with grain. Thus do you prepare the earth:

¹¹you drench plowed furrows, and level their ridges. With showers you keep the ground soft, blessing its young sprouts.

¹²You adorn the year with your bounty; your paths drip with fruitful rain.

¹³The untilled meadows also drip; the hills are robed with joy.

¹⁴The pastures are clothed with flocks, the valleys blanketed with grain; they cheer and sing for joy.

PSALM 66

¹For the leader. A song; a psalm.

²Shout joyfully to God, all you on earth; sing of his glorious name; give him glorious praise.

³Say to God: "How awesome your deeds! Before your great strength your enemies cringe.

⁴All on earth fall in worship before you; they sing of you, sing of your name!" Selah

⁵Come and see the works of God, awesome in the deeds done for us.

⁶He changed the sea to dry land; through the river they passed on foot. Therefore let us rejoice in him,

⁷who rules by might forever, Whose eyes are fixed upon the nations. Let no rebel rise to challenge! Selah

⁸Bless our God, you peoples; loudly sound his praise,

⁹Who has kept us alive and not allowed our feet to slip.

¹⁰You tested us, O God, tried us as silver tried by fire.

¹¹You led us into a snare; you bound us at the waist as captives.

¹²You let captors set foot on our neck; we went through fire and water; then you led us out to freedom.

¹³I will bring holocausts to your house; to you I will fulfill my vows,

¹⁴The vows my lips pronounced and my mouth spoke in distress.

¹⁵Holocausts of fatlings I will offer you and burnt offerings of rams; I will sacrifice oxen and goats. Selah

¹⁶Come and hear, all you who fear God, while I recount what has been done for me.

¹⁷I called to the Lord with my mouth; praise was upon my tongue.

¹⁸Had I cherished evil in my heart, the Lord would not have heard.

¹⁹But God did hear and listened to my voice in prayer.

²⁰Blessed be God, who did not refuse me the kindness I sought in prayer.

PSALM 67

¹For the leader; with stringed instruments. A psalm; a song.

²May God be gracious to us and bless us; may God's face shine upon us. Selah

³So shall your rule be known upon the earth, your saving power among all the nations.

⁴May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you!

⁵May the nations be glad and shout for joy; for you govern the peoples justly, you guide the nations upon the earth. Selah

⁶May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you!

⁷The earth has yielded its harvest; God, our God, blesses us.

⁸May God bless us still; that the ends of the earth may revere our God.

PSALM 68

¹For the leader. A psalm of David; a song.

²God will arise for battle; the enemy will be scattered; those who hate God will flee.

³The wind will disperse them like smoke; as wax is melted by fire, so the wicked will perish before God.

⁴Then the just will be glad; they will rejoice before God; they will celebrate with great joy.

⁵Sing to God, praise the divine name; exalt the rider of the clouds. Rejoice before this God whose name is the LORD.

⁶Father of the fatherless, defender of widows-- this is the God whose abode is holy,

⁷Who gives a home to the forsaken, who leads prisoners out to prosperity, while rebels live in the desert.

⁸God, when you went forth before your people, when you marched through the desert, Selah

⁹The earth quaked, the heavens shook, before God, the One of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel.

¹⁰You claimed a land as your own, O God;

¹¹your people settled there. There you poured abundant rains, God, graciously given to the poor in their need.

¹²The Lord announced the news of victory:

¹²All you people so numerous,

¹³"The kings and their armies are in desperate flight.

¹³b) Every household will share the booty,

¹⁴will you stay by the sheepfolds?

¹⁴b) perhaps a dove sheathed with silver,

¹⁴c) its wings covered with yellow gold."

¹⁵When the Almighty routed the kings there, the spoils were scattered like snow on Zalmon.

¹⁶You high mountains of Bashan, you rugged mountains of Bashan,

¹⁷You rugged mountains, why look with envy at the mountain where God has chosen to dwell, where the LORD resides forever?

¹⁸God's chariots were myriad, thousands upon thousands; from Sinai the Lord entered the holy place.

¹⁹You went up to its lofty height; you took captives, received slaves as tribute. No rebels can live in the presence of God.

²⁰Blessed be the Lord day by day, God, our salvation, who carries us. Selah

²¹Our God is a God who saves; escape from death is in the LORD God's hands.

²²God will crush the skulls of the enemy, the hairy heads of those who walk in sin.

²³The Lord has said: "Even from Bashan I will fetch them, fetch them even from the depths of the sea.

²⁴You will wash your feet in your enemy's blood; the tongues of your dogs will lap it up."

²⁵Your procession comes into view, O God, your procession into the holy place, my God and king.

²⁶The singers go first, the harpists follow; in their midst girls sound the timbrels.

²⁷In your choirs, bless God; bless the LORD, you from Israel's assemblies.

²⁸In the lead is Benjamin, few in number; there the princes of Judah, a large throng, the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali, too.

²⁹Summon again, O God, your power, the divine power you once showed for us.

³⁰Show it from your temple on behalf of Jerusalem, that kings may bring you tribute.

³¹Roar at the wild beast of the reeds, the herd of mighty bulls, the lords of nations; scatter the nations that delight in war.

³²Exact rich tribute from lower Egypt, from upper Egypt, gold and silver; make Ethiopia extend its hands to God.

³³You kingdoms of the earth, sing to God; chant the praises of the Lord, Selah

³⁴Who rides the heights of the ancient heavens, whose voice is thunder, mighty thunder.

³⁵Confess the power of God, whose majesty protects Israel, whose power is in the sky.

³⁶Awesome is God in his holy place, the God of Israel, who gives power and strength to his people. Blessed be God!

PSALM 69

¹For the leader; according to "Lilies." Of David.

²Save me, God, for the waters have reached my neck.

³I have sunk into the mire of the deep, where there is no foothold. I have gone down to the watery depths; the flood overwhelms me.

⁴I am weary with crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes have failed, looking for my God.

⁵More numerous than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause. Too many for my strength are my treacherous enemies. Must I now restore what I did not steal?

⁶God, you know my folly; my faults are not hidden from you.

⁷Let those who wait for you, LORD of hosts, not be shamed through me. Let those who seek you, God of Israel, not be disgraced through me

⁸For your sake I bear insult, shame covers my face.

⁹I have become an outcast to my kin, a stranger to my mother's children.

¹⁰Because zeal for your house consumes me, I am scorned by those who scorn you.

¹¹I have wept and fasted, but this led only to scorn.

¹²I clothed myself in sackcloth; I became a byword for them.

¹³They who sit at the gate gossip about me; drunkards make me the butt of their songs.

¹⁴But I pray to you, LORD, for the time of your favor. God, in your great kindness answer me with your constant help.

¹⁵Rescue me from the mire; do not let me sink. Rescue me from my enemies and from the watery depths.

¹⁶Do not let the floodwaters overwhelm me, nor the deep swallow me, nor the mouth of the pit close over me.

¹⁷Answer me, LORD, in your generous love; in your great mercy turn to me.

¹⁸Do not hide your face from your servant; in my distress hasten to answer me.

¹⁹Come and ransom my life; because of my enemies redeem me.

²⁰You know my reproach, my shame, my disgrace; before you stand all my foes.

²¹Insult has broken my heart, and I am weak; I looked for compassion, but there was none, for comforters, but found none.

²²Instead they put gall in my food; for my thirst they gave me vinegar.

²³Make their own table a snare for them, a trap for their friends.

²⁴Make their eyes so dim they cannot see; keep their backs ever feeble.

²⁵Pour out your wrath upon them; let the fury of your anger overtake them.

²⁶Make their camp desolate, with none to dwell in their tents.

²⁷For they pursued the one you struck, added to the pain of the one you wounded.

²⁸Add that to their crimes; let them not attain to your reward.

²⁹Strike them from the book of the living; do not count them among the just!

³⁰But I am afflicted and in pain; let your saving help protect me, God,

³¹That I may praise God's name in song and glorify it with thanksgiving.

³²My song will please the LORD more than oxen, more than bullocks with horns and hooves:

³³"See, you lowly ones, and be glad; you who seek God, take heart!

³⁴For the LORD hears the poor, does not spurn those in bondage.

³⁵Let the heavens and the earth sing praise, the seas and whatever moves in them!"

³⁶God will rescue Zion, rebuild the cities of Judah. God's servants shall dwell in the land and possess it;

³⁷7) it shall be the heritage of their descendants; those who love God's name shall dwell there.

PSALM 70

¹For the leader; of David. For remembrance.

²Graciously rescue me, God! Come quickly to help me, LORD!

³Confound and put to shame those who seek my life. Turn back in disgrace those who desire my ruin.

⁴Let those who say "Aha!" turn back in their shame.

⁵But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. May those who long for your help always say, "God be glorified!"

⁶Here I am, afflicted and poor. God, come quickly! You are my help and deliverer. LORD, do not delay!

PSALM 71

¹In you, LORD, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame.

²In your justice rescue and deliver me; listen to me and save me!

³Be my rock and refuge, my secure stronghold; for you are my rock and fortress.

⁴My God, rescue me from the power of the wicked, from the clutches of the violent.

⁵You are my hope, Lord; my trust, GOD, from my youth.

⁶On you I depend since birth; from my mother's womb you are my strength; my hope in you never wavers.

⁷I have become a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge!

⁸My mouth shall be filled with your praise, shall sing your glory every day.

⁹Do not cast me aside in my old age; as my strength fails, do not forsake me.

¹⁰For my enemies speak against me; they watch and plot against me.

¹¹They say, "God has abandoned that one Pursue, seize the wretch! No one will come to the rescue!"

¹²God, do not stand far from me; my God, hasten to help me.

¹³Bring to a shameful end those who attack me; Cover with contempt and scorn those who seek my ruin.

¹⁴I will always hope in you and add to all your praise.

¹⁵My mouth shall proclaim your just deeds, day after day your acts of deliverance, though I cannot number them all.

¹⁶I will speak of the mighty works of the Lord; O GOD, I will tell of your singular justice.

¹⁷God, you have taught me from my youth; to this day I proclaim your wondrous deeds.

¹⁸Now that I am old and gray, do not forsake me, God, That I may proclaim your might to all generations yet to come, Your power

¹⁹and justice, God, to the highest heaven. You have done great things; O God, who is your equal?

²⁰You have sent me many bitter afflictions, but once more revive me. From the watery depths of the earth once more raise me up.

²¹Restore my honor; turn and comfort me,

²²That I may praise you with the lyre for your faithfulness, my God, And sing to you with the harp, O Holy One of Israel!

²³My lips will shout for joy as I sing your praise; my soul, too, which you have redeemed.

²⁴Yes, my tongue shall recount your justice day by day. For those who sought my ruin will have been shamed and disgraced.

PSALM 72

¹Of Solomon.

²O God, give your judgment to the king; your justice to the son of kings; That he may govern your people with justice, your oppressed with right judgment,

³That the mountains may yield their bounty for the people, and the hills great abundance,

⁴That he may defend the oppressed among the people, save the poor and crush the oppressor.

⁵May he live as long as the sun endures, like the moon, through all generations.

⁶May he be like rain coming down upon the fields, like showers watering the earth,

⁷That abundance may flourish in his days, great bounty, till the moon be no more.

⁸May he rule from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth.

⁹May his foes kneel before him, his enemies lick the dust.

¹⁰May the kings of Tarshish and the islands bring tribute, the kings of Arabia and Seba offer gifts.

¹¹May all kings bow before him, all nations serve him.

¹²For he rescues the poor when they cry out, the oppressed who have no one to help.

¹³He shows pity to the needy and the poor and saves the lives of the poor.

¹⁴From extortion and violence he frees them, for precious is their blood in his sight.

¹⁵Long may he live, receiving gold from Arabia, prayed for without cease, blessed day by day.

¹⁶May wheat abound in the land, flourish even on the mountain heights. May his fruit increase like Lebanon's, his wheat like the grasses of the land.

¹⁷May his name be blessed forever; as long as the sun, may his name endure. May the tribes of the earth give blessings with his name; may all the nations regard him as favored.

¹⁸Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who alone does wonderful deeds.

¹⁹Blessed be his glorious name forever; may all the earth be filled with the LORD'S glory. Amen and amen.

²⁰The end of the psalms of David, son of Jesse.

PSALM 73

¹A psalm of Asaph. How good God is to the upright, the Lord, to those who are clean of heart!

²I But, as for me, I lost my balance; my feet all but slipped,

³Because I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

⁴For they suffer no pain; their bodies are healthy and sleek.

⁵They are free of the burdens of life; they are not afflicted like others.

⁶Thus pride adorns them as a necklace; violence clothes them as a robe.

⁷Out of their stupidity comes sin; evil thoughts flood their hearts.

⁸They scoff and spout their malice; from on high they utter threats.

⁹They set their mouths against the heavens, their tongues roam the earth.

¹⁰So my people turn to them and drink deeply of their words.

¹¹They say, "Does God really know?" "Does the Most High have any knowledge?"

¹²Such, then, are the wicked, always carefree, increasing their wealth.

¹³Is it in vain that I have kept my heart clean, washed my hands in innocence?

¹⁴For I am afflicted day after day, chastised every morning.

¹⁵Had I thought, "I will speak as they do," I would have betrayed your people.

¹⁶Though I tried to understand all this, it was too difficult for me,

¹⁷Till I entered the sanctuary of God and came to understand their end.

¹⁸You set them, indeed, on a slippery road; you hurl them down to ruin.

¹⁹How suddenly they are devastated; undone by disasters forever!

²⁰They are like a dream after waking, Lord, dismissed like shadows when you arise.

²¹Since my heart was embittered and my soul deeply wounded,

²²I was stupid and could not understand; I was like a brute beast in your presence.

²³Yet I am always with you; you take hold of my right hand.

²⁴With your counsel you guide me, and at the end receive me with honor.

²⁵Whom else have I in the heavens? None beside you delights me on earth.

²⁶Though my flesh and my heart fail, God is the rock of my heart, my portion forever.

²⁷But those who are far from you perish; you destroy those unfaithful to you.

²⁸As for me, to be near God is my good, to make the Lord GOD my refuge. I shall declare all your works in the gates of daughter Zion.

PSALM 74

¹A maskil of Asaph. I Why, God, have you cast us off forever? Why does your anger burn against the sheep of your pasture?

²Remember your flock that you gathered of old, the tribe you redeemed as your very own. Remember Mount Zion where you dwell.

³Turn your steps toward the utter ruins, toward the sanctuary devastated by the enemy.

⁴Your foes roared triumphantly in your shrine; they set up their own tokens of victory.

⁵They hacked away like foresters gathering boughs, swinging their axes in a thicket of trees.

⁶They smashed all your engraved work, pounded it with hammer and pick.

⁷They set your sanctuary on fire; the abode of your name they razed and profaned.

⁸They said in their hearts, "Destroy them all! Burn all the shrines of God in the land!"

⁹Now we see no signs, we have no prophets, no one who knows how long.

¹⁰How long, O God, shall the enemy jeer? Shall the foe revile your name forever?

¹¹Why draw back your right hand, why keep it idle beneath your cloak?

¹²Yet you, God, are my king from of old, winning victories throughout the earth.

¹³You stirred up the sea in your might; you smashed the heads of the dragons on the waters.

¹⁴You crushed the heads of Leviathan, tossed him for food to the sharks.

¹⁵You opened up springs and torrents, brought dry land out of the primeval waters.

¹⁶Yours the day and yours the night; you set the moon and sun in place.

¹⁷You fixed all the limits of the earth; summer and winter you made.

¹⁸Remember how the enemy has jeered, O LORD, how a foolish people has reviled your name.

¹⁹Do not surrender to beasts those who praise you; do not forget forever the life of your afflicted.

²⁰Look to your covenant, for the land is filled with gloom; the pastures, with violence.

²¹Let not the oppressed turn back in shame; may the poor and needy praise your name.

²²Arise, God, defend your cause; remember the constant jeers of the fools.

²³Do not ignore the clamor of your foes, the unceasing uproar of your enemies.

PSALM 75

¹For the leader. Do not destroy! A psalm of Asaph; a song.

²We thank you, God, we give thanks; we call upon your name, declare your wonderful deeds. You said:

³"I will choose the time; I will judge fairly.

⁴The earth and all its inhabitants will quake, but I have firmly set its pillars." Selah

⁵So I say to the boastful: "Do not boast!" to the wicked: "Do not raise your horns!

⁶Do not raise your horns against heaven! Do not speak arrogantly against the Rock!"

⁷For judgment comes not from east or from west, not from the desert or from the mountains,

⁸But from God who decides, who brings some low and raises others high.

⁹Yes, a cup is in the LORD'S hand, foaming wine, fully spiced. When God pours it out, they will drain it even to the dregs; all the wicked of the earth must drink.

¹⁰But I will rejoice forever; I will sing praise to the God of Jacob,

¹¹Who has said: "I will break off all the horns of the wicked, but the horns of the just shall be lifted up."

PSALM 76

¹For the leader; a psalm with stringed instruments. A song of Asaph.

²Renowned in Judah is God, whose name is great in Israel.

³On Salem is God's tent, a shelter on Zion.

⁴There the flashing arrows were shattered, shield, sword, and weapons of war. Selah

⁵Terrible and awesome are you, stronger than the ancient mountains.

⁶Despoiled are the bold warriors; they sleep their final sleep; the hands of all the mighty have failed.

⁷At your roar, O God of Jacob, chariots and steeds lay still.

⁸So terrible and awesome are you; who can stand before you and your great anger?

⁹From the heavens you pronounced sentence; the earth was terrified and reduced to silence,

¹⁰When you arose, O God, for judgment to deliver the afflicted of the land. Selah

¹¹Even wrathful Edom praises you; the remnant of Hamath keeps your feast.

¹²Make and keep vows to the LORD your God. May all present bring gifts to this awesome God,

¹³Who checks the pride of princes, inspires awe among the kings of earth.

PSALM 77

¹For the leader; al Jeduthun. A psalm of Asaph.

²I cry aloud to God, cry to God to hear me.

³On the day of my distress I seek the Lord; by night my hands are raised unceasingly; I refuse to be consoled.

⁴When I think of God, I groan; as I ponder, my spirit grows faint. Selah

⁵My eyes cannot close in sleep; I am troubled and cannot speak.

⁶I consider the days of old; the years long past

⁷I remember. In the night I meditate in my heart; I ponder and my spirit broods:

⁸"Will the Lord reject us forever, never again show favor?

⁹Has God's love ceased forever? Has the promise failed for all ages?

¹⁰Has God forgotten mercy, in anger withheld compassion?" Selah

¹¹I conclude: "My sorrow is this, the right hand of the Most High has left us."

¹²I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, your wonders of old I will remember.

¹³I will recite all your works; your exploits I will tell.

¹⁴Your way, O God, is holy; what god is as great as our God?

¹⁵You alone are the God who did wonders; among the peoples you revealed your might.

¹⁶With your arm you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. Selah

¹⁷The waters saw you, God; the waters saw you and lashed about, trembled even to their depths.

¹⁸The clouds poured down their rains; the thunderheads rumbled; your arrows flashed back and forth.

¹⁹The thunder of your chariot wheels resounded; your lightning lit up the world; the earth trembled and quaked.

²⁰Through the sea was your path; your way, through the mighty waters, though your footsteps were unseen.

²¹You led your people like a flock under the care of Moses and Aaron.

PSALM 78

¹A maskil of Asaph. Attend, my people, to my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth.

²I will open my mouth in story, drawing lessons from of old.

³We have heard them, we know them; our ancestors have recited them to us.

⁴We do not keep them from our children; we recite them to the next generation, The praiseworthy and mighty deeds of the LORD, the wonders that he performed.

⁵God set up a decree in Jacob, established a law in Israel: What he commanded our ancestors, they were to teach their children;

⁶That the next generation might come to know, children yet to be born. In turn they were to recite them to their children,

⁷that they too might put their trust in God, And not forget the works of God, keeping his commandments.

⁸They were not to be like their ancestors, a rebellious and defiant generation, A generation whose heart was not constant, whose spirit was not faithful to God,

⁹Like the ranks of Ephraimite archers, who retreated on the day of battle.

¹⁰They did not keep God's covenant; they refused to walk by his law.

¹¹They forgot his works, the wondrous deeds he had shown them.

¹²In the sight of their ancestors God did wonders, in the land of Egypt, the plain of Zoan.

¹³He split the sea and led them across, piling up the waters rigid as walls.

¹⁴God led them with a cloud by day, all night with the light of fire.

¹⁵He split rock in the desert, gave water to drink, abounding as the deep.

¹⁶He made streams flow from crags, drew out rivers of water.

¹⁷But they went on sinning against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.

¹⁸They tested God in their hearts, demanding the food they craved.

¹⁹They spoke against God, and said, "Can God spread a table in the desert?

²⁰True, when he struck the rock, water gushed forth, the wadis flooded. But can he also provide bread, give meat to his people?"

²¹The LORD heard and grew angry; fire blazed up against Jacob; anger flared up against Israel.

²²For they did not believe in God, did not trust in his saving power.

²³So he commanded the skies above; the doors of heaven he opened.

²⁴God rained manna upon them for food; bread from heaven he gave them.

²⁵All ate a meal fit for heroes; food he sent in abundance.

²⁶He stirred up the east wind in the heavens; by his power God brought on the south wind.

²⁷He rained meat upon them like dust, winged fowl like the sands of the sea,

²⁸Brought them down in the midst of the camp, round about their tents.

²⁹They ate and were well filled; he gave them what they had craved.

³⁰But while they still wanted more, and the food was still in their mouths,

³¹God's anger attacked them, killed their best warriors, laid low the youth of Israel.

³²In spite of all this they went on sinning, they did not believe in his wonders.

³³God ended their days abruptly, their years in sudden death.

³⁴When he slew them, they began to seek him; they again inquired of their God.

³⁵They remembered that God was their rock, God Most High, their redeemer.

³⁶But they deceived him with their mouths, lied to him with their tongues.

³⁷Their hearts were not constant toward him; they were not faithful to his covenant.

³⁸But God is merciful and forgave their sin; he did not utterly destroy them. Time and again he turned back his anger, unwilling to unleash all his rage.

³⁹He was mindful that they were flesh, a breath that passes and does not return.

⁴⁰How often they rebelled against God in the desert, grieved him in the wasteland.

⁴¹Again and again they tested God, provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴²They did not remember his power, the day he redeemed them from the foe,

⁴³When he displayed his wonders in Egypt, his marvels in the plain of Zoan.

⁴⁴God changed their rivers to blood; their streams they could not drink.

⁴⁵He sent insects that devoured them, frogs that destroyed them.

⁴⁶He gave their harvest to the caterpillar, the fruits of their labor to the locust.

⁴⁷He killed their vines with hail, their sycamores with frost.

⁴⁸He exposed their flocks to deadly hail, their cattle to lightning.

⁴⁹He unleashed against them his fiery breath, roar, fury, and distress, storming messengers of death.

⁵⁰He cleared a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death; he delivered their beasts to the plague.

⁵¹He struck all the firstborn of Egypt, love's first child in the tents of Ham.

⁵²God led forth his people like sheep; he guided them through the desert like a flock.

⁵³He led them on secure and unafraid, but the sea enveloped their enemies.

⁵⁴He brought them to his holy land, the mountain his right hand had won.

⁵⁵God drove out the nations before them, apportioned them a heritage by lot, settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

⁵⁶But they tested, rebelled against God Most High, his decrees they did not observe.

⁵⁷They turned back, deceitful like their ancestors; they proved false like a bow with no tension.

⁵⁸They enraged him with their high places; with their idols they goaded him.

⁵⁹God heard and grew angry; he rejected Israel completely.

⁶⁰He forsook the shrine at Shiloh, the tent where he dwelt with humans.

⁶¹He gave up his might into captivity, his glorious ark into the hands of the foe.

⁶²God abandoned his people to the sword; he was enraged against his heritage.

⁶³Fire consumed their young men; their young women heard no wedding songs.

⁶⁴Their priests fell by the sword; their widows made no lamentation.

⁶⁵Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a warrior from the effects of wine.

⁶⁶He put his enemies to flight; everlasting shame he dealt them.

⁶⁷He rejected the tent of Joseph, chose not the tribe of Ephraim.

⁶⁸God chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he favored.

⁶⁹He built his shrine like the heavens, like the earth which he founded forever.

⁷⁰He chose David his servant, took him from the sheepfold.

⁷¹From tending sheep God brought him, to shepherd Jacob, his people, Israel, his heritage.

⁷²He shepherded them with a pure heart; with skilled hands he guided them.

PSALM 79

¹A psalm of Asaph. O God, the nations have invaded your heritage; they have defiled your holy temple, have laid Jerusalem in ruins.

²They have left the corpses of your servants as food for the birds of the heavens, the flesh of your faithful for the beasts of the earth.

³They have spilled their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and no one is left to bury them.

⁴We have become the reproach of our neighbors, the scorn and derision of those around us.

⁵How long, LORD? Will you be angry forever? Will your rage keep burning like fire?

⁶Pour out your wrath on nations that reject you, on kingdoms that do not call on your name,

⁷For they have devoured Jacob, laid waste his home.

⁸Do not hold past iniquities against us; may your compassion come quickly, for we have been brought very low.

⁹Help us, God our savior, for the glory of your name. Deliver us, pardon our sins for your name's sake.

¹⁰Why should the nations say, "Where is their God?" Before our eyes make clear to the nations that you avenge the blood of your servants.

¹¹Let the groans of prisoners come before you; by your great power free those doomed to death.

¹²Lord, inflict on our neighbors seven fold the disgrace they inflicted on you.

¹³Then we, your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; through all ages we will declare your praise.

PSALM 80

¹For the leader; according to "Lilies." Eduth. A psalm of Asaph.

²Shepherd of Israel, listen, guide of the flock of Joseph! From your throne upon the cherubim reveal yourself

³to Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh. Stir up your power, come to save us.

⁴O LORD of hosts, restore us; Let your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.

⁵LORD of hosts, how long will you burn with anger while your people pray?

⁶You have fed them the bread of tears, made them drink tears in abundance.

⁷You have left us to be fought over by our neighbors; our enemies deride us.

⁸O LORD of hosts, restore us; let your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.

⁹You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove away the nations and planted it.

¹⁰You cleared the ground; it took root and filled the land.

¹¹The mountains were covered by its shadow, the cedars of God by its branches.

¹²It sent out boughs as far as the sea, shoots as far as the river.

¹³Why have you broken down the walls, so that all who pass by pluck its fruit?

¹⁴The boar from the forest strips the vine; the beast of the field feeds upon it.

¹⁵Turn again, LORD of hosts; look down from heaven and see; Attend to this vine,

¹⁶the shoot your right hand has planted.

¹⁷Those who would burn or cut it down-- may they perish at your rebuke.

¹⁸May your help be with the man at your right hand, with the one whom you once made strong.

¹⁹Then we will not withdraw from you; revive us, and we will call on your name.

²⁰LORD of hosts, restore us; let your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.

PSALM 81

¹For the leader; "upon the gittith." Of Asaph.

²Sing joyfully to God our strength; shout in triumph to the God of Jacob!

³Take up a melody, sound the timbrel, the sweet-sounding harp and lyre.

⁴Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our solemn feast.

⁵For this is a law in Israel, an edict of the God of Jacob,

⁶Who made it a decree for Joseph when he came out of the land of Egypt. II I hear a new oracle:

⁷"I relieved their shoulders of the burden; their hands put down the basket.

⁸In distress you called and I rescued you; unseen, I spoke to you in thunder; At the waters of Meribah I tested you and said: Selah

⁹'Listen, my people, I give you warning! If only you will obey me, Israel!

¹⁰There must be no foreign god among you; you must not worship an alien god.

¹¹I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Open wide your mouth that I may fill it.'

¹²But my people did not listen to my words; Israel did not obey me.

¹³So I gave them over to hardness of heart; they followed their own designs.

¹⁴But even now if my people would listen, if Israel would walk in my paths,

¹⁵In a moment I would subdue their foes, against their enemies unleash my hand.

¹⁶Those who hate the LORD would tremble, their doom sealed forever.

¹⁷But Israel I would feed with the finest wheat, satisfy them with honey from the rock."

PSALM 82

¹A psalm of Asaph. God rises in the divine council, gives judgment in the midst of the gods.

²"How long will you judge unjustly and favor the cause of the wicked? Selah

³Defend the lowly and fatherless; render justice to the afflicted and needy.

⁴Rescue the lowly and poor; deliver them from the hand of the wicked."

⁵The gods neither know nor understand, wandering about in darkness, and all the world's foundations shake.

⁶I declare: "Gods though you be, offspring of the Most High all of you,

⁷Yet like any mortal you shall die; like any prince you shall fall."

⁸Arise, O God, judge the earth, for yours are all the nations.

PSALM 83

¹A song; a psalm of Asaph.

²God, do not be silent; God, be not still and unmoved!

³See how your enemies rage; your foes proudly raise their heads.

⁴They conspire against your people, plot against those you protect.

⁵They say, "Come, let us wipe out their nation; let Israel's name be mentioned no more!"

⁶They scheme with one mind, in league against you:

⁷The tents of Ishmael and Edom, the people of Moab and Hagar,

⁸Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek, Philistia and the inhabitants of Tyre.

⁹Assyria, too, in league with them gives aid to the descendants of Lot. Selah

¹⁰Deal with them as with Midian; as with Sisera and Jabin at the torrent Kishon,

¹¹Those destroyed at Endor, who became dung for the ground.

¹²Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,

¹³Who made a plan together, "Let us seize the pastures of God."

¹⁴My God, turn them into withered grass, into chaff flying before the wind.

¹⁵As a fire raging through a forest, a flame setting mountains ablaze,

¹⁶Pursue them with your tempest; terrify them with your storm.

¹⁷Cover their faces with shame, till they pay you homage, LORD.

¹⁸Let them be dismayed and shamed forever; let them perish in disgrace.

¹⁹Show them you alone are the LORD, the Most High over all the earth.

PSALM 84

¹For the leader; "upon the gittith." A psalm of the Korahites.

²How lovely your dwelling, O LORD of hosts!

³My soul yearns and pines for the courts of the LORD. My heart and flesh cry out for the living God.

⁴As the sparrow finds a home and the swallow a nest to settle her young, My home is by your altars, LORD of hosts, my king and my God!

⁵Happy are those who dwell in your house! They never cease to praise you. Selah

⁶Happy are those who find refuge in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrim roads.

⁷As they pass through the Baca valley, they find spring water to drink. Also from pools the Lord provides water for those who lose their way.

⁸They pass through outer and inner wall and see the God of gods on Zion.

⁹LORD of hosts, hear my prayer; listen, God of Jacob. Selah

¹⁰O God, look kindly on our shield; look upon the face of your anointed.

¹¹Better one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere. Better the threshold of the house of my God than a home in the tents of the wicked.

¹²For a sun and shield is the LORD God, bestowing all grace and glory. The LORD withholds no good thing from those who walk without reproach.

¹³O LORD of hosts, happy are those who trust in you!

PSALM 85

¹For the leader. A psalm of the Korahites.

²You once favored, LORD, your land, restored the good fortune of Jacob.

³You forgave the guilt of your people, pardoned all their sins. Selah

⁴You withdrew all your wrath, turned back your burning anger.

⁵Restore us once more, God our savior; abandon your wrath against us.

⁶Will you be angry with us forever, drag out your anger for all generations?

⁷Please give us life again, that your people may rejoice in you.

⁸Show us, LORD, your love; grant us your salvation.

⁹I will listen for the word of God; surely the LORD will proclaim peace To his people, to the faithful, to those who trust in him.

¹⁰Near indeed is salvation for the loyal; prosperity will fill our land.

¹¹Love and truth will meet; justice and peace will kiss.

¹²Truth will spring from the earth; justice will look down from heaven.

¹³The LORD will surely grant abundance; our land will yield its increase.

¹⁴Prosperity will march before the Lord, and good fortune will follow behind.

PSALM 86

¹A prayer of David. Hear me, LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and oppressed.

²Preserve my life, for I am loyal; save your servant who trusts in you.

³You are my God; pity me, Lord; to you I call all the day.

⁴Gladden the soul of your servant; to you, Lord, I lift up my soul.

⁵Lord, you are kind and forgiving, most loving to all who call on you.

⁶LORD, hear my prayer; listen to my cry for help.

⁷In this time of trouble I call, for you will answer me.

⁸None among the gods can equal you, O Lord; nor can their deeds compare to yours.

⁹All the nations you have made shall come to bow before you, Lord, and give honor to your name.

¹⁰For you are great and do wondrous deeds; and you alone are God.

¹¹Teach me, LORD, your way that I may walk in your truth, single-hearted and revering your name.

¹²I will praise you with all my heart, glorify your name forever, Lord my God.

¹³Your love for me is great; you have rescued me from the depths of Sheol.

¹⁴O God, the arrogant have risen against me; a ruthless band has sought my life; to you they pay no heed.

¹⁵But you, Lord, are a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, most loving and true.

¹⁶Turn to me, have pity on me; give your strength to your servant; save this child of your handmaid.

¹⁷Give me a sign of your favor: make my enemies see, to their confusion, that you, LORD, help and comfort me.

PSALM 87

¹A psalm of the Korahites. A song. The LORD loves the city founded on holy mountains,

²Loves the gates of Zion more than any dwelling in Jacob.

³Glorious things are said of you, O city of God! Selah

⁴From Babylon and Egypt I count those who acknowledge the LORD. Philistia, Ethiopia, Tyre, of them it can be said: "This one was born there."

⁵But of Zion it must be said: "They all were born here." The Most High confirms this;

⁶the Lord notes in the register of the peoples: "This one was born here." Selah

⁷So all sing in their festive dance: "Within you is my true home."

PSALM 88

¹A song; a psalm of the Korahites. For the leader; according to Mahalath. For singing; a maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.

²LORD, my God, I call out by day; at night I cry aloud in your presence.

³Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry.

⁴For my soul is filled with troubles; my life draws near to Sheol.

⁵I am reckoned with those who go down to the pit; I am weak, without strength.

⁶My couch is among the dead, with the slain who lie in the grave. You remember them no more; they are cut off from your care.

⁷You plunged me into the bottom of the pit, into the darkness of the abyss.

⁸Your wrath lies heavy upon me; all your waves crash over me. Selah

⁹Because of you my friends shun me; you make me loathsome to them; Caged in, I cannot escape;

¹⁰my eyes grow dim from trouble. All day I call on you, LORD; I stretch out my hands to you.

¹¹Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the shades arise and praise you? Selah

¹²Is your love proclaimed in the grave, your fidelity in the tomb?

¹³Are your marvels declared in the darkness, your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?

¹⁴But I cry out to you, LORD; in the morning my prayer comes before you.

¹⁵Why do you reject me, LORD? Why hide your face from me?

¹⁶I am mortally afflicted since youth; lifeless, I suffer your terrible blows.

¹⁷Your wrath has swept over me; your terrors have reduced me to silence.

¹⁸All the day they surge round like a flood; from every side they close in on me.

¹⁹Because of you companions shun me; my only friend is darkness.

PSALM 89

¹A maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite.

²The promises of the LORD I will sing forever, proclaim your loyalty through all ages.

³For you said, "My love is established forever; my loyalty will stand as long as the heavens.

⁴I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant:

⁵I will make your dynasty stand forever and establish your throne through all ages." Selah

⁶The heavens praise your marvels, LORD, your loyalty in the assembly of the holy ones.

⁷Who in the skies ranks with the LORD? Who is like the LORD among the gods?

⁸A God dreaded in the council of the holy ones, greater and more awesome than all who sit there!

⁹LORD, God of hosts, who is like you? Mighty LORD, your loyalty is always present.

¹⁰You rule the raging sea; you still its swelling waves.

¹¹You crushed Rahab with a mortal blow; your strong arm scattered your foes.

¹²Yours are the heavens, yours the earth; you founded the world and everything in it.

¹³Zaphon and Amanus you created; Tabor and Hermon rejoice in your name.

¹⁴Mighty your arm, strong your hand, your right hand is ever exalted.

¹⁵Justice and judgment are the foundation of your throne; love and loyalty march before you.

¹⁶Happy the people who know you, LORD, who walk in the radiance of your face.

¹⁷In your name they sing joyfully all the day; at your victory they raise the festal shout.

¹⁸You are their majestic strength; by your favor our horn is exalted.

¹⁹Truly the LORD is our shield, the Holy One of Israel, our king!

²⁰Once you spoke in vision; to your faithful ones you said: "I have set a leader over the warriors; I have raised up a hero from the army.

²¹I have chosen David, my servant; with my holy oil I have anointed him.

²²My hand will be with him; my arm will make him strong.

²³No enemy shall outwit him, nor shall the wicked defeat him.

²⁴I will crush his foes before him, strike down those who hate him.

²⁵My loyalty and love will be with him; through my name his horn will be exalted.

²⁶I will set his hand upon the sea, his right hand upon the rivers.

²⁷He shall cry to me,'You are my father, my God, the Rock that brings me victory!'

²⁸I myself make him firstborn, Most High over the kings of the earth.

²⁹Forever I will maintain my love for him; my covenant with him stands firm.

³⁰I will establish his dynasty forever, his throne as the days of the heavens.

³¹If his descendants forsake my law, do not follow my decrees,

³²If they fail to observe my statutes, do not keep my commandments,

³³I will punish their crime with a rod and their guilt with lashes.

³⁴But I will not take my love from him, nor will I betray my bond of loyalty.

³⁵I will not violate my covenant; the promise of my lips I will not alter.

³⁶By my holiness I swore once for all: I will never be false to David.

³⁷His dynasty will continue forever, his throne, like the sun before me.

³⁸Like the moon it will stand eternal, forever firm like the sky!" Selah

³⁹But now you have rejected and spurned, been enraged at your anointed.

⁴⁰You renounced the covenant with your servant, defiled his crown in the dust.

⁴¹You broke down all his defenses, left his strongholds in ruins.

⁴²All who pass through seize plunder; his neighbors deride him.

⁴³You have exalted the right hand of his foes, have gladdened all his enemies.

⁴⁴You turned back his sharp sword, did not support him in battle.

⁴⁵You brought to an end his splendor, hurled his throne to the ground.

⁴⁶You cut short the days of his youth, covered him with shame. Selah

⁴⁷How long, LORD? Will you stay hidden forever? Must your wrath smolder like fire?

⁴⁸Remember how brief is my life, how frail the race you created!

⁴⁹What mortal can live and not see death? Who can escape the power of Sheol? Selah

⁵⁰Where are your promises of old, Lord, the loyalty sworn to David?

⁵¹Remember, Lord, the insults to your servants, how I bear all the slanders of the nations.

⁵²Your enemies, LORD, insult your anointed; they insult my every endeavor.

⁵³Blessed be the LORD forever! Amen and amen!

PSALM 90

¹A prayer of Moses, the man of God. Lord, you have been our refuge through all generations.

²Before the mountains were born, the earth and the world brought forth, from eternity to eternity you are God.

³But humans you return to dust, saying, "Return, you mortals!"

⁴A thousand years in your eyes are merely a yesterday,

⁵you have brought them to their end; They disappear like sleep at dawn; they are like grass that dies.

⁶It sprouts green in the morning; by evening it is dry and withered.

⁷Truly we are consumed by your anger, filled with terror by your wrath.

⁸You have kept our faults before you, our hidden sins exposed to your sight.

⁹Our life ebbs away under your wrath; our years end like a sigh.

¹⁰Seventy is the sum of our years, or eighty, if we are strong; Most of them are sorrow and toil; they pass quickly, we are all but gone.

¹¹Who comprehends your terrible anger? Your wrath matches the fear it inspires.

¹²Teach us to count our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart.

¹³Relent, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants!

¹⁴Fill us at daybreak with your love, that all our days we may sing for joy.

¹⁵Make us glad as many days as you humbled us, for as many years as we have seen trouble.

¹⁶Show your deeds to your servants, your glory to their children.

¹⁷May the favor of the Lord our God be ours. Prosper the work of our hands! Prosper the work of our hands!

PSALM 91

¹You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,

²Say to the LORD, "My refuge and fortress, my God in whom I trust."

³God will rescue you from the fowler's snare, from the destroying plague,

⁴Will shelter you with pinions, spread wings that you may take refuge; God's faithfulness is a protecting shield.

⁵You shall not fear the terror of the night nor the arrow that flies by day,

⁶Nor the pestilence that roams in darkness, nor the plague that ravages at noon.

⁷Though a thousand fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, near you it shall not come.

⁸You need simply watch; the punishment of the wicked you will see.

⁹You have the LORD for your refuge; you have made the Most High your stronghold.

¹⁰No evil shall befall you, no affliction come near your tent.

¹¹For God commands the angels to guard you in all your ways.

¹²With their hands they shall support you, lest you strike your foot against a stone.

¹³You shall tread upon the asp and the viper, trample the lion and the dragon.

¹⁴Whoever clings to me I will deliver; whoever knows my name I will set on high.

¹⁵All who call upon me I will answer; I will be with them in distress; I will deliver them and give them honor.

¹⁶With length of days I will satisfy them and show them my saving power.

PSALM 92

¹A psalm. A sabbath song.

²It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praise to your name, Most High,

³To proclaim your love in the morning, your faithfulness in the night,

⁴With the ten-stringed harp, with melody upon the lyre.

⁵For you make me jubilant, LORD, by your deeds; at the works of your hands I shout for joy.

⁶How great are your works, LORD! How profound your purpose!

⁷A senseless person cannot know this; a fool cannot comprehend.

⁸Though the wicked flourish like grass and all sinners thrive, They are destined for eternal destruction;

⁹for you, LORD, are forever on high.

¹⁰Indeed your enemies, LORD, indeed your enemies shall perish; all sinners shall be scattered.

¹¹You have given me the strength of a wild bull; you have poured rich oil upon me.

¹²My eyes look with glee on my wicked enemies; my ears delight in the fall of my foes.

¹³The just shall flourish like the palm tree, shall grow like a cedar of Lebanon.

¹⁴Planted in the house of the LORD, they shall flourish in the courts of our God.

¹⁵They shall bear fruit even in old age, always vigorous and sturdy,

¹⁶As they proclaim: "The LORD is just; our rock, in whom there is no wrong."

PSALM 93

¹The LORD is king, robed with majesty; the LORD is robed, girded with might. The world will surely stand in place, never to be moved.

²Your throne stands firm from of old; you are from everlasting, LORD.

³The flood has raised up, LORD; the flood has raised up its roar; the flood has raised its pounding waves.

⁴More powerful than the roar of many waters, more powerful than the breakers of the sea, powerful in the heavens is the LORD.

⁵Your decrees are firmly established; holiness belongs to your house, LORD, for all the length of days.

PSALM 94

¹LORD, avenging God, avenging God, shine forth!

²Rise up, judge of the earth; give the proud what they deserve.

³How long, LORD, shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked glory?

⁴How long will they mouth haughty speeches, go on boasting, all these evildoers?

⁵They crush your people, LORD, torment your very own.

⁶They kill the widow and alien; the fatherless they murder.

⁷They say, "The LORD does not see; the God of Jacob takes no notice."

⁸Understand, you stupid people! You fools, when will you be wise?

⁹Does the one who shaped the ear not hear? The one who formed the eye not see?

¹⁰Does the one who guides nations not rebuke? The one who teaches humans not have knowledge?

¹¹The LORD does know human plans; they are only puffs of air.

¹²Happy those whom you guide, LORD, whom you teach by your instruction.

¹³You give them rest from evil days, while a pit is being dug for the wicked.

¹⁴You, LORD, will not forsake your people, nor abandon your very own.

¹⁵Judgment shall again be just, and all the upright of heart will follow it.

¹⁶Who will rise up for me against the wicked? Who will stand up for me against evildoers?

¹⁷If the LORD were not my help, I would long have been silent in the grave.

¹⁸When I say, "My foot is slipping," your love, LORD, holds me up.

¹⁹When cares increase within me, your comfort gives me joy.

²⁰Can unjust judges be your allies, those who create burdens in the name of law,

²¹Those who conspire against the just and condemn the innocent to death?

²²No, the LORD is my secure height, my God, the rock where I find refuge,

²³Who will turn back their evil upon them and destroy them for their wickedness. Surely the LORD our God will destroy them!

PSALM 95

¹Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD; cry out to the rock of our salvation.

²Let us greet him with a song of praise, joyfully sing out our psalms.

³For the LORD is the great God, the great king over all gods,

⁴Whose hand holds the depths of the earth; who owns the tops of the mountains.

⁵The sea and dry land belong to God, who made them, formed them by hand.

⁶Enter, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the LORD who made us.

⁷For this is our God, whose people we are, God's well-tended flock. Oh, that today you would hear his voice:

⁸Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on the day of Massah in the desert.

⁹There your ancestors tested me; they tried me though they had seen my works.

¹⁰Forty years I loathed that generation; I said: "This people's heart goes astray; they do not know my ways."

¹¹Therefore I swore in my anger: "They shall never enter my rest."

PSALM 96

¹Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth.

²Sing to the LORD, bless his name; announce his salvation day after day.

³Tell God's glory among the nations; among all peoples, God's marvelous deeds.

⁴For great is the LORD and highly to be praised, to be feared above all gods.

⁵For the gods of the nations all do nothing, but the LORD made the heavens.

⁶Splendor and power go before him; power and grandeur are in his holy place.

⁷Give to the LORD, you families of nations, give to the LORD glory and might;

⁸give to the LORD the glory due his name! Bring gifts and enter his courts;

⁹bow down to the LORD, splendid in holiness. Tremble before God, all the earth;

¹⁰say among the nations: The LORD is king. The world will surely stand fast, never to be moved. God rules the peoples with fairness.

¹¹Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice; let the sea and what fills it resound;

¹²let the plains be joyful and all that is in them. Then let all the trees of the forest rejoice

¹³before the LORD who comes, who comes to govern the earth, To govern the world with justice and the peoples with faithfulness.

PSALM 97

¹The LORD is king; let the earth rejoice; let the many islands be glad.

²Cloud and darkness surround the Lord; justice and right are the foundation of his throne.

³Fire goes before him; everywhere it consumes the foes.

⁴Lightning illumines the world; the earth sees and trembles.

⁵The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth.

⁶The heavens proclaim God's justice; all peoples see his glory.

⁷All who serve idols are put to shame, who glory in worthless things; all gods bow down before you.

⁸Zion hears and is glad, and the cities of Judah rejoice because of your judgments, O LORD.

⁹You, LORD, are the Most High over all the earth, exalted far above all gods.

¹⁰The LORD loves those who hate evil, protects the lives of the faithful, rescues them from the hand of the wicked.

¹¹Light dawns for the just; gladness, for the honest of heart.

¹²Rejoice in the LORD, you just, and praise his holy name.

PSALM 98

¹A psalm. Sing a new song to the LORD, who has done marvelous deeds, Whose right hand and holy arm have won the victory.

²The LORD has made his victory known; has revealed his triumph for the nations to see,

³Has remembered faithful love toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God.

⁴Shout with joy to the LORD, all the earth; break into song; sing praise.

⁵Sing praise to the LORD with the harp, with the harp and melodious song.

⁶With trumpets and the sound of the horn shout with joy to the King, the LORD.

⁷Let the sea and what fills it resound, the world and those who dwell there.

⁸Let the rivers clap their hands, the mountains shout with them for joy,

⁹Before the LORD who comes, who comes to govern the earth, To govern the world with justice and the peoples with fairness.

PSALM 99

¹The LORD is king, the peoples tremble; God is enthroned on the cherubim, the earth quakes.

²The LORD is great on Zion, exalted above all the peoples.

³Let them praise your great and awesome name: Holy is God!

⁴O mighty king, lover of justice, you alone have established fairness; you have created just rule in Jacob.

⁵Exalt the LORD, our God; bow down before his footstool; holy is God!

⁶Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel among those who called on God's name; they called on the LORD, who answered them.

⁷From the pillar of cloud God spoke to them; they kept the decrees, the law they received.

⁸O LORD, our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God, though you punished their offenses.

⁹Exalt the LORD, our God; bow down before his holy mountain; holy is the LORD, our God.

PSALM 100

¹A psalm of thanksgiving. Shout joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;

²worship the LORD with cries of gladness; come before him with joyful song.

³Know that the LORD is God, our maker to whom we belong, whosepeople we are, God's well-tended flock.

⁴Enter the temple gates with praise, its courts with thanksgiving. Give thanks to God, bless his name;

⁵good indeed is the LORD, Whose love endures forever, whose faithfulness lasts through every age.

PSALM 101

¹A psalm of David. I sing of love and justice; to you, LORD, I sing praise.

²I follow the way of integrity; when will you come to me? I act with integrity of heart within my royal court.

³I do not allow into my presence anyone who speaks perversely. Whoever acts shamefully I hate; no such person can be my friend.

⁴I shun the devious of heart; the wicked I do not tolerate.

⁵Whoever slanders another in secret I reduce to silence. Haughty eyes and arrogant hearts I cannot endure.

⁶I look to the faithful of the land; they alone can be my companions. Those who follow the way of integrity, they alone can enter my service.

⁷No one who practices deceit can hold a post in my court. No one who speaks falsely can be among my advisors.

⁸Each morning I clear the wicked from the land, and rid the LORD'S city of all evildoers.

PSALM 102

¹The prayer of one afflicted and wasting away whose anguish is poured out before the LORD.

²LORD, hear my prayer; let my cry come to you.

³Do not hide your face from me now that I am in distress. Turn your ear to me; when I call, answer me quickly.

⁴For my days vanish like smoke; my bones burn away as in a furnace.

⁵I am withered, dried up like grass, too wasted to eat my food.

⁶From my loud groaning I become just skin and bones.

⁷I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins.

⁸I lie awake and moan, like a lone sparrow on the roof.

⁹All day long my enemies taunt me; in their rage, they make my name a curse.

¹⁰I eat ashes like bread, mingle my drink with tears.

¹¹Because of your furious wrath, you lifted me up just to cast me down.

¹²My days are like a lengthening shadow; I wither like the grass.

¹³But you, LORD, are enthroned forever; your renown is for all generations.

¹⁴You will again show mercy to Zion; now is the time for pity; the appointed time has come.

¹⁵Its stones are dear to your servants; its dust moves them to pity.

¹⁶The nations shall revere your name, LORD, all the kings of the earth, your glory,

¹⁷Once the LORD has rebuilt Zion and appeared in glory,

¹⁸Heeding the plea of the lowly, not scorning their prayer.

¹⁹Let this be written for the next generation, for a people not yet born, that they may praise the LORD:

²⁰"The LORD looked down from the holy heights, viewed the earth from heaven,

²¹To attend to the groaning of the prisoners, to release those doomed to die."

²²Then the LORD'S name will be declared on Zion, the praise of God in Jerusalem,

²³When all peoples and kingdoms gather to worship the LORD.

²⁴God has shattered my strength in mid-course, has cut short my days.

²⁵I plead, O my God, do not take me in the midst of my days. Your years last through all generations.

²⁶Of old you laid the earth's foundations; the heavens are the work of your hands.

²⁷They perish, but you remain; they all wear out like a garment; Like clothing you change them and they are changed,

²⁸but you are the same, your years have no end.

²⁹May the children of your servants live on; may their descendants live in your presence.

PSALM 103

¹Of David. Bless the LORD, my soul; all my being, bless his holy name!

²Bless the LORD, my soul; do not forget all the gifts of God,

³Who pardons all your sins, heals all your ills,

⁴Delivers your life from the pit, surrounds you with love and compassion,

⁵Fills your days with good things; your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

⁶The LORD does righteous deeds, brings justice to all the oppressed.

⁷His ways were revealed to Moses, mighty deeds to the people of Israel.

⁸Merciful and gracious is the LORD, slow to anger, abounding in kindness.

⁹God does not always rebuke, nurses no lasting anger,

¹⁰Has not dealt with us as our sins merit, nor requited us as our deeds deserve.

¹¹As the heavens tower over the earth, so God's love towers over the faithful.

¹²As far as the east is from the west, so far have our sins been removed from us.

¹³As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on the faithful.

¹⁴For he knows how we are formed, remembers that we are dust.

¹⁵Our days are like the grass; like flowers of the field we blossom.

¹⁶The wind sweeps over us and we are gone; our place knows us no more.

¹⁷But the LORD'S kindness is forever, toward the faithful from age to age. He favors the children's children

¹⁸of those who keep his covenant, who take care to fulfill its precepts.

¹⁹The LORD'S throne is established in heaven; God's royal power rules over all.

²⁰Bless the LORD, all you angels, mighty in strength and attentive, obedient to every command.

²¹Bless the LORD, all you hosts, ministers who do God's will.

²²Bless the LORD, all creatures, everywhere in God's domain. Bless the LORD, my soul!

PSALM 104

¹Bless the LORD, my soul! LORD, my God, you are great indeed! You are clothed with majesty and glory,

²robed in light as with a cloak. You spread out the heavens like a tent;

³you raised your palace upon the waters. You make the clouds your chariot; you travel on the wings of the wind.

⁴You make the winds your messengers; flaming fire, your ministers.

⁵You fixed the earth on its foundation, never to be moved.

⁶The ocean covered it like a garment; above the mountains stood the waters.

⁷At your roar they took flight; at the sound of your thunder they fled.

⁸They rushed up the mountains, down the valleys to the place you had fixed for them.

⁹You set a limit they cannot pass; never again will they cover the earth.

¹⁰You made springs flow into channels that wind among the mountains.

¹¹They give drink to every beast of the field; here wild asses quench their thirst.

¹²Beside them the birds of heaven nest; among the branches they sing.

¹³You water the mountains from your palace; by your labor the earth abounds.

¹⁴You raise grass for the cattle and plants for our beasts of burden. You bring bread from the earth,

¹⁵and wine to gladden our hearts, Oil to make our faces gleam, food to build our strength.

¹⁶The trees of the LORD drink their fill, the cedars of Lebanon, which you planted.

¹⁷There the birds build their nests; junipers are the home of the stork.

¹⁸The high mountains are for wild goats; the rocky cliffs, a refuge for badgers.

¹⁹You made the moon to mark the seasons, the sun that knows the hour of its setting.

²⁰You bring darkness and night falls, then all the beasts of the forest roam abroad.

²¹Young lions roar for prey; they seek their food from God.

²²When the sun rises, they steal away and rest in their dens.

²³People go forth to their work, to their labor till evening falls.

²⁴How varied are your works, LORD! In wisdom you have wrought them all; the earth is full of your creatures.

²⁵Look at the sea, great and wide! It teems with countless beings, living things both large and small.

²⁶Here ships ply their course; here Leviathan, your creature, plays.

²⁷All of these look to you to give them food in due time.

²⁸When you give to them, they gather; when you open your hand, they are well filled.

²⁹When you hide your face, they are lost. When you take away their breath, they perish and return to the dust from which they came.

³⁰When you send forth your breath, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth.

³¹May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD be glad in these works!

³²If God glares at the earth, it trembles; if God touches the mountains, they smoke!

³³I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God while I live.

³⁴May my theme be pleasing to God; I will rejoice in the LORD.

³⁵May sinners vanish from the earth, and the wicked be no more. Bless the LORD, my soul! Hallelujah!

PSALM 105

¹Give thanks to the LORD, invoke his name; make known among the peoples his deeds!

²Sing praise, play music; proclaim all his wondrous deeds!

³Glory in his holy name; rejoice, O hearts that seek the LORD!

⁴Rely on the mighty LORD; constantly seek his face.

⁵Recall the wondrous deeds he has done, his signs and his words of judgment,

⁶You descendants of Abraham his servant, offspring of Jacob the chosen one!

⁷The LORD is our God who rules the whole earth.

⁸He remembers forever his covenant, the pact imposed for a thousand generations,

⁹Which was made with Abraham, confirmed by oath to Isaac,

¹⁰And ratified as binding for Jacob, an everlasting covenant for Israel:

¹¹"To you I give the land of Canaan, your own allotted heritage."

¹²When they were few in number, a handful, and strangers there,

¹³Wandering from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another,

¹⁴He let no one oppress them; for their sake he rebuked kings:

¹⁵" Do not touch my anointed, to my prophets do no harm."

¹⁶Then he called down a famine on the land, destroyed the grain that sustained them.

¹⁷He had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, sold as a slave.

¹⁸They shackled his feet with chains; collared his neck in iron,

¹⁹Till his prediction came to pass, and the word of the LORD proved him true.

²⁰The king sent and released him; the ruler of peoples set him free.

²¹He made him lord over his palace, ruler over all his possessions,

²²To instruct his princes by his word, to teach his elders wisdom.

²³Then Israel entered Egypt; Jacob lived in the land of Ham.

²⁴God greatly increased his people, made them too many for their foes.

²⁵He turned their hearts to hate his people, to treat his servants unfairly.

²⁶He sent his servant Moses, Aaron whom he had chosen.

²⁷They worked his signs in Egypt and wonders in the land of Ham.

²⁸He sent darkness and it grew dark, but they rebelled against his word.

²⁹He turned their waters into blood and killed all their fish.

³⁰Their land swarmed with frogs, even the chambers of their kings.

³¹He spoke and there came swarms of flies, gnats through all their country.

³²For rain he gave them hail, flashes of lightning throughout their land.

³³He struck down their vines and fig trees, shattered the trees of their country.

³⁴He spoke and the locusts came, grass hoppers without number.

³⁵They devoured every plant in the land; they ravaged the crops of their fields.

³⁶He struck down every firstborn in the land, the first fruits of all their vigor.

³⁷He brought his people out, laden with silver and gold; no stragglers among the tribes.

³⁸Egypt rejoiced when they left, for panic had seized them.

³⁹He spread a cloud as a cover, and made a fire to light up the night.

⁴⁰They asked and he brought them quail; with bread from heaven he filled them.

⁴¹He split the rock and water gushed forth; it flowed through the desert like a river.

⁴²For he remembered his sacred word to Abraham his servant.

⁴³He brought his people out with joy, his chosen ones with shouts of triumph.

⁴⁴He gave them the lands of the nations, the wealth of the peoples to own,

⁴⁵That they might keep his laws and observe his teachings. Hallelujah!

PSALM 106

¹Hallelujah! Give thanks to the LORD, who is good, whose love endures forever.

²Who can tell the mighty deeds of the LORD, proclaim in full God's praise?

³Happy those who do what is right, whose deeds are always just.

⁴Remember me, LORD, as you favor your people; come to me with your saving help,

⁵That I may see the prosperity of your chosen, rejoice in the joy of your people, and glory with your heritage.

⁶We have sinned like our ancestors; we have done wrong and are guilty.

⁷Our ancestors in Egypt did not attend to your wonders. They did not remember your great love; they defied the Most High at the Red Sea.

⁸Yet he saved them for his name's sake to make his power known.

⁹He roared at the Red Sea and it dried up. He led them through the deep as through a desert.

¹⁰He rescued them from hostile hands, freed them from the power of the enemy.

¹¹The waters covered their oppressors; not one of them survived.

¹²Then they believed his words and sang songs of praise.

¹³But they soon forgot all he had done; they had no patience for his plan.

¹⁴In the desert they gave way to their cravings, tempted God in the wasteland.

¹⁵So he gave them what they asked and sent among them a wasting disease.

¹⁶In the camp they challenged Moses and Aaron, the holy one of the LORD.

¹⁷The earth opened and swallowed Dathan, it closed on the followers of Abiram.

¹⁸Against that company the fire blazed; flames consumed the wicked.

¹⁹At Horeb they fashioned a calf, worshiped a metal statue.

²⁰They exchanged their glorious God for the image of a grass-eating bull.

²¹They forgot the God who saved them, who did great deeds in Egypt,

²²Amazing deeds in the land of Ham, fearsome deeds at the Red Sea.

²³He would have decreed their destruction, had not Moses, the chosen leader, Withstood him in the breach to turn back his destroying anger.

²⁴Next they despised the beautiful land; they did not believe the promise.

²⁵In their tents they complained; they did not obey the LORD.

²⁶So with raised hand he swore to destroy them in the desert,

²⁷To scatter their descendants among the nations, disperse them in foreign lands.

²⁸They joined in the rites of Baal of Peor, ate food sacrificed to dead gods.

²⁹They provoked him by their actions, and a plague broke out among them.

³⁰Then Phinehas rose to intervene, and the plague was brought to a halt.

³¹This was counted for him as a righteous deed for all generations to come.

³²At the waters of Meribah they angered God, and Moses suffered because of them.

³³They so embittered his spirit that rash words crossed his lips.

³⁴They did not destroy the peoples as the LORD had commanded them,

³⁵But mingled with the nations and imitated their ways.

³⁶They worshiped their idols and were ensnared by them.

³⁷They sacrificed to the gods their own sons and daughters,

³⁸Shedding innocent blood, the blood of their own sons and daughters, Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, desecrating the land with bloodshed.

³⁹They defiled themselves by their actions, became adulterers by their conduct.

⁴⁰So the LORD grew angry with his people, abhorred his own heritage.

⁴¹He handed them over to the nations, and their adversaries ruled them.

⁴²Their enemies oppressed them, kept them under subjection.

⁴³Many times did he rescue them, but they kept rebelling and scheming and were brought low by their own guilt.

⁴⁴Still God had regard for their affliction when he heard their wailing.

⁴⁵For their sake he remembered his covenant and relented in his abundant love,

⁴⁶Winning for them compassion from all who held them captive.

⁴⁷Save us, LORD, our God; gather us from among the nations That we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in praising you.

⁴⁸Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! Let all the people say, Amen! Hallelujah!

PSALM 107

¹"Give thanks to the LORD who is good, whose love endures forever!"

²Let that be the prayer of the LORD'S redeemed, those redeemed from the hand of the foe,

³Those gathered from foreign lands, from east and west, from north and south.

⁴Some had lost their way in a barren desert; found no path toward a city to live in.

⁵They were hungry and thirsty; their life was ebbing away.

⁶In their distress they cried to the LORD, who rescued them in their peril,

⁷Guided them by a direct path so they reached a city to live in.

⁸Let them thank the LORD for such kindness, such wondrous deeds for mere mortals.

⁹For he satisfied the thirsty, filled the hungry with good things.

¹⁰Some lived in darkness and gloom, in prison, bound with chains,

¹¹Because they rebelled against God's word, scorned the counsel of the Most High,

¹²Who humbled their hearts through hardship; they stumbled with no one to help.

¹³In their distress they cried to the LORD, who saved them in their peril,

¹⁴Led them forth from darkness and gloom and broke their chains asunder.

¹⁵Let them thank the LORD for such kindness, such wondrous deeds for mere mortals.

¹⁶For he broke down the gates of bronze and snapped the bars of iron.

¹⁷Some fell sick from their wicked ways, afflicted because of their sins.

¹⁸They loathed all manner of food; they were at the gates of death.

¹⁹In their distress they cried to the LORD, who saved them in their peril,

²⁰Sent forth the word to heal them, snatched them from the grave.

²¹Let them thank the LORD for such kindness, such wondrous deeds for mere mortals.

²²Let them offer a sacrifice in thanks, declare his works with shouts of joy.

²³Some went off to sea in ships, plied their trade on the deep waters.

²⁴They saw the works of the LORD, the wonders of God in the deep.

²⁵He spoke and roused a storm wind; it tossed the waves on high.

²⁶They rose up to the heavens, sank to the depths; their hearts trembled at the danger.

²⁷They reeled, staggered like drunkards; their skill was of no avail.

²⁸In their distress they cried to the LORD, who brought them out of their peril,

²⁹Hushed the storm to a murmur; the waves of the sea were stilled.

³⁰They rejoiced that the sea grew calm, that God brought them to the harbor they longed for.

³¹Let them thank the LORD for such kindness, such wondrous deeds for mere mortals.

³²Let them praise him in the assembly of the people, give thanks in the council of the elders.

³³God changed rivers into desert, springs of water into thirsty ground,

³⁴Fruitful land into a salty waste, because of the wickedness of its people.

³⁵He changed the desert into pools of water, arid land into springs of water,

³⁶And settled the hungry there; they built a city to live in.

³⁷They sowed fields and planted vineyards, brought in an abundant harvest.

³⁸God blessed them, they became very many, and their livestock did not decrease.

³⁹Where they were diminished and brought low through misery and cruel oppression,

⁴⁰But he poured out contempt on princes, made them wander the trackless wastes,

⁴¹While the poor were released from their affliction; their families increased like their flocks.

⁴²The upright saw this and rejoiced; all wickedness shut its mouth.

⁴³Whoever is wise will take note of these things, will ponder the merciful deeds of the LORD.

PSALM 108

¹A song; a psalm of David

²My heart is steadfast, God; my heart is steadfast. I will sing and chant praise.

³Awake, my soul; awake, lyre and harp! I will wake the dawn.

⁴I will praise you among the peoples, LORD; I will chant your praise among the nations.

⁵For your love towers to the heavens; your faithfulness, to the skies.

⁶Appear on high over the heavens, God; may your glory appear above all the earth.

⁷Help with your right hand and answer us that your loved ones may escape.

⁸God promised in the sanctuary: "I will exult, I will apportion Shechem; the valley of Succoth I will measure out.

⁹Gilead is mine, mine is Manasseh; Ephraim is the helmet for my head, Judah, my own scepter.

¹⁰Moab is my washbowl; upon Edom I cast my sandal; I will triumph over Philistia."

¹¹Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me into Edom?

¹²Was it not you who rejected us, God? Do you no longer march with our armies?

¹³Give us aid against the foe; worthless is human help.

¹⁴We will triumph with the help of God, who will trample down our foes.

PSALM 109

¹For the leader. A psalm of David.

²O God, whom I praise, do not be silent, for wicked and treacherous mouths attack me. They speak against me with lying tongues;

³with hateful words they surround me, attacking me without cause.

⁴In return for my love they slander me, even though I prayed for them.

⁵They repay me evil for good, hatred for my love. My enemies say of me:

⁶"Find a lying witness, an accuser to stand by his right hand,

⁷That he may be judged and found guilty, that his plea may be in vain.

⁸May his days be few; may another take his office.

⁹May his children be fatherless, his wife, a widow.

¹⁰May his children be vagrant beggars, driven from their hovels.

¹¹May the usurer snare all he owns, strangers plunder all he earns.

¹²May no one treat him kindly or pity his fatherless children.

¹³May his posterity be destroyed, his name cease in the next generation.

¹⁴May the LORD remember his fathers' guilt; his mother's sin not be canceled.

¹⁵May their guilt be always before the LORD, till their memory is banished from the earth,

¹⁶For he did not remember to show kindness, but hounded the wretched poor and brought death to the brokenhearted.

¹⁷He loved cursing; may it come upon him; he hated blessing; may none come to him.

¹⁸May cursing clothe him like a robe; may it enter his belly like water, seep into his bones like oil.

¹⁹May it be near as the clothes he wears, as the belt always around him."

²⁰May the LORD bring all this upon my accusers, upon those who speak evil against me.

²¹But you, LORD, my God, deal kindly with me for your name's sake; in your great mercy rescue me.

²²For I am sorely in need; my heart is pierced within me.

²³Like a lengthening shadow I near my end, all but swept away like the locust.

²⁴My knees totter from fasting; my flesh has wasted away.

²⁵I have become a mockery to them; when they see me, they shake their heads.

²⁶Help me, LORD, my God; save me in your kindness.

²⁷Make them know this is your hand, that you, LORD, have acted.

²⁸Though they curse, may you bless; shame my foes, that your servant may rejoice.

²⁹Clothe my accusers with disgrace; make them wear shame like a mantle.

³⁰I will give fervent thanks to the LORD; before all I will praise my God.

³¹For God stands at the right hand of the poor to defend them against unjust accusers.

PSALM 110

¹A psalm of David. The LORD says to you, my lord: "Take your throne at my righthand, while I make your enemies your footstool."

²The scepter of your sovereign might the LORD will extend from Zion. The LORD says: "Rule over your enemies!

³Yours is princely power from the day of your birth. In holy splendor before the daystar, like the dew I begot you."

⁴The LORD has sworn and will not waver: "Like Melchizedek you are a priest forever."

⁵At your right hand is the Lord, who crushes kings on the day of wrath,

⁶Who, robed in splendor, judges nations, crushes heads across the wide earth,

⁷Who drinks from the brook by the wayside and thus holds high the head.

PSALM 111

¹Hallelujah. I will praise the LORD with all my heart in the assembled congregation of the upright.

²Great are the works of the LORD, to be treasured for all their delights.

³Majestic and glorious is your work, your wise design endures forever.

⁴You won renown for your wondrous deeds; gracious and merciful is the LORD.

⁵You gave food to those who fear you, mindful of your covenant forever.

⁶You showed powerful deeds to your people, giving them the lands of the nations.

⁷The works of your hands are right and true, reliable all your decrees,

⁸Established forever and ever, to be observed with loyalty and care.

⁹You sent deliverance to your people, ratified your covenant forever; holy and awesome is your name.

¹⁰The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; prudent are all who live by it. Your praise endures forever.

PSALM 112

¹Hallelujah! Happy are those who fear the LORD, who greatly delight in God's commands.

²Their descendants shall be mighty in the land, generation upright and blessed.

³Wealth and riches shall be in their homes; their prosperity shall endure forever.

⁴They shine through the darkness, a light for the upright; they are gracious, merciful, and just.

⁵All goes well for those gracious in lending, who conduct their affairs with justice.

⁶They shall never be shaken; the just shall be remembered forever.

⁷They shall not fear an ill report; their hearts are steadfast, trusting the LORD.

⁸Their hearts are tranquil, without fear, till at last they look down on their foes.

⁹Lavishly they give to the poor; their prosperity shall endure forever; their horn shall be exalted in honor.

¹⁰The wicked shall be angry to see this; they will gnash their teeth and waste away; the desires of the wicked come to nothing.

PSALM 113

¹Hallelujah! Praise, you servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD.

²Blessed be the name of the LORD both now and forever.

³From the rising of the sun to its setting let the name of the LORD be praised.

⁴High above all nations is the LORD; above the heavens God's glory.

⁵Who is like the LORD, our God enthroned on high,

⁶looking down on heaven and earth?

⁷The LORD raises the needy from the dust, lifts the poor from the ash heap,

⁸Seats them with princes, the princes of the people,

⁹Gives the childless wife a home, the joyful mother of children. Hallelujah!

PSALM 114

¹When Israel came forth from Egypt, the house of Jacob from an alien people,

²Judah became God's holy place, Israel, God's domain.

³The sea beheld and fled; the Jordan turned back.

⁴The mountains skipped like rams; the hills, like lambs of the flock.

⁵Why was it, sea, that you fled? Jordan, that you turned back?

⁶You mountains, that you skipped like rams? You hills, like lambs of the flock?

⁷Tremble, earth, before the Lord, before the God of Jacob,

⁸Who turned rock into pools of water, stone into flowing springs.

PSALM 115

¹Not to us, LORD, not to us but to your name give glory because of your faithfulness and love.

²Why should the nations say, "Where is their God?"

³Our God is in heaven; whatever God wills is done.

⁴Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.

⁵They have mouths but do not speak, eyes but do not see.

⁶They have ears but do not hear, noses but do not smell.

⁷They have hands but do not feel, feet but do not walk, and no sound rises from their throats.

⁸Their makers shall be like them, all who trust in them.

⁹The house of Israel trusts in the LORD, who is their help and shield.

¹⁰The house of Aaron trusts in the LORD, who is their help and shield.

¹¹Those who fear the LORD trust in the LORD, who is their help and shield.

¹²The LORD remembers us and will bless us, will bless the house of Israel, will bless the house of Aaron,

¹³Will bless those who fear the LORD, small and great alike.

¹⁴May the LORD increase your number, you and your descendants.

¹⁵May you be blessed by the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

¹⁶The heavens belong to the LORD, but the earth is given to us.

¹⁷The dead do not praise the LORD, all those gone down into silence.

¹⁸It is we who bless the LORD, both now and forever. Hallelujah!

PSALM 116

¹I love the LORD, who listened to my voice in supplication,

²Who turned an ear to me on the day I called.

³I was caught by the cords of death; the snares of Sheol had seized me; I felt agony and dread.

⁴Then I called on the name of the LORD, "O LORD, save my life!"

⁵Gracious is the LORD and just; yes, our God is merciful.

⁶The LORD protects the simple; I was helpless, but God saved me.

⁷Return, my soul, to your rest; the LORD has been good to you.

⁸For my soul has been freed from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.

⁹I shall walk before the LORD in the land of the living.

¹⁰I kept faith, even when I said, "I am greatly afflicted!"

¹¹I said in my alarm, "No one can be trusted!"

¹²How can I repay the LORD for all the good done for me?

¹³I will raise the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD.

¹⁴I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people.

¹⁵Too costly in the eyes of the LORD is the death of his faithful.

¹⁶LORD, I am your servant, your servant, the child of your maidservant; you have loosed my bonds.

¹⁷I will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the LORD.

¹⁸I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people,

¹⁹In the courts of the house of the LORD, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Hallelujah!

PSALM 117

¹Praise the LORD, all you nations! Give glory, all you peoples!

²The LORD'S love for us is strong; the LORD is faithful forever. Hallelujah!

PSALM 118

¹Give thanks to the LORD, who is good, whose love endures forever.

²Let the house of Israel say: God's love endures forever.

³Let the house of Aaron say, God's love endures forever.

⁴Let those who fear the LORD say, God's love endures forever.

⁵In danger I called on the LORD; the LORD answered me and set me free.

⁶The LORD is with me; I am not afraid; what can mortals do against me?

⁷The LORD is with me as my helper; I shall look in triumph on my foes.

⁸Better to take refuge in the LORD than to put one's trust in mortals.

⁹Better to take refuge in the LORD than to put one's trust in princes.

¹⁰All the nations surrounded me; in the LORD'S name I crushed them.

¹¹They surrounded me on every side; in the LORD'S name I crushed them.

¹²They surrounded me like bees; they blazed like fire among thorns; in the LORD'S name I crushed them.

¹³I was hard pressed and falling, but the LORD came to my help.

¹⁴The LORD, my strength and might, came to me as savior.

¹⁵The joyful shout of deliverance is heard in the tents of the victors: "The LORD'S right hand strikes with power;

¹⁶the LORD'S right hand is raised; the LORD'S right hand strikes with power."

¹⁷I shall not die but live and declare the deeds of the LORD.

¹⁸The LORD chastised me harshly, but did not hand me over to death.

¹⁹Open the gates of victory; I will enter and thank the LORD.

²⁰This is the LORD'S own gate, where the victors enter.

²¹I thank you for you answered me; you have been my savior.

²²The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

²³By the LORD has this been done; it is wonderful in our eyes.

²⁴This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad.

²⁵LORD, grant salvation! LORD, grant good fortune!

²⁶Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD. We bless you from the LORD'S house.

²⁷The LORD is God and has given us light. Join in procession with leafy branches up to the horns of the altar.

²⁸You are my God, I give you thanks; my God, I offer you praise.

²⁹Give thanks to the LORD, who is good, whose love endures forever.

PSALM 119

¹Happy those whose way is blameless, who walk by the teaching of the LORD.

²Happy those who observe God's decrees, who seek the LORD with all their heart.

³They do no wrong; they walk in God's ways.

⁴You have given them the command to keep your precepts with care.

⁵May my ways be firm in the observance of your laws!

⁶Then I will not be ashamed to ponder all your commands.

⁷I will praise you with sincere heart as I study your just edicts.

⁸I will keep your laws; do not leave me all alone.

⁹How can the young walk without fault? Only by keeping your words.

¹⁰With all my heart I seek you; do not let me stray from your commands.

¹¹In my heart I treasure your promise, that I may not sin against you.

¹²Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your laws.

¹³With my lips I recite all the edicts you have spoken.

¹⁴I find joy in the way of your decrees more than in all riches.

¹⁵I will ponder your precepts and consider your paths.

¹⁶In your laws I take delight; I will never forget your word.

¹⁷Be kind to your servant that I may live, that I may keep your word.

¹⁸Open my eyes to see clearly the wonders of your teachings.

¹⁹I am a sojourner in the land; do not hide your commands from me.

²⁰At all times my soul is stirred with longing for your edicts.

²¹With a curse you rebuke the proud who stray from your commands.

²²Free me from disgrace and contempt, for I observe your decrees.

²³Though princes meet and talk against me, your servant studies your laws.

²⁴Your decrees are my delight; they are my counselors.

²⁵I lie prostrate in the dust; give me life in accord with your word.

²⁶I disclosed my ways and you answered me; teach me your laws.

²⁷Make me understand the way of your precepts; I will ponder your wondrous deeds.

²⁸I weep in bitter pain; in accord with your word to strengthen me.

²⁹Lead me from the way of deceit; favor me with your teaching.

³⁰The way of loyalty I have chosen; I have set your edicts before me.

³¹I cling to your decrees, LORD; do not let me come to shame.

³²I will run the way of your commands, for you open my docile heart.

³³LORD, teach me the way of your laws; I shall observe them with care.

³⁴Give me insight to observe your teaching, to keep it with all my heart.

³⁵Lead me in the path of your commands, for that is my delight.

³⁶Direct my heart toward your decrees and away from unjust gain.

³⁷Avert my eyes from what is worthless; by your way give me life.

³⁸For your servant fulfill your promise made to those who fear you.

³⁹Turn away from me the taunts I dread, for your edicts bring good.

⁴⁰See how I long for your precepts; in your justice give me life.

⁴¹Let your love come to me, LORD, salvation in accord with your promise.

⁴²Let me answer my taunters with a word, for I trust in your word.

⁴³Do not take the word of truth from my mouth, for in your edicts is my hope.

⁴⁴I will keep your teachings always, for all time and forever.

⁴⁵I will walk freely in an open space because I cherish your precepts.

⁴⁶I will speak openly of your decrees without fear even before kings.

⁴⁷I delight in your commands, which I dearly love.

⁴⁸I lift up my hands to your commands; I study your laws, which I love.

⁴⁹Remember your word to your servant by which you give me hope.

⁵⁰This is my comfort in affliction, your promise that gives me life.

⁵¹Though the arrogant utterly scorn me, I do not turn from your teaching.

⁵²When I recite your edicts of old I am comforted, LORD.

⁵³Rage seizes me because of the wicked; they forsake your teaching.

⁵⁴Your laws become my songs wherever I make my home.

⁵⁵Even at night I remember your name in observance of your teaching, LORD.

⁵⁶This is my good fortune, for I have observed your precepts.

⁵⁷My portion is the LORD; I promise to keep your words.

⁵⁸I entreat you with all my heart: have mercy on me in accord with your promise.

⁵⁹I have examined my ways and turned my steps to your decrees.

⁶⁰I am prompt, I do not hesitate in keeping your commands.

⁶¹Though the snares of the wicked surround me, your teaching I do not forget.

⁶²At midnight I rise to praise you because your edicts are just.

⁶³I am the friend of all who fear you, of all who keep your precepts.

⁶⁴The earth, LORD, is filled with your love; teach me your laws.

⁶⁵You have treated your servant well, according to your word, O LORD.

⁶⁶Teach me wisdom and knowledge, for in your commands I trust.

⁶⁷Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I hold to your promise.

⁶⁸You are good and do what is good; teach me your laws.

⁶⁹The arrogant smear me with lies, but I observe your precepts with all my heart.

⁷⁰Their hearts are gross and fat; as for me, your teaching is my delight.

⁷¹It was good for me to be afflicted, in order to learn your laws.

⁷²Teaching from your lips is more precious to me than heaps of silver and gold.

⁷³Your hands made me and fashioned me; give me insight to learn your commands.

⁷⁴Those who fear you rejoice to see me, because I hope in your word.

⁷⁵I know, LORD, that your edicts are just; though you afflict me, you are faithful.

⁷⁶May your love comfort me in accord with your promise to your servant.

⁷⁷Show me compassion that I may live, for your teaching is my delight.

⁷⁸Shame the proud for oppressing me unjustly, that I may study your precepts.

⁷⁹Let those who fear you turn to me, those who acknowledge your decrees.

⁸⁰May I be wholehearted toward your laws, that I may not be put to shame.

⁸¹My soul longs for your salvation; I put my hope in your word.

⁸²My eyes long to see your promise. When will you comfort me?

⁸³I am like a wineskin shriveled by smoke, but I have not forgotten your laws.

⁸⁴How long can your servant survive? When will your edict doom my foes?

⁸⁵The arrogant have dug pits for me; defying your teaching.

⁸⁶All your commands are steadfast. Help me! I am pursued without cause.

⁸⁷They have almost ended my life on earth, but I do not forsake your precepts.

⁸⁸In your kindness give me life, to keep the decrees you have spoken.

⁸⁹Your word, LORD, stands forever; it is firm as the heavens.

⁹⁰Through all generations your truth endures; fixed to stand firm like the earth.

⁹¹By your edicts they stand firm to this day, for all things are your servants.

⁹²Had your teaching not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.

⁹³I will never forget your precepts; through them you give me life.

⁹⁴I am yours; save me, for I cherish your precepts.

⁹⁵The wicked hope to destroy me, but I pay heed to your decrees.

⁹⁶I have seen the limits of all perfection, but your command is without bounds.

⁹⁷How I love your teaching, Lord! I study it all day long.

⁹⁸Your command makes me wiser than my foes, for it is always with me.

⁹⁹I have more understanding than all my teachers, because I ponder your decrees.

¹⁰⁰I have more insight than my elders, because I observe your precepts.

¹⁰¹I keep my steps from every evil path, that I may obey your word.

¹⁰²From your edicts I do not turn, for you have taught them to me.

¹⁰³How sweet to my tongue is your promise, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

¹⁰⁴Through your precepts I gain insight; therefore I hate all false ways.

¹⁰⁵Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path.

¹⁰⁶I make a solemn vow to keep your just edicts.

¹⁰⁷I am very much afflicted, LORD; give me life in accord with your word.

¹⁰⁸Accept my freely offered praise; LORD, teach me your decrees.

¹⁰⁹My life is always at risk, but I do not forget your teaching.

¹¹⁰The wicked have set snares for me, but from your precepts I do not stray.

¹¹¹Your decrees are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart.

¹¹²My heart is set on fulfilling your laws; they are my reward forever.

¹¹³I hate every hypocrite; your teaching I love.

¹¹⁴You are my refuge and shield; in your word I hope.

¹¹⁵Depart from me, you wicked, that I may observe the commands of my God.

¹¹⁶Sustain me by your promise that I may live; do not disappoint me in my hope.

¹¹⁷Strengthen me that I may be safe, ever to contemplate your laws.

¹¹⁸You reject all who stray from your laws, for vain is their deceit.

¹¹⁹Like dross you regard all the wicked on earth; therefore I love your decrees.

¹²⁰My flesh shudders with dread of you; I hold your edicts in awe.

¹²¹I have fulfilled your just edict; do not abandon me to my oppressors.

¹²²Guarantee your servant's welfare; do not let the arrogant oppress me.

¹²³My eyes long to see your salvation and the justice of your promise.

¹²⁴Act with kindness toward your servant; teach me your laws.

¹²⁵I am your servant; give me discernment that I may know your decrees.

¹²⁶It is time for the LORD to act; they have disobeyed your teaching.

¹²⁷Truly I love your commands more than the finest gold.

¹²⁸Thus I follow all your precepts; every wrong way I hate.

¹²⁹Wonderful are your decrees; therefore I observe them.

¹³⁰The revelation of your words sheds light, gives understanding to the simple.

¹³¹I sigh with open mouth, yearning for your commands.

¹³²Turn to me and be gracious, your edict for lovers of your name.

¹³³Steady my feet in accord with your promise; do not let iniquity lead me.

¹³⁴Free me from human oppression, that I may keep your precepts.

¹³⁵Let your face shine upon your servant; teach me your laws.

¹³⁶My eyes shed streams of tears because your teaching is not followed.

¹³⁷You are righteous, LORD, and just are your edicts.

¹³⁸You have issued your decrees in justice and in surpassing faithfulness.

¹³⁹I am consumed with rage, because my foes forget your words.

¹⁴⁰Your servant loves your promise; it has been proved by fire.

¹⁴¹Though belittled and despised, I do not forget your precepts.

¹⁴²Your justice is forever right, your teaching forever true.

¹⁴³Though distress and anguish come upon me, your commands are my delight.

¹⁴⁴Your decrees are forever just; give me discernment that I may live.

¹⁴⁵I call with all my heart, O LORD; answer me that I may observe your laws.

¹⁴⁶I call to you to save me that I may keep your decrees.

¹⁴⁷I rise before dawn and cry out; I put my hope in your words.

¹⁴⁸My eyes greet the night watches as I meditate on your promise.

¹⁴⁹Hear my voice in your love, O LORD; by your edict give me life.

¹⁵⁰Malicious persecutors draw near me; they are far from your teaching.

¹⁵¹You are near, O LORD; reliable are all your commands.

¹⁵²Long have I known from your decrees that you have established them forever.

¹⁵³Look at my affliction and rescue me, for I have not forgotten your teaching.

¹⁵⁴Take up my cause and redeem me; for the sake of your promise give me life.

¹⁵⁵Salvation is far from sinners because they do not cherish your laws.

¹⁵⁶Your compassion is great, O LORD; in accord with your edicts give me life.

¹⁵⁷Though my persecutors and foes are many I do not turn from your decrees.

¹⁵⁸I view the faithless with loathing, because they do not heed your promise.

¹⁵⁹See how I love your precepts, LORD; in your kindness give me life.

¹⁶⁰Your every word is enduring; all your just edicts are forever.

¹⁶¹Princes persecute me without reason, but my heart reveres only your word.

¹⁶²I rejoice at your promise, as one who has found rich spoil.

¹⁶³Falsehood I hate and abhor; your teaching I love.

¹⁶⁴Seven times a day I praise you because your edicts are just.

¹⁶⁵Lovers of your teaching have much peace; for them there is no stumbling block.

¹⁶⁶I look for your salvation, LORD, and I fulfill your commands.

¹⁶⁷I observe your decrees; I love them very much.

¹⁶⁸I observe your precepts and decrees; all my ways are before you.

¹⁶⁹Let my cry come before you, LORD; in keeping with your word give me discernment.

¹⁷⁰Let my prayer come before you; rescue me according to your promise.

¹⁷¹May my lips pour forth your praise, because you teach me your laws.

¹⁷²May my tongue sing of your promise, for all your commands are just.

¹⁷³Keep your hand ready to help me, for I have chosen your precepts.

¹⁷⁴I long for your salvation, LORD; your teaching is my delight.

¹⁷⁵Let me live to praise you; may your edicts give me help.

¹⁷⁶I have wandered like a lost sheep; seek out your servant, for I do not forget your commands.

PSALM 120

¹A song of ascents. The LORD answered me when I called in my distress:

²LORD, deliver me from lying lips, from treacherous tongues.

³What will the Lord inflict on you, O treacherous tongue, and what more besides?

⁴A warrior's sharpened arrows and fiery coals of brush wood!

⁵Alas, I was an alien in Meshech, I lived near the tents of Kedar!

⁶Too long did I live among those who hated peace.

⁷When I spoke of peace, they were for war.

PSALM 121

¹A song of ascents. I raise my eyes toward the mountains. From where will my help come?

²My help comes from the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth.

³God will not allow your foot to slip; your guardian does not sleep.

⁴Truly, the guardian of Israel never slumbers nor sleeps.

⁵The LORD is your guardian; the LORD is your shade at your righthand.

⁶By day the sun cannot harm you, nor the moon by night.

⁷The LORD will guard you from all evil, will always guard your life.

⁸The LORD will guard your coming and going both now and forever.

PSALM 122

¹A song of ascents. Of David. I rejoiced when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD."

²And now our feet are standing within your gates, Jerusalem.

³Jerusalem, built as a city, walled round about.

⁴Here the tribes have come, the tribes of the LORD, As it was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the LORD.

⁵Here are the thrones of justice, the thrones of the house of David.

⁶For the peace of Jerusalem pray: "May those who love you prosper!

⁷May peace be within your ramparts, prosperity within your towers."

⁸For family and friends I say, "May peace be yours."

⁹For the house of the LORD, our God, I pray, "May blessings be yours."

PSALM 123

¹A song of ascents. To you I raise my eyes, to you enthroned in heaven.

²Yes, like the eyes of a servant on the hand of his master, Like the eyes of a maid on the hand of her mistress, So our eyes are on the LORD our God, till we are shown favor.

³Show us favor, LORD, show us favor, for we have our fill of contempt.

⁴We have our fill of insult from the insolent, of disdain from the arrogant.

PSALM 124

¹A song of ascents. Of David. I Had not the LORD been with us, let Israel say,

²Had not the LORD been with us, when people rose against us,

³They would have swallowed us alive, for their fury blazed against us.

⁴The waters would have engulfed us, the torrent overwhelmed us;

⁵seething waters would have drowned us.

⁶Blessed be the LORD, who did not leave us to be torn by their fangs.

⁷We escaped with our lives like a bird from the fowler's snare; the snare was broken and we escaped.

⁸Our help is the name of the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth.

PSALM 125

¹A song of ascents. Like Mount Zion are they who trust in the LORD, unshakable, forever enduring.

²As mountains surround Jerusalem, the LORD surrounds his people both now and forever.

³The scepter of the wicked will not prevail in the land given to the just, Lest the just themselves turn their hands to evil.

⁴Do good, LORD, to the good, to those who are upright of heart.

⁵But those who turn aside to crooked ways may the LORD send down with the wicked. Peace upon Israel!

PSALM 126

¹A song of ascents. When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, then we thought we were dreaming.

²Our mouths were filled with laughter; our tongues sang for joy. Then it was said among the nations, "The LORD had done great things for them."

³The LORD has done great things for us; Oh, how happy we were!

⁴Restore again our fortunes, LORD, like the dry stream beds of the Negeb.

⁵Those who sow in tears will reap with cries of joy.

⁶Those who go forth weeping, carrying sacks of seed, Will return with cries of joy, carrying their bundled sheaves.

PSALM 127

¹A song of ascents. Of Solomon. Unless the LORD build the house, they labor in vain who build. Unless the LORD guard the city, in vain does the guard keep watch.

²It is vain for you to rise early and put off your rest at night, To eat bread earned by hard toil-- all this God gives to his beloved in sleep.

³Children too are a gift from the LORD, the fruit of the womb, a reward.

⁴Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children born in one's youth.

⁵Blessed are they whose quivers are full. They will never be shamed contending with foes at the gate.

PSALM 128

¹A song of ascents. Happy are all who fear the LORD, who walk in the ways of God.

²What your hands provide you will enjoy; you will be happy and prosper:

³Like a fruitful vine your wife within your home, Like olive plants your children around your table.

⁴Just so will they be blessed who fear the LORD.

⁵May the LORD bless you from Zion, all the days of your life That you may share Jerusalem's joy

⁶and live to see your children's children. Peace upon Israel!

PSALM 129

¹A song of ascents. Much have they oppressed me from my youth, now let Israel say.

²Much have they oppressed me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed.

³Upon my back the plowers plowed, as they traced their long furrows.

⁴But the just LORD cut me free from the ropes of the yoke of the wicked.

⁵May they be scattered in disgrace, all who hate Zion.

⁶May they be like grass on the rooftops withered in early growth,

⁷Never to fill the reaper's hands, nor the arms of the binders of sheaves,

⁸With none passing by to call out: "The blessing of the LORD be upon you! We bless you in the name of the LORD!"

PSALM 130

¹A song of ascents. Out of the depths I call to you, LORD;

²Lord, hear my cry! May your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.

³If you, LORD, mark our sins, Lord, who can stand?

⁴But with you is forgiveness and so you are revered.

⁵I wait with longing for the LORD, my soul waits for his word.

⁶My soul looks for the Lord more than sentinels for daybreak. More than sentinels for daybreak,

⁷let Israel look for the LORD, For with the LORD is kindness, with him is full redemption,

⁸And God will redeem Israel from all their sins.

PSALM 131

¹A song of ascents. Of David. LORD, my heart is not proud; nor are my eyes haughty. I do not busy myself with great matters, with things too sublime for me.

²Rather, I have stilled my soul, hushed it like a weaned child. Like a weaned child on its mother's lap, so is my soul within me.

³Israel, hope in the LORD, now and forever.

PSALM 132

¹A song of ascents. LORD, remember David and all his anxious care;

²How he swore an oath to the LORD, vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob:

³"I will not enter the house where I live, nor lie on the couch where I sleep;

⁴I will give my eyes no sleep, my eyelids no rest,

⁵Till I find a home for the LORD, a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob."

⁶"We have heard of it in Ephrathah; we have found it in the fields of Jaar.

⁷Let us enter God's dwelling; let us worship at God's footstool."

⁸"Arise, LORD, come to your resting place, you and your majestic ark.

⁹Your priests will be clothed with justice; your faithful will shout for joy."

¹⁰For the sake of David your servant, do not reject your anointed.

¹¹The LORD swore an oath to David, a pledge never to be broken: "Your own offspring I will set upon your throne.

¹²If your sons observe my covenant, the laws I shall teach them, Their sons, in turn, shall sit forever on your throne."

¹³Yes, the LORD has chosen Zion, desired it for a dwelling:

¹⁴"This is my resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I desire it.

¹⁵I will bless Zion with meat; its poor I will fill with bread.

¹⁶I will clothe its priests with blessing; its faithful shall shout for joy.

¹⁷There I will make a horn sprout for David's line; I will set a lamp for my anointed.

¹⁸His foes I will clothe with shame, but on him my crown shall gleam."

PSALM 133

¹A song of ascents. Of David. How good it is, how pleasant, where the people dwell as one!

²Like precious ointment on the head, running down upon the beard, Upon the beard of Aaron, upon the collar of his robe.

³Like dew of Hermon coming down upon the mountains of Zion. There the LORD has lavished blessings, life for evermore!

PSALM 134

¹A song of ascents. Come, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD Who stand in the house of the LORD through the long hours of night.

²Lift up your hands toward the sanctuary, and bless the LORD.

³May the LORD who made heaven and earth bless you from Zion.

PSALM 135

¹Hallelujah! Praise the name of the LORD! Praise, you servants of the LORD,

²Who stand in the house of the LORD, in the courts of the house of our God!

³Praise the LORD; the LORD is good! Sing to God's name; it is gracious!

⁴For the LORD has chosen Jacob, Israel as a treasured possession.

⁵I know that the LORD is great, our Lord is greater than all gods.

⁶Whatever the LORD wishes he does in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in all the deeps.

⁷He raises storm clouds from the end of the earth, makes lightning and rain, brings forth wind from the storehouse.

⁸He struck down Egypt's firstborn, human and beast alike,

⁹And sent signs and portents against you, Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants.

¹⁰The Lord struck down many nations, slew mighty kings--

¹¹Sihon, king of the Amorites, Og, king of Bashan, all the kings of Canaan--

¹²And made their land a heritage, a heritage for Israel his people.

¹³O LORD, your name is forever, your renown, from age to age!

¹⁴For the LORD defends his people, shows mercy to his servants.

¹⁵The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands.

¹⁶They have mouths but speak not; they have eyes but see not;

¹⁷They have ears but hear not; no breath is in their mouths.

¹⁸Their makers shall be like them, all who trust in them.

¹⁹House of Israel, bless the LORD! House of Aaron, bless the LORD!

²⁰House of Levi, bless the LORD! You who fear the LORD, bless the LORD!

²¹Blessed from Zion be the LORD, who dwells in Jerusalem! Hallelujah!

PSALM 136

¹Praise the LORD, who is so good; God's love endures forever;

²Praise the God of gods; God's love endures forever;

³Praise the Lord of lords; God's love endures forever;

⁴Who alone has done great wonders, God's love endures forever;

⁵Who skillfully made the heavens, God's love endures forever;

⁶Who spread the earth upon the waters, God's love endures forever;

⁷Who made the great lights, God's love endures forever;

⁸The sun to rule the day, God's love endures forever;

⁹The moon and stars to rule the night, God's love endures forever;

¹⁰Who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, God's love endures forever;

¹¹And led Israel from their midst, God's love endures forever;

¹²With mighty hand and outstretched arm, God's love endures forever;

¹³Who split in two the Red Sea, God's love endures forever;

¹⁴And led Israel through, God's love endures forever;

¹⁵But swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea, God's love endures forever;

¹⁶Who led the people through the desert, God's love endures forever;

¹⁷Who struck down great kings, God's love endures forever;

¹⁸Slew powerful kings, God's love endures forever;

¹⁹Sihon, king of the Amorites, God's love endures forever;

²⁰Og, king of Bashan, God's love endures forever;

²¹And made their lands a heritage, God's love endures forever;

²²A heritage for Israel, God's servant, God's love endures forever.

²³The LORD remembered us in our misery, God's love endures forever;

²⁴Freed us from our foes, God's love endures forever;

²⁵And gives food to all flesh, God's love endures forever.

²⁶Praise the God of heaven, God's love endures forever.

PSALM 137

¹By the rivers of Babylon we sat mourning and weeping when we remembered Zion.

²On the poplars of that land we hung up our harps.

³There our captors asked us for the words of a song; Our tormentors, for a joyful song: "Sing for us a song of Zion!"

⁴But how could we sing a song of the LORD in a foreign land?

⁵If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand wither.

⁶May my tongue stick to my palate if I do not remember you, If I do not exalt Jerusalem beyond all my delights.

⁷Remember, LORD, against Edom that day at Jerusalem. They said: "Level it, level it down to its foundations!"

⁸Fair Babylon, you destroyer, happy those who pay you back the evil you have done us!

⁹Happy those who seize your children and smash them against a rock.

PSALM 138

¹Of David. I thank you, LORD, with all my heart; before the gods to you I sing.

²I bow low toward your holy temple; I praise your name for your fidelity and love. For you have exalted over all your name and your promise.

³When I cried out, you answered; you strengthened my spirit.

⁴All the kings of earth will praise you, LORD, when they hear the words of your mouth.

⁵They will sing of the ways of the LORD: "How great is the glory of the LORD!"

⁶The LORD is on high, but cares for the lowly and knows the proud from afar.

⁷Though I walk in the midst of dangers, you guard my life when my enemies rage. You stretch out your hand; your right hand saves me.

⁸The LORD is with me to the end. LORD, your love endures forever. Never forsake the work of your hands!

PSALM 139

¹For the leader. A psalm of David. O LORD, you have probed me, you know me:

²you know when I sit and stand; you understand my thoughts from afar.

³My travels and my rest you mark; with all my ways you are familiar.

⁴Even before a word is on my tongue, LORD, you know it all.

⁵Behind and before you encircle me and rest your hand upon me.

⁶Such knowledge is beyond me, far too lofty for me to reach.

⁷Where can I hide from your spirit? From your presence, where can I flee?

⁸If I ascend to the heavens, you are there; if I lie down in Sheol, you are there too.

⁹If I fly with the wings of dawn and alight beyond the sea,

¹⁰Even there your hand will guide me, your right hand hold me fast.

¹¹If I say, "Surely darkness shall hide me, and night shall be my light" --

¹²Darkness is not dark for you, and night shines as the day. Darkness and light are but one.

¹³You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother's womb.

¹⁴I praise you, so wonderfully you made me; wonderful are your works! My very self you knew;

¹⁵my bones were not hidden from you, When I was being made in secret, fashioned as in the depths of the earth.

¹⁶Your eyes foresaw my actions; in your book all are written down; my days were shaped, before one came to be.

¹⁷How precious to me are your designs, O God; how vast the sum of them!

¹⁸Were I to count, they would outnumber the sands; to finish, I would need eternity.

¹⁹If only you would destroy the wicked, O God, and the bloodthirsty would depart from me!

²⁰Deceitfully they invoke your name; your foes swear faithless oaths.

²¹Do I not hate, LORD, those who hate you? Those who rise against you, do I not loathe?

²²With fierce hatred I hate them, enemies I count as my own.

²³Probe me, God, know my heart; try me, know my concerns.

²⁴See if my way is crooked, then lead me in the ancient paths.

PSALM 140

¹For the leader. A psalm of David.

²Deliver me, LORD, from the wicked; preserve me from the violent,

³From those who plan evil in their hearts, who stir up conflicts every day,

⁴Who sharpen their tongues like serpents, venom of asps upon their lips. Selah

⁵Keep me, LORD, from the clutches of the wicked; preserve me from the violent, who plot to trip me up.

⁶The arrogant have set a trap for me; villains have spread a net, laid snares for me by the wayside. Selah

⁷I say to the LORD: You are my God; listen, LORD, to the words of my prayer.

⁸My revered LORD, my strong helper, my helmet on the day of battle.

⁹LORD, do not grant the desires of the wicked; do not let their plots succeed. Selah

¹⁰Around me they raise their proud heads; may the mischief they threaten overwhelm them.

¹¹May God rain burning coals upon them, cast them into the grave never more to rise.

¹²Slanderers will not survive on earth; evil will quickly entrap the violent.

¹³For I know the LORD will secure justice for the needy, their rights for the poor.

¹⁴Then the just will give thanks to your name; the upright will dwell in your presence.

PSALM 141

¹A psalm of David. LORD, I call to you; come quickly to help me; listen to my plea when I call.

²Let my prayer be incense before you; my uplifted hands an evening sacrifice.

³Set a guard, LORD, before my mouth, a gatekeeper at my lips.

⁴Do not let my heart incline to evil, or yield to any sin. I will never feast upon the fine food of evildoers.

⁵Let the just strike me; that is kindness; let them rebuke me; that is oil for my head. All this I shall not refuse, but will pray despite these trials.

⁶When their leaders are cast over the cliff, all will learn that my prayers were heard.

⁷As when a farmer plows a field into broken clods, so their bones will be strewn at the mouth of Sheol.

⁸My eyes are upon you, O GOD, my Lord; in you I take refuge; do not strip me of life.

⁹Guard me from the trap they have set for me, from the snares of evildoers.

¹⁰Into their own nets let all the wicked fall, while I make good my own escape.

PSALM 142

¹A maskil of David, when he was in the cave. A prayer.

²With full voice I cry to the LORD; with full voice I beseech the LORD.

³Before God I pour out my complaint, lay bare my distress.

⁴My spirit is faint within me, but you know my path. Along the way I walk they have hidden a trap for me.

⁵I look to my right hand, but no friend is there. There is no escape for me; no one cares for me.

⁶I cry out to you, LORD, I say, You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.

⁷Listen to my cry for help, for I am brought very low. Rescue me from my pursuers, for they are too strong for me.

⁸Lead me out of my prison, that I may give thanks to your name. Then the just shall gather around me because you have been good to me.

PSALM 143

¹A psalm of David. LORD, hear my prayer; in your faithfulness listen to my pleading; answer me in your justice.

²Do not enter into judgment with your servant; before you no living being can be just.

³The enemy has pursued me; they have crushed my life to the ground. They have left me in darkness like those long dead.

⁴My spirit is faint within me; my heart is dismayed.

⁵I remember the days of old; I ponder all your deeds; the works of your hands I recall.

⁶I stretch out my hands to you; I thirst for you like a parched land. Selah

⁷Hasten to answer me, LORD; for my spirit fails me. Do not hide your face from me, lest I become like those descending to the pit.

⁸At dawn let me hear of your kindness, for in you I trust. Show me the path I should walk, for to you I entrust my life.

⁹Rescue me, LORD, from my foes, for in you I hope.

¹⁰Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your kind spirit guide me on ground that is level.

¹¹For your name's sake, LORD, give me life; in your justice lead me out of distress.

¹²In your kindness put an end to my foes; destroy all who attack me, for I am your servant. Psalm

PSALM 144

¹Of David. Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war;

²My safe guard and my fortress, my stronghold, my deliverer, My shield, in whom I trust, who subdues peoples under me.

³LORD, what are mortals that you notice them; human beings, that you take thought of them?

⁴They are but a breath; their days are like a passing shadow.

⁵LORD, incline your heavens and come; touch the mountains and make them smoke.

⁶Flash forth lightning and scatter my foes; shoot your arrows and rout them.

⁷Reach out your hand from on high; deliver me from the many waters; rescue me from the hands of foreign foes.

⁸Their mouths speak untruth; their right hands are raised in lying oaths.

⁹O God, a new song I will sing to you; on a ten-stringed lyre I will play for you.

¹⁰You give victory to kings; you delivered David your servant. From the menacing sword

¹¹deliver me; rescue me from the hands of foreign foes. Their mouths speak untruth; their right hands are raised in lying oaths.

¹²May our sons be like plants well nurtured from their youth, Our daughters, like carved columns, shapely as those of the temple.

¹³May our barns be full with every kind of store. May our sheep increase by thousands, by tens of thousands in our fields; may our oxen be well fattened.

¹⁴May there be no breach in the walls, no exile, no outcry in our streets.

¹⁵Happy the people so blessed; happy the people whose God is the LORD.

PSALM 145

¹Praise. Of David. I will extol you, my God and king; I will bless your name forever.

²Every day I will bless you; I will praise your name forever.

³Great is the LORD and worthy of high praise; God's grandeur is beyond understanding.

⁴One generation praises your deeds to the next and proclaims your mighty works.

⁵They speak of the splendor of your majestic glory, tell of your wonderful deeds.

⁶They speak of your fearsome power and attest to your great deeds.

⁷They publish the renown of your abounding goodness and joyfully sing of your justice.

⁸The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in love.

⁹The LORD is good to all, compassionate to every creature.

¹⁰All your works give you thanks, O LORD and your faithful bless you.

¹¹They speak of the glory of your reign and tell of your great works,

¹²Making known to all your power, the glorious splendor of your rule.

¹³Your reign is a reign for all ages, your dominion for all generations. The LORD is trustworthy in every word, and faithful in every work.

¹⁴The LORD supports all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.

¹⁵The eyes of all look hopefully to you; you give them their food in due season.

¹⁶You open wide your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.

¹⁷You, LORD, are just in all your ways, faithful in all your works.

¹⁸You, LORD, are near to all who call upon you, to all who call upon you in truth.

¹⁹You satisfy the desire of those who fear you; you hear their cry and save them.

²⁰You, LORD, watch over all who love you, but all the wicked you destroy.

²¹My mouth will speak your praises, LORD; all flesh will bless your holy name forever.

PSALM 146

¹Hallelujah!

²Praise the LORD, my soul; I shall praise the LORD all my life, sing praise to my God while I live.

³I Put no trust in princes, in mere mortals powerless to save.

⁴When they breathe their last, they return to the earth; that day all their planning comes to nothing.

⁵Happy those whose help is Jacob's God, whose hope is in the LORD, their God,

⁶The maker of heaven and earth, the seas and all that is in them, Who keeps faith forever,

⁷secures justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets prisoners free;

⁸the LORD gives sight to the blind. The LORD raises up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous.

⁹The LORD protects the stranger, sustains the orphan and the widow, but thwarts the way of the wicked.

¹⁰The LORD shall reign forever, your God, Zion, through all generations! Hallelujah!

PSALM 147

¹Hallelujah! How good to celebrate our God in song; how sweet to give fitting praise.

²The LORD rebuilds Jerusalem, gathers the dispersed of Israel,

³Heals the brokenhearted, binds up their wounds,

⁴Numbers all the stars, calls each of them by name.

⁵Great is our Lord, vast in power, with wisdom beyond measure.

⁶The LORD sustains the poor, but casts the wicked to the ground.

⁷Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; with the lyre celebrate our God,

⁸Who covers the heavens with clouds, provides rain for the earth, makes grass sprout on the mountains,

⁹Who gives animals their food and ravens what they cry for.

¹⁰God takes no delight in the strength of horses, no pleasure in the runner's stride.

¹¹Rather the LORD takes pleasure in the devout, those who await his faithful care.

¹²Glorify the LORD, Jerusalem; Zion, offer praise to your God,

¹³Who has strengthened the bars of your gates, blessed your children within you,

¹⁴Brought peace to your borders, and filled you with finest wheat.

¹⁵The LORD sends a command to earth; his word runs swiftly!

¹⁶Thus snow is spread like wool, frost is scattered like ash,

¹⁷Hail is dispersed like crumbs; before such cold the waters freeze.

¹⁸Again he sends his word and they melt; the wind is unleashed and the waters flow.

¹⁹The LORD also proclaims his word to Jacob, decrees and laws to Israel.

²⁰God has not done this for other nations; of such laws they know nothing. Hallelujah!

PSALM 148

¹Hallelujah! Praise the LORD from the heavens; give praise in the heights.

²Praise him, all you angels; give praise, all you hosts.

³Praise him, sun and moon; give praise, all shining stars.

⁴Praise him, highest heavens, you waters above the heavens.

⁵Let them all praise the LORD'S name; for the LORD commanded and they were created,

⁶Assigned them duties forever, gave them tasks that will never change.

⁷Praise the LORD from the earth, you sea monsters and all deep waters;

⁸You lightning and hail, snow and clouds, storm winds that fulfill his command;

⁹You mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars;

¹⁰You animals wild and tame, you creatures that crawl and fly;

¹¹You kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all who govern on earth;

¹²Young men and women too, old and young alike.

¹³Let them all praise the LORD'S name, for his name alone is exalted, majestic above earth and heaven.

¹⁴The LORD has lifted high the horn of his people; to the glory of all the faithful, of Israel, the people near to their God. Hallelujah!

PSALM 149

¹Hallelujah! Sing to the LORD a new song, a hymn in the assembly of the faithful.

²Let Israel be glad in their maker, the people of Zion rejoice in their king.

³Let them praise his name in festive dance, make music with tambourine and lyre.

⁴For the LORD takes delight in his people, honors the poor with victory.

⁵Let the faithful rejoice in their glory, cry out for joy at their banquet,

⁶With the praise of God in their mouths, and a two-edged sword in their hands,

⁷To bring retribution on the nations, punishment on the peoples,

⁸To bind their kings with chains, shackle their nobles with irons,

⁹To execute the judgments decreed for them-- such is the glory of all God's faithful. Hallelujah!

PSALM 150

¹Hallelujah! Praise God in his holy sanctuary; give praise in the mighty dome of heaven.

²Give praise for his mighty deeds, praise him for his great majesty.

³Give praise with blasts upon the horn, praise him with harp and lyre.

⁴Give praise with tambourines and dance, praise him with flutes and strings.

⁵Give praise with crashing cymbals, praise him with sounding cymbals.

⁶Let everything that has breath give praise to the LORD! Hallelujah!

1The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel:

²That men may appreciate wisdom and discipline, may understand words of intelligence;

³May receive training in wise conduct, in what is right, just and honest;

⁴That resourcefulness may be imparted to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.

⁵A wise man by hearing them will advance in learning, an intelligent man will gain sound guidance,

⁶That he may comprehend proverb and parable, the words of the wise and their riddles.

⁷The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; wisdom and instruction fools despise.

⁸Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and reject not your mother's teaching;

⁹A graceful diadem will they be for your head; a torque for your neck.

¹⁰My son, should sinners entice you,

¹¹and say, "Come along with us! Let us lie in wait for the honest man, let us, unprovoked, set a trap for the innocent;

¹²Let us swallow them up, as the nether world does, alive, in the prime of life, like those who go down to the pit!

¹³All kinds of precious wealth shall we gain, we shall fill our houses with booty;

¹⁴Cast in your lot with us, we shall all have one purse!"--

¹⁵My son, walk not in the way with them, hold back your foot from their path!

¹⁶(For their feet run to evil, they hasten to shed blood.)

¹⁷It is in vain that a net is spread before the eyes of any bird--

¹⁸These men lie in wait for their own blood, they set a trap for their own lives.

¹⁹This is the fate of everyone greedy of loot: unlawful gain takes away the life of him who acquires it.

²⁰Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the open squares she raises her voice;

²¹Down the crowded ways she calls out, at the city gates she utters her words:

²²"How long, you simple ones, will you love inanity,

²³how long will you turn away at my reproof? Lo! I will pour out to you my spirit, I will acquaint you with my words.

²⁴"Because I called and you refused, I extended my hand and no one took notice;

²⁵Because you disdained all my counsel, and my reproof you ignored--

²⁶I, in my turn, will laugh at your doom; I will mock when terror overtakes you;

²⁷When terror comes upon you like a storm, and your doom approaches like a whirlwind; when distress and anguish befall you.

²⁸"Then they call me, but I answer not; they seek me, but find me not;

²⁹Because they hated knowledge, and chose not the fear of the LORD;

³⁰They ignored my counsel, they spurned all my reproof; And in their arrogance they preferred arrogance, and like fools they hated knowledge:

³¹"Now they must eat the fruit of their own way, and with their own devices be glutted.

³²For the self-will of the simple kills them, the smugness of fools destroys them.

³³But he who obeys me dwells in security, in peace, without fear of harm."

2My son, if you receive my words and treasure my commands,

²Turning your ear to wisdom, inclining your heart to understanding;

³Yes, if you call to intelligence, and to understanding raise your voice;

⁴If you seek her like silver, and like hidden treasures search her out:

⁵Then will you understand the fear of the LORD; the knowledge of God you will find;

⁶For the LORD gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;

⁷He has counsel in store for the upright, he is the shield of those who walk honestly,

⁸Guarding the paths of justice, protecting the way of his pious ones.

⁹Then you will understand rectitude and justice, honesty, every good path;

¹⁰For wisdom will enter your heart, knowledge will please your soul,

¹¹Discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you;

¹²Saving you from the way of evil men, from men of perverse speech,

¹³Who leave the straight paths to walk in the way of darkness,

¹⁴Who delight in doing evil, rejoice in perversity;

¹⁵Whose ways are crooked, and devious their paths;

¹⁶Saving you from the wife of another, from the adulteress with her smooth words,

¹⁷Who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the pact with her God;

¹⁸For her path sinks down to death, and her footsteps lead to the shades;

¹⁹None who enter thereon come back again, or gain the paths of life.

²⁰Thus you may walk in the way of good men, and keep to the paths of the just.

²¹For the upright will dwell in the land, the honest will remain in it;

²²But the wicked will be cut off from the land, the faithless will be rooted out of it.

3My son, forget not my teaching, keep in mind my commands;

²For many days, and years of life, and peace, will they bring you.

³Let not kindness and fidelity leave you; bind them around your neck;

⁴Then will you win favor and good esteem before God and man.

⁵Trust in the LORD with all your heart, on your own intelligence rely not;

⁶In all your ways be mindful of him, and he will make straight your paths.

⁷Be not wise in your own eyes, fear the LORD and turn away from evil;

⁸This will mean health for your flesh and vigor for your bones.

⁹Honor the LORD with your wealth, with first fruits of all your produce;

¹⁰Then will your barns be filled with grain, with new wine your vats will overflow.

¹¹The discipline of the LORD, my son, disdain not; spurn not his reproof;

¹²For whom the LORD loves he reproves, and he chastises the son he favors.

¹³Happy the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding!

¹⁴For her profit is better than profit in silver, and better than gold is her revenue;

¹⁵She is more precious than corals, and none of your choice possessions can compare with her.

¹⁶Long life is in her right hand, in her left are riches and honor;

¹⁷Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace;

¹⁸She is a tree of life to those who grasp her, and he is happy who holds her fast.

¹⁹The LORD by wisdom founded the earth, established the heavens by understanding;

²⁰By his knowledge the depths break open, and the clouds drop down dew.

²¹My son, let not these slip out of your sight: keep advice and counsel in view;

²²So will they be life to your soul, and an adornment for your neck.

²³Then you may securely go your way; your foot will never stumble;

²⁴When you lie down, you need not be afraid, when you rest, your sleep will be sweet.

²⁵Be not afraid of sudden terror, of the ruin of the wicked when it comes;

²⁶For the LORD will be your confidence, and will keep your foot from the snare.

²⁷Refuse no one the good on which he has a claim when it is in your power to do it for him.

²⁸Say not to your neighbor, "Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give," when you can give at once.

²⁹Plot no evil against your neighbor, against him who lives at peace with you.

³⁰Quarrel not with a man without cause, with one who has done you no harm.

³¹Envy not the lawless man and choose none of his ways:

³²To the LORD the perverse man is an abomination, but with the upright is his friendship.

³³The curse of the LORD is on the house of the wicked, but the dwelling of the just he blesses;

³⁴When he is dealing with the arrogant, he is stern, but to the humble he shows kindness.

³⁵Honor is the possession of wise men, but fools inherit shame.

4Hear, O children, a father's instruction, be attentive, that you may gain understanding!

²Yes, excellent advice I give you; my teaching do not forsake.

³When I was my father's child, frail, yet the darling of my mother,

⁴He taught me, and said to me: "Let your heart hold fast my words: keep my commands, that you may live!

⁵"Get wisdom, get understanding! Do not forget or turn aside from the words I utter.

⁶Forsake her not, and she will preserve you; love her, and she will safeguard you;

⁷The beginning of wisdom is: get wisdom; at the cost of all you have, get understanding.

⁸Extol her, and she will exalt you; she will bring you honors if you embrace her;

⁹She will put on your head a graceful diadem; a glorious crown will she bestow on you."

¹⁰Hear, my son, and receive my words, and the years of your life shall be many.

¹¹On the way of wisdom I direct you, I lead you on straightforward paths.

¹²When you walk, your step will not be impeded, and should you run, you will not stumble.

¹³Hold fast to instruction, never let her go; keep her, for she is your life.

¹⁴The path of the wicked enter not, walk not on the way of evil men;

¹⁵Shun it, cross it not, turn aside from it, and pass on.

¹⁶For they cannot rest unless they have done evil; to have made no one stumble steals away their sleep.

¹⁷For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

¹⁸But the path of the just is like shining light, that grows in brilliance till perfect day.

¹⁹The way of the wicked is like darkness; they know not on what they stumble.

²⁰My son, to my words be attentive, to my sayings incline your ear;

²¹Let them not slip out of your sight, keep them within your heart;

²²For they are life to those who find them, to man's whole being they are health.

²³With closest custody, guard your heart, for in it are the sources of life.

²⁴Put away from you dishonest talk, deceitful speech put far from you.

²⁵Let your eyes look straight ahead and your glance be directly forward.

²⁶Survey the path for your feet, and let all your ways be sure.

²⁷Turn neither to right nor to left, keep your foot far from evil.

5My son, to my wisdom be attentive, to my knowledge incline your ear,

²That discretion may watch over you, and understanding may guard you.

³The lips of an adulteress drip with honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil;

⁴But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, as sharp as a two-edged sword.

⁵Her feet go down to death, to the nether world her steps attain;

⁶Lest you see before you the road to life, her paths will ramble, you know not where.

⁷So now, O children, listen to me, go not astray from the words of my mouth.

⁸Keep your way far from her, approach not the door of her house,

⁹Lest you give your honor to others, and your years to a merciless one;

¹⁰Lest strangers have their fill of your wealth, your hard-won earnings go to an alien's house;

¹¹And you groan in the end, when your flesh and your body are consumed;

¹²And you say, "Oh, why did I hate instruction, and my heart spurn reproof!

¹³Why did I not listen to the voice of my teachers, nor to my instructors incline my ear!

¹⁴I have all but come to utter ruin, condemned by the public assembly!"

¹⁵Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well.

¹⁶How may your water sources be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets?

¹⁷Let your fountain be yours alone, not one shared with strangers;

¹⁸And have joy of the wife of your youth,

¹⁹your lovely hind, your graceful doe. Her love will invigorate you always, through her love you will flourish continually,

²⁰Why then, my son, should you go astray for another's wife and accept the embraces of an adulteress?

²¹For each man's ways are plain to the LORD'S sight; all their paths he surveys;

²²By his own iniquities the wicked man will be caught, in the meshes of his own sin he will be held fast;

²³He will die from lack of discipline, through the greatness of his folly he will be lost.

6My son, if you have become surety to your neighbor, given your hand in pledge to another,

²You have been snared by the utterance of your lips, caught by the words of your mouth;

³So do this, my son, to free yourself, since you have fallen into your neighbor's power: Go, hurry, stir up your neighbor!

⁴Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids;

⁵Free yourself as a gazelle from the snare, or as a bird from the hand of the fowler.

⁶Go to the ant, O sluggard, study her ways and learn wisdom;

⁷For though she has no chief, no commander or ruler,

⁸She procures her food in the summer, stores up her provisions in the harvest.

⁹How long, O sluggard, will you rest? when will you rise from your sleep?

¹⁰A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the arms to rest--

¹¹Then will poverty come upon you like a highway man, and want like an armed man.

¹²A scoundrel, a villain, is he who deals in crooked talk.

¹³He winks his eyes, shuffles his feet, makes signs with his fingers;

¹⁴He has perversity in his heart, is always plotting evil, sows discord.

¹⁵Therefore suddenly ruin comes upon him; in an instant he is crushed beyond cure.

¹⁶There are six things the LORD hates, yes, seven are an abomination to him;

¹⁷Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood;

¹⁸A heart that plots wicked schemes, feet that run swiftly to evil,

¹⁹The false witness who utters lies, and he who sows discord among brothers.

²⁰Observe, my son, your father's bidding, and reject not your mother's teaching;

²¹Keep them fastened over your heart always, put them around your neck;

²²When you lie down she will watch over you, and when you wake, she will share your concerns; wherever you turn, she will guide you.

²³For the bidding is a lamp, and the teaching a light, and a way to life are the reproofs of discipline;

²⁴To keep you from your neighbor's wife, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.

²⁵Lust not in your heart after her beauty, let her not captivate you with her glance!

²⁶For the price of a loose woman may be scarcely a loaf of bread, But if she is married, she is a trap for your precious life.

²⁷Can a man take fire to his bosom, and his garments not burned?

²⁸Or can a man walk on live coals, and his feet not be scorched?

²⁹So with him who goes in to his neighbor's wife-- none who touches her shall go unpunished.

³⁰Men despise not the thief if he steals to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry;

³¹Yet if he be caught he must pay back sevenfold; all the wealth of his house he may yield up.

³²But he who commits adultery is a fool; he who would destroy himself does it.

³³A degrading beating will he get, and his disgrace will not be wiped away;

³⁴For vindictive is the husband's wrath, he will have no pity on the day of vengeance;

³⁵He will not consider any restitution, nor be satisfied with the greatest gifts.

7My son, keep my words, and treasure my commands.

²Keep my commands and live, my teaching as the apple of your eye;

³Bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴Say to Wisdom, "You are my sister!" call Understanding, "Friend!"

⁵That they may keep you from another's wife, from the adulteress with her smooth words.

⁶For at the window of my house, through my lattice I looked out--

⁷And I saw among the simple ones, I observed among the young men, a youth with no sense,

⁸Going along the street near the corner, then walking in the direction of her house--

⁹In the twilight, at dusk of day, at the time of the dark of night.

¹⁰And lo! the woman comes to meet him, robed like a harlot, with secret designs--

¹¹She is fickle and unruly, in her home her feet cannot rest;

¹²Now she is in the streets, now in the open squares, and at every corner she lurks in ambush--

¹³When she seizes him, she kisses him, and with an impudent look says to him:

¹⁴"I owed peace offerings, and today I have fulfilled my vows;

¹⁵So I came out to meet you, to look for you, and I have found you!

¹⁶With coverlets I have spread my couch, with brocaded cloths of Egyptian linen;

¹⁷I have sprinkled my bed with myrrh, with aloes, and with cinnamon.

¹⁸"Come, let us drink our fill of love, until morning, let us feast on love!

¹⁹For my husband is not at home, he has gone on a long journey;

²⁰A bag of money he took with him, not till the full moon will he return home."

²¹She wins him over by her repeated urging, with her smooth lips she leads him astray;

²²He follows her stupidly, like an ox that is led to slaughter; Like a stag that minces toward the net,

²³till an arrow pierces its liver; Like a bird that rushes into a snare, unaware that its life is at stake.

²⁴So now, O children, listen to me, be attentive to the words of my mouth!

²⁵Let not your heart turn to her ways, go not astray in her paths;

²⁶For many are those she has struck down dead, numerous, those she has slain.

²⁷Her house is made up of ways to the nether world, leading down into the chambers of death.

8Does not Wisdom call, and Understanding raise her voice?

²On the top of the heights along the road, at the crossroads she takes her stand;

³By the gates at the approaches of the city, in the entryways she cries aloud:

⁴"To you, O men, I call; my appeal is to the children of men.

⁵You simple ones, gain resource, you fools, gain sense.

⁶"Give heed! for noble things I speak; honesty opens my lips.

⁷Yes, the truth my mouth recounts, but the wickedness my lips abhor.

⁸Sincere are all the words of my mouth, no one of them is wily or crooked;

⁹All of them are plain to the man of intelligence, and right to those who attain knowledge.

¹⁰Receive my instruction in preference to silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold.

¹¹(For Wisdom is better than corals, and no choice possessions can compare with her.)

¹²"I, Wisdom, dwell with experience, and judicious knowledge I attain.

¹³(The fear of the LORD is to hate evil;) Pride, arrogance, the evil way, and the perverse mouth I hate.

¹⁴Mine are counsel and advice; Mine is strength; I am understanding.

¹⁵By me kings reign, and lawgivers establish justice;

¹⁶By me princes govern, and nobles; all the rulers of earth.

¹⁷"Those who love me I also love, and those who seek me find me.

¹⁸With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity.

¹⁹My fruit is better than gold, yes, than pure gold, and my revenue than choice silver.

²⁰On the way of duty I walk, along the paths of justice,

²¹Granting wealth to those who love me, and filling their treasuries.

²²"The LORD begot me, the first-born of his ways, the forerunner of his prodigies of long ago;

²³From of old I was poured forth, at the first, before the earth.

²⁴When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no fountains or springs of water;

²⁵Before the mountains were settled into place, before the hills, I was brought forth;

²⁶While as yet the earth and the fields were not made, nor the first clods of the world.

²⁷"When he established the heavens I was there, when he marked out the vault over the face of the deep;

²⁸When he made firm the skies above, when he fixed fast the foundations of the earth;

²⁹When he set for the sea its limit, so that the waters should not transgress his command;

³⁰Then was I beside him as his craftsman, and I was his delight day by day, Playing before him all the while,

³¹playing on the surface of his earth; and I found delight in the sons of men.

³²"So now, O children, listen to me;

³³instruction and wisdom do not reject! Happy the man who obeys me, and happy those who keep my ways,

³⁴Happy the man watching daily at my gates, waiting at my doorposts;

³⁵For he who finds me finds life, and wins favor from the LORD;

³⁶But he who misses me harms himself; all who hate me love death."

9Wisdom has built her house, she has set up her seven columns;

²She has dressed her meat, mixed her wine, yes, she has spread her table.

³She has sent out her maidens; she calls from the heights out over the city:

⁴"Let whoever is simple turn in here; to him who lacks understanding, I say,

⁵Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed!

⁶Forsake foolishness that you may live; advance in the way of understanding.

⁷He who corrects an arrogant man earns insult; and he who reproves a wicked man incurs opprobrium.

⁸Reprove not an arrogant man, lest he hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you.

⁹Instruct a wise man, and he becomes still wiser; teach a just man, and he advances in learning.

¹⁰The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the LORD, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

¹¹For by me your days will be multiplied and the years of your life increased."

¹²If you are wise, it is to your own advantage; and if you are arrogant, you alone shall bear it.

¹³The woman Folly is fickle, she is inane, and knows nothing.

¹⁴She sits at the door of her house upon a seat on the city heights,

¹⁵Calling to passers-by as they go on their straight way:

¹⁶"Let whoever is simple turn in here, or who lacks understanding; for to him I say,

¹⁷Stolen water is sweet, and bread gotten secretly is pleasing!"

¹⁸Little he knows that the shades are there, that in the depths of the nether world are her guests!

10The Proverbs of Solomon: A wise son makes his father glad, but a foolish son is a grief to his mother.

²Ill-gotten treasures profit nothing, but virtue saves from death.

³The LORD permits not the just to hunger, but the craving of the wicked he thwarts.

⁴The slack hand impoverishes, but the hand of the diligent enriches.

⁵A son who fills the granaries in summer is a credit; a son who slumbers during harvest, a disgrace.

⁶Blessings are for the head of the just, but a rod for the back of the fool.

⁷The memory of the just will be blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot.

⁸A wise man heeds commands, but a prating fool will be overthrown.

⁹He who walks honestly walks securely, but he whose ways are crooked will fare badly.

¹⁰He who winks at a fault causes trouble, but he who frankly reproves promotes peace.

¹¹A fountain of life is the mouth of the just, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.

¹²Hatred stirs up disputes, but love covers all offenses.

¹³On the lips of the intelligent is found wisdom, (but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence).

¹⁴Wise men store up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool is imminent ruin.

¹⁵The rich man's wealth is his strong city; the ruination of the lowly is their poverty.

¹⁶The just man's recompense leads to life, the gains of the wicked, to sin.

¹⁷A path to life is his who heeds admonition, but he who disregards reproof goes astray.

¹⁸It is the lips of the liar that conceal hostility; but he who spreads accusations is a fool.

¹⁹Where words are many, sin is not wanting; but he who restrains his lips does well.

²⁰Like choice silver is the just man's tongue; the heart of the wicked is of little worth.

²¹The just man's lips nourish many, but fools die for want of sense.

²²It is the LORD'S blessing that brings wealth, and no effort can substitute for it.

²³Crime is the entertainment of the fool; so is wisdom for the man of sense.

²⁴What the wicked man fears will befall him, but the desire of the just will be granted.

²⁵When the tempest passes, the wicked man is no more; but the just man is established forever.

²⁶As vinegar to the teeth, and smoke to the eyes, is the sluggard to those who use him as a messenger.

²⁷The fear of the LORD prolongs life, but the years of the wicked are brief.

²⁸The hope of the just brings them joy, but the expectation of the wicked comes to nought.

²⁹The LORD is a stronghold to him who walks honestly, but to evildoers, their downfall.

³⁰The just man will never be disturbed, but the wicked will not abide in the land.

³¹The mouth of the just yields wisdom, but the perverse tongue will be cut off.

³²The lips of the just know how to please, but the mouth of the wicked, how to pervert.

11False scales are an abomination to the LORD, but a full weight is his delight.

²When pride comes, disgrace comes; but with the humble is wisdom.

³The honesty of the upright guides them; the faithless are ruined by their duplicity.

⁴Wealth is useless on the day of wrath, but virtue saves from death.

⁵The honest man's virtue makes his way straight, but by his wickedness the wicked man falls.

⁶The virtue of the upright saves them, but the faithless are caught in their own intrigue.

⁷When a wicked man dies his hope perishes, and what is expected from strength comes to nought.

⁸The just man escapes trouble, and the wicked man falls into it in his stead.

⁹With his mouth the impious man would ruin his neighbor, but through their knowledge the just make their escape.

¹⁰When the just prosper, the city rejoices; and when the wicked perish, there is jubilation.

¹¹Through the blessing of the righteous the city is exalted, but through the mouth of the wicked it is overthrown.

¹²He who reviles his neighbor has no sense, but the intelligent man keeps silent.

¹³A newsmonger reveals secrets, but a trustworthy man keeps a confidence.

¹⁴For lack of guidance a people falls; security lies in many counselors.

¹⁵He is in a bad way who becomes surety for another, but he who hates giving pledges is safe.

¹⁶A gracious woman wins esteem, but she who hates virtue is covered with shame. (The slothful become impoverished, but the diligent gain wealth.)

¹⁷A kindly man benefits himself, but a merciless man harms himself.

¹⁸The wicked man makes empty profits, but he who sows virture has a sure reward.

¹⁹Virtue directs toward life, but he who pursues evil does so to his death.

²⁰The depraved in heart are an abomination to the LORD, but those who walk blamelessly are his delight.

²¹Truly the evil man shall not go unpunished, but those who are just shall escape.

²²Like a golden ring in a swine's snout is a beautiful woman with a rebellious disposition.

²³The desire of the just ends only in good; the expectation of the wicked is wrath.

²⁴One man is lavish yet grows still richer; another is too sparing, yet is the poorer.

²⁵He who confers benefits will be amply enriched, and he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.

²⁶Him who monopolizes grain, the people curse-- but blessings upon the head of him who distributes it!

²⁷He who seeks the good commands favor, but he who pursues evil will have evil befall him.

²⁸He who trusts in his riches will fall, but like green leaves the just flourish.

²⁹He who upsets his household has empty air for a heritage; and the fool will become slave to the wise man.

³⁰The fruit of virtue is a tree of life, but violence takes lives away.

³¹If the just man is punished on earth, how much more the wicked and the sinner!

12He who loves correction loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.

²The good man wins favor from the LORD, but the schemer is condemned by him.

³No man is built up by wickedness, but the root of the just will never be disturbed.

⁴A worthy wife is the crown of her husband, but a disgraceful one is like rot in his bones.

⁵The plans of the just are legitimate; the designs of the wicked are deceitful.

⁶The words of the wicked are a deadly ambush, but the speech of the upright saves them.

⁷The wicked are overthrown and are no more, but the house of the just stands firm.

⁸According to his good sense a man is praised, but one with a warped mind is despised.

⁹Better a lowly man who supports himself than one of assumed importance who lacks bread.

¹⁰The just man takes care of his beast, but the heart of the wicked is merciless.

¹¹He who tills his own land has food in plenty, but he who follows idle pursuits is a fool.

¹²The stronghold of evil men will be demolished, but the root of the just is enduring.

¹³In the sin of his lips the evil man is ensnared, but the just comes free of trouble.

¹⁴From the fruit of his words a man has his fill of good things, and the work of his hands comes back to reward him.

¹⁵The way of the fool seems right in his own eyes, but he who listens to advice is wise.

¹⁶The fool immediately shows his anger, but the shrewd man passes over an insult.

¹⁷He tells the truth who states what he is sure of, but a lying witness speaks deceitfully.

¹⁸The prating of some men is like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise is healing.

¹⁹Truthful lips endure forever, the lying tongue, for only a moment.

²⁰Deceit is in the hands of those who plot evil, but those who counsel peace have joy.

²¹No harm befalls the just, but the wicked are overwhelmed with misfortune.

²²Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD, but those who are truthful are his delight.

²³A shrewd man conceals his knowledge, but the hearts of fools gush forth folly.

²⁴The diligent hand will govern, but the slothful will be enslaved.

²⁵Anxiety in a man's heart depresses it, but a kindly word makes it glad.

²⁶The just man surpasses his neighbor, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.

²⁷The slothful man catches not his prey, but the wealth of the diligent man is great.

²⁸In the path of justice there is life, but the abominable way leads to death.

13A wise son loves correction, but the senseless one heeds no rebuke.

²From the fruit of his words a man eats good things, but the treacherous one craves violence.

³He who guards his mouth protects his life; to open wide one's lips brings downfall.

⁴The soul of the sluggard craves in vain, but the diligent soul is amply satisfied.

⁵Anything deceitful the just man hates, but the wicked brings shame and disgrace.

⁶Virtue guards one who walks honestly, but the downfall of the wicked is sin.

⁷One man pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.

⁸A man's riches serve as ransom for his life, but the poor man heeds no rebuke.

⁹The light of the just shines gaily, but the lamp of the wicked goes out.

¹⁰The stupid man sows discord by his insolence, but with those who take counsel is wisdom.

¹¹Wealth quickly gotten dwindles away, but amassed little by little, it grows.

¹²Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a wish fulfilled is a tree of life.

¹³He who despises the word must pay for it, but he who reveres the commandment will be rewarded.

¹⁴The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, that a man may avoid the snares of death.

¹⁵Good sense brings favor, but the way of the faithless is their ruin.

¹⁶The shrewd man does everything with prudence, but the fool peddles folly.

¹⁷A wicked messenger brings on disaster, but a trustworthy envoy is a healing remedy.

¹⁸Poverty and shame befall the man who disregards correction, but he who heeds reproof is honored.

¹⁹Lust indulged starves the soul, but fools hate to turn from evil.

²⁰Walk with wise men and you will become wise, but the companion of fools will fare badly.

²¹Misfortune pursues sinners, but the just shall be recompensed with good.

²²The good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the just.

²³A lawsuit devours the tillage of the poor, but some men perish for lack of a law court.

²⁴He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him takes care to chastise him.

²⁵When the just man eats, his hunger is appeased; but the belly of the wicked suffers want.

14Wisdom builds her house, but Folly tears hers down with her own hands.

²He who walks uprightly fears the LORD, but he who is devious in his ways spurns him.

³In the mouth of the fool is a rod for his back, but the lips of the wise preserve them.

⁴Where there are no oxen, the crib remains empty; but large crops come through the strength of the bull.

⁵A truthful witness does not lie, but a false witness utters lies.

⁶The senseless man seeks in vain for wisdom, but knowledge is easy to the man of intelligence.

⁷To avoid the foolish man, take steps! But knowing lips one meets with by surprise.

⁸The shrewd man's wisdom gives him knowledge of his way, but the folly of fools is their deception.

⁹Guilt lodges in the tents of the arrogant, but favor in the house of the just.

¹⁰The heart knows its own bitterness, and in its joy no one else shares.

¹¹The house of the wicked will be destroyed, but the tent of the upright will flourish.

¹²Sometimes a way seems right to a man, but the end of it leads to death!

¹³Even in laughter the heart may be sad, and the end of joy may be sorrow.

¹⁴The scoundrel suffers the consequences of his ways, and the good man reaps the fruit of his paths.

¹⁵The simpleton believes everything, but the shrewd man measures his steps.

¹⁶The wise man is cautious and shuns evil; the fool is reckless and sure of himself.

¹⁷The quick-tempered man makes a fool of himself, but the prudent man is at peace.

¹⁸The adornment of simpletons is folly, but shrewd men gain the crown of knowledge.

¹⁹Evil men must bow down before the good, and the wicked, at the gates of the just.

²⁰Even by his neighbor the poor man is hated, but the friends of the rich are many.

²¹He sins who despises the hungry; but happy is he who is kind to the poor!

²²Do not those who plot evil go astray? But those intent on good gain kindness and constancy.

²³In all labor there is profit, but mere talk tends only to penury.

²⁴The crown of the wise is resourcefulness; the diadem of fools is folly.

²⁵The truthful witness saves lives, but he who utters lies is a betrayer.

²⁶In the fear of the LORD is a strong defense; even for one's children he will be a refuge.

²⁷The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, that a man may avoid the snares of death.

²⁸In many subjects lies the glory of the king; but if his people are few, it is the prince's ruin.

²⁹The patient man shows much good sense, but the quick-tempered man displays folly at its height.

³⁰A tranquil mind gives life to the body, but jealousy rots the bones.

³¹He who oppresses the poor blasphemes his Maker, but he who is kind to the needy glorifies him.

³²The wicked man is overthrown by his wickedness, but the just man finds a refuge in his honesty.

³³In the heart of the intelligent wisdom abides, but in the bosom of fools it is unknown.

³⁴Virtue exalts a nation, but sin is a people's disgrace.

³⁵The king favors the intelligent servant, but the worthless one incurs his wrath.

15A mild answer calms wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

²The tongue of the wise pours out knowledge, but the mouth of fools spurts forth folly.

³The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.

⁴A soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse one crushes the spirit.

⁵The fool spurns his father's admonition, but prudent is he who heeds reproof.

⁶In the house of the just there are ample resources, but the earnings of the wicked are in turmoil.

⁷The lips of the wise disseminate knowledge, but the heart of fools is perverted.

⁸The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

⁹The way of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, but he loves the man who pursues virtue.

¹⁰Severe punishment is in store for the man who goes astray; he who hates reproof will die.

¹¹The nether world and the abyss lie open before the LORD; how much more the hearts of men!

¹²The senseless man loves not to be reproved; to wise men he will not go.

¹³A glad heart lights up the face, but by mental anguish the spirit is broken.

¹⁴The mind of the intelligent man seeks knowledge, but the mouth of fools feeds on folly.

¹⁵Every day is miserable for the depressed, but a lighthearted man has a continual feast.

¹⁶Better a little with fear of the LORD than a great fortune with anxiety.

¹⁷Better a dish of herbs where love is than a fatted ox and hatred with it.

¹⁸An ill-tempered man stirs up strife, but a patient man allays discord.

¹⁹The way of the sluggard is hemmed in as with thorns, but the path of the diligent is a highway.

²⁰A wise son makes his father glad, but a fool of a man despises his mother.

²¹Folly is joy to the senseless man, but the man of understanding goes the straight way.

²²Plans fail when there is no counsel, but they succeed when counselors are many.

²³There is joy for a man in his utterance; a word in season, how good it is!

²⁴The path of life leads the prudent man upward, that he may avoid the nether world below.

²⁵The LORD overturns the house of the proud, but he preserves intact the widow's landmark.

²⁶The wicked man's schemes are an abomination to the LORD, but the pure speak what is pleasing to him.

²⁷He who is greedy of gain brings ruin on his own house, but he who hates bribes will live.

²⁸The just man weighs well his utterance, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil.

²⁹The LORD is far from the wicked, but the prayer of the just he hears.

³⁰A cheerful glance brings joy to the heart; good news invigorates the bones.

³¹He who listens to salutary reproof will abide among the wise.

³²He who rejects admonition despises his own soul, but he who heeds reproof gains understanding.

³³The fear of the LORD is training for wisdom, and humility goes before honors.

16Man may make plans in his heart, but what the tongue utters is from the LORD.

²All the ways of a man may be pure in his own eyes, but it is the LORD who proves the spirit.

³Entrust your works to the LORD, and your plans will succeed.

⁴The LORD has made everything for his own ends, even the wicked for the evil day.

⁵Every proud man is an abomination to the LORD; I assure you that he will not go unpunished.

⁶By kindness and piety guilt is expiated, and by the fear of the LORD man avoids evil.

⁷When the LORD is pleased with a man's ways, he makes even his enemies be at peace with him.

⁸Better a little with virtue, than a large income with injustice.

⁹In his mind a man plans his course, but the LORD directs his steps.

¹⁰The king's lips are an oracle; no judgment he pronounces is false.

¹¹Balance and scales belong to the LORD; all the weights used with them are his concern.

¹²Kings have a horror of wrongdoing, for by righteousness the throne endures.

¹³The king takes delight in honest lips, and the man who speaks what is right he loves.

¹⁴The king's wrath is like messengers of death, but a wise man can pacify it.

¹⁵In the light of the king's countenance is life, and his favor is like a rain cloud in spring.

¹⁶How much better to acquire wisdom than gold! To acquire understanding is more desirable than silver.

¹⁷The path of the upright avoids misfortune; he who pays attention to his way safeguards his life.

¹⁸Pride goes before disaster, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

¹⁹It is better to be humble with the meek than to share plunder with the proud.

²⁰He who plans a thing will be successful; happy is he who trusts in the LORD!

²¹The wise man is esteemed for his discernment, yet pleasing speech increases his persuasiveness.

²²Good sense is a fountain of life to its possessor, but folly brings chastisement on fools.

²³The mind of the wise man makes him eloquent, and augments the persuasiveness of his lips.

²⁴Pleasing words are a honeycomb, sweet to the taste and healthful to the body.

²⁵Sometimes a way seems right to a man, but the end of it leads to death!

²⁶The laborer's appetite labors for him, for his mouth urges him on.

²⁷A scoundrel is a furnace of evil, and on his lips there is a scorching fire.

²⁸An intriguer sows discord, and a talebearer separates bosom friends.

²⁹A lawless man allures his neighbor, and leads him into a way that is not good.

³⁰He who winks his eye is plotting trickery; he who compresses his lips has mischief ready.

³¹Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained by virtuous living.

³²A patient man is better than a warrior, and he who rules his temper, than he who takes a city.

³³When the lot is cast into the lap, its decision depends entirely on the LORD.

17Better a dry crust with peace than a house full of feasting with strife.

²An intelligent servant will rule over a worthless son, and will share the inheritance with the brothers.

³The crucible for silver, and the furnace for gold, but the tester of hearts is the LORD.

⁴The evil man gives heed to wicked lips, and listens to falsehood from a mischievous tongue.

⁵He who mocks the poor blasphemes his Maker; he who is glad at calamity will not go unpunished.

⁶Grandchildren are the crown of old men, and the glory of children is their parentage.

⁷Fine words are out of place in a fool; how much more, lying words in a noble!

⁸A man who has a bribe to offer rates it a magic stone; at every turn it brings him success.

⁹He who covers up a misdeed fosters friendship, but he who gossips about it separates friends.

¹⁰A single reprimand does more for a man of intelligence than a hundred lashes for a fool.

¹¹On rebellion alone is the wicked man bent, but a merciless messenger will be sent against him.

¹²Face a bear robbed of her cubs, but never a fool in his folly!

¹³If a man returns evil for good, from his house evil will not depart.

¹⁴The start of strife is like the opening of a dam; therefore, check a quarrel before it begins!

¹⁵He who condones the wicked, he who condemns the just, are both an abomination to the LORD.

¹⁶Of what use in the fool's hand are the means to buy wisdom, since he has no mind for it?

¹⁷He who is a friend is always a friend, and a brother is born for the time of stress.

¹⁸Senseless is the man who gives his hand in pledge, who becomes surety for his neighbor.

¹⁹He who loves strife loves guilt; he who builds his gate high courts disaster.

²⁰He who is perverse in heart finds no good, and a double-tongued man falls into trouble.

²¹To be a fool's parent is grief for a man; the father of a numskull has no joy.

²²A joyful heart is the health of the body, but a depressed spirit dries up the bones.

²³The wicked man accepts a concealed bribe to pervert the course of justice.

²⁴The man of intelligence fixes his gaze on wisdom, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.

²⁵A foolish son is vexation to his father, and bitter sorrow to her who bore him.

²⁶It is wrong to fine an innocent man, but beyond reason to scourge princes.

²⁷He who spares his words is truly wise, and he who is chary of speech is a man of intelligence.

²⁸Even a fool, if he keeps silent, is considered wise; if he closes his lips, intelligent.

18In estrangement one seeks pretexts: with all persistence he picks a quarrel.

²The fool takes no delight in understanding, but rather in displaying what he thinks.

³With wickedness comes contempt, and with disgrace comes scorn.

⁴The words from a man's mouth are deep waters, but the source of wisdom is a flowing brook.

⁵It is not good to be partial to the guilty, and so to reject a rightful claim.

⁶The fool's lips lead him into strife, and his mouth provokes a beating.

⁷The fool's mouth is his ruin; his lips are a snare to his life.

⁸The words of a talebearer are like dainty morsels that sink into one's inmost being.

⁹The man who is slack in his work is own brother to the man who is destructive.

¹⁰The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the just man runs to it and is safe.

¹¹The rich man's wealth is his strong city; he fancies it a high wall.

¹²Before his downfall a man's heart is haughty, but humility goes before honors.

¹³He who answers before he hears-- his is the folly and the shame.

¹⁴A man's spirit sustains him in infirmity-- but a broken spirit who can bear?

¹⁵The mind of the intelligent gains knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.

¹⁶A man's gift clears the way for him, and gains him access to great men.

¹⁷The man who pleads his case first seems to be in the right; then his opponent comes and puts him to the test.

¹⁸The lot puts an end to disputes, and is decisive in a controversy between the mighty.

¹⁹A brother is a better defense than a strong city, and a friend is like the bars of a castle.

²⁰From the fruit of his mouth a man has his fill; with the yield of his lips he sates himself.

²¹Death and life are in the power of the tongue; those who make it a friend shall eat its fruit.

²²He who finds a wife finds happiness; it is a favor he receives from the LORD.

²³The poor man implores, but the rich man answers harshly.

²⁴Some friends bring ruin on us, but a true friend is more loyal than a brother.

19Better a poor man who walks in his integrity than he who is crooked in his ways and rich.

²Without knowledge even zeal is not good; and he who acts hastily, blunders.

³A man's own folly upsets his way, but his heart is resentful against the LORD.

⁴Wealth adds many friends, but the friend of the poor man deserts him.

⁵The false witness will not go unpunished, and he who utters lies will not escape.

⁶Many curry favor with a noble; all are friends of the man who has something to give.

⁷All the poor man's brothers hate him; how much more do his friends shun him!

⁸He who gains intelligence is his own best friend; he who keeps understanding will be successful.

⁹The false witness will not go unpunished, and he who utters lies will perish.

¹⁰Luxury is not befitting a fool; much less should a slave rule over princes.

¹¹It is good sense in a man to be slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.

¹²The king's wrath is like the roaring of a lion, but his favor, like dew on the grass.

¹³The foolish son is ruin to his father, and the nagging of a wife is a persistent leak.

¹⁴Home and possessions are an inheritance from parents, but a prudent wife is from the LORD.

¹⁵Laziness plunges a man into deep sleep, and the sluggard must go hungry.

¹⁶He who keeps the precept keeps his life, but the despiser of the word will die.

¹⁷He who has compassion on the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for his good deed.

¹⁸Chastise your son, for in this there is hope; but do not desire his death.

¹⁹The man of violent temper pays the penalty; even if you rescue him, you will have it to do again.

²⁰Listen to counsel and receive instruction, that you may eventually become wise.

²¹Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the decision of the LORD that endures.

²²From a man's greed comes his shame; rather be a poor man than a liar.

²³The fear of the LORD is an aid to life; one eats and sleeps without being visited by misfortune.

²⁴The sluggard loses his hand in the dish; he will not even lift it to his mouth.

²⁵If you beat an arrogant man, the simple learn a lesson; if you rebuke an intelligent man, he gains knowledge.

²⁶He who mistreats his father, or drives away his mother, is a worthless and disgraceful son.

²⁷If a son ceases to hear instruction, he wanders from words of knowledge.

²⁸An unprincipled witness perverts justice, and the mouth of the wicked pours out iniquity.

²⁹Rods are prepared for the arrogant, and blows for the backs of fools.

20Wine is arrogant, strong drink is riotous; none who goes astray for it is wise.

²The dread of the king is as when a lion roars; he who incurs his anger forfeits his life.

³It is honorable for a man to shun strife, while every fool starts a quarrel.

⁴In seedtime the sluggard plows not; when he looks for the harvest, it is not there.

⁵The intention in the human heart is like water far below the surface, but the man of intelligence draws it forth.

⁶Many are declared to be men of virtue: but who can find one worthy of trust?

⁷When a man walks in integrity and justice, happy are his children after him!

⁸A king seated on the throne of judgment dispels all evil with his glance.

⁹Who can say, "I have made my heart clean, I am cleansed of my sin"?

¹⁰Varying weights, varying measures, are both an abomination to the LORD.

¹¹Even by his manners the child betrays whether his conduct is innocent and right.

¹²The ear that hears, and the eye that sees-- the LORD has made them both.

¹³Love not sleep, lest you be reduced to poverty; eyes wide open mean abundant food.

¹⁴"Bad, bad!" says the buyer; but once he has gone his way, he boasts.

¹⁵Like gold or a wealth of corals, wise lips are a precious ornament.

¹⁶Take his garment who becomes surety for another, and for strangers yield it up!

¹⁷The bread of deceit is sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel.

¹⁸Plans made after advice succeed; so with wise guidance wage your war.

¹⁹A newsmonger reveals secrets; so have nothing to do with a babbler!

²⁰If one curses his father or mother, his lamp will go out at the coming of darkness.

²¹Possessions gained hastily at the outset will in the end not be blessed.

²²Say not, "I will repay evil!" Trust in the LORD and he will help you.

²³Varying weights are an abomination to the LORD, and false scales are not good.

²⁴Man's steps are from the LORD; how, then, can a man understand his way?

²⁵Rashly to pledge a sacred gift is a trap for a man, or to regret a vow once made.

²⁶A wise king winnows the wicked, and threshes them under the cartwheel.

²⁷A lamp from the LORD is the breath of man; it searches through all his inmost being.

²⁸Kindness and piety safeguard the king, and he upholds his throne by justice.

²⁹The glory of young men is their strength, and the dignity of old men is gray hair.

³⁰Evil is cleansed away by bloody lashes, and a scourging to the inmost being.

21Like a stream is the king's heart in the hand of the LORD; wherever it pleases him, he directs it.

²All the ways of a man may be right in his own eyes, but it is the LORD who proves hearts.

³To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.

⁴Haughty eyes and a proud heart-- the tillage of the wicked is sin.

⁵The plans of the diligent are sure of profit, but all rash haste leads certainly to poverty.

⁶He who makes a fortune by a lying tongue is chasing a bubble over deadly snares.

⁷The oppression of the wicked will sweep them away, because they refuse to do what is right.

⁸The way of the culprit is crooked, but the conduct of the innocent is right.

⁹It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop than in a roomy house with a quarrelsome woman.

¹⁰The soul of the wicked man desires evil; his neighbor finds no pity in his eyes.

¹¹When the arrogant man is punished, the simple are the wiser; when the wise man is instructed, he gains knowledge.

¹²The just man appraises the house of the wicked: there is one who brings down the wicked to ruin.

¹³He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor will himself also call and not be heard.

¹⁴A secret gift allays anger, and a concealed present, violent wrath.

¹⁵To practice justice is a joy for the just, but terror for evildoers.

¹⁶The man who strays from the way of good sense will abide in the assembly of the shades.

¹⁷He who loves pleasure will suffer want; he who loves wine and perfume will not be rich.

¹⁸The wicked man serves as ransom for the just, and the faithless man for the righteous.

¹⁹It is better to dwell in a wilderness than with a quarrelsome and vexatious wife.

²⁰Precious treasure remains in the house of the wise, but the fool consumes it.

²¹He who pursues justice and kindness will find life and honor.

²²The wise man storms a city of the mighty, and overthrows the stronghold in which it trusts.

²³He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from trouble.

²⁴Arrogant is the name for the man of overbearing pride who acts with scornful effrontery.

²⁵The sluggard's propensity slays him, for his hands refuse to work.

²⁶Some are consumed with avarice all the day, but the just man gives unsparingly.

²⁷The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination, the more so when they offer it with a bad intention.

²⁸The false witness will perish, but he who listens will finally have his say.

²⁹The wicked man is brazenfaced, but the upright man pays heed to his ways.

³⁰There is no wisdom, no understanding, no counsel, against the LORD.

³¹The horse is equipped for the day of battle, but victory is the LORD'S.

22A good name is more desirable than great riches, and high esteem, than gold and silver.

²Rich and poor have a common bond: the LORD is the maker of them all.

³The shrewd man perceives evil and hides, while simpletons continue on and suffer the penalty.

⁴The reward of humility and fear of the LORD is riches, honor and life.

⁵Thorns and snares are on the path of the crooked; he who would safeguard his life will shun them.

⁶Train a boy in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not swerve from it.

⁷The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.

⁸He who sows iniquity reaps calamity, and the rod destroys his labors.

⁹The kindly man will be blessed, for he gives of his sustenance to the poor.

¹⁰Expel the arrogant man and discord goes out; strife and insult cease.

¹¹The LORD loves the pure of heart; the man of winning speech has the king for his friend.

¹²The eyes of the LORD safeguard knowledge, but he defeats the projects of the faithless.

¹³The sluggard says, "A lion is outside; in the streets I might be slain."

¹⁴The mouth of the adulteress is a deep pit; he with whom the LORD is angry will fall into it.

¹⁵Folly is close to the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him.

¹⁶He who oppresses the poor to enrich himself will yield up his gains to the rich as sheer loss.

¹⁷The sayings of the wise: Incline your ear, and hear my words, and apply your heart to my doctrine;

¹⁸For it will be well if you keep them in your bosom, if they all are ready on your lips.

¹⁹That your trust may be in the LORD, I make known to you the words of Amen-em-Ope.

²⁰Have I not written for you the "Thirty," with counsels and knowledge,

²¹To teach you truly how to give a dependable report to one who sends you?

²²Injure not the poor because they are poor, nor crush the needy at the gate;

²³For the LORD will defend their cause, and will plunder the lives of those who plunder them.

²⁴Be not friendly with a hotheaded man, nor the companion of a wrathful man,

²⁵Lest you learn his ways, and get yourself into a snare.

²⁶Be not one of those who give their hand in pledge, of those who become surety for debts;

²⁷For if you have not the means to pay, your bed will be taken from under you.

²⁸Remove not the ancient landmark which your fathers set up.

²⁹You see a man skilled at his work? He will stand in the presence of kings; he will not stand in the presence of obscure men.

23When you sit down to dine with a ruler, keep in mind who is before you;

²And put a knife to your throat if you have a ravenous appetite.

³Do not desire his delicacies; they are deceitful food.

⁴Toil not to gain wealth, cease to be concerned about it;

⁵While your glance flits to it, it is gone! for assuredly it grows wings, like the eagle that flies toward heaven.

⁶Do not take food with a grudging man, and do not desire his dainties;

⁷For in his greed he is like a storm. "Eat and drink," he says to you, though his heart is not with you;

⁸The little you have eaten you will vomit up, and you will have wasted your agreeable words.

⁹Speak not for the fool's hearing; he will despise the wisdom of your words.

¹⁰Remove not the ancient landmark, nor invade the fields of orphans;

¹¹For their redeemer is strong; he will defend their cause against you.

¹²Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to words of knowledge.

¹³Withhold not chastisement from a boy; if you beat him with the rod, he will not die.

¹⁴Beat him with the rod, and you will save him from the nether world.

¹⁵My son, if your heart be wise, my own heart also will rejoice;

¹⁶And my inmost being will exult, when your lips speak what is right.

¹⁷Let not your heart emulate sinners, but be zealous for the fear of the LORD always;

¹⁸For you will surely have a future, and your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁹Hear, my son, and be wise, and guide your heart in the right way.

²⁰Consort not with winebibbers, nor with those who eat meat to excess;

²¹For the drunkard and the glutton come to poverty, and torpor clothes a man in rags.

²²Listen to your father who begot you, and despise not your mother when she is old.

²³Get the truth, and sell it not-- wisdom, instruction and understanding.

²⁴The father of a just man will exult with glee; he who begets a wise son will have joy in him.

²⁵Let your father and mother have joy; let her who bore you exult.

²⁶My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes keep to my ways.

²⁷For the harlot is a deep ditch, and the adulteress a narrow pit;

²⁸Yes, she lies in wait like a robber, and increases the faithless among men.

²⁹Who scream? Who shriek? Who have strife? Who have anxiety? Who have wounds for nothing? Who have black eyes?

³⁰Those who linger long over wine, those who engage in trials of blended wine.

³¹Look not on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the glass. It goes down smoothly;

³²but in the end it bites like a serpent, or like a poisonous adder.

³³Your eyes behold strange sights, and your heart utters disordered thoughts;

³⁴You are like one now lying in the depths of the sea, now sprawled at the top of the mast.

³⁵"They struck me, but it pained me not; They beat me, but I felt it not; When shall I awake to seek wine once again?"

24Be not emulous of evil men, and desire not to be with them;

²For their hearts plot violence, and their lips speak of foul play.

³By wisdom is a house built, by understanding is it made firm;

⁴And by knowledge are its rooms filled with every precious and pleasing possession.

⁵A wise man is more powerful than a strong man, and a man of knowledge than a man of might;

⁶For it is by wise guidance that you wage your war, and the victory is due to a wealth of counselors.

⁷For a fool, to be silent is wisdom; not to open his mouth at the gate.

⁸He who plots evil doing-- men call him an intriguer.

⁹Beyond intrigue and folly and sin, it is arrogance that men find abominable.

¹⁰If you remain indifferent in time of adversity, your strength will depart from you.

¹¹Rescue those who are being dragged to death, and from those tottering to execution withdraw not.

¹²If you say, "I know not this man!" does not he who tests hearts perceive it? He who guards your life knows it, and he will repay each one according to his deeds.

¹³If you eat honey, my son, because it is good, if virgin honey is sweet to your taste;

¹⁴Such, you must know, is wisdom to your soul. If you find it, you will have a future, and your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁵Lie not in wait against the home of the just man, ravage not his dwelling place;

¹⁶For the just man falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble to ruin.

¹⁷Rejoice not when your enemy falls, and when he stumbles, let not your heart exult,

¹⁸Lest the LORD see it, be displeased with you, and withdraw his wrath from your enemy.

¹⁹Be not provoked with evildoers, nor envious of the wicked;

²⁰For the evil man has no future, the lamp of the wicked will be put out.

²¹My son, fear the LORD and the king; have nothing to do with those who rebel against them;

²²For suddenly arises the destruction they send, and the ruin from either one, who can measure?

²³These also are sayings of the wise: To show partiality in judgment is not good.

²⁴He who says to the wicked man, "You are just"-- men will curse him, people will denounce him;

²⁵But those who convict the evildoer will fare well, and on them will come the blessing of prosperity.

²⁶He gives a kiss on the lips who makes an honest reply.

²⁷Complete your outdoor tasks, and arrange your work in the field; afterward you can establish your house.

²⁸Be not a witness against your neighbor without just cause, thus committing folly with your lips.

²⁹Say not, "As he did to me, so will I do to him; I will repay the man according to his deeds."

³⁰I passed by the field of the sluggard, by the vineyard of the man without sense;

³¹And behold! it was all overgrown with thistles; its surface was covered with nettles, and its stone wall broken down.

³²And as I gazed at it, I reflected; I saw and learned the lesson:

³³A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the arms to rest--

³⁴Then will poverty come upon you like a highwayman, and want like an armed man.

25These also are proverbs of Solomon. The men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, transmitted them.

²God has glory in what he conceals, kings have glory in what they fathom.

³As the heavens in height, and the earth in depth, the heart of kings is unfathomable.

⁴Remove the dross from silver, and it comes forth perfectly purified;

⁵Remove the wicked from the presence of the king, and his throne is made firm through righteousness.

⁶Claim no honor in the king's presence, nor occupy the place of great men;

⁷For it is better that you be told, "Come up closer!" than that you be humbled before the prince.

⁸What your eyes have seen bring not forth hastily against an opponent; For what will you do later on when your neighbor puts you to shame?

⁹Discuss your case with your neighbor, but another man's secret do not disclose;

¹⁰Lest, hearing it, he reproach you, and your ill repute cease not.

¹¹Like golden apples in silver settings are words spoken at the proper time.

¹²Like a golden earring, or a necklace of fine gold, is a wise reprover to an obedient ear.

¹³Like the coolness of snow in the heat of the harvest is a faithful messenger for the one who sends him. (He refreshes the soul of his master.)

¹⁴Like clouds and wind when no rain follows is the man who boastfully promises what he never gives.

¹⁵By patience is a ruler persuaded, and a soft tongue will break a bone.

¹⁶If you find honey, eat only what you need, lest you become glutted with it and vomit it up.

¹⁷Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor's house, lest he have more than enough of you, and hate you.

¹⁸Like a club, or a sword, or a sharp arrow, is the man who bears false witness against his neighbor.

¹⁹Like an infected tooth or an unsteady foot is (dependence on) a faithless man in time of trouble.

²⁰Like a moth in clothing, or a maggot in wood, sorrow gnaws at the human heart.

²¹If your enemy be hungry, give him food to eat, if he be thirsty, give him to drink;

²²For live coals you will heap on his head, and the LORD will vindicate you.

²³The north wind brings rain, and a backbiting tongue an angry countenance.

²⁴It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop than in a roomy house with a quarrelsome woman.

²⁵Like cool water to one faint from thirst is good news from a far country.

²⁶Like a troubled fountain or a polluted spring is a just man who gives way before the wicked.

²⁷To eat too much honey is not good; nor to seek honor after honor.

²⁸Like an open city with no defenses is the man with no check on his feelings.

26Like snow in summer, or rain in harvest, honor for a fool is out of place.

²Like the sparrow in its flitting, like the swallow in its flight, a curse uncalled-for arrives nowhere.

³The whip for the horse, the bridle for the ass, and the rod for the back of fools.

⁴Answer not the fool according to his folly, lest you too become like him.

⁵Answer the fool according to his folly, lest he become wise in his own eyes.

⁶He cuts off his feet, he drinks down violence, who sends messages by a fool.

⁷A proverb in the mouth of a fool hangs limp, like crippled legs.

⁸Like one who entangles the stone in the sling is he who gives honor to a fool.

⁹Like a thorn stick brandished by the hand of a drunkard is a proverb in the mouth of fools.

¹⁰Like an archer wounding all who pass by is he who hires a drunken fool.

¹¹As the dog returns to his vomit, so the fool repeats his folly.

¹²You see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

¹³The sluggard says, "There is a lion in the street, a lion in the middle of the square!"

¹⁴The door turns on its hinges, the sluggard, on his bed!

¹⁵The sluggard loses his hand in the dish; he is too weary to lift it to his mouth.

¹⁶The sluggard imagines himself wiser than seven men who answer with good sense.

¹⁷Like the man who seizes a passing dog by the ears is he who meddles in a quarrel not his own.

¹⁸Like a crazed archer scattering firebrands and deadly arrows

¹⁹Is the man who deceives his neighbor, and then says, "I was only joking."

²⁰For lack of wood, the fire dies out; and when there is no talebearer, strife subsides.

²¹What a bellows is to live coals, what wood is to fire, such is a contentious man in enkindling strife.

²²The words of a talebearer are like dainty morsels that sink into one's inmost being.

²³Like a glazed finish on earthenware are smooth lips with a wicked heart.

²⁴With his lips an enemy pretends, but in his inmost being he maintains deceit;

²⁵When he speaks graciously, trust him not, for seven abominations are in his heart.

²⁶A man may conceal hatred under dissimulation, but his malice will be revealed in the assembly.

²⁷He who digs a pit falls into it; and a stone comes back upon him who rolls it.

²⁸The lying tongue is its owner's enemy, and the flattering mouth works ruin.

27Boast not of tomorrow, for you know not what any day may bring forth.

²Let another praise you--not your own mouth; Someone else--not your own lips.

³Stone is heavy, and sand a burden, but a fool's provocation is heavier than both.

⁴Anger is relentless, and wrath overwhelming-- but before jealousy who can stand?

⁵Better is an open rebuke than a love that remains hidden.

⁶Wounds from a friend may be accepted as well meant, but the greetings of an enemy one prays against.

⁷One who is full, tramples on virgin honey; but to the man who is hungry, any bitter thing is sweet.

⁸Like a bird that is far from its nest is a man who is far from his home.

⁹Perfume and incense gladden the heart, but by grief the soul is torn asunder.

¹⁰Your own friend and your father's friend forsake not; but if ruin befalls you, enter not a kinsman's house. Better is a neighbor near at hand than a brother far away.

¹¹If you are wise, my son, you will gladden my heart, and I will be able to rebut him who tuants me.

¹²The shrewd man perceives evil and hides; simpletons continue on and suffer the penalty.

¹³Take his garment who becomes surety for another, and for the sake of a stranger, yield it up!

¹⁴When one greets his neighbor with a loud voice in the early morning, a curse can be laid to his charge.

¹⁵For a persistent leak on a rainy day the match is a quarrelsome woman.

¹⁶He who keeps her stores up a stormwind; he cannot tell north from south.

¹⁷As iron sharpens iron, so man sharpens his fellow man.

¹⁸He who tends a fig tree eats its fruit, and he who is attentive to his master will be enriched.

¹⁹As one face differs from another, so does one human heart from another.

²⁰The nether world and the abyss are never satisfied; so too the eyes of men.

²¹As the crucible tests silver and the furnace gold, so a man is tested by the praise he receives.

²²Though you should pound the fool to bits with the pestle, amid the grits in a mortar, his folly would not go out of him.

²³Take good care of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds;

²⁴For wealth lasts not forever, nor even a crown from age to age.

²⁵When the grass is taken away and the aftergrowth appears, and the mountain greens are gathered in,

²⁶The lambs will provide you with clothing, and the goats will bring the price of a field,

²⁷And there will be ample goat's milk to supply you, to supply your household, and maintenance for your maidens.

28The wicked man flees although no one pursues him; but the just man, like a lion, feels sure of himself.

²If a land is rebellious, its princes will be many; but with a prudent man it knows security.

³A rich man who oppresses the poor is like a devastating rain that leaves no food.

⁴Those who abandon the law praise the wicked man, but those who keep the law war against him.

⁵Evil men understand nothing of justice, but those who seek the LORD understand all.

⁶Better a poor man who walks in his integrity than he who is crooked in his ways and rich.

⁷He who keeps the law is a wise son, but the gluttons' companion disgraces his father.

⁸He who increases his wealth by interest and overcharge gathers it for him who is kind to the poor.

⁹When one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.

¹⁰He who seduces the upright into an evil way will himself fall into his own pit. (And blameless men will gain prosperity.)

¹¹The rich man is wise in his own eyes, but a poor man who is intelligent sees through him.

¹²When the just are triumphant, there is great jubilation; but when the wicked gain preeminence, people hide.

¹³He who conceals his sins prospers not, but he who confesses and forsakes them obtains mercy.

¹⁴Happy the man who is always on his guard; but he who hardens his heart will fall into evil.

¹⁵Like a roaring lion or a ravenous bear is a wicked ruler over a poor people.

¹⁶The less prudent the prince, the more his deeds oppress. He who hates ill-gotten gain prolongs his days.

¹⁷Though a man burdened with human blood were to flee to the grave, none should support him.

¹⁸He who walks uprightly is safe, but he whose ways are crooked falls into the pit.

¹⁹He who cultivates his land will have plenty of food, but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty.

²⁰The trustworthy man will be richly blessed; he who is in haste to grow rich will not go unpunished.

²¹To show partiality is never good: for even a morsel of bread a man may do wrong.

²²The avaricious man is perturbed about his wealth, and he knows not when want will come upon him.

²³He who rebukes a man gets more thanks in the end than one with a flattering tongue.

²⁴He who defrauds father or mother and calls it no sin, is a partner of the brigand.

²⁵The greedy man stirs up disputes, but he who trusts in the LORD will prosper.

²⁶He who trusts in himself is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom is safe.

²⁷He who gives to the poor suffers no want, but he who ignores them gets many a curse.

²⁸When the wicked gain pre-eminence, other men hide; but at their fall the just flourish.

29The man who remains stiff-necked and hates rebuke will be crushed suddenly beyond cure.

²When the just prevail, the people rejoice; but when the wicked rule, the people groan.

³He who loves wisdom makes his father glad, but he who consorts with harlots squanders his wealth.

⁴By justice a king gives stability to the land; but he who imposes heavy taxes ruins it.

⁵The man who flatters his neighbor is spreading a net under his feet.

⁶The wicked man steps into a snare, but the just man runs on joyfully.

⁷The just man has a care for the rights of the poor; the wicked man has no such concern.

⁸Arrogant men set the city ablaze, but wise men calm the fury.

⁹If a wise man disputes with a fool, he may rage or laugh but can have no peace.

¹⁰Bloodthirsty men hate the honest man, but the upright show concern for his life.

¹¹The fool gives vent to all his anger; but by biding his time, the wise man calms it.

¹²If a ruler listens to lying words, his servants all become wicked.

¹³The poor and the oppressor have a common bond: the LORD gives light to the eyes of both.

¹⁴If a king is zealous for the rights of the poor, his throne stands firm forever.

¹⁵The rod of correction gives wisdom, but a boy left to his whims disgraces his mother.

¹⁶When the wicked prevail, crime increases; but their downfall the just will behold.

¹⁷Correct your son, and he will bring you comfort, and give delight to your soul.

¹⁸Without prophecy the people become demoralized; but happy is he who keeps the law.

¹⁹By words no servant can be trained; for he understands what is said, but obeys not.

²⁰Do you see a man hasty in his words? More can be hoped for from a fool!

²¹If a man pampers his servant from childhood, he will turn out to be stubborn.

²²An ill-tempered man stirs up disputes, and a hotheaded man is the cause of many sins.

²³Man's pride causes his humiliation, but he who is humble of spirit obtains honor.

²⁴The accomplice of a thief is his own enemy: he hears himself put under a curse, yet discloses nothing.

²⁵The fear of man brings a snare, but he who trusts in the LORD is safe.

²⁶Many curry favor with the ruler, but the rights of each are from the LORD.

²⁷The evildoer is an abomination to the just, and he who walks uprightly is an abomination to the wicked.

30The words of Agur, son of Jakeh the Massaite: The pronouncement of mortal man: "I am not God; I am not God, that I should prevail.

²Why, I am the most stupid of men, and have not even human intelligence;

³Neither have I learned wisdom, nor have I the knowledge of the Holy One.

⁴Who has gone up to heaven and come down again-- who has cupped the wind in his hands? Who has bound up the waters in a cloak-- who has marked out all the ends of the earth? What is his name, what is his son's name, if you know it?"

⁵Every word of God is tested; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

⁶Add nothing to his words, lest he reprove you, and you be exposed as a deceiver.

⁷Two things I ask of you, deny them not to me before I die:

⁸Put falsehood and lying far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches; (provide me only with the food I need;)

⁹Lest, being full, I deny you, saying, "Who is the LORD?" Or, being in want, I steal, and profane the name of my God.

¹⁰Slander not a servant to his master, lest he curse you, and you have to pay the penalty.

¹¹There is a group of people that curses its father, and blesses not its mother.

¹²There is a group that is pure in its own eyes, yet is not purged of its filth.

¹³There is a group--how haughty their eyes! how overbearing their glance!

¹⁴There is a group whose incisors are swords, whose teeth are knives, Devouring the needy from the earth, and the poor from among men.

¹⁵The two daughters of the leech are, "Give, Give." Three things are never satisfied, four never say, "Enough!"

¹⁶The nether world, and the barren womb; the earth, that is never saturated with water, and fire, that never says, "Enough!"

¹⁷The eye that mocks a father, or scorns an aged mother, Will be plucked out by the ravens in the valley; the young eagles will devour it.

¹⁸Three things are too wonderful for me, yes, four I cannot understand:

¹⁹The way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent upon a rock, The way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a maiden.

²⁰Such is the way of an adulterous woman: she eats, wipes her mouth, and says, "I have done no wrong."

²¹Under three things the earth trembles, yes, under four it cannot bear up:

²²Under a slave when he becomes king, and a fool when he is glutted with food;

²³Under an odious woman when she is wed, and a maidservant when she displaces her mistress.

²⁴Four things are among the smallest on the earth, and yet are exceedingly wise:

²⁵Ants--a species not strong, yet they store up their food in the summer;

²⁶Rock-badgers--a species not mighty, yet they make their home in the crags;

²⁷Locusts--they have no king, yet they migrate all in array;

²⁸Lizards--you can catch them with your hands, yet they find their way into king's palaces.

²⁹Three things are stately in their stride, yes, four are stately in their carriage:

³⁰The lion, mightiest of beasts, who retreats before nothing;

³¹The strutting cock, and the he-goat, and the king at the head of his people.

³²If you have foolishly been proud or presumptuous--put your hand on your mouth;

³³For the stirring of milk brings forth curds, and the stirring of anger brings forth blood.

31The words of Lemuel, king of Massa. The advice which his mother gave him:

²What, my son, my first-born! what, O son of my womb; what, O son of my vows!

³Give not your vigor to women, nor your strength to those who ruin kings.

⁴It is not for kings, O Lemuel, not for kings to drink wine; strong drink is not for princes!

⁵Lest in drinking they forget what the law decrees, and violate the rights of all who are in need.

⁶Give strong drink to one who is perishing, and wine to the sorely depressed;

⁷When they drink, they will forget their misery, and think no more of their burdens.

⁸Open your mouth in behalf of the dumb, and for the rights of the destitute;

⁹Open your mouth, decree what is just, defend the needy and the poor!

¹⁰When one finds a worthy wife, her value is far beyond pearls.

¹¹Her husband, entrusting his heart to her, has an unfailing prize.

¹²She brings him good, and not evil, all the days of her life.

¹³She obtains wool and flax and makes cloth with skillful hands.

¹⁴Like merchant ships, she secures her provisions from afar.

¹⁵She rises while it is still night, and distributes food to her household.

¹⁶She picks out a field to purchase; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.

¹⁷She is girt about with strength, and sturdy are her arms.

¹⁸She enjoys the success of her dealings; at night her lamp is undimmed.

¹⁹She puts her hands to the distaff, and her fingers ply the spindle.

²⁰She reaches out her hands to the poor, and extends her arms to the needy.

²¹She fears not the snow for her household; all her charges are doubly clothed.

²²She makes her own coverlets; fine linen and purple are her clothing.

²³Her husband is prominent at the city gates as he sits with the elders of the land.

²⁴She makes garments and sells them, and stocks the merchants with belts.

²⁵She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs at the days to come.

²⁶She opens her mouth in wisdom, and on her tongue is kindly counsel.

²⁷She watches the conduct of her household, and eats not her food in idleness.

²⁸Her children rise up and praise her; her husband, too, extols her:

²⁹"Many are the women of proven worth, but you have excelled them all."

³⁰Charm is deceptive and beauty fleeting; the woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

³¹Give her a reward of her labors, and let her works praise her at the city gates.

1Love justice, you who judge the earth; think of the LORD in goodness, and seek him in integrity of heart;

²Because he is found by those who test him not, and he manifests himself to those who do not disbelieve him.

³For perverse counsels separate a man from God, and his power, put to the proof, rebukes the foolhardy;

⁴Because into a soul that plots evil wisdom enters not, nor dwells she in a body under debt of sin.

⁵For the holy spirit of discipline flees deceit and withdraws from senseless counsels; and when injustice occurs it is rebuked.

⁶For wisdom is a kindly spirit, yet she acquits not the blasphemer of his guilty lips; Because God is the witness of his inmost self and the sure observer of his heart and the listener to his tongue.

⁷For the spirit of the LORD fills the world, is all-embracing, and knows what man says.

⁸Therefore no one who utters wicked things can go unnoticed, nor will chastising condemnation pass him by.

⁹For the devices of the wicked man shall be scrutinized, and the sound of his words shall reach the LORD, for the chastisement of his transgressions;

¹⁰Because a jealous ear hearkens to everything, and discordant grumblings are no secret.

¹¹Therefore guard against profitless grumbling, and from calumny withhold your tongues; For a stealthy utterance does not go unpunished, and a lying mouth slays the soul.

¹²Court not death by your erring way of life, nor draw to yourselves destruction by the works of your hands.

¹³Because God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.

¹⁴For he fashioned all things that they might have being; and the creatures of the world are wholesome, And there is not a destructive drug among them nor any domain of the nether world on earth,

¹⁵For justice is undying.

¹⁶It was the wicked who with hands and words invited death, considered it a friend, and pined for it, and made a covenant with it, Because they deserve to be in its possession,

2they who said among themselves, thinking not aright: "Brief and troublous is our lifetime; neither is there any remedy for man's dying, nor is anyone known to have come back from the nether world.

²For haphazard were we born, and hereafter we shall be as though we had not been; Because the breath in our nostrils is a smoke and reason is a spark at the beating of our hearts,

³And when this is quenched, our body will be ashes and our spirit will be poured abroad like unresisting air.

⁴Even our name will be forgotten in time, and no one will recall our deeds. So our life will pass away like the traces of a cloud, and will be dispersed like a mist pursued by the sun's rays and overpowered by its heat.

⁵For our lifetime is the passing of a shadow; and our dying cannot be deferred because it is fixed with a seal; and no one returns.

⁶Come, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are real, and use the freshness of creation avidly.

⁷Let us have our fill of costly wine and perfumes, and let no springtime blossom pass us by;

⁸let us crown ourselves with rosebuds ere they wither.

⁹Let no meadow be free from our wantonness; everywhere let us leave tokens of our rejoicing, for this our portion is, and this our lot.

¹⁰Let us oppress the needy just man; let us neither spare the widow nor revere the old man for his hair grown white with time.

¹¹But let our strength be our norm of justice; for weakness proves itself useless.

¹²Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings, Reproaches us for transgressions of the law and charges us with violations of our training.

¹³He professes to have knowledge of God and styles himself a child of the LORD.

¹⁴To us he is the censure of our thoughts; merely to see him is a hardship for us,

¹⁵Because his life is not like other men's, and different are his ways.

¹⁶He judges us debased; he holds aloof from our paths as from things impure. He calls blest the destiny of the just and boasts that God is his Father.

¹⁷Let us see whether his words be true; let us find out what will happen to him.

¹⁸For if the just one be the son of God, he will defend him and deliver him from the hand of his foes.

¹⁹With revilement and torture let us put him to the test that we may have proof of his gentleness and try his patience.

²⁰Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for according to his own words, God will take care of him."

²¹These were their thoughts, but they erred; for their wickedness blinded them,

²²And they knew not the hidden counsels of God; neither did they count on a recompense of holiness nor discern the innocent souls' reward.

²³For God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made him.

²⁴But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world, and they who are in his possession experience it.

3But the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.

²They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction

³and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace.

⁴For if before men, indeed, they be punished, yet is their hope full of immortality;

⁵Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself.

⁶As gold in the furnace, he proved them, and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself.

⁷In the time of their visitation they shall shine, and shall dart about as sparks through stubble;

⁸They shall judge nations and rule over peoples, and the LORD shall be their King forever.

⁹Those who trust in him shall understand truth, and the faithful shall abide with him in love: Because grace and mercy are with his holy ones, and his care is with the elect.

¹⁰But the wicked shall receive a punishment to match their thoughts, since they neglected justice and forsook the LORD.

¹¹For he who despises wisdom and instruction is doomed. Vain is their hope, fruitless are their labors, and worthless are their works.

¹²Their wives are foolish and their children wicked; accursed is their brood.

¹³Yes, blessed is she who, childless and undefiled, knew not transgression of the marriage bed; she shall bear fruit at the visitation of souls.

¹⁴So also the eunuch whose hand wrought no misdeed, who held no wicked thoughts against the LORD- For he shall be given fidelity's choice reward and a more gratifying heritage in the LORD'S temple.

¹⁵For the fruit of noble struggles is a glorious one; and unfailing is the root of understanding.

¹⁶But the children of adulterers will remain without issue, and the progeny of an unlawful bed will disappear.

¹⁷For should they attain long life, they will be held in no esteem, and dishonored will their old age be at last;

¹⁸While should they die abruptly, they have no hope nor comfort in the day of scrutiny;

¹⁹for dire is the end of the wicked generation.

4Better is childlessness with virtue; for immortal is its memory: because both by God is it acknowledged, and by men.

²When it is present men imitate it, and they long for it when it is gone; And forever it marches crowned in triumph, victorious in unsullied deeds of valor.

³But the numerous progeny of the wicked shall be of no avail; their spurious offshoots shall not strike deep root nor take firm hold.

⁴For even though their branches flourish for a time, they are unsteady and shall be rocked by the wind and, by the violence of the winds, uprooted;

⁵Their twigs shall be broken off untimely, and their fruit be useless, unripe for eating, and fit for nothing.

⁶For children born of lawless unions give evidence of the wickedness of their parents, when they are examined.

⁷But the just man, though he die early, shall be at rest.

⁸For the age that is honorable comes not with the passing of time, nor can it be measured in terms of years.

⁹Rather, understanding is the hoary crown for men, and an unsullied life, the attainment of old age.

¹⁰He who pleased God was loved; he who lived among sinners was transported--

¹¹Snatched away, lest wickedness pervert his mind or deceit beguile his soul;

¹²For the witchery of paltry things obscures what is right and the whirl of desire transforms the innocent mind.

¹³Having become perfect in a short while, he reached the fullness of a long career;

¹⁴for his soul was pleasing to the LORD, therefore he sped him out of the midst of wickedness. But the people saw and did not understand, nor did they take this into account.

¹⁶Yes, the just man dead condemns the sinful who live, and youth swiftly completed condemns the many years of the wicked man grown old.

¹⁷For they see the death of the wise man and do not understand what the LORD intended for him, or why he made him secure.

¹⁸They see, and hold him in contempt; but the LORD laughs them to scorn.

¹⁹And they shall afterward become dishonored corpses and an unceasing mockery among the dead. For he shall strike them down speechless and prostrate and rock them to their foundations; They shall be utterly laid waste and shall be in grief and their memory shall perish.

²⁰Fearful shall they come, at the counting up of their sins, and their lawless deeds shall convict them to their face.

5Then shall the just one with great assurance confront his oppressors who set at nought his labors.

²Seeing this, they shall be shaken with dreadful fear, and amazed at the unlooked-for salvation.

³They shall say among themselves, rueful and groaning through anguish of spirit: "This is he whom once we held as a laughingstock and as a type for mockery,

⁴fools that we were! His life we accounted madness, and his death dishonored.

⁵See how he is accounted among the sons of God; how his lot is with the saints!

⁶We, then, have strayed from the way of truth, and the light of justice did not shine for us, and the sun did not rise for us.

⁷We had our fill of the ways of mischief and of ruin; we journeyed through impassable deserts, but the way of the LORD we knew not.

⁸What did our pride avail us? What have wealth and its boastfulness afforded us?

⁹All of them passed like a shadow and like a fleeting rumor;

¹⁰Like a ship traversing the heaving water, of which, when it has passed, no trace can be found, no path of its keel in the waves.

¹¹Or like a bird flying through the air; no evidence of its course is to be found- But the fluid air, lashed by the beat of pinions, and cleft by the rushing force Of speeding wings, is traversed: and afterward no mark of passage can be found in it.

¹²Or as, when an arrow has been shot at a mark, the parted air straightway flows together again so that none discerns the way it went through-

¹³Even so we, once born, abruptly came to nought and held no sign of virtue to display, but were consumed in our wickedness."

¹⁴Yes, the hope of the wicked is like thistledown borne on the wind, and like fine, tempest-driven foam; Like smoke scattered by the wind, and like the passing memory of the nomad camping for a single day.

¹⁵But the just live forever, and in the LORD is their recompense, and the thought of them is with the Most High.

¹⁶Therefore shall they receive the splendid crown, the beauteous diadem, from the hand of the LORD- For he shall shelter them with his right hand, and protect them with his arm.

¹⁷He shall take his zeal for armor and he shall arm creation to requite the enemy;

¹⁸He shall don justice for a breastplate and shall wear sure judgment for a helmet;

¹⁹He shall take invincible rectitude as a shield

²⁰and whet his sudden anger for a sword, And the universe shall war with him against the foolhardy.

²¹Well-aimed shafts of lightnings shall go forth and from the clouds as from a well-drawn bow shall leap to the mark;

²²and as from his sling, wrathful hailstones shall be hurled. The water of the sea shall be enraged against them and the streams shall abruptly overflow;

²³A mighty wind shall confront them and a tempest winnow them out; Thus lawlessness shall lay the whole earth waste and evildoing overturn the thrones of potentates.

6Hear, therefore, kings, and understand; learn, you magistrates of the earth's expanse!

²Hearken, you who are in power over the multitude and lord it over throngs of peoples!

³Because authority was given you by the LORD and sovereignty by the Most High, who shall probe your works and scrutinize your counsels!

⁴Because, though you were ministers of his kingdom, you judged not rightly, and did not keep the law, nor walk according to the will of God,

⁵Terribly and swiftly shall he come against you, because judgment is stern for the exalted-

⁶For the lowly may be pardoned out of mercy but the mighty shall be mightily put to the test.

⁷For the Lord of all shows no partiality, nor does he fear greatness, Because he himself made the great as well as the small, and he provides for all alike;

⁸but for those in power a rigorous scrutiny impends.

⁹To you, therefore, O princes, are my words addressed that you may learn wisdom and that you may not sin.

¹⁰For those who keep the holy precepts hallowed shall be found holy, and those learned in them will have ready a response.

¹¹Desire therefore my words; long for them and you shall be instructed.

¹²Resplendent and unfading is Wisdom, and she is readily perceived by those who love her, and found by those who seek her.

¹³She hastens to make herself known in anticipation of men's desire;

¹⁴he who watches for her at dawn shall not be disappointed, for he shall find her sitting by his gate.

¹⁵For taking thought of her is the perfection of prudence, and he who for her sake keeps vigil shall quickly be free from care;

¹⁶Because she makes her own rounds, seeking those worthy of her, and graciously appears to them in the ways, and meets them with all solicitude.

¹⁷For the first step toward discipline is a very earnest desire for her; then, care for discipline is love of her;

¹⁸love means the keeping of her laws; To observe her laws is the basis for incorruptibility;

¹⁹and incorruptibility makes one close to God;

²⁰thus the desire for Wisdom leads up to a kingdom.

²¹If, then, you find pleasure in throne and scepter, you princes of the peoples, honor Wisdom, that you may reign as kings forever.

²²Now what wisdom is, and how she came to be I shall relate; and I shall hide no secrets from you, But from the very beginning I shall search out and bring to light knowledge of her, nor shall I diverge from the truth.

²³Neither shall I admit consuming jealousy to my company, because that can have no fellowship with Wisdom.

²⁴A great number of wise men is the safety of the world, and a prudent king, the stability of his people;

²⁵so take instruction from my words, to your profit.

7I too am a mortal man, the same as all the rest, and a descendant of the first man formed on earth. And in my mother's womb I was molded into flesh

²in a ten-months' period-body and blood, from the seed of man, and the pleasure that accompanies marriage.

³And I too, when born, inhaled the common air, and fell upon the kindred earth; wailing, I uttered that first sound common to all.

⁴In swaddling clothes and with constant care I was nurtured.

⁵For no king has any different origin or birth,

⁶but one is the entry into life for all; and in one same way they leave it.

⁷Therefore I prayed, and prudence was given me; I pleaded and the spirit of Wisdom came to me.

⁸I preferred her to scepter and throne, And deemed riches nothing in comparison with her,

⁹nor did I liken any priceless gem to her; Because all gold, in view of her, is a little sand, and before her, silver is to be accounted mire.

¹⁰Beyond health and comeliness I loved her, And I chose to have her rather than the light, because the splendor of her never yields to sleep.

¹¹Yet all good things together came to me in her company, and countless riches at her hands;

¹²And I rejoiced in them all, because Wisdom is their leader, though I had not known that she is the mother of these.

¹³Simply I learned about her, and ungrudgingly do I share- her riches I do not hide away;

¹⁴For to men she is an unfailing treasure; those who gain this treasure win the friendship of God, to whom the gifts they have from discipline commend them.

¹⁵Now God grant I speak suitably and value these endowments at their worth: For he is the guide of Wisdom and the director of the wise.

¹⁶For both we and our words are in his hand, as well as all prudence and knowledge of crafts.

¹⁷For he gave me sound knowledge of existing things, that I might know the organization of the universe and the force of its elements,

¹⁸The beginning and the end and the midpoint of times, the changes in the sun's course and the variations of the seasons.

¹⁹Cycles of years, positions of the stars,

²⁰natures of animals, tempers of beasts, Powers of the winds and thoughts of men, uses of plants and virtues of roots-

²¹Such things as are hidden I learned and such as are plain;

²²for Wisdom, the artificer of all, taught me. For in her is a spirit intelligent, holy, unique, Manifold, subtle, agile, clear, unstained, certain, Not baneful, loving the good, keen, unhampered, beneficent,

²³kindly, Firm, secure, tranquil, all-powerful, all-seeing, And pervading all spirits, though they be intelligent, pure and very subtle.

²⁴For Wisdom is mobile beyond all motion, and she penetrates and pervades all things by reason of her purity.

²⁵For she is an aura of the might of God and a pure effusion of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nought that is sullied enters into her.

²⁶For she is the refulgence of eternal light, the spotless mirror of the power of God, the image of his goodness.

²⁷And she, who is one, can do all things, and renews everything while herself perduring; And passing into holy souls from age to age, she produces friends of God and prophets.

²⁸For there is nought God loves, be it not one who dwells with Wisdom.

²⁹For she is fairer than the sun and surpasses every constellation of the stars. Compared to light, she takes precedence;

³⁰for that, indeed, night supplants, but wickedness prevails not over Wisdom.

8Indeed, she reaches from end to end mightily and governs all things well.

²Her I loved and sought after from my youth; I sought to take her for my bride and was enamored of her beauty.

³She adds to nobility the splendor of companionship with God; even the LORD of all loved her.

⁴For she is instructress in the understanding of God, the selector of his works.

⁵And if riches be a desirable possession in life, what is more rich than Wisdom, who produces all things?

⁶And if prudence renders service, who in the world is a better craftsman than she?

⁷Or if one loves justice, the fruits of her works are virtues; For she teaches moderation and prudence, justice and fortitude, and nothing in life is more useful for men than these.

⁸Or again, if one yearns for copious learning, she knows the things of old, and infers those yet to come. She understands the turns of phrases and the solutions of riddles; signs and wonders she knows in advance and the outcome of times and ages.

⁹So I determined to take her to live with me, knowing that she would be my counselor while all was well, and my comfort in care and grief.

¹⁰For her sake I should have glory among the masses, and esteem from the elders, though I be but a youth.

¹¹I should become keen in judgment, and should be a marvel before rulers.

¹²They would abide my silence and attend my utterance; and as I spoke on further, they would place their hands upon their mouths.

¹³For her sake I should have immortality and leave to those after me an everlasting memory.

¹⁴I should govern peoples, and nations would be my subjects-

¹⁵terrible princes, hearing of me, would be afraid; in the assembly I should appear noble, and in war courageous.

¹⁶Within my dwelling, I should take my repose beside her; For association with her involves no bitterness and living with her no grief, but rather joy and gladness.

¹⁷Thinking thus within myself, and reflecting in my heart That there is immortality in kinship with Wisdom,

¹⁸and good pleasure in her friendship, and unfailing riches in the works of her hands, And that in frequenting her society there is prudence, and fair renown in sharing her discourses, I went about seeking to take her for my own.

¹⁹Now, I was a well-favored child, and I came by a noble nature;

²⁰or rather, being noble, I attained an unsullied body.

²¹And knowing that I could not otherwise possess her except God gave it-- and this, too, was prudence, to know whose is the gift-- I went to the LORD and besought him, and said with all my heart:

9God of my fathers, LORD of mercy. you who have made all things by your word

²And in your wisdom have established man to rule the creatures produced by you,

³To govern the world in holiness and justice, and to render judgment in integrity of heart:

⁴Give me Wisdom, the attendant at your throne, and reject me not from among your children;

⁵For I am your servant, the son of your handmaid, a man weak and short-lived and lacking in comprehension of judgment and of laws.

⁶Indeed, though one be perfect among the sons of men, if Wisdom, who comes from you, be not with him, he shall be held in no esteem.

⁷You have chosen me king over your people and magistrate for your sons and daughters.

⁸You have bid me build a temple on your holy mountain and an altar in the city that is your dwelling place, a copy of the holy tabernacle which you had established from of old.

⁹Now with you is Wisdom, who knows your works and was present when you made the world; Who understands what is pleasing in your eyes and what is conformable with your commands.

¹⁰Send her forth from your holy heavens and from your glorious throne dispatch her That she may be with me and work with me, that I may know what is your pleasure.

¹¹For she knows and understands all things, and will guide me discreetly in my affairs and safeguard me by her glory;

¹²Thus my deeds will be acceptable, and I shall judge your people justly and be worthy of my father's throne.

¹³For what man knows God's counsel, or who can conceive what our LORD intends?

¹⁴For the deliberations of mortals are timid, and unsure are our plans.

¹⁵For the corruptible body burdens the soul and the earthen shelter weighs down the mind that has many concerns.

¹⁶And scarce do we guess the things on earth, and what is within our grasp we find with difficulty; but when things are in heaven, who can search them out?

¹⁷Or who ever knew your counsel, except you had given Wisdom and sent your holy spirit from on high?

¹⁸And thus were the paths of those on earth made straight, and men learned what was your pleasure, and were saved by Wisdom.

10She preserved the first-formed father of the world when he alone had been created; And she raised him up from his fall,

²and gave him power to rule all things.

³But when the unjust man withdrew from her in his anger, he perished through his fratricidal wrath.

⁴When on his account the earth was flooded, Wisdom again saved it, piloting the just man on frailest wood.

⁵She, when the nations were sunk in universal wickedness, knew the just man, kept him blameless before God, and preserved him resolute against pity for his child.

⁶She delivered the just man from among the wicked who were being destroyed, when he fled as fire descended upon Pentapolis--

⁷Where as a testimony to its wickedness, there yet remain a smoking desert, Plants bearing fruit that never ripens, and the tomb of a disbelieving soul, a standing pillar of salt.

⁸For those who forsook Wisdom first were bereft of knowledge of the right, And then they left mankind a memorial of their folly-- so that they could not even be hidden in their fall.

⁹But Wisdom delivered from tribulations those who served her.

¹⁰She, when the just man fled from his brother's anger, guided him in direct ways, Showed him the kingdom of God and gave him knowledge of holy things; She prospered him in his labors and made abundant the fruit of his works,

¹¹Stood by him against the greed of his defrauders, and enriched him;

¹²She preserved him from foes, and secured him against ambush, And she gave him the prize for his stern struggle that he might know that devotion to God is mightier than all else.

¹³She did not abandon the just man when he was sold, but delivered him from sin.

¹⁴She went down with him into the dungeon, and did not desert him in his bonds, Until she brought him the scepter of royalty and authority over his oppressors, Showed those who had defamed him false, and gave him eternal glory.

¹⁵The holy people and blameless race--it was she who delivered them from the nation that oppressed them.

¹⁶She entered the soul of the LORD'S servant, and withstood fearsome kings with signs and portents;

¹⁷she gave the holy ones the recompense of their labors, Conducted them by a wondrous road, and became a shelter for them by day and a starry flame by night.

¹⁸She took them across the Red Sea and brought them through the deep waters--

¹⁹But their enemies she overwhelmed, and cast them up from the bottom of the depths.

²⁰Therefore the just despoiled the wicked; and they sang, O LORD, your holy name

²¹Because Wisdom opened the mouths of the dumb, and gave ready speech to infants.

11She made their affairs prosper through the holy prophet.

²They journeyed through the uninhabited desert, and in solitudes they pitched their tents;

³they withstood enemies and took vengeance on their foes.

⁴When they thirsted, they called upon you, and water was given them from the sheer rock, assuagement for their thirst from the hard stone.

⁵For by the things through which their foes were punished they in their need were benefited.

⁶Instead of a spring, when the perennial river was troubled with impure blood

⁷as a rebuke to the decree for the slaying of infants, You gave them abundant water in an unhoped-for way,

⁸once you had shown by the thirst they then had how you punished their adversaries.

⁹For when they had been tried, though only mildly chastised, they recognized how the wicked, condemned in anger, were being tormented.

¹⁰the latter you tested, admonishing them as a father; the former as a stern king you probed and condemned.

¹¹Both those afar off and those close by were afflicted:

¹²For a twofold grief took hold of them and a groaning at the remembrance of the ones who had departed.

¹³For when they heard that the cause of their own torments was a benefit to these others, they recognized the Lord.

¹⁴Him who of old had been cast out in exposure they indeed mockingly rejected; but in the end of events, they marveled at him, since their thirst proved unlike that of the just.

¹⁵And in return for their senseless, wicked thoughts, which misled them into worshiping dumb serpents and worthless insects, You sent upon them swarms of dumb creatures for vengeance;

¹⁶that they might recognize that a man is punished by the very things through which he sins.

¹⁷For not without means was your almighty hand, that had fashioned the universe from formless matter, to send upon them a drove of bears or fierce lions,

¹⁸Or new-created, wrathful, unknown beasts to breathe forth fiery breath, Or pour out roaring smoke, or flash terrible sparks from their eyes.

¹⁹Not only could these attack and completely destroy them; even their frightful appearance itself could slay.

²⁰Even without these, they could have been killed at a single blast, pursued by retribution and winnowed out by your mighty spirit; But you have disposed all things by measure and number and weight.

²¹For with you great strength abides always; who can resist the might of your arm?

²²Indeed, before you the whole universe is as a grain from a balance, or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth.

²³But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and you overlook the sins of men that they may repent.

²⁴For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned.

²⁵And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it; or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you?

²⁶But you spare all things, because they are yours, O LORD and lover of souls,

12for your imperishable spirit is in all things!

²Therefore you rebuke offenders little by little, warn them, and remind them of the sins they are committing, that they may abandon their wickedness and believe in you, O LORD!

³For truly, the ancient inhabitants of your holy land,

⁴whom you hated for deeds most odious-- Works of witchcraft and impious sacrifices;

⁵a cannibal feast of human flesh and of blood, from the midst of. . .-- These merciless murderers of children,

⁶and parents who took with their own hands defenseless lives, You willed to destroy by the hands of our fathers,

⁷that the land that is dearest of all to you might receive a worthy colony of God's children.

⁸But even these, as they were men, you spared, and sent wasps as forerunners of your army that they might exterminate them by degrees.

⁹Not that you were without power to have the wicked vanquished in battle by the just, or wiped out at once by terrible beasts or by one decisive word;

¹⁰But condemning them bit by bit, you gave them space for repentance. You were not unaware that their race was wicked and their malice ingrained, And that their dispositions would never change;

¹¹for they were a race accursed from the beginning. Neither out of fear for anyone did you grant amnesty for their sins.

¹²For who can say to you, "What have you done?" or who can oppose your decree? Or when peoples perish, who can challenge you, their maker; or who can come into your presence as vindicator of unjust men?

¹³For neither is there any god besides you who have the care of all, that you need show you have not unjustly condemned;

¹⁴Nor can any king or prince confront you on behalf of those you have punished.

¹⁵But as you are just, you govern all things justly; you regard it as unworthy of your power to punish one who has incurred no blame.

¹⁶For your might is the source of justice; your mastery over all things makes you lenient to all.

¹⁷For you show your might when the perfection of your power is disbelieved; and in those who know you, you rebuke temerity.

¹⁸But though you are master of might, you judge with clemency, and with much lenience you govern us; for power, whenever you will, attends you.

¹⁹And you taught your people, by these deeds, that those who are just must be kind; And you gave your sons good ground for hope that you would permit repentance for their sins.

²⁰For these were enemies of your servants, doomed to death; yet, while you punished them with such solicitude and pleading, granting time and opportunity to abandon wickedness,

²¹With what exactitude you judged your sons, to whose fathers you gave the sworn covenants of goodly promises!

²²Us, therefore, you chastise and our enemies with a thousand blows you punish, that we may think earnestly of your goodness when we judge, and, when being judged, may look for mercy.

²³Hence those unjust also, who lived a life of folly, you tormented through their own abominations.

²⁴For they went far astray in the paths of error, taking for gods the worthless and disgusting among beasts, deceived like senseless infants.

²⁵Therefore as though upon unreasoning children, you sent your judgment on them as a mockery;

²⁶But they who took no heed of punishment which was but child's play were to experience a condemnation worthy of God.

²⁷For in the things through which they suffered distress, since they were tortured by the very things they deemed gods, They saw and recognized the true God whom before they had refused to know; with this, their final condemnation came upon them.

13For all men were by nature foolish who were in ignorance of God, and who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing him who is, and from studying the works did not discern the artisan;

²But either fire, or wind, or the swift air, or the circuit of the stars, or the mighty water, or the luminaries of heaven, the governors of the world, they considered gods.

³Now if out of joy in their beauty they thought them gods, let them know how far more excellent is the Lord than these; for the original source of beauty fashioned them.

⁴Or if they were struck by their might and energy, let them from these things realize how much more powerful is he who made them.

⁵For from the greatness and the beauty of created things their original author, by analogy, is seen.

⁶But yet, for these the blame is less; For they indeed have gone astray perhaps, though they seek God and wish to find him.

⁷For they search busily among his works, but are distracted by what they see, because the things seen are fair.

⁸But again, not even these are pardonable.

⁹For if they so far succeeded in knowledge that they could speculate about the world, how did they not more quickly find its LORD?

¹⁰But doomed are they, and in dead things are their hopes, who termed gods things made by human hands: Gold and silver, the product of art, and likenesses of beasts, or useless stone, the work of an ancient hand.

¹¹A carpenter may saw out a suitable tree and skillfully scrape off all its bark, And deftly plying his art, produce something fit for daily use,

¹²and use up the refuse from his handiwork in preparing his food, and have his fill;

¹³Then the good-for-nothing refuse from these remnants, crooked wood grown full of knots, he takes and carves to occupy his spare time. This wood he models with listless skill, and patterns it on the image of a man

¹⁴or makes it resemble some worthless beast. When he has daubed it with red and crimsoned its surface with red stain, and daubed over every blemish in it,

¹⁵He makes a fitting shrine for it and puts it on the wall, fastening it with a nail.

¹⁶Thus lest it fall down he provides for it, knowing that it cannot help itself; for, truly, it is an image and needs help.

¹⁷But when he prays about his goods or marriage or children, he is not ashamed to address the thing without a soul. And for vigor he invokes the powerless;

¹⁸and for life he entreats the dead; And for aid he beseeches the wholly incompetent, and about travel, something that cannot even walk.

¹⁹And for profit in business and success with his hands he asks facility of a thing with hands completely inert.

14Again, one preparing for a voyage and about to traverse the wild waves cries out to wood more unsound than the boat that bears him.

²For the urge for profits devised this latter, and Wisdom the artificer produced it.

³But your providence, O Father! guides it, for you have furnished even in the sea a road, and through the waves a steady path,

⁴Showing that you can save from any danger, so that even one without skill may embark.

⁵But you will that the products of your Wisdom be not idle; therefore men trust their lives even to frailest wood, and have been safe crossing the surge on a raft.

⁶For of old, when the proud giants were being destroyed, the hope of the universe, who took refuge on a raft, left to the world a future for his race, under the guidance of your hand.

⁷For blest is the wood through which justice comes about;

⁸but the handmade idol is accursed, and its maker as well: he for having produced it, and it, because though corruptible, it was termed a god.

⁹Equally odious to God are the evildoer and his evil deed;

¹⁰and the thing made shall be punished with its contriver.

¹¹Therefore upon even the idols of the nations shall a visitation come, since they have become abominable amid God's works, Snares for the souls of men and a trap for the feet of the senseless.

¹²For the source of wantoness is the devising of idols; and their invention was a corruption of life.

¹³For in the beginning they were not, nor shall they continue forever;

¹⁴for by the vanity of men they came into the world, and therefore a sudden end is devised for them.

¹⁵For a father, afflicted with untimely mourning, made an image of the child so quickly taken from him, And now honored as a god what was formerly a dead man and handed down to his subjects mysteries and sacrifices.

¹⁶Then, in time, the impious practice gained strength and was observed as law, and graven things were worshiped by princely decrees.

¹⁷Men who lived so far away that they could not honor him in his presence copied the appearance of the distant king And made a public image of him they wished to honor, out of zeal to flatter him when absent, as though present.

¹⁸And to promote this observance among those to whom it was strange, the artisan's ambition provided a stimulus.

¹⁹For he, mayhap in his determination to please the ruler, labored over the likeness to the best of his skill;

²⁰And the masses, drawn by the charm of the workmanship, soon thought he should be worshiped who shortly before was honored as a man.

²¹And this became a snare for mankind, that men enslaved to either grief or tyranny conferred the incommunicable Name on stocks and stones.

²²Then it was not enough for them to err in their knowledge of God; but even though they live in a great war of ignorance, they call such evils peace.

²³For while they celebrate either child-slaying sacrifices or clandestine mysteries, or frenzied carousals in unheard-of rites,

²⁴They no longer safeguard either lives or pure wedlock; but each either waylays and kills his neighbor, or aggrieves him by adultery.

²⁵And all is confusion-blood and murder, theft and guile, corruption, faithlessness, turmoil, perjury,

²⁶Disturbance of good men, neglect of gratitude, besmirching of souls, unnatural lust, disorder in marriage, adultery and shamelessness.

²⁷For the worship of infamous idols is the reason and source and extremity of all evil.

²⁸For they either go mad with enjoyment, or prophesy lies, or live lawlessly or lightly forswear themselves.

²⁹For as their trust is in soulless idols, they expect no harm when they have sworn falsely.

³⁰But on both counts shall justice overtake them: because they thought ill of God and devoted themselves to idols, and because they deliberately swore false oaths, despising piety.

³¹For not the might of those that are sworn by but the retribution of sinners ever follows upon the transgression of the wicked.

15But you, our God, are good and true, slow to anger, and governing all with mercy.

²For even if we sin, we are yours, and know your might; but we will not sin, knowing that we belong to you.

³For to know you well is complete justice, and to know your might is the root of immortality.

⁴For neither did the evil creation of men's fancy deceive us, nor the fruitless labor of painters, A form smeared with varied colors,

⁵the sight of which arouses yearning in the senseless man, till he longs for the inanimate form of a dead image.

⁶Lovers of evil things, and worthy of such hopes are they who make them and long for them and worship them.

⁷For truly the potter, laboriously working the soft earth, molds for our service each several article: Both the vessels that serve for clean purposes and their opposites, all alike; As to what shall be the use of each vessel of either class the worker in clay is the judge.

⁸And with misspent toil he molds a meaningless god from the selfsame clay; though he himself shortly before was made from the earth And after a little, is to go whence he was taken, when the life that was lent him is demanded back.

⁹But his concern is not that he is to die nor that his span of life is brief; Rather, he vies with goldsmiths and silversmiths and emulates molders of bronze, and takes pride in modeling counterfeits.

¹⁰Ashes his heart is! more worthless than earth is his hope, and more ignoble than clay his life;

¹¹Because he knew not the one who fashioned him, and breathed into him a quickening soul, and infused a vital spirit.

¹²Instead, he esteemed our life a plaything, and our span of life a holiday for gain; "For one must," says he, "make profit every way, be it even out of evil."

¹³For this man more than any knows that he is sinning, when out of earthen stuff he creates fragile vessels and idols alike.

¹⁴But all quite senseless, and worse than childish in mind, are the enemies of your people who enslaved them.

¹⁵For they esteemed all the idols of the nations gods, which have no use of the eyes for vision, nor nostrils to snuff the air, Nor ears to hear, nor fingers on their hands for feeling; even their feet are useless to walk with.

¹⁶For a man made them; one whose spirit has been lent him fashioned them. For no man succeeds in fashioning a god like himself;

¹⁷being mortal, he makes a dead thing with his lawless hands. For he is better than the things he worships; he at least lives, but never they.

¹⁸And besides, they worship the most loathsome beasts-- for compared as to folly, these are worse than the rest,

¹⁹Nor for their looks are they good or desirable beasts, but they have escaped both the approval of God and his blessing.

16Therefore they were fittingly punished by similar creatures, and were tormented by a swarm of insects.

²Instead of this punishment, you benefited your people with a novel dish, the delight they craved, by providing quail for their food;

³That those others, when they desired food, since the creatures sent to plague them were so loathsome, should be turned from even the craving of necessities, While these, after a brief period of privation, partook of a novel dish.

⁴For upon those oppressors, inexorable want had to come; but these needed only be shown how their enemies were being tormented.

⁵For when the dire venom of beasts came upon them and they were dying from the bite of crooked serpents, your anger endured not to the end.

⁶But as a warning, for a short time they were terrorized, though they had a sign of salvation, to remind them of the precept of your law.

⁷For he who turned toward it was saved, not by what he saw, but by you, the savior of all.

⁸And by this also you convinced our foes that you are he who delivers from all evil.

⁹For the bites of locusts and of flies slew them, and no remedy was found to save their lives because they deserved to be punished by such means;

¹⁰But not even the fangs of poisonous reptiles overcame your sons, for your mercy brought the antidote to heal them.

¹¹For as a reminder of your injunctions, they were stung, and swiftly they were saved, Lest they should fall into deep forgetfulness and become unresponsive to your beneficence.

¹²For indeed, neither herb nor application cured them, but your all-healing word, O LORD!

¹³For you have dominion over life and death; you lead down to the gates of the nether world, and lead back.

¹⁴Man, however, slays in his malice, but when the spirit has come away, it does not return, nor can he bring back the soul once it is confined.

¹⁵But your hand none can escape.

¹⁶For the wicked who refused to know you were punished by the might of your arm, Pursued by unwonted rains and hailstorms and unremitting downpours, and consumed by fire.

¹⁷For against all expectation, in water which quenches anything, the fire grew more active; For the universe fights on behalf of the just.

¹⁸For now the flame was tempered so that the beasts might not be burnt up that were sent upon the wicked, but that these might see and know they were struck by the judgment of God;

¹⁹And again, even in the water, fire blazed beyond its strength so as to consume the produce of the wicked land.

²⁰Instead of this, you nourished your people with food of angels and furnished them bread from heaven, ready to hand, untoiled-for, endowed with all delights and conforming to every taste.

²¹For this substance of yours revealed your sweetness toward your children, and serving the desire of him who received it, was blended to whatever flavor each one wished.

²²Yet snow and ice withstood fire and were not melted, that they might know that their enemies' fruits Were consumed by a fire that blazed in the hail and flashed lightning in the rain.

²³But this fire, again, that the just might be nourished, forgot even its proper strength;

²⁴For your creation, serving you, its maker, grows tense for punishment against the wicked, but is relaxed in benefit for those who trust in you.

²⁵Therefore at that very time, transformed in all sorts of ways, it was serving your all-nourishing bounty according to what they needed and desired;

²⁶That your sons whom you loved might learn, O LORD, that it is not the various kinds of fruits that nourish man, but it is your word that preserves those who believe you!

²⁷For what was not destroyed by fire, when merely warmed by a momentary sunbeam, melted;

²⁸So that men might know that one must give you thanks before the sunrise, and turn to you at daybreak.

²⁹For the hope of the ingrate melts like a wintry frost and runs off like useless water.

17For great are your judgments, and hardly to be described; therefore the unruly souls were wrong.

²For when the lawless thought to enslave the holy nation, shackled with darkness, fettered by the long night, they lay confined beneath their own roofs as exiles from the eternal providence.

³For they who supposed their secret sins were hid under the dark veil of oblivion Were scattered in fearful trembling, terrified by apparitions.

⁴For not even their inner chambers kept them fearless, for crashing sounds on all sides terrified them, and mute phantoms with somber looks appeared.

⁵No force, even of fire, was able to give light, nor did the flaming brilliance of the stars succeed in lighting up that gloomy night.

⁶But only intermittent, fearful fires flashed through upon them; And in their terror they thought beholding these was worse than the times when that sight was no longer to be seen.

⁷And mockeries of the magic art were in readiness, and a jeering reproof of their vaunted shrewdness.

⁸For they who undertook to banish fears and terrors from the sick soul themselves sickened with a ridiculous fear.

⁹For even though no monstrous thing frightened them, they shook at the passing of insects and the hissing of reptiles,

¹⁰And perished trembling, reluctant to face even the air that they could nowhere escape.

¹¹For wickedness, of its nature cowardly, testifies in its own condemnation, and because of a distressed conscience, always magnifies misfortunes.

¹²For fear is nought but the surrender of the helps that come from reason;

¹³and the more one's expectation is of itself uncertain, the more one makes of not knowing the cause that brings on torment.

¹⁴So they, during that night, powerless though it was, that had come upon them from the recesses of a powerless nether world, while all sleeping the same sleep,

¹⁵Were partly smitten by fearsome apparitions and partly stricken by their souls' surrender; for fear came upon them, sudden and unexpected.

¹⁶Thus, then, whoever was there fell into that unbarred prison and was kept confined.

¹⁷For whether one was a farmer, or a shepherd, or a worker at tasks in the wasteland, Taken unawares, he served out the inescapable sentence;

¹⁸for all were bound by the one bond of darkness. And were it only the whistling wind, or the melodious song of birds in the spreading branches, Or the steady sound of rushing water,

¹⁹or the rude crash of overthrown rocks, Or the unseen gallop of bounding animals, or the roaring cry of the fiercest beasts, Or an echo resounding from the hollow of the hills, these sounds, inspiring terror, paralyzed them.

²⁰For the whole world shone with brilliant light and continued its works without interruption;

²¹Over them alone was spread oppressive night, an image of the darkness that next should come upon them; yet they were to themselves more burdensome than the darkness.

18But your holy ones had very great light; And those others, who heard their voices but did not see their forms, since now they themselves had suffered, called them blest;

²And because they who formerly had been wronged did not harm them, they thanked them, and pleaded with them, for the sake of the difference between them.

³Instead of this, you furnished the flaming pillar which was a guide on the unknown way, and the mild sun for an honorable migration.

⁴For those deserved to be deprived of light and imprisoned by darkness, who had kept your sons confined through whom the imperishable light of the law was to be given to the world.

⁵When they determined to put to death the infants of the holy ones, and when a single boy had been cast forth but saved, As a reproof you carried off their multitude of sons and made them perish all at once in the mighty water.

⁶That night was known beforehand to our fathers, that, with sure knowledge of the oaths in which they put their faith, they might have courage.

⁷Your people awaited the salvation of the just and the destruction of their foes.

⁸For when you punished our adversaries, in this you glorified us whom you had summoned.

⁹For in secret the holy children of the good were offering sacrifice and putting into effect with one accord the divine institution, That your holy ones should share alike the same good things and dangers, having previously sung the praises of the fathers.

¹⁰But the discordant cry of their enemies responded, and the piteous wail of mourning for children was borne to them.

¹¹And the slave was smitten with the same retribution as his master; even the plebeian suffered the same as the king.

¹²And all alike by a single death had countless dead; For the living were not even sufficient for the burial, since at a single instant their nobler offspring were destroyed.

¹³For though they disbelieved at every turn on account of sorceries, at the destruction of the first-born they acknowledged that the people was God's son.

¹⁴For when peaceful stillness compassed everything and the night in its swift course was half spent,

¹⁵Your all-powerful word from heaven's royal throne bounded, a fierce warrior, into the doomed land,

¹⁶bearing the sharp sword of your inexorable decree. And as he alighted, he filled every place with death; he still reached to heaven, while he stood upon the earth.

¹⁷Then, forthwith, visions in horrible dreams perturbed them and unexpected fears assailed them;

¹⁸And cast half-dead, one here, another there, each was revealing the reason for his dying.

¹⁹For the dreams that disturbed them had proclaimed this beforehand, lest they perish unaware of why they suffered ill.

²⁰But the trial of death touched at one time even the just, and in the desert a plague struck the multitude; Yet not for long did the anger last.

²¹For the blameless man hastened to be their champion, bearing the weapon of his special office, prayer and the propitiation of incense; He withstood the wrath and put a stop to the calamity, showing that he was your servant.

²²And he overcame the bitterness not by bodily strength, not by force of arms; But by word he overcame the smiter, recalling the sworn covenants with their fathers.

²³For when corpses had already fallen one on another in heaps, he stood in the midst and checked the anger, and cut off the way to the living.

²⁴For on his full-length robe was the whole world, and the glories of the fathers were carved in four rows upon the stones, and your grandeur was on the crown upon his head.

²⁵To these names the destroyer yielded, and these he feared; for the mere trial of anger was enough.

19But the wicked, merciless wrath assailed until the end. For he knew beforehand what they were yet to do:

²That though they themselves had agreed to the departure and had anxiously sent them on their way, they would regret it and pursue them.

³For while they were still engaged in funeral rites and were mourning at the burials of the dead, They adopted another senseless plan; and those whom they had sent away with entreaty, they pursued as fugitives.

⁴For a compulsion suited to this ending drew them on, and made them forgetful of what had befallen them, That they might fill out the torments of their punishment,

⁵and your people might experience a glorious journey while those others met an extraordinary death.

⁶For all creation, in its several kinds, was being made over anew, serving its natural laws, that your children might be preserved unharmed.

⁷The cloud overshadowed their camp; and out of what had before been water, dry land was seen emerging: Out of the Red Sea an unimpeded road, and a grassy plain out of the mighty flood.

⁸Over this crossed the whole nation sheltered by your hand, after they beheld stupendous wonders.

⁹For they ranged about like horses, and bounded about like lambs, praising you, O LORD! their deliverer.

¹⁰For they were still mindful of what had happened in their sojourn: how instead of the young of animals the land brought forth gnats, and instead of fishes the river swarmed with countless frogs.

¹¹And later they saw also a new kind of bird when, prompted by desire, they asked for pleasant foods;

¹²For to appease them quail came to them from the sea.

¹³And the punishments came upon the sinners only after forewarnings from the violence of the thunderbolts. For they justly suffered for their own misdeeds, since indeed they treated their guests with the more grievous hatred.

¹⁴For those others did not receive unfamiliar visitors, but these were enslaving beneficent guests.

¹⁵And not that only; but what punishment was to be theirs since they received strangers unwillingly!

¹⁶Yet these, after welcoming them with festivities, oppressed with awful toils those who now shared with them the same rights.

¹⁷And they were struck with blindness, as those others had been at the portals of the just- When, surrounded by yawning darkness, each sought the entrance of his own gate.

¹⁸For the elements, in variable harmony among themselves, like strings of the harp, produce new melody, while the flow of music steadily persists. And this can be perceived exactly from a review of what took place.

¹⁹For land creatures were changed into water creatures, and those that swam went over on to the land.

²⁰Fire in water maintained its own strength, and water forgot its quenching nature;

²¹Flames, by contrast, neither consumed the flesh of the perishable animals that went about in them, nor melted the icelike, quick-melting kind of ambrosial food.

²²For every way, O LORD! you magnified and glorified your people; unfailing, you stood by them in every time and circumstance.

1All wisdom comes from the LORD and with him it remains forever.

²The sand of the seashore, the drops of rain, the days of eternity: who can number these?

³Heaven's height, earth's breadth, the depths of the abyss: who can explore these?

⁴Before all things else wisdom was created; and prudent understanding, from eternity.

⁵To whom has wisdom's root been revealed? Who knows her subtleties?

⁶There is but one, wise and truly awe-inspiring, seated upon his throne:

⁷It is the LORD; he created her, has seen her and taken note of her.

⁸He has poured her forth upon all his works, upon every living thing according to his bounty; he has lavished her upon his friends.

⁹Fear of the LORD is glory and splendor, gladness and a festive crown.

¹⁰Fear of the LORD warms the heart, giving gladness and joy and length of days.

¹¹He who fears the LORD will have a happy end; even on the day of his death he will be blessed.

¹²The beginning of wisdom is fear of the LORD, which is formed with the faithful in the womb.

¹³With devoted men was she created from of old, and with their children her beneficence abides.

¹⁴Fullness of wisdom is fear of the LORD; she inebriates men with her fruits.

¹⁵Her entire house she fills with choice foods, her granaries with her harvest.

¹⁶Wisdom's garland is fear of the LORD, with blossoms of peace and perfect health.

¹⁷Knowledge and full understanding she showers down; she heightens the glory of those who possess her.

¹⁸The root of wisdom is fear of the LORD; her branches are length of days.

¹⁹One cannot justify unjust anger; anger plunges a man to his downfall.

²⁰A patient man need stand firm but for a time, and then contentment comes back to him.

²¹For a while he holds back his words, then the lips of many herald his wisdom.

²²Among wisdom's treasures is the paragon of prudence; but fear of the LORD is an abomination to the sinner.

²³If you desire wisdom, keep the commandments, and the LORD will bestow her upon you;

²⁴For fear of the LORD is wisdom and culture; loyal humility is his delight.

²⁵Be not faithless to the fear of the LORD, nor approach it with duplicity of heart.

²⁶Play not the hypocrite before men; over your lips keep watch.

²⁷Exalt not yourself lest you fall and bring upon you dishonor;

²⁸For then the LORD will reveal your secrets and publicly cast you down,

²⁹Because you approached the fear of the LORD with your heart full of guile.

2My son, when you come to serve the LORD, prepare yourself for trials.

²Be sincere of heart and steadfast, undisturbed in time of adversity.

³Cling to him, forsake him not; thus will your future be great.

⁴Accept whatever befalls you, in crushing misfortune be patient;

⁵For in fire gold is tested, and worthy men in the crucible of humiliation.

⁶Trust God and he will help you; make straight your ways and hope in him.

⁷You who fear the LORD, wait for his mercy, turn not away lest you fall.

⁸You who fear the LORD, trust him, and your reward will not be lost.

⁹You who fear the LORD, hope for good things, for lasting joy and mercy.

¹⁰Study the generations long past and understand; has anyone hoped in the LORD and been disappointed? Has anyone persevered in his fear and been forsaken? has anyone called upon him and been rebuffed?

¹¹Compassionate and merciful is the LORD; he forgives sins, he saves in time of trouble.

¹²Woe to craven hearts and drooping hands, to the sinner who treads a double path!

¹³Woe to the faint of heart who trust not, who therefore will have no shelter!

¹⁴Woe to you who have lost hope! what will you do at the visitation of the LORD?

¹⁵Those who fear the LORD disobey not his words; those who love him keep his ways.

¹⁶Those who fear the LORD seek to please him, those who love him are filled with his law.

¹⁷Those who fear the LORD prepare their hearts and humble themselves before him.

¹⁸Let us fall into the hands of the LORD and not into the hands of men, For equal to his majesty is the mercy that he shows.

3Children, pay heed to a father's right; do so that you may live.

²For the LORD sets a father in honor over his children; a mother's authority he confirms over her sons.

³He who honors his father atones for sins;

⁴he stores up riches who reveres his mother.

⁵He who honors his father is gladdened by children, and when he prays he is heard.

⁶He who reveres his father will live a long life; he obeys the LORD who brings comfort to his mother.

⁷He who fears the LORD honors his father, and serves his parents as rulers.

⁸In word and deed honor your father that his blessing may come upon you;

⁹For a father's blessing gives a family firm roots, but a mother's curse uproots the growing plant.

¹⁰Glory not in your father's shame, for his shame is no glory to you!

¹¹His father's honor is a man's glory; disgrace for her children, a mother's shame.

¹²My son, take care of your father when he is old; grieve him not as long as he lives.

¹³Even if his mind fail, be considerate with him; revile him not in the fullness of your strength.

¹⁴For kindness to a father will not be forgotten, it will serve as a sin offering--it will take lasting root.

¹⁵In time of tribulation it will be recalled to your advantage, like warmth upon frost it will melt away your sins.

¹⁶A blasphemer is he who despises his father; accursed of his Creator, he who angers his mother.

¹⁷My son, conduct your affairs with humility, and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts.

¹⁸Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favor with God.

¹⁹For great is the power of God; by the humble he is glorified.

²⁰What is too sublime for you, seek not, into things beyond your strength search not.

²¹What is committed to you, attend to; for what is hidden is not your concern.

²²With what is too much for you meddle not, when shown things beyond human understanding.

²³Their own opinion has misled many, and false reasoning unbalanced their judgment.

²⁴Where the pupil of the eye is missing, there is no light, and where there is no knowledge, there is no wisdom.

²⁵A stubborn man will fare badly in the end, and he who loves danger will perish in it.

²⁶A stubborn man will be burdened with sorrow; a sinner will heap sin upon sin.

²⁷For the affliction of the proud man there is no cure; he is the offshoot of an evil plant.

²⁸The mind of a sage appreciates proverbs, and an attentive ear is the wise man's joy.

²⁹Water quenches a flaming fire, and alms atone for sins.

³⁰He who does a kindness is remembered afterward; when he falls, he finds a support.

4My son, rob not the poor man of his livelihood; force not the eyes of the needy to turn away.

²A hungry man grieve not, a needy man anger not;

³Do not exasperate the downtrodden; delay not to give to the needy.

⁴A beggar in distress do not reject; avert not your face from the poor.

⁵From the needy turn not your eyes, give no man reason to curse you;

⁶For if in the bitterness of his soul he curse you, his Creator will hear his prayer.

⁷Endear yourself to the assembly; before a ruler bow your head.

⁸Give a hearing to the poor man, and return his greeting with courtesy;

⁹Deliver the oppressed from the hand of the oppressor; let not justice be repugnant to you.

¹⁰To the fatherless be as a father, and help their mother as a husband would; Thus will you be like a son to the Most High, and he will be more tender to you than a mother.

¹¹Wisdom instructs her children and admonishes those who seek her.

¹²He who loves her loves life; those who seek her out win her favor.

¹³He who holds her fast inherits glory; wherever he dwells, the LORD bestows blessings.

¹⁴Those who serve her serve the Holy One; those who love her the LORD loves.

¹⁵He who obeys her judges nations; he who hearkens to her dwells in her inmost chambers.

¹⁶If one trusts her, he will possess her; his descendants too will inherit her.

¹⁷She walks with him as a stranger, and at first she puts him to the test; Fear and dread she brings upon him and tries him with her discipline; With her precepts she puts him to the proof, until his heart is fully with her.

¹⁸Then she comes back to bring him happiness and reveal her secrets to him.

¹⁹But if he fails her, she will abandon him and deliver him into the hands of despoilers.

²⁰Use your time well; guard yourself from evil, and bring upon yourself no shame.

²¹There is a sense of shame laden with guilt, and a shame that merits honor and respect.

²²Show no favoritism to your own discredit; let no one intimidate you to your own downfall.

²³Refrain not from speaking at the proper time, and hide not away your wisdom;

²⁴For it is through speech that wisdom becomes known, and knowledge through the tongue's rejoinder.

²⁵Never gainsay the truth, and struggle not against the rushing stream.

²⁶Be not ashamed to acknowledge your guilt, but of your ignorance rather be ashamed.

²⁷Do not abase yourself before an impious man, nor refuse to do so before rulers.

²⁸Even to the death fight for truth, and the LORD your God will battle for you.

²⁹Be not surly in your speech, nor lazy and slack in your deeds.

³⁰Be not a lion at home, nor sly and suspicious at work.

³¹Let not your hand be open to receive and clenched when it is time to give.

5Rely not on your wealth; say not: "I have the power."

²Rely not on your strength in following the desires of your heart.

³Say not: "Who can prevail against me?" for the LORD will exact the punishment.

⁴Say not: "I have sinned, yet what has befallen me?" for the LORD bides his time.

⁵Of forgiveness be not overconfident, adding sin upon sin.

⁶Say not: "Great is his mercy; my many sins he will forgive."

⁷For mercy and anger alike are with him; upon the wicked alights his wrath.

⁸Delay not your conversion to the LORD, put it not off from day to day;

⁹For suddenly his wrath flames forth; at the time of vengeance, you will be destroyed.

¹⁰Rely not upon deceitful wealth, for it will be no help on the day of wrath.

¹¹Winnow not in every wind, and start not off in every direction.

¹²Be consistent in your thoughts; steadfast be your words.

¹³Be swift to hear, but slow to answer.

¹⁴If you have the knowledge, answer your neighbor; if not, put your hand over your mouth.

¹⁵Honor and dishonor through talking! A man's tongue can be his downfall.

¹⁶Be not called a detractor; use not your tongue for calumny;

¹⁷For shame has been created for the thief, and the reproach of his neighbor for the double-tongued.

6Say nothing harmful, small or great; be not a foe instead of a friend; A bad name and disgrace will you acquire: "That for the evil man with double tongue!"

²Fall not into the grip of desire, lest, like fire, it consume your strength;

³Your leaves it will eat, your fruits destroy, and you will be left a dry tree,

⁴For contumacious desire destroys its owner and makes him the sport of his enemies.

⁵A kind mouth multiplies friends, and gracious lips prompt friendly greetings.

⁶Let your acquaintances be many, but one in a thousand your confidant.

⁷When you gain a friend, first test him, and be not too ready to trust him

⁸For one sort of friend is a friend when it suits him, but he will not be with you in time of distress.

⁹Another is a friend who becomes an enemy, and tells of the quarrel to your shame.

¹⁰Another is a friend, a boon companion, who will not be with you when sorrow comes.

¹¹When things go well, he is your other self, and lords it over your servants;

¹²But if you are brought low, he turns against you and avoids meeting you.

¹³Keep away from your enemies; be on your guard with your friends.

¹⁴A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure.

¹⁵A faithful friend is beyond price, no sum can balance his worth.

¹⁶A faithful friend is a life-saving remedy, such as he who fears God finds;

¹⁷For he who fears God behaves accordingly, and his friend will be like himself.

¹⁸My son, from your youth embrace discipline; thus will you find wisdom with graying hair.

¹⁹As though plowing and sowing, draw close to her; then await her bountiful crops.

²⁰For in cultivating her you will labor but little, and soon you will eat of her fruits.

²¹How irksome she is to the unruly! The fool cannot abide her.

²²She will be like a burdensome stone to test him, and he will not delay in casting her aside.

²³For discipline is like her name, she is not accessible to many.

²⁴Listen, my son, and heed my advice; refuse not my counsel.

²⁵Put your feet into her fetters, and your neck under her yoke.

²⁶Stoop your shoulders and carry her and be not irked at her bonds.

²⁷With all your soul draw close to her; with all your strength keep her ways.

²⁸Search her out, discover her; seek her and you will find her. Then when you have her, do not let her go;

²⁹Thus will you afterward find rest in her, and she will become your joy.

³⁰Her fetters will be your throne of majesty; her bonds, your purple cord.

³¹You will wear her as your robe of glory, bear her as your splendid crown.

³²My son, if you wish, you can be taught; if you apply yourself, you will be shrewd.

³³If you are willing to listen, you will learn; if you give heed, you will be wise.

³⁴Frequent the company of the elders; whoever is wise, stay close to him.

³⁵Be eager to hear every godly discourse; let no wise saying escape you.

³⁶If you see a man of prudence, seek him out; let your feet wear away his doorstep!

³⁷Reflect on the precepts of the LORD, let his commandments be your constant meditation; Then he will enlighten your mind, and the wisdom you desire he will grant.

7Do no evil, and evil will not overtake you;

²avoid wickedness, and it will turn aside from you.

³Sow not in the furrows of injustice, lest you harvest it sevenfold.

⁴Seek not from the LORD authority, nor from the king a place of honor.

⁵Parade not your justice before the Lord, and before the king flaunt not your wisdom.

⁶Seek not to become a judge if you have not strength to root out crime, Or you will show favor to the ruler and mar your integrity.

⁷Be guilty of no evil before the city's populace, nor disgrace yourself before the assembly.

⁸Do not plot to repeat a sin; not even for one will you go unpunished.

⁹Say not: "He will appreciate my many gifts; the Most High will accept my offerings."

¹⁰Be not impatient in prayers, and neglect not the giving of alms.

¹¹Laugh not at an embittered man; be mindful of him who exalts and humbles.

¹²Plot no mischief against your brother, nor against your friend and companion.

¹³Delight not in telling lie after lie, for it never results in good.

¹⁴Thrust not yourself into the deliberations of princes, and repeat not the words of your prayer.

¹⁵Hate not laborious tasks, nor farming, which was ordained by the Most High.

¹⁶Do not esteem yourself better than your fellows; remember, his wrath will not delay.

¹⁷More and more, humble your pride; what awaits man is worms.

¹⁸Barter not a friend for money, nor a dear brother for the gold of Ophir.

¹⁹Dismiss not a sensible wife; a gracious wife is more precious than corals.

²⁰Mistreat not a servant who faithfully serves, nor a laborer who devotes himself to his task.

²¹Let a wise servant be dear to you as your own self; refuse him not his freedom.

²²If you have livestock, look after them; if they are dependable, keep them.

²³If you have sons, chastise them; bend their necks from childhood.

²⁴If you have daughters, keep them chaste, and be not indulgent to them.

²⁵Giving your daughter in marriage ends a great task; but give her to a worthy man.

²⁶If you have a wife, let her not seem odious to you; but where there is ill-feeling, trust her not.

²⁷With your whole heart honor your father; your mother's birthpangs forget not.

²⁸Remember, of these parents you were born; what can you give them for all they gave you?

²⁹With all your soul, fear God, revere his priests.

³⁰With all your strength, love your Creator, forsake not his ministers.

³¹Honor God and respect the priest; give him his portion as you have been commanded: First fruits and contributions, due sacrifices and holy offerings.

³²To the poor man also extend your hand, that your blessing may be complete;

³³Be generous to all the living, and withhold not your kindness from the dead.

³⁴Avoid not those who weep, but mourn with those who mourn;

³⁵Neglect not to visit the sick-- for these things you will be loved.

³⁶In whatever you do, remember your last days, and you will never sin.

8Contend not with an influential man, lest you fall into his power.

²Quarrel not with a rich man, lest he pay out the price of your downfall; For gold has dazzled many, and perverts the character of princes.

³Dispute not with a man of railing speech, heap no wood upon his fire.

⁴Be not too familiar with an unruly man, lest he speak ill of your forebears.

⁵Shame not a repentant sinner; remember, we all are guilty.

⁶Insult no man when he is old, for some of us, too, will grow old.

⁷Rejoice not when a man dies; remember, we are all to die.

⁸Spurn not the discourse of the wise, but acquaint yourself with their proverbs; From them you will acquire the training to serve in the presence of princes.

⁹Reject not the tradition of old men which they have learned from their fathers; From it you will obtain the knowledge how to answer in time of need.

¹⁰Kindle not the coals of a sinner, lest you be consumed in his flaming fire.

¹¹Let not the impious man intimidate you; it will set him in ambush against you.

¹²Lend not to one more powerful than yourself; and whatever you lend, count it as lost.

¹³Go not surety beyond your means; think any pledge a debt you must pay.

¹⁴Contend not at law with a judge, for he will settle it according to his whim.

¹⁵Travel not with a ruthless man, lest he weigh you down with calamity; For he will go his own way straight, and through his folly you will perish with him.

¹⁶Provoke no quarrel with a quick-tempered man, nor ride with him through the desert, For bloodshed is nothing to him; when there is no one to help you, he will destroy you.

¹⁷Take no counsel with a fool, for he can keep nothing to himself.

¹⁸Before a stranger do nothing that should be kept secret, for you know not what it will engender.

¹⁹Open your heart to no man, and banish not your happiness.

9Be not jealous of the wife of your bosom, lest you teach her to do evil against you.

²Give no woman power over you to trample upon your dignity.

³Be not intimate with a strange woman, lest you fall into her snares.

⁴With a singing girl be not familiar, lest you be caught in her wiles.

⁵Entertain no thoughts against a virgin, lest you be enmeshed in damages for her.

⁶Give not yourself to harlots, lest you surrender your inheritance.

⁷Gaze not about the lanes of the city and wander not through its squares;

⁸Avert your eyes from a comely woman; gaze not upon the beauty of another's wife-- Through woman's beauty many perish, for lust for it burns like fire.

⁹With a married woman dine not, recline not at table to drink by her side, Lest your heart be drawn to her and you go down in blood to the grave.

¹⁰Discard not an old friend, for the new one cannot equal him. A new friend is like new wine which you drink with pleasure only when it has aged.

¹¹Envy not a sinner's fame, for you know not what disaster awaits him.

¹²Rejoice not at a proud man's success; remember he will not reach death unpunished.

¹³Keep far from the man who has power to kill, and you will not be filled with the dread of death. But if you approach him, offend him not, lest he take away your life; Know that you are stepping among snares and walking over a net.

¹⁴As best you can, take your neighbors' measure, and associate with the wise.

¹⁵With the learned be intimate; let all your conversation be about the law of the LORD.

¹⁶Have just men for your table companions; in the fear of God be your glory.

¹⁷Skilled artisans are esteemed for their deftness; but the ruler of his people is the skilled sage.

¹⁸Feared in the city is the man of railing speech, and he who talks rashly is hated.

10A wise magistrate lends stability to his people, and the government of a prudent man is well ordered.

²As the people's judge, so are his ministers; as the head of a city, its inhabitants.

³A wanton king destroys his people, but a city grows through the wisdom of its princes.

⁴Sovereignty over the earth is in the hand of God, who raises up on it the man of the hour;

⁵Sovereignty over every man is in the hand of God, who imparts his majesty to the ruler.

⁶No matter the wrong, do no violence to your neighbor, and do not walk the path of arrogance.

⁷Odious to the LORD and to men is arrogance, and the sin of oppression they both hate.

⁸Dominion is transferred from one people to another because of the violence of the arrogant.

⁹Why are dust and ashes proud? even during life man's body decays;

¹⁰A slight illness--the doctor jests, a king today--tomorrow he is dead.

¹¹When a man dies, he inherits corruption; worms and gnats and maggots.

¹²The beginning of pride is man's stubbornness in withdrawing his heart from his Maker;

¹³For pride is the reservoir of sin, a source which runs over with vice; Because of it God sends unheard-of afflictions and brings men to utter ruin.

¹⁴The thrones of the arrogant God overturns and establishes the lowly in their stead.

¹⁵The roots of the proud God plucks up, to plant the humble in their place:

¹⁶He breaks down their stem to the level of the ground, then digs their roots from the earth.

¹⁷The traces of the proud God sweeps away and effaces the memory of them from the earth.

¹⁸Insolence is not allotted to a man, nor stubborn anger to one born of woman.

¹⁹Whose offspring can be in honor? Those of men. Which offspring are in honor? Those who fear God. Whose offspring can be in disgrace? Those of men. Which offspring are in disgrace? Those who transgress the commandments.

²⁰Among brethren their leader is in honor; he who fears God is in honor among his people.

²¹Be it tenant or wayfarer, alien or pauper, his glory is the fear of the LORD.

²²It is not just to despise a man who is wise but poor, nor proper to honor any sinner.

²³The prince, the ruler, the judge are in honor; but none is greater than he who fears God.

²⁴When free men serve a prudent slave, the wise man does not complain.

²⁵Flaunt not your wisdom in managing your affairs, and boast not in your time of need.

²⁶Better the worker who has plenty of everything than the boaster who is without bread.

²⁷My son, with humility have self-esteem; prize yourself as you deserve.

²⁸Who will acquit him who condemns himself? who will honor him who discredits himself?

²⁹The poor man is honored for his wisdom as the rich man is honored for his wealth;

³⁰Honored in poverty, how much more so in wealth! Dishonored in wealth, in poverty how much the more!

11The poor man's wisdom lifts his head high and sets him among princes.

²Praise not a man for his looks; despise not a man for his appearance.

³Least is the bee among winged things, but she reaps the choicest of all harvests.

⁴Mock not the worn cloak and jibe at no man's bitter day: For strange are the works of the LORD, hidden from men his deeds.

⁵The oppressed often rise to a throne, and some that none would consider wear a crown.

⁶The exalted often fall into utter disgrace; the honored are given into enemy hands.

⁷Before investigating, find no fault; examine first, then criticize.

⁸Before hearing, answer not, and interrupt no one in the middle of his speech.

⁹Dispute not about what is not your concern; in the strife of the arrogant take no part.

¹⁰My son, why increase your cares, since he who is avid for wealth will not be blameless? Even if you run after it, you will never overtake it; however you seek it, you will not find it.

¹¹One may toil and struggle and drive, and fall short all the more.

¹²Another goes his way a weakling and a failure, with little strength and great misery-- Yet the eyes of the LORD look favorably upon him; he raises him free of the vile dust,

¹³Lifts up his head and exalts him to the amazement of the many.

¹⁴Good and evil, life and death, poverty and riches, are from the LORD.

¹⁵Wisdom and understanding and knowledge of affairs, love and virtuous paths are from the LORD.

¹⁶Error and darkness were formed with sinners from their birth, and evil grows old with evildoers.

¹⁷The LORD'S gift remains with the just; his favor brings continued success.

¹⁸A man may become rich through a miser's life, and this is his allotted reward:

¹⁹When he says: "I have found rest, now I will feast on my possessions," He does not know how long it will be till he dies and leaves them to others.

²⁰My son, hold fast to your duty, busy yourself with it, grow old while doing your task.

²¹Admire not how sinners live, but trust in the LORD and wait for his light; For it is easy with the LORD suddenly, in an instant, to make a poor man rich.

²²God's blessing is the lot of the just man, and in due time his hopes bear fruit.

²³Say not: "What do I need? What further pleasure can be mine?"

²⁴Say not: "I am independent. What harm can come to me now?"

²⁵The day of prosperity makes one forget adversity; the day of adversity makes one forget prosperity.

²⁶For it is easy with the LORD on the day of death to repay man according to his deeds.

²⁷A moment's affliction brings forgetfulness of past delights; when a man dies, his life is revealed.

²⁸Call no man happy before his death, for by how he ends, a man is known.

²⁹Bring not every man into your house, for many are the snares of the crafty one;

³⁰Though he seem like a bird confined in a cage, yet like a spy he will pick out the weak spots.

³¹The talebearer turns good into evil; with a spark he sets many coals afire.

³²The evil man lies in wait for blood, and plots against your choicest possessions.

³³Avoid a wicked man, for he breeds only evil, lest you incur a lasting stain.

³⁴Lodge a stranger with you, and he will subvert your course, and make a stranger of you to your own household.

12If you do good, know for whom you are doing it, and your kindness will have its effect.

²Do good to the just man and reward will be yours, if not from him, from the LORD.

³No good comes to him who gives comfort to the wicked, nor is it an act of mercy that he does.

⁴Give to the good man, refuse the sinner; refresh the downtrodden, give nothing to the proud man.

⁵No arms for combat should you give him, lest he use them against yourself;

⁶With twofold evil you will meet for every good deed you do for him.

⁷The Most High himself hates sinners, and upon the wicked he takes vengeance.

⁸In our prosperity we cannot know our friends; in adversity an enemy will not remain concealed.

⁹When a man is successful even his enemy is friendly; in adversity even his friend disappears.

¹⁰Never trust your enemy, for his wickedness is like corrosion in bronze.

¹¹Even though he acts humbly and peaceably toward you, take care to be on your guard against him. Rub him as one polishes a brazen mirror, and you will find that there is still corrosion.

¹²Let him not stand near you, lest he oust you and take your place. Let him not sit at your right hand, lest he then demand your seat, And in the end you appreciate my advice, when you groan with regret, as I warned you.

¹³Who pities a snake charmer when he is bitten, or anyone who goes near a wild beast?

¹⁴So is it with the companion of the proud man, who is involved in his sins:

¹⁵While you stand firm, he makes no bold move; but if you slip, he cannot hold back.

¹⁶With his lips an enemy speaks sweetly, but in his heart he schemes to plunge you into the abyss. Though your enemy has tears in his eyes, if given the chance, he will never have enough of your blood.

¹⁷If evil comes upon you, you will find him at hand; feigning to help, he will trip you up,

¹⁸Then he will nod his head and clap his hands and hiss repeatedly, and show his true face.

13He who touches pitch blackens his hand; he who associates with an impious man learns his ways.

²Bear no burden too heavy for you; go with no one greater or wealthier than yourself. How can the earthen pot go with the metal cauldron? When they knock together, the pot will be smashed:

³The rich man does wrong and boasts of it, the poor man is wronged and begs forgiveness.

⁴As long as the rich man can use you he will enslave you, but when you are exhausted, he will abandon you.

⁵As long as you have anything he will speak fair words to you, and with smiles he will win your confidence;

⁶When he needs something from you he will cajole you, then without regret he will impoverish you.

⁷While it serves his purpose he will beguile you, then twice or three times he will terrify you; When later he sees you he will pass you by, and shake his head over you.

⁸Guard against being presumptuous; be not as those who lack sense.

⁹When invited by a man of influence, keep your distance; then he will urge you all the more.

¹⁰Be not bold with him lest you be rebuffed, but keep not too far away lest you be forgotten.

¹¹Engage not freely in discussion with him, trust not his many words; For by prolonged talk he will test you, and though smiling he will probe you.

¹²Mercilessly he will make of you a laughingstock, and will not refrain from injury or chains.

¹³Be on your guard and take care never to accompany men of violence.

¹⁴Every living thing loves its own kind, every man a man like himself.

¹⁵Every being is drawn to its own kind; with his own kind every man associates.

¹⁶Is a wolf ever allied with a lamb? So it is with the sinner and the just.

¹⁷Can there be peace between the hyena and the dog? Or between the rich and the poor can there be peace?

¹⁸Lion's prey are the wild asses of the desert; so too the poor are feeding grounds for the rich.

¹⁹A proud man abhors lowliness; so does the rich man abhor the poor.

²⁰When a rich man stumbles he is supported by a friend; when a poor man trips he is pushed down by a friend.

²¹Many are the supporters for a rich man when he speaks; though what he says is odious, it wins approval. When a poor man speaks they make sport of him; he speaks wisely and no attention is paid him.

²²A rich man speaks and all are silent, his wisdom they extol to the clouds. A poor man speaks and they say: "Who is that?" If he slips they cast him down.

²³Wealth is good when there is no sin; but poverty is evil by the standards of the proud.

²⁴The heart of a man changes his countenance, either for good or for evil.

²⁵The sign of a good heart is a cheerful countenance; withdrawn and perplexed is the laborious schemer.

14Happy the man whose mouth brings him no grief, who is not stung by remorse for sin.

²Happy the man whose conscience does not reproach him, who has not lost hope.

³Wealth ill becomes the mean man; and to the miser, of what use is gold?

⁴What he denies himself he collects for others, and in his possessions a stranger will revel.

⁵To whom will he be generous who is stingy with himself and does not enjoy what is his own?

⁶None is more stingy than he who is stingy with himself; he punishes his own miserliness.

⁷If ever he is generous, it is by mistake; and in the end he displays his greed.

⁸In the miser's opinion his share is too small;

⁹he refuses his neighbor and brings ruin on himself.

¹⁰The miser's eye is rapacious for bread, but on his own table he sets it stale.

¹¹My son, use freely whatever you have and enjoy it as best you can;

¹²Remember that death does not tarry, nor have you been told the grave's appointed time.

¹³Before you die, be good to your friend, and give him a share in what you possess.

¹⁴Deprive not yourself of present good things, let no choice portion escape you.

¹⁵Will you not leave your riches to others, and your earnings to be divided by lot?

¹⁶Give, take, and treat yourself well, for in the nether world there are no joys to seek.

¹⁷All flesh grows old, like a garment; the age-old law is: All must die.

¹⁸As with the leaves that grow on a vigorous tree: one falls off and another sprouts-- So with the generations of flesh and blood: one dies and another is born.

¹⁹All man's works will perish in decay, and his handiwork will follow after him.

²⁰Happy the man who meditates on wisdom, and reflects on knowledge;

²¹Who ponders her ways in his heart, and understands her paths;

²²Who pursues her like a scout, and lies in wait at her entry way;

²³Who peeps through her windows, and listens at her doors;

²⁴Who encamps near her house, and fastens his tent pegs next to her walls;

²⁵Who pitches his tent beside her, and lives as her welcome neighbor;

²⁶Who builds his nest in her leafage, and lodges in her branches;

²⁷Who takes shelter with her from the heat, and dwells in her home.

15He who fears the LORD will do this; he who is practiced in the law will come to wisdom.

²Motherlike she will meet him, like a young bride she will embrace him,

³Nourish him with the bread of understanding, and give him the water of learning to drink.

⁴He will lean upon her and not fall, he will trust in her and not be put to shame.

⁵She will exalt him above his fellows; in the assembly she will make him eloquent.

⁶Joy and gladness he will find, an everlasting name inherit.

⁷Worthless men will not attain to her, haughty men will not behold her.

⁸Far from the impious is she, not to be spoken of by liars.

⁹Unseemly is praise on a sinner's lips, for it is not accorded to him by God.

¹⁰But praise is offered by the wise man's tongue; its rightful steward will proclaim it.

¹¹Say not: "It was God's doing that I fell away"; for what he hates he does not do.

¹²Say not: "It was he who set me astray"; for he has no need of wicked man.

¹³Abominable wickedness the LORD hates, he does not let it befall those who fear him.

¹⁴When God, in the beginning, created man, he made him subject to his own free choice.

¹⁵If you choose you can keep the commandments; it is loyalty to do his will.

¹⁶There are set before you fire and water; to whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand.

¹⁷Before man are life and death, whichever he chooses shall be given him.

¹⁸Immense is the wisdom of the LORD; he is mighty in power, and all-seeing.

¹⁹The eyes of God see all he has made; he understands man's every deed.

²⁰No man does he command to sin, to none does he give strength for lies.

16Desire not a brood of worthless children, nor rejoice in wicked offspring.

²Many though they be, exult not in them if they have not the fear of the LORD.

³Count not on their length of life, have no hope in their future. For one can be better than a thousand; rather die childless than have godless children!

⁴Through one wise man can a city be peopled; through a clan of rebels it becomes desolate.

⁵Many such things has my eye seen, even more than these has my ear heard.

⁶Against a sinful band fire is enkindled, upon a godless people wrath flames out.

⁷He forgave not the leaders of old who rebelled long ago in their might;

⁸He spared not the neighbors of Lot whom he detested for their pride;

⁹Nor did he spare the doomed people who were uprooted because of their sin;

¹⁰Nor the six hundred thousand foot soldiers who perished for the impiety of their hearts.

¹¹And had there been but one stiffnecked man, it were a wonder had he gone unpunished. For mercy and anger alike are with him who remits and forgives, though on the wicked alights his wrath.

¹²Great as his mercy is his punishment; he judges men, each according to his deeds.

¹³A criminal does not escape with his plunder; a just man's hope God does not leave unfulfilled.

¹⁴Whoever does good has his reward, which each receives according to his deeds.

¹⁵Say not: "I am hidden from God; in heaven who remembers me? Among so many people I cannot be known; what am I in the world of spirits?

¹⁶Behold, the heavens, the heaven of heavens, the earth and the abyss tremble at his visitation;

¹⁷The roots of the mountains, the earth's foundations, at his mere glance, quiver and quake.

¹⁸Of me, therefore, he will take no thought; with my ways who will concern himself?

¹⁹If I sin, no eye will see me; if all in secret I am disloyal, who is to know?

²⁰Who tells him of just deeds and what could I expect for doing my duty?"

²¹Such are the thoughts of senseless men, which only the foolish knave will think.

²²Hearken to me, my son, take my advice, apply your mind to my words,

²³While I propose measured wisdom, and impart accurate knowledge.

²⁴When at the first God created his works and, as he made them, assigned their tasks,

²⁵He ordered for all time what they were to do and their domains from generation to generation. They were not to hunger, nor grow weary, nor ever cease from their tasks.

²⁶Not one should ever crowd its neighbor, nor should they ever disobey his word.

²⁷Then the LORD looked upon the earth, and filled it with his blessings.

²⁸Its surface he covered with all manner of life which must return into it again.

17The LORD from the earth created man, and in his own image he made him.

²Limited days of life he gives him and makes him return to earth again.

³He endows man with a strength of his own, and with power over all things else on earth.

⁴He puts the fear of him in all flesh, and gives him rule over beasts and birds.

⁵He forms men's tongues and eyes and ears, and imparts to them an understanding heart.

⁶With wisdom and knowledge he fills them; good and evil he shows them.

⁷He looks with favor upon their hearts, and shows them his glorious works,

⁸That they may describe the wonders of his deeds and praise his holy name.

⁹He has set before them knowledge, a law of life as their inheritance;

¹⁰An everlasting covenant he has made with them, his commandments he has revealed to them.

¹¹His majestic glory their eyes beheld, his glorious voice their ears heard.

¹²He says to them, "Avoid all evil"; each of them he gives precepts about his fellow men.

¹³Their ways are ever known to him, they cannot be hidden from his eyes.

¹⁴Over every nation he places a ruler, but the LORD'S own portion is Israel.

¹⁵All their actions are clear as the sun to him, his eyes are ever upon their ways.

¹⁶Their wickedness cannot be hidden from him; all of their sins are before the LORD.

¹⁷A man's goodness God cherishes like a signet ring, a man's virtue, like the apple of his eye.

¹⁸Later he will rise up and repay them, and requite each one of them as they deserve.

¹⁹But to the penitent he provides a way back, he encourages those who are losing hope!

²⁰Return to the LORD and give up sin, pray to him and make your offenses few.

²¹Turn again to the Most High and away from sin, hate intensely what he loathes;

²²Who in the nether world can glorify the Most High in place of the living who offer their praise?

²³No more can the dead give praise than those who have never lived; they glorify the LORD who are alive and well.

²⁴How great the mercy of the LORD, his forgiveness of those who return to him!

²⁵The like cannot be found in men, for not immortal is any son of man.

²⁶Is anything brighter than the sun? Yet it can be eclipsed. How obscure then the thoughts of flesh and blood!

²⁷God watches over the hosts of highest heaven, while all men are dust and ashes.

18The Eternal is the judge of all things without exception; the LORD alone is just.

²Whom has he made equal to describing his works, and who can probe his mighty deeds?

³Who can measure his majestic power, or exhaust the tale of his mercies?

⁴One cannot lessen, nor increase, nor penetrate the wonders of the LORD.

⁵When a man ends he is only beginning, and when he stops he is still bewildered.

⁶What is man, of what worth is he? the good, the evil in him, what are these?

⁷The sum of a man's days is great if it reaches a hundred years:

⁸Like a drop of sea water, like a grain of sand, so are these few years among the days of eternity.

⁹That is why the LORD is patient with men and showers upon them his mercy.

¹⁰He sees and understands that their death is grievous, and so he forgives them all the more.

¹¹Man may be merciful to his fellow man, but the LORD'S mercy reaches all flesh,

¹²Reproving, admonishing, teaching, as a shepherd guides his flock;

¹³Merciful to those who accept his guidance, who are diligent in his precepts.

¹⁴My son, to your charity add no reproach, nor spoil any gift by harsh words.

¹⁵Like dew that abates a burning wind, so does a word improve a gift.

¹⁶Sometimes the word means more than the gift; both are offered by a kindly man.

¹⁷Only a fool upbraids before giving; a grudging gift wears out the expectant eyes.

¹⁸Be informed before speaking; before sickness prepare the cure.

¹⁹Before you are judged, seek merit for yourself, and at the time of visitation you will have a ransom.

²⁰Before you have fallen, humble yourself; when you have sinned, show repentance.

²¹Delay not to forsake sins, neglect it not till you are in distress.

²²Let nothing prevent the prompt payment of your vows; wait not to fulfill them when you are dying.

²³Before making a vow have the means to fulfill it; be not one who tries the LORD.

²⁴Think of wrath and the day of death, the time of vengeance when he will hide his face.

²⁵Remember the time of hunger in the time of plenty, poverty and want in the day of wealth.

²⁶Between morning and evening the weather changes; before the LORD all things are fleeting.

²⁷A wise man is circumspect in all things; when sin is rife he keeps himself from wrongdoing.

²⁸Any learned man should make wisdom known, and he who attains to her should declare her praise;

²⁹Those trained in her words must show their wisdom, dispensing sound proverbs like life-giving waters.

³⁰Go not after your lusts, but keep your desires in check.

³¹If you satisfy your lustful appetites they will make you the sport of your enemies.

³²Have no joy in the pleasures of a moment which bring on poverty redoubled;

³³Become not a glutton and a winebibber with nothing in your purse.

19He who does so grows no richer; he who wastes the little he has will be stripped bare.

²Wine and women make the mind giddy, and the companion of harlots becomes reckless.

³Rottenness and worms will possess him, for contumacious desire destroys its owner.

⁴He who lightly trusts in them has no sense, and he who strays after them sins against his own life.

⁵He who gloats over evil will meet with evil, and he who repeats an evil report has no sense.

⁶Never repeat gossip, and you will not be reviled.

⁷Tell nothing to friend or foe; if you have a fault, reveal it not,

⁸For he who hears it will hold it against you, and in time become your enemy.

⁹Let anything you hear die within you; be assured it will not make you burst.

¹⁰When a fool hears something, he is in labor, like a woman giving birth to a child.

¹¹Like an arrow lodged in a man's thigh is gossip in the breast of a fool.

¹²Admonish your friend--he may not have done it; and if he did, that he may not do it again.

¹³Admonish your neighbor--he may not have said it; and if he did, that he may not say it again.

¹⁴Admonish your friend--often it may be slander; every story you must not believe.

¹⁵Then, too, a man can slip and not mean it; who has not sinned with his tongue?

¹⁶Admonish your neighbor before you break with him; thus will you fulfill the law of the Most High.

¹⁷All wisdom is fear of the LORD; perfect wisdom is the fulfillment of the law.

¹⁸The knowledge of wickedness is not wisdom, nor is there prudence in the counsel of sinners.

¹⁹There is a shrewdness that is detestable, while the simple man may be free from sin.

²⁰There are those with little understanding who fear God, and those of great intelligence who violate the law.

²¹There is a shrewdness keen but dishonest, which by duplicity wins a judgment.

²²There is the wicked man who is bowed in grief, but is full of guile within;

²³He bows his head and feigns not to hear, but when not observed, he will take advantage of you:

²⁴Even though his lack of strength keeps him from sinning, when he finds the opportunity, he will do harm.

²⁵One can tell a man by his appearance; a wise man is known as such when first met.

²⁶A man's attire, his hearty laughter and his gait, proclaim him for what he is.

20An admonition can be inopportune, and a man may be wise to hold his peace.

²It is much better to admonish than to lose one's temper, for one who admits his fault will be kept from disgrace.

³Like a eunuch lusting for intimacy with a maiden is he who does right under compulsion.

⁴One man is silent and is thought wise, another is talkative and is disliked.

⁵One man is silent because he has nothing to say; another is silent, biding his time.

⁶A wise man is silent till the right time comes, but a boasting fool ignores the proper time.

⁷He who talks too much is detested; he who pretends to authority is hated.

⁸Some misfortunes bring success; some things gained are a man's loss.

⁹Some gifts do one no good, and some must be paid back double.

¹⁰Humiliation can follow fame, while from obscurity a man can lift up his head.

¹¹A man may buy much for little, but pay for it seven times over.

¹²A wise man makes himself popular by a few words, but fools pour forth their blandishments in vain.

¹³A gift from a rogue will do you no good, for in his eyes his one gift is equal to seven.

¹⁴He gives little and criticizes often, and like a crier he shouts aloud. He lends today, he asks it back tomorrow; hateful indeed is such a man.

¹⁵A fool has no friends, nor thanks for his generosity;

¹⁶Those who eat his bread have an evil tongue. How many times they laugh him to scorn!

¹⁷A fall to the ground is less sudden than a slip of the tongue; that is why the downfall of the wicked comes so quickly.

¹⁸Insipid food is the untimely tale; the unruly are always ready to offer it.

¹⁹A proverb when spoken by a fool is unwelcome, for he does not utter it at the proper time.

²⁰A man through want may be unable to sin, yet in this tranquility he cannot rest.

²¹One may lose his life through shame, and perish through a fool's intimidation.

²²A man makes a promise to a friend out of shame, and has him for his enemy needlessly.

²³A lie is a foul blot in a man, yet it is constantly on the lips of the unruly.

²⁴Better a thief than an inveterate liar, yet both will suffer disgrace;

²⁵A liar's way leads to dishonor, his shame remains ever with him.

²⁶A wise man advances himself by his words, a prudent man pleases the great.

²⁷He who works his land has abundant crops, he who pleases the great is pardoned his faults.

²⁸Favors and gifts blind the eyes; like a muzzle over the mouth they silence reproof.

²⁹Hidden wisdom and unseen treasure-- of what value is either?

³⁰Better the man who hides his folly than the one who hides his wisdom.

21My son, if you have sinned, do so no more, and for your past sins pray to be forgiven.

²Flee from sin as from a serpent. that will bite you if you go near it; Its teeth are lion's teeth, destroying the souls of men.

³Every offense is a two-edged sword; when it cuts, there can be no healing.

⁴Violence and arrogance wipe out wealth; so too a proud man's home is destroyed.

⁵Prayer from a poor man's lips is heard at once, and justice is quickly granted him.

⁶He who hates correction walks the sinner's path, but he who fears the LORD repents in his heart.

⁷Widely known is the boastful speaker but the wise man knows his own faults.

⁸He who builds his house with another's money is collecting stones for his funeral mound.

⁹A band of criminals is like a bundle of tow; they will end in a flaming fire.

¹⁰The path of sinners is smooth stones that end in the depths of the nether world.

¹¹He who keeps the law controls his impulses; he who is perfect in fear of the LORD has wisdom.

¹²He can never be taught who is not shrewd, but one form of shrewdness is thoroughly bitter.

¹³A wise man's knowledge wells up in a flood, and his counsel, like a living spring;

¹⁴A fool's mind is like a broken jar-- no knowledge at all can it hold.

¹⁵When an intelligent man hears words of wisdom, he approves them and adds to them; The wanton hears them with scorn and casts them behind his back.

¹⁶A fool's chatter is like a load on a journey, but there is charm to be found upon the lips of the wise.

¹⁷The views of a prudent man are sought in an assembly, and his words are considered with care.

¹⁸Like a house in ruins is wisdom to a fool; the stupid man knows it only as inscrutable words.

¹⁹Like fetters on the legs is learning to a fool, like a manacle on his right hand.

²⁰A fool raises his voice in laughter, but the prudent man at the most smiles gently.

²¹Like a chain of gold is learning to a wise man, like a bracelet on his right arm.

²²The fool steps boldly into a house, while the well-bred man remains outside;

²³A boor peeps through the doorway of a house, but a cultured man keeps his glance cast down.

²⁴It is rude for one to listen at a door; a cultured man would be overwhelmed by the disgrace of it.

²⁵The lips of the impious talk of what is not their concern, but the words of the prudent are carefully weighed.

²⁶Fools' thoughts are in their mouths, wise men's words are in their hearts.

²⁷When a godless man curses his adversary he really curses himself.

²⁸A slanderer besmirches himself, and is hated by his neighbors.

22The sluggard is like a stone in the mud; everyone hisses at his disgrace.

²The sluggard is like a lump of dung; whoever touches him wipes his hands.

³An unruly child is a disgrace to its father; if it be a daughter she brings him to poverty.

⁴A thoughtful daughter becomes a treasure to her husband, a shameless one is her father's grief.

⁵A hussy shames her father and her husband; by both she is despised.

⁶Like a song in time of mourning is inopportune talk, but lashes and discipline are at all times wisdom.

⁷Teaching a fool is like gluing a broken pot, or like disturbing a man in the depths of sleep;

⁸He talks with a slumberer who talks with a fool, for when it is over, he will say, "What was that?"

⁹Weep over the dead man, for his light has gone out; weep over the fool, for sense has left him.

¹⁰Weep but a little over the dead man, for he is at rest; but worse than death is the life of a fool.

¹¹Seven days of mourning for the dead, but for the wicked fool a whole lifetime.

¹²Speak but seldom with the stupid man, be not the companion of a brute;

¹³Beware of him lest you have trouble and be spattered when he shakes himself; Turn away from him and you will find rest and not be wearied by his lack of sense.

¹⁴What is heavier than lead, and what is its name but "Fool"?

¹⁵Sand and salt and an iron mass are easier to bear than a stupid man.

¹⁶Masonry bonded with wooden beams is not loosened by an earthquake; Neither is a resolve constructed with careful deliberation shaken in a moment of fear.

¹⁷A resolve that is backed by prudent understanding is like the polished surface of a smooth wall.

¹⁸Small stones lying on an open height will not remain when the wind blows; Neither can a timid resolve based on foolish plans withstand fear of any kind.

¹⁹One who jabs the eye brings tears: he who pierces the heart bares its feelings.

²⁰He who throws stones at birds drives them away, and he who insults a friend breaks up the friendship.

²¹Should you draw a sword against a friend, despair not, it can be undone.

²²Should you speak sharply to a friend, fear not, you can be reconciled. But a contemptuous insult, a confidence broken, or a treacherous attack will drive away any friend.

²³Make fast friends with a man while he is poor; thus will you enjoy his prosperity with him. In time of trouble remain true to him, so as to share in his inheritance when it comes.

²⁴Before flames burst forth an oven smokes; so does abuse come before bloodshed.

²⁵From a friend in need of support no one need hide in shame;

²⁶But from him who brings harm to his friend all will stand aloof who hear of it.

²⁷Who will set a guard over my mouth, and upon my lips an effective seal, That I may not fail through them, that my tongue may not destroy me?

23LORD, Father and Master of my life, permit me not to fall by them!

²Who will apply the lash to my thoughts, to my mind the rod of discipline, That my failings may not be spared, nor the sins of my heart overlooked;

³Lest my failings increase, and my sins be multiplied; Lest I succumb to my foes, and my enemy rejoice over me?

⁴LORD, Father and God of my life, abandon me not into their control!

⁵A brazen look allow me not; ward off passion from my heart,

⁶Let not the lustful cravings of the flesh master me, surrender me not to shameless desires.

⁷Give heed, my children, to the instruction that I pronounce, for he who keeps it will not be enslaved.

⁸Through his lips is the sinner ensnared; the railer and the arrogant man fall thereby.

⁹Let not your mouth form the habit of swearing, or becoming too familiar with the Holy Name.

¹⁰Just as a slave that is constantly under scrutiny will not be without welts, So one who swears continually by the Holy Name will not remain free from sin.

¹¹A man who often swears heaps up obligations; the scourge will never be far from his house. If he swears in error, he incurs guilt; if he neglects his obligation, his sin is doubly great. If he swears without reason he cannot be found just, and all his house will suffer affliction.

¹²There are words which merit death; may they never be heard among Jacob's heirs. For all such words are foreign to the devout, who do not wallow in sin.

¹³Let not your mouth become used to coarse talk, for in it lies sinful matter.

¹⁴Keep your father and mother in mind when you sit among the mighty, Lest in their presence you commit a blunder and disgrace your upbringing, By wishing you had never been born or cursing the day of your birth.

¹⁵A man who has the habit of abusive language will never mature in character as long as he lives.

¹⁶Two types of men multiply sins, a third draws down wrath; For burning passion is a blazing fire, not to be quenched till it burns itself out: A man given to sins of the flesh, who never stops until the fire breaks forth;

¹⁷The rake to whom all bread is sweet and who is never through till he dies;

¹⁸And the man who dishonors his marriage bed and says to himself "Who can see me? Darkness surrounds me, walls hide me; no one sees me; why should I fear to sin?" Of the Most High he is not mindful,

¹⁹fearing only the eyes of men; He does not understand that the eyes of the LORD, ten thousand times brighter than the sun, Observe every step a man takes and peer into hidden corners.

²⁰He who knows all things before they exist still knows them all after they are made.

²¹Such a man will be punished in the streets of the city; when he least expects it, he will be apprehended.

²²So also with the woman who is unfaithful to her husband and offers as heir her son by a stranger.

²³First, she has disobeyed the law of the Most High; secondly, she has wronged her husband; Thirdly, in her wanton adultery she has borne children by another man.

²⁴Such a woman will be dragged before the assembly, and her punishment will extend to her children;

²⁵Her children will not take root; her branches will not bring forth fruit.

²⁶She will leave an accursed memory; her disgrace will never be blotted out.

²⁷Thus all who dwell on the earth shall know, and all who inhabit the world shall understand, That nothing is better than the fear of the LORD, nothing more salutary than to obey his commandments.

24Wisdom sings her own praises, before her own people she proclaims her glory;

²In the assembly of the Most High she opens her mouth, in the presence of his hosts she declares her worth:

³"From the mouth of the Most High I came forth, and mistlike covered the earth.

⁴In the highest heavens did I dwell, my throne on a pillar of cloud.

⁵The vault of heaven I compassed alone, through the deep abyss I wandered.

⁶Over waves of the sea, over all the land, over every people and nation I held sway.

⁷Among all these I sought a resting place; in whose inheritance should I abide?

⁸"Then the Creator of all gave me his command, and he who formed me chose the spot for my tent, Saying, 'In Jacob make your dwelling, in Israel your inheritance.'

⁹Before all ages, in the beginning, he created me, and through all ages I shall not cease to be.

¹⁰In the holy tent I ministered before him, and in Zion I fixed my abode.

¹¹Thus in the chosen city he has given me rest, in Jerusalem is my domain.

¹²I have struck root among the glorious people, in the portion of the LORD, his heritage.

¹³"Like a cedar on Lebanon I am raised aloft, like a cypress on Mount Hermon,

¹⁴Like a palm tree in En-gedi, like a rosebush in Jericho, Like a fair olive tree in the field, like a plane tree growing beside the water.

¹⁵Like cinnamon, or fragrant balm, or precious myrrh, I give forth perfume; Like galbanum and onycha and sweet spices, like the odor of incense in the holy place.

¹⁶I spread out my branches like a terebinth, my branches so bright and so graceful.

¹⁷I bud forth delights like the vine, my blossoms become fruit fair and rich.

¹⁸Come to me, all you that yearn for me, and be filled with my fruits;

¹⁹You will remember me as sweeter than honey, better to have than the honeycomb.

²⁰He who eats of me will hunger still, he who drinks of me will thirst for more;

²¹He who obeys me will not be put to shame, he who serves me will never fail."

²²All this is true of the book of the Most High's covenant, the law which Moses commanded us as an inheritance for the community of Jacob.

²³It overflows, like the Pishon, with wisdom-- like the Tigris in the days of the new fruits.

²⁴It runs over, like the Euphrates, with understanding, like the Jordan at harvest time.

²⁵It sparkles like the Nile with knowledge, like the Gihon at vintage time.

²⁶The first man never finished comprehending wisdom, nor will the last succeed in fathoming her.

²⁷For deeper than the sea are her thoughts; her counsels, than the great abyss.

²⁸Now I, like a rivulet from her stream, channeling the waters into a garden,

²⁹Said to myself, "I will water my plants, my flower bed I will drench"; And suddenly this rivulet of mine became a river, then this stream of mine, a sea.

³⁰Thus do I send my teachings forth shining like the dawn, to become known afar off.

³¹Thus do I pour out instruction like prophecy and bestow it on generations to come.

25With three things I am delighted, for they are pleasing to the LORD and to men: Harmony among brethren, friendship among neighbors, and the mutual love of husband and wife.

²Three kinds of men I hate; their manner of life I loathe indeed: A proud pauper, a rich dissembler, and an old man lecherous in his dotage.

³What you have not saved in your youth, how will you acquire in your old age?

⁴How becoming to the gray-haired is judgment, and a knowledge of counsel to those on in years!

⁵How becoming to the aged is wisdom, understanding and prudence to the venerable!

⁶The crown of old men is wide experience; their glory, the fear of the LORD.

⁷There are nine who come to my mind as blessed, a tenth whom my tongue proclaims: The man who finds joy in his children, and he who lives to see his enemies' downfall.

⁸Happy is he who dwells with a sensible wife, and he who plows not like a donkey yoked with an ox. Happy is he who sins not with his tongue, and he who serves not his inferior.

⁹Happy is he who finds a friend and he who speaks to attentive ears.

¹⁰He who finds wisdom is great indeed, but not greater than he who fears the LORD.

¹¹Fear of the LORD surpasses all else. its possessor is beyond compare.

¹²Worst of all wounds is that of the heart, worst of all evils is that of a woman.

¹³Worst of all sufferings is that from one's foes, worst of all vengeance is that of one's enemies:

¹⁴No poison worse than that of a serpent, no venom greater than that of a woman.

¹⁵With a dragon or a lion I would rather dwell than live with an evil woman.

¹⁶Wickedness changes a woman's looks, and makes her sullen as a female bear.

¹⁷When her husband sits among his neighbors, a bitter sigh escapes him unawares.

¹⁸There is scarce any evil like that in a woman; may she fall to the lot of the sinner!

¹⁹Like a sandy hill to aged feet is a railing wife to a quiet man.

²⁰Stumble not through woman's beauty, nor be greedy for her wealth;

²¹The man is a slave, in disgrace and shame, when a wife supports her husband.

²²Depressed mind, saddened face, broken heart--this from an evil wife. Feeble hands and quaking knees-- from a wife who brings no happiness to her husband.

²³In woman was sin's beginning, and because of her we all die.

²⁴Allow water no outlet, and be not indulgent to an erring wife.

²⁵If she walks not by your side, cut her away from you.

26Happy the husband of a good wife, twice-lengthened are his days;

²A worthy wife brings joy to her husband, peaceful and full is his life.

³A good wife is a generous gift bestowed upon him who fears the LORD;

⁴Be he rich or poor, his heart is content, and a smile is ever on his face.

⁵There are three things at which my heart quakes, a fourth before which I quail: Though false charges in public, trial before all the people, and lying testimony are harder to bear than death,

⁶A jealous wife is heartache and mourning and a scourging tongue like the other three.

⁷A bad wife is a chafing yoke; he who marries her seizes a scorpion.

⁸A drunken wife arouses great anger, for she does not hide her shame.

⁹By her eyelids and her haughty stare an unchaste wife can be recognized.

¹⁰Keep a strict watch over an unruly wife, lest, finding an opportunity, she make use of it;

¹¹Follow close if her eyes are bold, and be not surprised if she betrays you:

¹²As a thirsty traveler with eager mouth drinks from any water that he finds, So she settles down before every tent peg and opens her quiver for every arrow.

¹³A gracious wife delights her husband, her thoughtfulness puts flesh on his bones;

¹⁴A gift from the LORD is her governed speech, and her firm virtue is of surpassing worth.

¹⁵Choicest of blessings is a modest wife, priceless her chaste person.

¹⁶Like the sun rising in the LORD'S heavens, the beauty of a virtuous wife is the radiance of her home.

¹⁷Like the light which shines above the holy lampstand, are her beauty of face and graceful figure.

¹⁸Golden columns on silver bases are her shapely limbs and steady feet.

¹⁹These two bring grief to my heart, and the third arouses my horror: A wealthy man reduced to want; illustrious men held in contempt; And the man who passes from justice to sin, for whom the LORD makes ready the sword.

²⁰A merchant can hardly remain upright, nor a shopkeeper free from sin;

27For the sake of profit many sin, and the struggle for wealth blinds the eyes.

²Like a peg driven between fitted stones, between buying and selling sin is wedged in.

³Unless you earnestly hold fast to the fear of the LORD, suddenly your house will be thrown down.

⁴When a sieve is shaken, the husks appear; so do a man's faults when he speaks.

⁵As the test of what the potter molds is in the furnace, so in his conversation is the test of a man.

⁶The fruit of a tree shows the care it has had; so too does a man's speech disclose the bent of his mind.

⁷Praise no man before he speaks, for it is then that men are tested.

⁸If you strive after justice you will attain it, and put it on like a splendid robe.

⁹Birds nest with their own kind, and fidelity comes to those who live by it.

¹⁰As a lion crouches in wait for prey, so do sins for evildoers.

¹¹Ever wise are the discourses of the devout, but the godless man, like the moon, is inconstant.

¹²Limit the time you spend among fools, but frequent the company of thoughtful men.

¹³The conversation of the wicked is offensive, their laughter is wanton guilt.

¹⁴Their oath-filled talk makes the hair stand on end, their brawls make one stop one's ears.

¹⁵Wrangling among the haughty ends in bloodshed, their cursing is painful to hear.

¹⁶He who betrays a secret cannot be trusted, he will never find an intimate friend.

¹⁷Cherish your friend, keep faith with him; but if you betray his confidence, follow him not;

¹⁸For as an enemy might kill a man, you have killed your neighbor's friendship.

¹⁹Like a bird released from the hand, you have let your friend go and cannot recapture him;

²⁰Follow him not, for he is far away, he has fled like a gazelle from the trap.

²¹A wound can be bound up, and an insult forgiven, but he who betrays secrets does hopeless damage.

²²He who has shifty eyes plots mischief and no one can ward him off;

²³In your presence he uses honeyed talk, and admires your every word, But later he changes his tone and twists your words to your ruin.

²⁴There is nothing that I hate so much, and the LORD hates him as well.

²⁵As a stone falls back on him who throws it up, so a blow struck in treachery injures more than one.

²⁶As he who digs a pit falls into it, and he who lays a snare is caught in it,

²⁷Whoever does harm will be involved in it without knowing how it came upon him.

²⁸Mockery and abuse will be the lot of the proud, and vengeance lies in wait for them like a lion.

²⁹The trap seizes those who rejoice in pitfalls, and pain will consume them before they die;

³⁰Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight.

28The vengeful will suffer the LORD'S vengeance, for he remembers their sins in detail.

²Forgive your neighbor's injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.

³Should a man nourish anger against his fellows and expect healing from the LORD?

⁴Should a man refuse mercy to his fellows, yet seek pardon for his own sins?

⁵If he who is but flesh cherishes wrath, who will forgive his sins?

⁶Remember your last days, set enmity aside; remember death and decay, and cease from sin!

⁷Think of the commandments, hate not your neighbor; of the Most High's covenant, and overlook faults.

⁸Avoid strife and your sins will be fewer, for a quarrelsome man kindles disputes,

⁹Commits the sin of disrupting friendship and sows discord among those at peace.

¹⁰The more wood, the greater the fire, the more underlying it, the fiercer the fight; The greater a man's strength, the sterner his anger, the greater his power, the greater his wrath.

¹¹Pitch and resin make fires flare up, and insistent quarrels provoke bloodshed.

¹²If you blow upon a spark, it quickens into flame, if you spit on it, it dies out; yet both you do with your mouth!

¹³Cursed be gossips and the double-tongued, for they destroy the peace of many.

¹⁴A meddlesome tongue subverts many, and makes them refugees among the peoples; It destroys walled cities, and overthrows powerful dynasties.

¹⁵A meddlesome tongue can drive virtuous women from their homes and rob them of the fruit of their toil;

¹⁶Whoever heeds it has no rest, nor can he dwell in peace.

¹⁷A blow from a whip raises a welt, but a blow from the tongue smashes bones;

¹⁸Many have fallen by the edge of the sword, but not as many as by the tongue.

¹⁹Happy he who is sheltered from it, and has not endured its wrath; Who has not borne its yoke nor been fettered with its chain;

²⁰For its yoke is a yoke of iron and its chains are chains of bronze!

²¹Dire is the death it inflicts, besides which even the nether world is a gain;

²²It will not take hold among the just nor scorch them in its flame,

²³But those who forsake the LORD will fall victims to it, as it burns among them unquenchably! It will hurl itself against them like a lion; like a panther, it will tear them to pieces.

²⁴As you hedge round your vineyard with thorns, set barred doors over your mouth;

²⁵As you seal up your silver and gold, so balance and weigh your words.

²⁶Take care not to slip by your tongue and fall victim to your foe waiting in ambush.

29He does a kindness who lends to his neighbor, and he fulfills the precepts who holds out a helping hand.

²Lend to your neighbor in his hour of need, and pay back your neighbor when a loan falls due;

³Keep your promise, be honest with him, and you will always come by what you need.

⁴Many a man who asks for a loan adds to the burdens of those who help him;

⁵When he borrows, he kisses the lender's hand and speaks with respect of his creditor's wealth; But when payment is due he disappoints him and says he is helpless to meet the claim.

⁶If the lender is able to recover barely half, he considers this an achievement; If not, he is cheated of his wealth and acquires an enemy at no extra charge; With curses and insults the borrower pays him back, with abuse instead of honor.

⁷Many refuse to lend, not out of meanness, but from fear of being cheated.

⁸To a poor man, however, be generous; keep him not waiting for your alms;

⁹Because of the precept, help the needy, and in their want, do not send them away empty-handed.

¹⁰Spend your money for your brother and friend, and hide it not under a stone to perish;

¹¹Dispose of your treasure as the Most High commands, for that will profit you more than the gold.

¹²Store up almsgiving in your treasure house, and it will save you from every evil;

¹³Better than a stout shield and a sturdy spear it will fight for you against the foe.

¹⁴A good man goes surety for his neighbor, and only the shameless would play him false;

¹⁵Forget not the kindness of your backer, for he offers his very life for you.

¹⁶The wicked turn a pledge on their behalf into misfortune, and the ingrate abandons his protector;

¹⁷Going surety has ruined many prosperous men and tossed them about like waves of the sea,

¹⁸Has exiled men of prominence and sent them wandering through foreign lands.

¹⁹The sinner through surety comes to grief, and he who undertakes too much falls into lawsuits.

²⁰Go surety for your neighbor according to your means, but take care lest you fall thereby.

²¹Life's prime needs are water, bread, and clothing, a house, too, for decent privacy.

²²Better a poor man's fare under the shadow of one's own roof than sumptuous banquets among strangers.

²³Be it little or much, be content with what you have, and pay no heed to him who would disparage your home;

²⁴A miserable life it is to go from house to house, for as a guest you dare not open your mouth.

²⁵The visitor has no thanks for filling the cups; besides, you will hear these bitter words:

²⁶"Come here, stranger, set the table, give me to eat the food you have!

²⁷Away, stranger, for one more worthy; for my brother's visit I need the room!"

²⁸Painful things to a sensitive man are abuse at home and insults from his creditors.

30He who loves his son chastises him often, that he may be his joy when he grows up.

²He who disciplines his son will benefit from him, and boast of him among his intimates.

³He who educates his son makes his enemy jealous, and shows his delight in him among his friends.

⁴At the father's death, he will seem not dead, since he leaves after him one like himself,

⁵Whom he looks upon through life with joy, and even in death, without regret:

⁶The avenger he leaves against his foes, and the one to repay his friends with kindness.

⁷He who spoils his son will have wounds to bandage, and will quake inwardly at every outcry.

⁸A colt untamed turns out stubborn; a son left to himself grows up unruly.

⁹Pamper your child and he will be a terror for you, indulge him and he will bring you grief.

¹⁰Share not in his frivolity lest you share in his sorrow, when finally your teeth are clenched in remorse.

¹¹Give him not his own way in his youth, and close not your eyes to his follies.

¹²Bend him to the yoke when he is young, thrash his sides while he is still small, Lest he become stubborn, disobey you, and leave you disconsolate.

¹³Discipline your son, make heavy his yoke, lest his folly humiliate you.

¹⁴Better a poor man strong and robust, than a rich man with wasted frame.

¹⁵More precious than gold is health and well-being, contentment of spirit than coral.

¹⁶No treasure greater than a healthy body; no happiness, than a joyful heart!

¹⁷Preferable is death to a bitter life, unending sleep to constant illness.

¹⁸Dainties set before one who cannot eat are like the offerings placed before a tomb.

¹⁹What good is an offering to an idol that can neither taste nor smell?

²⁰So it is with the afflicted man who groans at the good things his eyes behold!

²¹Do not give in to sadness, torment not yourself with brooding;

²²Gladness of heart is the very life of man, cheerfulness prolongs his days.

²³Distract yourself, renew your courage, drive resentment far away from you; For worry has brought death to many, nor is there aught to be gained from resentment.

²⁴Envy and anger shorten one's life, worry brings on premature old age.

²⁵One who is cheerful and gay while at table benefits from his food.

31Keeping watch over riches wastes the flesh, and the care of wealth drives away rest.

²Concern for one's livelihood banishes slumber; more than a serious illness it disturbs repose.

³The rich man labors to pile up wealth, and his only rest is wanton pleasure;

⁴The poor man toils for a meager subsistence, and if ever he rests, he finds himself in want.

⁵The lover of gold will not be free from sin, for he who pursues wealth is led astray by it.

⁶Many have been ensnared by gold, though destruction lay before their eyes;

⁷It is a stumbling block to those who are avid for it, a snare for every fool.

⁸Happy the rich man found without fault, who turns not aside after gain!

⁹Who is he, that we may praise him? he, of all his kindred, has done wonders,

¹⁰For he has been tested by gold and come off safe, and this remains his glory; He could have sinned but did not, could have done evil but would not,

¹¹So that his possessions are secure, and the assembly recounts his praises.

¹²If you are dining with a great man, bring not a greedy gullet to his table, Nor cry out, "How much food there is here!"

¹³Remember that gluttony is evil. No creature is greedier than the eye: therefore it weeps for any cause.

¹⁴Toward what he eyes, do not put out a hand; nor reach when he does for the same dish.

¹⁵Recognize that your neighbor feels as you do, and keep in mind your own dislikes:

¹⁶Behave at table like a favored guest, and be not greedy, lest you be despised.

¹⁷Be the first to stop, as befits good manners; gorge not yourself, lest you give offense.

¹⁸If there are many with you at table, be not the first to reach out your hand.

¹⁹Does not a little suffice for a well-bred man? When he lies down, it is without discomfort.

²⁰Distress and anguish and loss of sleep, and restless tossing for the glutton! Moderate eating ensures sound slumber and a clear mind next day on rising.

²¹If perforce you have eaten too much, once you have emptied your stomach, you will have relief.

²²Listen to me, my son, and scorn me not; later you will find my advice good. In whatever you do, be moderate, and no sickness will befall you.

²³On a man generous with food, blessings are invoked, and this testimony to his goodness is lasting;

²⁴He who is miserly with food is denounced in public, and this testimony to his stinginess is lasting.

²⁵Let not wine-drinking be the proof of your strength, for wine has been the ruin of many.

²⁶As the furnace probes the work of the smith, so does wine the hearts of the insolent.

²⁷Wine is very life to man if taken in moderation. Does he really live who lacks the wine which was created for his joy?

²⁸Joy of heart, good cheer and merriment are wine drunk freely at the proper time.

²⁹Headache, bitterness and disgrace is wine drunk amid anger and strife.

³⁰More and more wine is a snare for the fool; it lessens his strength and multiplies his wounds.

³¹Rebuke not your neighbor when wine is served, nor put him to shame while he is merry; Use no harsh words with him and distress him not in the presence of others.

32If you are chosen to preside at dinner, be not puffed up, but with the guests be as one of themselves; Take care of them first before you sit down;

²when you have fulfilled your duty, then take your place, To share in their joy and win praise for your hospitality.

³Being older, you may talk; that is only your right, but temper your wisdom, not to disturb the singing.

⁴When wine is present, do not pour out discourse, and flaunt not your wisdom at the wrong time.

⁵Like a seal of carnelian in a setting of gold is a concert when wine is served.

⁶Like a gold mounting with an emerald seal is string music with delicious wine.

⁷Young man, speak only when necessary, when they have asked you more than once;

⁸Be brief, but say much in those few words, be like the wise man, taciturn.

⁹When among your elders be not forward, and with officials be not too insistent.

¹⁰Like the lightning that flashes before a storm is the esteem that shines on modesty.

¹¹When it is time to leave, tarry not; be off for home! There take your ease,

¹²And there enjoy doing as you wish, but without sin or words of pride.

¹³Above all, give praise to your Creator, who showers his favors upon you.

¹⁴He who would find God must accept discipline; he who seeks him obtains his request.

¹⁵He who studies the law masters it, but the hypocrite finds it a trap.

¹⁶His judgment is sound who fears the LORD; out of obscurity he draws forth a clear plan.

¹⁷The sinner turns aside reproof and distorts the law to suit his purpose.

¹⁸The thoughtful man will not neglect direction; the proud and insolent man is deterred by nothing.

¹⁹Do nothing without counsel, and then you need have no regrets.

²⁰Go not on a way that is set with snares, and let not the same thing trip you twice.

²¹Be not too sure even of smooth roads,

²²be careful on all your paths.

²³Whatever you do, be on your guard, for in this way you will keep the commandments.

²⁴He who keeps the law preserves himself; and he who trusts in the LORD shall not be put to shame.

33No evil can harm the man who fears the LORD; through trials, again and again he is safe.

²He who hates the law is without wisdom, and is tossed about like a boat in a storm.

³The prudent man trusts in the word of the LORD, and the law is dependable for him as a divine oracle.

⁴Prepare your words and you will be listened to; draw upon your training, and then give your answer.

⁵Like the wheel of a cart is the mind of a fool; his thoughts revolve in circles.

⁶A fickle friend is like the stallion that neighs, no matter who the rider.

⁷Why is one day more important than another, when it is the sun that lights up every day?

⁸It is due to the LORD'S wisdom that they differ; it is through him the seasons and feasts come and go.

⁹Some he dignifies and sanctifies, and others he lists as ordinary days.

¹⁰So too, all men are of clay, for from earth man was formed;

¹¹Yet with his great knowledge the LORD makes men unlike; in different paths he has them walk.

¹²Some he blesses and makes great, some he sanctifies and draws to himself. Others he curses and brings low, and expels them from their place.

¹³Like clay in the hands of a potter, to be molded according to his pleasure, So are men in the hands of their Creator, to be assigned by him their function.

¹⁴As evil contrasts with good, and death with life, so are sinners in contrast with the just;

¹⁵See now all the works of the Most High: they come in pairs, the one the opposite of the other.

¹⁶Now I am the last to keep vigil, like a gleaner after the vintage;

¹⁷Since by the LORD'S blessing I have made progress till like a vintager I have filled my wine press,

¹⁸I would inform you that not for myself only have I toiled, but for every seeker after wisdom.

¹⁹Listen to me, O leaders of the multitude; O rulers of the assembly, give ear!

²⁰Let neither son nor wife, neither brother nor friend, have power over you as long as you live.

²¹While breath of life is still in you, let no man have dominion over you. Give not to another your wealth, lest then you have to plead with him;

²²Far better that your children plead with you than that you should look to their generosity.

²³Keep control over all your affairs; let no one tarnish your glory.

²⁴When your few days reach their limit, at the time of death distribute your inheritance.

²⁵Fodder and whip and loads for an ass; the yoke and harness and the rod of his master.

²⁶Make a slave work and he will look for his rest; let his hands be idle and he will seek to be free.

²⁷Food, correction and work for a slave; and for a wicked slave, punishment in the stocks.

²⁸Force him to work that he be not idle, for idleness is an apt teacher of mischief.

²⁹Put him to work, for that is what befits him; if he becomes unruly, load him with chains.

³⁰But never lord it over any human being, and do nothing unjust.

³¹If you have but one slave, treat him like yourself, for you have acquired him with your life's blood;

³²If you have but one slave, deal with him as a brother, for you need him as you need your life:

³³If you mistreat him and he runs away, in what direction will you look for him?

34Empty and false are the hopes of the senseless, and fools are borne aloft by dreams.

²Like a man who catches at shadows or chases the wind, is the one who believes in dreams.

³What is seen in dreams is to reality what the reflection of a face is to the face itself.

⁴Can the unclean produce the clean? can the liar ever speak the truth?

⁵Divination, omens and dreams all are unreal; what you already expect, the mind depicts.

⁶Unless it be a vision specially sent by the Most High, fix not your heart on it;

⁷For dreams have led many astray, and those who believed in them have perished.

⁸The law is fulfilled without fail, and perfect wisdom is found in the mouth of the faithful man.

⁹A man with training gains wide knowledge; a man of experience speaks sense.

¹⁰One never put to the proof knows little, whereas with travel a man adds to his resourcefulness.

¹¹I have seen much in my travels, learned more than ever I could say.

¹²Often I was in danger of death, but by these attainments I was saved.

¹³Lively is the courage of those who fear the LORD, for they put their hope in their savior;

¹⁴He who fears the LORD is never alarmed, never afraid; for the LORD is his hope.

¹⁵Happy the soul that fears the LORD! In whom does he trust, and who is his support?

¹⁶The eyes of the LORD are upon those who love him; he is their mighty shield and strong support, A shelter from the heat, a shade from the noonday sun, a guard against stumbling, a help against falling.

¹⁷He buoys up the spirits, brings a sparkle to the eyes, gives health and life and blessing.

¹⁸Tainted his gifts who offers in sacrifice ill-gotten goods! Mock presents from the lawless win not God's favor.

¹⁹The Most High approves not the gifts of the godless, nor for their many sacrifices does he forgive their sins.

²⁰Like the man who slays a son in his father's presence is he who offers sacrifice from the possessions of the poor.

²¹The bread of charity is life itself for the needy; he who withholds it is a man of blood.

²²He slays his neighbor who deprives him of his living: he sheds blood who denies the laborer his wages.

²³If one man builds up and another tears down, what do they gain but trouble?

²⁴If one man prays and another curses, whose voice will the LORD hear?

²⁵If a man again touches a corpse after he has bathed, what did he gain by the purification?

²⁶So with a man who fasts for his sins, but then goes and commits them again: Who will hear his prayer, and what has he gained by his mortification?

35To keep the law is a great oblation, and he who observes the commandments sacrifices a peace offering.

²In works of charity one offers fine flour, and when he gives alms he presents his sacrifice of praise.

³To refrain from evil pleases the LORD, and to avoid injustice is an atonement.

⁴Appear not before the LORD empty-handed, for all that you offer is in fulfillment of the precepts.

⁵The just man's offering enriches the altar and rises as a sweet odor before the Most High.

⁶The just man's sacrifice is most pleasing, nor will it ever be forgotten.

⁷In generous spirit pay homage to the LORD, be not sparing of freewill gifts.

⁸With each contribution show a cheerful countenance, and pay your tithes in a spirit of joy.

⁹Give to the Most High as he has given to you, generously, according to your means.

¹⁰For the LORD is one who always repays, and he will give back to you sevenfold.

¹¹But offer no bribes, these he does not accept! Trust not in sacrifice of the fruits of extortion,

¹²For he is a God of justice, who knows no favorites.

¹³Though not unduly partial toward the weak, yet he hears the cry of the oppressed.

¹⁴He is not deaf to the wail of the orphan, nor to the widow when she pours out her complaint;

¹⁵Do not the tears that stream down her cheek cry out against him that causes them to fall?

¹⁶He who serves God willingly is heard; his petition reaches the heavens.

¹⁷The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds; it does not rest till it reaches its goal,

¹⁸Nor will it withdraw till the Most High responds, judges justly and affirms the right.

¹⁹God indeed will not delay, and like a warrior, will not be still

²⁰Till he breaks the backs of the merciless and wreaks vengeance upon the proud;

²¹Till he destroys the haughty root and branch, and smashes the scepter of the wicked;

²²Till he requites mankind according to its deeds, and repays men according to their thoughts;

²³Till he defends the cause of his people, and gladdens them by his mercy.

²⁴Welcome is his mercy in time of distress as rain clouds in time of drought.

36Come to our aid, O God of the universe, and put all the nations in dread of you!

²Raise your hand against the heathen, that they may realize your power.

³As you have used us to show them your holiness, so now use them to show us your glory.

⁴Thus they will know, as we know, that there is no God but you.

⁵Give new signs and work new wonders; show forth the splendor of your right hand and arm;

⁶Rouse your anger, pour out wrath, humble the enemy, scatter the foe.

⁷Hasten the day, bring on the time;

⁸Let raging fire consume the fugitive, and your people's oppressors meet destruction.

⁹crush the heads of the hostile rulers.

¹⁰Gather all the tribes of Jacob, that they may inherit the land as of old,

¹¹Show mercy to the people called by your name; Israel, whom you named your first-born.

¹²Take pity on your holy city, Jerusalem, your dwelling place.

¹³Fill Zion with your majesty, your temple with your glory.

¹⁴Give evidence of your deeds of old; fulfill the prophecies spoken in your name,

¹⁵Reward those who have hoped in you, and let your prophets be proved true.

¹⁶Hear the prayer of your servants, for you are ever gracious to your people;

¹⁷Thus it will be known to the very ends of the earth that you are the eternal God.

¹⁸The throat can swallow any food, yet some foods are more agreeable than others;

¹⁹As the palate tests meat by its savor, so does a keen mind insincere words.

²⁰A deceitful character causes grief, but an experienced man can turn the tables on him.

²¹Though any man may be accepted as a husband, yet one girl will be more suitable than another:

²²A woman's beauty makes her husband's face light up, for it surpasses all else that charms the eye;

²³And if, besides, her speech is kindly, his lot is beyond that of mortal men.

²⁴A wife is her husband's richest treasure, a helpmate, a steadying column.

²⁵A vineyard with no hedge will be overrun; a man with no wife becomes a homeless wanderer.

²⁶Who will trust an armed band that shifts from city to city?

²⁷Or a man who has no nest, but lodges where night overtakes him?

37Every friend declares his friendship, but there are friends who are friends in name only.

²Is it not a sorrow unto death when your bosom companion becomes your enemy?

³"Alas, my companion! Why were you created to blanket the earth with deceit?"

⁴A false friend will share your joys, but in time of trouble he stands afar off.

⁵A true friend will fight with you against the foe, against your enemies he will be your shield-bearer.

⁶Forget not your comrade during the battle, and neglect him not when you distribute your spoils.

⁷Every counselor points out a way, but some counsel ways of their own;

⁸Be on the alert when one proffers advice, find out first of all what he wants. For he may be thinking of himself alone; why should the profit fall to him?

⁹He may tell you how good your way will be, and then stand by to watch your misfortune.

¹⁰Seek no advice from one who regards you with hostility; from those who envy you, keep your intentions hidden.

¹¹Speak not to a woman about her rival, nor to a coward about war, to a merchant about business, to a buyer about value, to a miser about generosity, to a cruel man about mercy, to a lazy man about work, to a seasonal laborer about the harvest, to an idle slave about a great task: pay no attention to any advice they give.

¹²Instead, associate with a religious man, who you are sure keeps the commandments; Who is like-minded with yourself and will feel for you if you fall.

¹³Then, too, heed your own heart's counsel; for what have you that you can depend on more?

¹⁴A man's conscience can tell him his situation better than seven watchmen in a lofty tower.

¹⁵Most important of all, pray to God to set your feet in the path of truth.

¹⁶A word is the source of every deed; a thought, of every act.

¹⁷The root of all conduct is the mind; four branches it shoots forth:

¹⁸Good and evil, death and life, their absolute mistress is the tongue.

¹⁹A man may be wise and benefit many, yet be of no use to himself.

²⁰Though a man may be wise, if his words are rejected he will be deprived of all enjoyment.

²¹When a man is wise to his own advantage, the fruits of his knowledge are seen in his own person;

²²When a man is wise to his people's advantage, the fruits of his knowledge are enduring:

²³Limited are the days of one man's life, but the life of Israel is days without number.

²⁴One wise for himself has full enjoyment, and all who see him praise him;

²⁵One wise for his people wins a heritage of glory, and his name endures forever.

²⁶My son, while you are well, govern your appetite so that you allow it not what is bad for you;

²⁷For not every food is good for everyone, nor is everything suited to every taste.

²⁸Be not drawn after every enjoyment, neither become a glutton for choice foods,

²⁹For sickness comes with overeating, and gluttony brings on biliousness.

³⁰Through lack of self-control many have died, but the abstemious man prolongs his life.

38Hold the physician in honor, for he is essential to you, and God it was who established his profession.

²From God the doctor has his wisdom, and the king provides for his sustenance.

³His knowledge makes the doctor distinguished, and gives him access to those in authority.

⁴God makes the earth yield healing herbs which the prudent man should not neglect;

⁵Was not the water sweetened by a twig that men might learn his power?

⁶He endows men with the knowledge to glory in his mighty works,

⁷Through which the doctor eases pain and the druggist prepares his medicines;

⁸Thus God's creative work continues without cease in its efficacy on the surface of the earth.

⁹My son, when you are ill, delay not, but pray to God, who will heal you:

¹⁰Flee wickedness; let your hands be just, cleanse your heart of every sin;

¹¹Offer your sweet-smelling oblation and petition, a rich offering according to your means.

¹²Then give the doctor his place lest he leave; for you need him too.

¹³There are times that give him an advantage,

¹⁴and he too beseeches God That his diagnosis may be correct and his treatment bring about a cure.

¹⁵He who is a sinner toward his Maker will be defiant toward the doctor.

¹⁶My son, shed tears for one who is dead with wailing and bitter lament; As is only proper, prepare the body, absent not yourself from his burial:

¹⁷Weeping bitterly, mourning fully, pay your tribute of sorrow, as he deserves,

¹⁸One or two days, to prevent gossip; then compose yourself after your grief,

¹⁹For grief can bring on an extremity and heartache destroy one's health.

²⁰Turn not your thoughts to him again; cease to recall him; think rather of the end.

²¹Recall him not, for there is no hope of his return; it will not help him, but will do you harm.

²²Remember that his fate will also be yours; for him it was yesterday, for you today.

²³With the departed dead, let memory fade; rally your courage, once the soul has left.

²⁴The scribe's profession increases his wisdom; whoever is free from toil can become a wise man.

²⁵How can he become learned who guides the plow, who thrills in wielding the goad like a lance, Who guides the ox and urges on the bullock, and whose every concern is for cattle?

²⁶His care is for plowing furrows, and he keeps a watch on the beasts in the stalls.

²⁷So with every engraver and designer who, laboring night and day, Fashions carved seals, and whose concern is to vary the pattern. His care is to produce a vivid impression, and he keeps watch till he finishes his design.

²⁸So with the smith standing near his anvil, forging crude iron. The heat from the fire sears his flesh, yet he toils away in the furnace heat. The clang of the hammer deafens his ears, His eyes are fixed on the tool he is shaping. His care is to finish his work, and he keeps watch till he perfects it in detail.

²⁹So with the potter sitting at his labor, revolving the wheel with his feet. He is always concerned for his products, and turns them out in quantity.

³⁰With his hands he molds the clay, and with his feet softens it. His care is for proper coloring, and he keeps watch on the fire of his kiln.

³¹All these men are skilled with their hands, each one an expert at his own task;

³²Without them no city could be lived in, and wherever they stay, they need not hunger.

³³They do not occupy the judge's bench, nor are they prominent in the assembly; They set forth no decisions or judgments, nor are they found among the rulers;

³⁴Yet they maintain God's ancient handiwork, and their concern is for exercise of their skill.

39How different the man who devotes himself to the study of the law of the Most High! He explores the wisdom of the men of old and occupies himself with the prophecies;

²He treasures the discourses of famous men, and goes to the heart of involved sayings;

³He studies obscure parables, and is busied with the hidden meanings of the sages.

⁴He is in attendance on the great, and has entrance to the ruler.

⁵He travels among the peoples of foreign lands to learn what is good and evil among men.

⁶His care is to seek the LORD, his Maker, to petition the Most High, To open his lips in prayer, to ask pardon for his sins. Then, if it pleases the LORD Almighty, he will be filled with the spirit of understanding; He will pour forth his words of wisdom and in prayer give thanks to the LORD,

⁷Who will direct his knowledge and his counsel, as he meditates upon his mysteries.

⁸He will show the wisdom of what he has learned and glory in the law of the LORD'S covenant.

⁹Many will praise his understanding; his fame can never be effaced; Unfading will be his memory, through all generations his name will live;

¹⁰Peoples will speak of his wisdom, and in assembly sing his praises.

¹¹While he lives he is one out of a thousand, and when he dies his renown will not cease.

¹²Once more I will set forth my theme to shine like the moon in its fullness!

¹³Listen, my faithful children: open up your petals, like roses planted near running waters;

¹⁴Send up the sweet odor of incense, break forth in blossoms like the lily. Send up the sweet odor of your hymn of praise; bless the LORD for all he has done!

¹⁵Proclaim the greatness of his name, loudly sing his praises, With music on the harp and all stringed instruments; sing out with joy as you proclaim:

¹⁶The works of God are all of them good; in its own time every need is supplied.

¹⁷At his word the waters become still as in a flask; he had but to speak and the reservoirs were made.

¹⁸He has but to command and his will is done; nothing can limit his achievement.

¹⁹The works of all mankind are present to him; not a thing escapes his eye.

²⁰His gaze spans all the ages; to him there is nothing unexpected.

²¹No cause then to say: "What is the purpose of this?" Everything is chosen to satisfy a need.

²²His blessing overflows like the Nile; like the Euphrates it enriches the surface of the earth.

²³Again, his wrath expels the nations and turns fertile land into a salt marsh.

²⁴For the virtuous his paths are level, to the haughty they are steep;

²⁵Good things for the good he provided from the beginning, but for the wicked good things and bad.

²⁶Chief of all needs for human life are water and fire, iron and salt, The heart of the wheat, milk and honey, the blood of the grape, and oil, and cloth;

²⁷For the good all these are good, but for the wicked they turn out evil.

²⁸There are storm winds created to punish, which in their fury can dislodge mountains; When destruction must be, they hurl all their force and appease the anger of their Maker.

²⁹In his treasury also, kept for the proper time, are fire and hail, famine, disease,

³⁰Ravenous beasts, scorpions, vipers, and the avenging sword to exterminate the wicked;

³¹In doing his bidding they rejoice, in their assignments they disobey not his command.

³²So from the first I took my stand, and wrote down as my theme:

³³The works of God are all of them good; every need when it comes he fills.

³⁴No cause then to say: "This is not as good as that"; for each shows its worth at the proper time.

³⁵So now with full joy of heart proclaim and bless the name of the Holy One.

40A great anxiety has God allotted, and a heavy yoke, to the sons of men; From the day one leaves his mother's womb to the day he returns to the mother of all the living,

²His thoughts, the fear in his heart, and his troubled forebodings till the day he dies--

³Whether he sits on a lofty throne or grovels in dust and ashes,

⁴Whether he bears a splendid crown or is wrapped in the coarsest of cloaks--

⁵Are of wrath and envy, trouble and dread, terror of death, fury and strife. Even when he lies on his bed to rest, his cares at night disturb his sleep.

⁶So short is his rest it seems like none, till in his dreams he struggles as he did by day, Terrified by what his mind's eye sees, like a fugitive being pursued;

⁷As he reaches safety, he wakes up astonished that there was nothing to fear.

⁸So it is with all flesh, with man and with beast, but for sinners seven times more.

⁹Plague and bloodshed, wrath and the sword, plunder and ruin, famine and death:

¹⁰For the wicked, these were created evil, and it is they who bring on destruction.

¹¹All that is of earth returns to earth, and what is from above returns above.

¹²All that comes from bribes or injustice will be wiped out, but loyalty remains for ages.

¹³Wealth out of wickedness is like a wadi in spate: like a mighty stream with lightning and thunder,

¹⁴Which, in its rising, rolls along the stones, but suddenly, once and for all, comes to an end.

¹⁵The offshoot of violence will not flourish, for the root of the godless is on sheer rock;

¹⁶Or they are like reeds on the riverbank, withered before all other plants;

¹⁷But goodness will never be cut off, and justice endures forever. Wealth or wages can make life sweet, but better than either is finding a treasure.

¹⁸A child or a city will preserve one's name, but better than either, attaining wisdom.

¹⁹Sheepfolds and orchards bring flourishing health; but better than either, a devoted wife;

²⁰Wine and music delight the soul, but better than either, conjugal love.

²¹The flute and the harp offer sweet melody, but better than either, a voice that is true.

²²Charm and beauty delight the eye, but better than either, the flowers of the field.

²³A friend, a neighbor, are timely guides, but better than either, a prudent wife.

²⁴A brother, a helper, for times of stress; but better than either, charity that rescues.

²⁵Gold and silver make one's way secure, but better than either, sound judgment.

²⁶Wealth and vigor build up confidence, but better than either, fear of God. Fear of the LORD leaves nothing wanting; he who has it need seek no other support:

²⁷The fear of God is a paradise of blessings; its canopy, all that is glorious.

²⁸My son, live not the life of a beggar, better to die than to beg;

²⁹When one has to look to another's table, his life is not really a life. His neighbor's delicacies bring revulsion of spirit to one who understands inward feelings:

³⁰In the mouth of the shameless man begging is sweet, but within him it burns like fire.

41O death! how bitter the thought of you for the man at peace amid his possessions, For the man unruffled and always successful, who still can enjoy life's pleasures.

²O death! how welcome your sentence to the weak man of failing strength, Tottering and always rebuffed, with no more sight, with vanished hope.

³Fear not death's decree for you; remember, it embraces those before you, and those after.

⁴Thus God has ordained for all flesh; why then should you reject the will of the Most High? Whether one has lived a thousand years, a hundred, or ten, in the nether world he has no claim on life.

⁵A reprobate line are the children of sinners, and witless offspring are in the homes of the wicked.

⁶Their dominion is lost to sinners' children, and reproach abides with their descendants.

⁷Children curse their wicked father, for they suffer disgrace through him.

⁸Woe to you, O sinful men, who forsake the law of the Most High.

⁹If you have children, calamity will seize them; you will beget them only for groaning. When you stumble, there is lasting joy; at death, you become a curse.

¹⁰Whatever is of nought returns to nought, so too the godless from void to void.

¹¹Man's body is a fleeting thing, but a virtuous name will never be annihilated.

¹²Have a care for your name, for it will stand by you better than precious treasures in the thousands;

¹³The boon of life is for limited days, but a good name, for days without number.

¹⁴My children, heed my instruction about shame; judge of disgrace only according to my rules, For it is not always well to be ashamed, nor is it always the proper thing to blush:

¹⁵Before father and mother be ashamed of immorality, before master and mistress, of falsehood;

¹⁶Before prince and ruler, of flattery; before the public assembly, of crime;

¹⁷Before friend and companion, of disloyalty, and of breaking an oath or agreement.

¹⁸Be ashamed of theft from the people where you settle, and of stretching out your elbow when you dine;

¹⁹Of refusing to give when asked, of defrauding another of his appointed share,

²⁰Of failing to return a greeting, and of rebuffing a friend;

²¹Of gazing at a married woman, and of entertaining thoughts about another's wife; Of trifling with a servant girl you have, and of violating her couch;

²²Of using harsh words with friends, and of following up your gifts with insults;

²³Of repeating what you hear, and of betraying secrets--

²⁴These are the things you should rightly avoid as shameful if you would be looked upon by everyone with favor.

42But of these things be not ashamed, lest you sin through human respect:

²Of the law of the Most High and his precepts, or of the sentence to be passed upon the sinful;

³Of sharing the expenses of a business or a journey, or of dividing an inheritance or property;

⁴Of accuracy of scales and balances, or of tested measures and weights;

⁵Of acquiring much or little, or of bargaining in dealing with a merchant; Of constant training of children, or of beating the sides of a disloyal servant;

⁶Of a seal to keep an erring wife at home, or of a lock placed where there are many hands;

⁷Of numbering every deposit, or of recording all that is given or received;

⁸Of chastisement of the silly and the foolish, or of the aged and infirm answering for wanton conduct. Thus you will be truly cautious and recognized by all men as discreet.

⁹A daughter is a treasure that keeps her father wakeful, and worry over her drives away rest: Lest she pass her prime unmarried, or when she is married, lest she be disliked;

¹⁰While unmarried, lest she be seduced, or, as a wife, lest she prove unfaithful; Lest she conceive in her father's home, or be sterile in that of her husband.

¹¹Keep a close watch on your daughter, lest she make you the sport of your enemies, A byword in the city, a reproach among the people, an object of derision in public gatherings. See that there is no lattice in her room, no place that overlooks the approaches to the house.

¹²Let her not parade her charms before men, or spend her time with married women;

¹³For just as moths come from garments, so harm to women comes from women:

¹⁴Better a man's harshness than a woman's indulgence, and a frightened daughter than any disgrace.

¹⁵Now will I recall God's works; what I have seen, I will describe. At God's word were his works brought into being; they do his will as he has ordained for them.

¹⁶As the rising sun is clear to all, so the glory of the LORD fills all his works;

¹⁷Yet even God's holy ones must fail in recounting the wonders of the LORD, Though God has given these, his hosts, the strength to stand firm before his glory.

¹⁸He plumbs the depths and penetrates the heart; their innermost being he understands. The Most High possesses all knowledge, and sees from of old the things that are to come:

¹⁹He makes known the past and the future, and reveals the deepest secrets.

²⁰No understanding does he lack; no single thing escapes him.

²¹Perennial is his almighty wisdom; he is from all eternity one and the same,

²²With nothing added, nothing taken away; no need of a counselor for him!

²³How beautiful are all his works! even to the spark and the fleeting vision!

²⁴The universe lives and abides forever; to meet each need, each creature is preserved.

²⁵All of them differ, one from another, yet none of them has he made in vain, For each in turn, as it comes, is good; can one ever see enough of their splendor?

43The clear vault of the sky shines forth like heaven itself, a vision of glory.

²The orb of the sun, resplendent at its rising: what a wonderful work of the Most High!

³At noon it seethes the surface of the earth, and who can bear its fiery heat?

⁴Like a blazing furnace of solid metal, it sets the mountains aflame with its rays; By its fiery darts the land is consumed; the eyes are dazzled by its light.

⁵Great indeed is the LORD who made it, at whose orders it urges on its steeds.

⁶The moon, too, that marks the changing times, governing the seasons, their lasting sign,

⁷By which we know the feast days and fixed dates, this light-giver which wanes in its course:

⁸As its name says, each month it renews itself; how wondrous in this change!

⁹The beauty, the glory, of the heavens are the stars that adorn with their sparkling the heights of God,

¹⁰At whose command they keep their place and never relax in their vigils. A weapon against the flood waters stored on high, lighting up the firmament by its brilliance,

¹¹Behold the rainbow! Then bless its Maker, for majestic indeed is its splendor;

¹²It spans the heavens with its glory, this bow bent by the mighty hand of God.

¹³His rebuke marks out the path for the lightning, and speeds the arrows of his judgment to their goal.

¹⁴At it the storehouse is opened, and like vultures the clouds hurry forth.

¹⁵In his majesty he gives the storm its power and breaks off the hailstones.

¹⁶The thunder of his voice makes the earth writhe; before his might the mountains quake.

¹⁷A word from him drives on the south wind, the angry north wind, the hurricane and the storm.

¹⁸He sprinkles the snow like fluttering birds; it comes to settle like swarms of locusts.

¹⁹Its shining whiteness blinds the eyes, the mind is baffled by its steady fall.

²⁰He scatters frost like so much salt; it shines like blossoms on the thornbush.

²¹Cold northern blasts he sends that turn the ponds to lumps of ice. He freezes over every body of water, and clothes each pool with a coat of mail.

²²When the mountain growth is scorched with heat, and the flowering plains as though by flames,

²³The dripping clouds restore them all, and the scattered dew enriches the parched land.

²⁴His is the plan that calms the deep, and plants the islands in the sea.

²⁵Those who go down to the sea tell part of its story, and when we hear them we are thunderstruck;

²⁶In it are his creatures, stupendous, amazing, all kinds of life, and the monsters of the deep.

²⁷For him each messenger succeeds, and at his bidding accomplishes his will.

²⁸More than this we need not add; let the last word be, he is all in all!

²⁹Let us praise him the more, since we cannot fathom him, for greater is he than all his works;

³⁰Awful indeed is the LORD'S majesty, and wonderful is his power.

³¹Lift up your voices to glorify the LORD, though he is still beyond your power to praise;

³²Extol him with renewed strength, and weary not, though you cannot reach the end:

³³For who can see him and describe him? or who can praise him as he is?

³⁴Beyond these, many things lie hid; only a few of his works have we seen.

³⁵It is the LORD who has made all things, and to those who fear him he gives wisdom.

44Now will I praise those godly men, our ancestors, each in his own time:

²The abounding glory of the Most High's portion, his own part, since the days of old. Subduers of the land in kingly fashion, men of renown for their might,

³Or counselors in their prudence, or seers of all things in prophecy;

⁴Resolute princes of the folk, and governors with their staves; Authors skilled in composition, and forgers of epigrams with their spikes;

⁵Composers of melodious psalms, or discoursers on lyric themes;

⁶Stalwart men, solidly established and at peace in their own estates--

⁷All these were glorious in their time, each illustrious in his day.

⁸Some of them have left behind a name and men recount their praiseworthy deeds;

⁹But of others there is no memory, for when they ceased, they ceased. And they are as though they had not lived, they and their children after them.

¹⁰Yet these also were godly men whose virtues have not been forgotten;

¹¹Their wealth remains in their families, their heritage with their descendants;

¹²Through God's covenant with them their family endures, their posterity, for their sake.

¹³And for all time their progeny will endure, their glory will never be blotted out;

¹⁴Their bodies are peacefully laid away, but their name lives on and on.

¹⁵At gatherings their wisdom is retold, and the assembly proclaims their praise.

¹⁶[ENOCH walked with the LORD and was taken up, that succeeding generations might learn by his example.]

¹⁷NOAH, found just and perfect, renewed the race in the time of devastation. Because of his worth there were survivors, and with a sign to him the deluge ended;

¹⁸A lasting agreement was made with him, that never should all flesh be destroyed.

¹⁹ABRAHAM, father of many peoples, kept his glory without stain:

²⁰He observed the precepts of the Most High, and entered into an agreement with him; In his own flesh he incised the ordinance, and when tested he was found loyal.

²¹For this reason, God promised him with an oath that in his descendants the nations would be blessed, That he would make him numerous as the grains of dust, and exalt his posterity like the stars; That he would give them an inheritance from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.

²²And for ISAAC he renewed the same promise because of Abraham, his father. The covenant with all his forebears was confirmed, and the blessing rested upon the head of JACOB.

²³God acknowledged him as the first-born, and gave him his inheritance. He fixed the boundaries for his tribes, and their division into twelve.

45From him was to spring the man who won the favor of all: Dear to God and men, MOSES, whose memory is held in benediction.

²God's honor devolved upon him, and the Lord strengthened him with fearful powers;

³God wrought swift miracles at his words and sustained him in the king's presence. He gave him the commandments for his people, and revealed to him his glory.

⁴For his trustworthiness and meekness God selected him from all mankind;

⁵He permitted him to hear his voice, and led him into the cloud, Where, face to face, he gave him the commandments, the law of life and understanding, That he might teach his precepts to Jacob, his judgments and decrees to Israel.

⁶He raised up also, like Moses in holiness, his brother AARON, of the tribe of Levi.

⁷He made him perpetual in his office when he bestowed on him the priesthood of his people; He established him in honor and crowned him with lofty majesty;

⁸He clothed him with splendid apparel, and adorned him with the glorious vestments: Breeches and tunic and robe with pomegranates around the hem,

⁹And a rustle of bells round about, through whose pleasing sound at each step He would be heard within the sanctuary, and the children of his race would be remembered;

¹⁰The sacred vestments of gold, of violet, and of crimson, wrought with embroidery; The breastpiece for decision, the ephod and cincture

¹¹with scarlet yarn, the work of the weaver; Precious stones with seal engravings in golden settings, the work of the jeweler, To commemorate in incised letters each of the tribes of Israel;

¹²On his turban the diadem of gold, its plate wrought with the insignia of holiness, Majestic, glorious, renowned for splendor, a delight to the eyes, beauty supreme.

¹³Before him, no one was adorned with these, nor may they ever be worn by any Except his sons and them alone, generation after generation, for all time.

¹⁴His cereal offering is wholly burnt with the established sacrifice twice each day;

¹⁵For Moses ordained him and anointed him with the holy oil, In a lasting covenant with him and with his family, as permanent as the heavens, That he should serve God in his priesthood and bless his people in his name.

¹⁶He chose him from all mankind to offer holocausts and choice offerings, To burn sacrifices of sweet odor for a memorial, and to atone for the people of Israel.

¹⁷He gave to him his laws, and authority to prescribe and to judge: To teach the precepts to his people, and the ritual to the descendants of Israel.

¹⁸Men of other families were inflamed against him, were jealous of him in the desert, The followers of Dathan and Abiram, and the band of Korah in their defiance.

¹⁹But the LORD saw this and became angry, he destroyed them in his burning wrath. He brought down upon them a miracle, and consumed them with his flaming fire.

²⁰Then he increased the glory of Aaron and bestowed upon him his inheritance: The sacred offerings he allotted to him, with the showbread as his portion;

²¹The oblations of the LORD are his food, a gift to him and his descendants.

²²But he holds no land among the people nor shares with them their heritage; For the LORD himself is his portion, his inheritance in the midst of Israel.

²³PHINEHAS too, the son of Eleazar, was the courageous third of his line When, zealous for the God of all, he met the crisis of his people And, at the prompting of his noble heart, atoned for the children of Israel.

²⁴Therefore on him again God conferred the right, in a covenant of friendship, to provide for the sanctuary, So that he and his descendants should possess the high priesthood forever.

²⁵For even his covenant with David, the son of Jesse of the tribe of Judah, Was an individual heritage through one son alone; but the heritage of Aaron is for all his descendants.

²⁶And now bless the LORD who has crowned you with glory! May he grant you wisdom of heart to govern his people in justice, Lest their welfare should ever be forgotten, or your authority, throughout all time.

46Valiant leader was JOSHUA, son of Nun, assistant to Moses in the prophetic office, Formed to be, as his name implies, the great savior of God's chosen ones, To punish the enemy and to win the inheritance for Israel.

²What glory was his when he raised his arm, to brandish his javelin against the city!

³And who could withstand him when he fought the battles of the LORD?

⁴Did he not by his power stop the sun, so that one day became two?

⁵He called upon the Most High God when his enemies beset him on all sides, And God Most High gave answer to him in hailstones of tremendous power,

⁶Which he rained down upon the hostile army till on the slope he destroyed the foe; That all the doomed nations might know that the LORD was watching over his people's battles. And because he was a devoted follower of God

⁷and in Moses' lifetime showed himself loyal, He and CALEB, son of Jephunneh, when they opposed the rebel assembly, Averted God's anger from the people and suppressed the wicked complaint--

⁸Because of this, they were the only two spared from the six hundred thousand infantry, To lead the people into their inheritance, the land flowing with milk and honey.

⁹And the strength he gave to Caleb remained with him even in his old age Till he won his way onto the summits of the land; his family too received an inheritance,

¹⁰That all the people of Jacob might know how good it is to be a devoted follower of the LORD.

¹¹The JUDGES, too, each one of them, whose hearts were not deceived, Who did not abandon God: may their memory be ever blessed,

¹²Their bones return to life from their resting place, and their names receive fresh luster in their children!

¹³Beloved of his people, dear to his Maker, dedicated from his mother's womb, Consecrated to the LORD as a prophet, was SAMUEL, the judge and priest. At God's word he established the kingdom and anointed princes to rule the people.

¹⁴By the law of the LORD he judged the nation, when he visited the encampments of Jacob.

¹⁵As a trustworthy prophet he was sought out and his words proved him true as a seer.

¹⁶He, too, called upon God, and offered him a suckling lamb;

¹⁷Then the LORD thundered forth from heaven, and the tremendous roar of his voice was heard.

¹⁸He brought low the rulers of the enemy and destroyed all the lords of the Philistines.

¹⁹When Samuel approached the end of his life, he testified before the LORD and his anointed prince, "No bribe or secret gift have I taken from any man!" and no one dared gainsay him.

²⁰Even when he lay buried, his guidance was sought; he made known to the king his fate, And from the grave he raised his voice as a prophet, to put an end to wickedness.

47After him came NATHAN who served in the presence of David.

²Like the choice fat of the sacred offerings, so was DAVID in Israel.

³He made sport of lions as though they were kids, and of bears, like lambs of the flock.

⁴As a youth he slew the giant and wiped out the people's disgrace, When his hand let fly the slingstone that crushed the pride of Goliath.

⁵Since he called upon the Most High God, who gave strength to his right arm To defeat the skilled warrior and raise up the might of his people,

⁶Therefore the women sang his praises and ascribed to him tens of thousands. When he assumed the royal crown, he battled

⁷and subdued the enemy on every side. He destroyed the hostile Philistines and shattered their power till our own day.

⁸With his every deed he offered thanks to God Most High, in words of praise. With his whole being he loved his Maker and daily had his praises sung;

⁹He added beauty to the feasts and solemnized the seasons of each year With string music before the altar, providing sweet melody for the psalms

¹⁰So that when the Holy Name was praised, before daybreak the sanctuary would resound.

¹¹The LORD forgave him his sins and exalted his strength forever; He conferred on him the rights of royalty and established his throne in Israel.

¹²Because of his merits he had as his successor a wise son, who lived in security:

¹³SOLOMON reigned during an era of peace, for God made tranquil all his borders. He built a house to the name of God, and established a lasting sanctuary.

¹⁴How wise you were when you were young, overflowing with instruction, like the Nile in flood!

¹⁵Your understanding covered the whole earth, and, like a sea, filled it with knowledge.

¹⁶Your fame reached distant coasts, and their peoples came to hear you;

¹⁷With song and story and riddle, and with your answers, you astounded the nations.

¹⁸You were called by that glorious name which was conferred upon Israel. Gold you gathered like so much iron, you heaped up silver as though it were lead;

¹⁹But you abandoned yourself to women and gave them dominion over your body.

²⁰You brought dishonor upon your reputation, shame upon your marriage, Wrath upon your descendants, and groaning upon your domain;

²¹Thus two governments came into being, when in Ephraim kingship was usurped.

²²But God does not withdraw his mercy, nor permit even one of his promises to fail. He does not uproot the posterity of his chosen one, nor destroy the offspring of his friend. So he gave to Jacob a remnant, to David a root from his own family.

²³Solomon finally slept with his fathers, and left behind him one of his sons, Expansive in folly, limited in sense, REHOBOAM, who by his policy made the people rebel; Until one arose who should not be remembered, the sinner who led Israel into sin, Who brought ruin to Ephraim

²⁴and caused them to be exiled from their land. Their sinfulness grew more and more,

²⁵and they lent themselves to every evil,

48Till like a fire there appeared the prophet whose words were as a flaming furnace.

²Their staff of bread he shattered, in his zeal he reduced them to straits;

³By God's word he shut up the heavens and three times brought down fire.

⁴How awesome are you, ELIJAH! Whose glory is equal to yours?

⁵You brought a dead man back to life from the nether world, by the will of the LORD.

⁶You sent kings down to destruction, and nobles, from their beds of sickness.

⁷You heard threats at Sinai, at Horeb avenging judgments.

⁸You anointed kings who should inflict vengeance, and a prophet as your successor.

⁹You were taken aloft in a whirlwind, in a chariot with fiery horses.

¹⁰You are destined, it is written, in time to come to put an end to wrath before the day of the LORD, To turn back the hearts of fathers toward their sons, and to reestablish the tribes of Jacob.

¹¹Blessed is he who shall have seen you before he dies,

¹²O Elijah, enveloped in the whirlwind! Then ELISHA, filled with a twofold portion of his spirit, wrought many marvels by his mere word. During his lifetime he feared no one, nor was any man able to intimidate his will.

¹³Nothing was beyond his power; beneath him flesh was brought back into life.

¹⁴In life he performed wonders, and after death, marvelous deeds.

¹⁵Despite all this the people did not repent, nor did they give up their sins, Until they were rooted out of their land and scattered all over the earth. But Judah remained, a tiny people, with its rulers from the house of David.

¹⁶Some of these did what was right, but others were extremely sinful.

¹⁷HEZEKIAH fortified his city and had water brought into it; With iron tools he cut through the rock and he built reservoirs for water.

¹⁸During his reign Sennacherib led an invasion and sent his adjutant; He shook his fist at Zion and blasphemed God in his pride.

¹⁹The people's hearts melted within them, and they were in anguish like that of childbirth.

²⁰But they called upon the Most High God and lifted up their hands to him; He heard the prayer they uttered, and saved them through ISAIAH.

²¹God struck the camp of the Assyrians and routed them with a plague.

²²For Hezekiah did what was right and held fast to the paths of David, As ordered by the illustrious prophet Isaiah, who saw the truth in visions.

²³In his lifetime he turned back the sun and prolonged the life of the king.

²⁴By his powerful spirit he looked into the future and consoled the mourners of Zion;

²⁵He foretold what should be till the end of time, hidden things yet to be fulfilled.

49The name JOSIAH is like blended incense, made lasting by a skilled perfumer. Precious is his memory, like honey to the taste, like music at a banquet.

²For he grieved over our betrayals, and destroyed the abominable idols.

³He turned to God with his whole heart, and, though times were evil, he practiced virtue.

⁴Except for David, Hezekiah and Josiah, they all were wicked; They abandoned the Law of the Most High, these kings of Judah, right to the very end.

⁵So he gave over their power to others, their glory to a foolish foreign nation

⁶Who burned the holy city and left its streets desolate, As JEREMIAH had foretold;

⁷for they had treated him badly who even in the womb had been made a prophet, To root out, pull down, and destroy, and then to build and to plant.

⁸EZEKIEL beheld the vision and described the different creatures of the chariot;

⁹He also referred to JOB, who always persevered in the right path.

¹⁰Then, too, the TWELVE PROPHETS-- may their bones return to life from their resting place!-- Gave new strength to Jacob and saved him by their faith and hope.

¹¹How can we fittingly praise ZERUBBABEL, who was like a signet ring on God's right hand,

¹²And Jeshua, Jozadak's son? In their time they built the house of God; They erected the holy temple, destined for everlasting glory.

¹³Extolled be the memory of NEHEMIAH! He rebuilt our ruined walls, Restored our shattered defenses, and set up gates and bars.

¹⁴Few on earth have been made the equal of ENOCH, for he was taken up bodily.

¹⁵Was ever a man born like JOSEPH? Even his dead body was provided for.

¹⁶Glorious, too, were SHEM and SETH and ENOS; but beyond that of any living being was the splendor of ADAM.

50The greatest among his brethren, the glory of his people, was SIMON the priest, son of Jochanan, In whose time the house of God was renovated, in whose days the temple was reinforced.

²In his time also the wall was built with powerful turrets for the temple precincts;

³In his time the reservoir was dug, the pool with a vastness like the sea's.

⁴He protected his people against brigands and strengthened his city against the enemy.

⁵How splendid he was as he appeared from the tent, as he came from within the veil!

⁶Like a star shining among the clouds, like the full moon at the holyday season;

⁷Like the sun shining upon the temple, like the rainbow appearing in the cloudy sky;

⁸Like the blossoms on the branches in springtime, like a lily on the banks of a stream; Like the trees of Lebanon in summer,

⁹like the fire of incense at the sacrifice; Like a vessel of beaten gold, studded with precious stones;

¹⁰Like a luxuriant olive tree thick with fruit, like a cypress standing against the clouds;

¹¹Vested in his magnificent robes, and wearing his garments of splendor, As he ascended the glorious altar and lent majesty to the court of the sanctuary.

¹²When he received the sundered victims from the priests while he stood before the sacrificial wood, His brethren ringed him about like a garland, like a stand of cedars on Lebanon;

¹³All the sons of Aaron in their dignity clustered around him like poplars, With the offerings to the LORD in their hands, in the presence of the whole assembly of Israel.

¹⁴Once he had completed the services at the altar with the arranging of the sacrifices for the Most High,

¹⁵And had stretched forth his hand for the cup, to offer blood of the grape, And poured it out at the foot of the altar, a sweet-smelling odor to the Most High God,

¹⁶The sons of Aaron would sound a blast, the priests, on their trumpets of beaten metal; A blast to resound mightily as a reminder before the Most High.

¹⁷Then all the people with one accord would quickly fall prostrate to the ground In adoration before the Most High, before the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁸Then hymns would re-echo, and over the throng sweet strains of praise resound.

¹⁹All the people of the land would shout for joy, praying to the Merciful One, As the high priest completed the services at the altar by presenting to God the sacrifice due;

²⁰Then coming down he would raise his hands over all the congregation of Israel. The blessing of the LORD would be upon his lips, the name of the LORD would be his glory.

²¹Then again the people would lie prostrate to receive from him the blessing of the Most High.

²²And now, bless the God of all, who has done wondrous things on earth; Who fosters men's growth from their mother's womb, and fashions them according to his will!

²³May he grant you joy of heart and may peace abide among you;

²⁴May his goodness toward us endure in Israel as long as the heavens are above.

²⁵My whole being loathes two nations, the third is not even a people:

²⁶Those who live in Seir and Philistia, and the degenerate folk who dwell in Shechem.

²⁷Wise instruction, appropriate proverbs, I have written in this book, I, Jesus, son of Eleazar, son of Sirach, as they gushed forth from my heart's understanding.

²⁸Happy the man who meditates upon these things, wise the man who takes them to heart!

²⁹If he puts them into practice, he can cope with anything, for the fear of the LORD is his lamp.

51I give you thanks, O God of my father; I praise you, O God my savior! I will make known your name, refuge of my life;

²you have been my helper against my adversaries. You have saved me from death, and kept back my body from the pit, From the clutches of the nether world you have snatched my feet;

³you have delivered me, in your great mercy From the scourge of a slanderous tongue, and from lips that went over to falsehood; From the snare of those who watched for my downfall, and from the power of those who sought my life; From many a danger you have saved me,

⁴from flames that hemmed me in on every side; From the midst of unremitting fire,

⁵From the deep belly of the nether world; From deceiving lips and painters of lies,

⁶from the arrows of dishonest tongues. I was at the point of death, my soul was nearing the depths of the nether world;

⁷I turned every way, but there was no one to help me, I looked for one to sustain me, but could find no one.

⁸But then I remembered the mercies of the LORD, his kindness through ages past; For he saves those who take refuge in him, and rescues them from every evil.

⁹So I raised my voice from the very earth, from the gates of the nether world, my cry.

¹⁰I called out: O Lord, you are my father, you are my champion and my savior; Do not abandon me in time of trouble, in the midst of storms and dangers.

¹¹I will ever praise your name and be constant in my prayers to you. Thereupon the LORD heard my voice, he listened to my appeal;

¹²He saved me from evil of every kind and preserved me in time of trouble. For this reason I thank him and I praise him; I bless the name of the LORD.

¹³When I was young and innocent, I sought wisdom.

¹⁴She came to me in her beauty, and until the end I will cultivate her.

¹⁵As the blossoms yielded to ripening grapes, the heart's joy, My feet kept to the level path because from earliest youth I was familiar with her.

¹⁶In the short time I paid heed, I met with great instruction.

¹⁷Since in this way I have profited, I will give my teacher grateful praise.

¹⁸I became resolutely devoted to her-- the good I persistently strove for.

¹⁹I burned with desire for her, never turning back. I became preoccupied with her, never weary of extolling her. My hand opened her gate and I came to know her secrets.

²⁰For her I purified my hands; in cleanness I attained to her. At first acquaintance with her, I gained understanding such that I will never forsake her.

²¹My whole being was stirred as I learned about her; therefore I have made her my prize possession.

²²The LORD has granted me my lips as a reward, and my tongue will declare his praises.

²³Come aside to me, you untutored, and take up lodging in the house of instruction;

²⁴How long will you be deprived of wisdom's food, how long will you endure such bitter thirst?

²⁵I open my mouth and speak of her: gain, at no cost, wisdom for yourselves.

²⁶Submit your neck to her yoke, that your mind may accept her teaching. For she is close to those who seek her, and the one who is in earnest finds her.

²⁷See for yourselves! I have labored only a little, but have found much.

²⁸Acquire but a little instruction; you will win silver and gold through her.

²⁹Let your spirits rejoice in the mercy of God, and be not ashamed to give him praise.

³⁰Work at your tasks in due season, and in his own time God will give you your reward.

1The vision which Isaiah, son of Amoz, had concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

²Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth, for the LORD speaks: Sons have I raised and reared, but they have disowned me!

³An ox knows its owner, and an ass, its master's manger; But Israel does not know, my people has not understood.

⁴Ah! sinful nation, people laden with wickedness, evil race, corrupt children! They have forsaken the LORD, spurned the Holy One of Israel, apostatized.

⁵Where would you yet be struck, you that rebel again and again? The whole head is sick, the whole heart faint.

⁶From the sole of the foot to the head there is no sound spot: Wound and welt and gaping gash, not drained, or bandaged, or eased with salve.

⁷Your country is waste, your cities burnt with fire; Your land before your eyes strangers devour (a waste, like Sodom overthrown)--

⁸And daughter Zion is left like a hut in a vineyard, Like a shed in a melon patch, like a city blockaded.

⁹Unless the LORD of hosts had left us a scanty remnant, We had become as Sodom, we should be like Gomorrah.

¹⁰Hear the word of the LORD, princes of Sodom! Listen to the instruction of our God, people of Gomorrah!

¹¹What care I for the number of your sacrifices? says the LORD. I have had enough of whole-burnt rams and fat of fatlings; In the blood of calves, lambs and goats I find no pleasure.

¹²When you come in to visit me, who asks these things of you?

¹³Trample my courts no more! Bring no more worthless offerings; your incense is loathsome to me. New moon and sabbath, calling of assemblies, octaves with wickedness: these I cannot bear.

¹⁴Your new moons and festivals I detest; they weigh me down, I tire of the load.

¹⁵When you spread out your hands, I close my eyes to you; Though you pray the more, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood!

¹⁶Wash yourselves clean! Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil;

¹⁷learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan's plea, defend the widow.

¹⁸Come now, let us set things right, says the LORD: Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow; Though they be crimson red, they may become white as wool.

¹⁹If you are willing, and obey, you shall eat the good things of the land;

²⁰But if you refuse and resist, the sword shall consume you: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken!

²¹How has she turned adulteress, the faithful city, so upright! Justice used to lodge within her, but now, murderers.

²²Your silver is turned to dross, your wine is mixed with water.

²³Your princes are rebels and comrades of thieves; Each one of them loves a bribe and looks for gifts. The fatherless they defend not, and the widow's plea does not reach them.

²⁴Now, therefore, says the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: Ah! I will take vengeance on my foes and fully repay my enemies!

²⁵I will turn my hand against you, and refine your dross in the furnace, removing all your alloy.

²⁶I will restore your judges as at first, and your counselors as in the beginning; After that you shall be called city of justice, faithful city.

²⁷Zion shall be redeemed by judgment, and her repentant ones by justice.

²⁸Rebels and sinners alike shall be crushed, those who desert the LORD shall be consumed.

²⁹You shall be ashamed of the terebinths which you prized, and blush for the groves which you chose.

³⁰You shall become like a tree with falling leaves, like a garden that has no water.

³¹The strong man shall turn to tow, and his work shall become a spark; Both shall burn together, and there shall be none to quench the flames.

2This is what Isaiah, son of Amoz, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

²In days to come, The mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills. All nations shall stream toward it;

³many peoples shall come and say: "Come, let us climb the LORD'S mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths." For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

⁴He shall judge between the nations, and impose terms on many peoples. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.

⁵O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!

⁶You have abandoned your people, the house of Jacob, Because they are filled with fortunetellers and soothsayers, like the Philistines; they covenant with strangers.

⁷Their land is full of silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; Their land is full of horses, and there is no end to their chariots.

⁸Their land is full of idols; they worship the works of their hands, that which their fingers have made.

⁹But man is abased, each one brought low. (Do not pardon them!)

¹⁰Get behind the rocks, hide in the dust, From the terror of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty!

¹¹The haughty eyes of man will be lowered, the arrogance of men will be abased, and the LORD alone will be exalted, on that day.

¹²For the LORD of hosts will have his day against all that is proud and arrogant, all that is high, and it will be brought low;

¹³Yes, against all the cedars of Lebanon and all the oaks of Bashan,

¹⁴Against all the lofty mountains and all the high hills,

¹⁵Against every lofty tower and every fortified wall,

¹⁶Against all the ships of Tarshish and all stately vessels.

¹⁷Human pride will be abased, the arrogance of men brought low, And the LORD alone will be exalted, on that day.

¹⁸The idols will perish forever.

¹⁹Men will go into caves in the rocks and into holes in the earth, From the terror of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty, when he arises to overawe the earth.

²⁰On that day men will throw to the moles and the bats the idols of silver and gold which they made for worship.

²¹They go into caverns in the rocks and into crevices in the cliffs, From the terror of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty, when he arises to overawe the earth.

²²As for you, let man alone, in whose nostrils is but a breath; for what is he worth?

3The Lord, the LORD of hosts, shall take away from Jerusalem and from Judah support and prop (all supplies of bread and water):

²Hero and warrior, judge and prophet, fortune-teller and elder,

³The captain of fifty and the nobleman, counselor, skilled magician, and expert charmer.

⁴I will make striplings their princes; the fickle shall govern them,

⁵And the people shall oppress one another, yes, every man his neighbor. The child shall be bold toward the elder, and the base toward the honorable.

⁶When a man seizes his brother in his father's house, saying, "You have clothes! Be our ruler, and take in hand this ruin!"--

⁷Then shall he answer in that day: "I will not undertake to cure this, when in my own house there is no bread or clothing! You shall not make me ruler of the people."

⁸Jerusalem is crumbling, Judah is falling; for their speech and their deeds are before the LORD, a provocation in the sight of his majesty.

⁹Their very look bears witness against them; their sin like Sodom they vaunt, They hide it not. Woe to them! they deal out evil to themselves.

¹⁰Happy the just, for it will be well with them, the fruit of their works they will eat.

¹¹Woe to the wicked man! All goes ill, with the work of his hands he will be repaid.

¹²My people--a babe in arms will be their tyrant, and women will rule them! O my people, your leaders mislead, they destroy the paths you should follow.

¹³The LORD rises to accuse, standing to try his people.

¹⁴The Lord enters into judgment with his people's elders and princes: It is you who have devoured the vineyard; the loot wrested from the poor is in your houses.

¹⁵What do you mean by crushing my people, and grinding down the poor when they look to you? says the Lord, the GOD of hosts.

¹⁶The LORD said: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with necks outstretched Ogling and mincing as they go, their anklets tinkling with every step,

¹⁷The Lord shall cover the scalps of Zion's daughters with scabs, and the LORD shall bare their heads.

¹⁸On that day the LORD will do away with the finery of the anklets, sunbursts, and crescents;

¹⁹the pendants, bracelets, and veils;

²⁰the headdresses, bangles, cinctures, perfume boxes, and amulets;

²¹the signet rings, and the nose rings;

²²the court dresses, wraps, cloaks, and purses;

²³the mirrors, linen tunics, turbans, and shawls.

²⁴Instead of perfume there will be stench, instead of the girdle, a rope, And for the coiffure, baldness; for the rich gown, a sackcloth skirt. Then, instead of beauty:

²⁵Your men will fall by the sword, and your champions, in war;

²⁶Her gates will lament and mourn, as the city sits desolate on the ground.

4Seven women will take hold of one man on that day, saying: "We will eat our own food and wear our own clothing; Only let your name be given us, put an end to our disgrace!"

²On that day, The branch of the LORD will be luster and glory, and the fruit of the earth will be honor and splendor for the survivors of Israel.

³He who remains in Zion and he that is left in Jerusalem Will be called holy: every one marked down for life in Jerusalem.

⁴When the Lord washes away the filth of the daughters of Zion, And purges Jerusalem's blood from her midst with a blast of searing judgment,

⁵Then will the LORD create, over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her place of assembly, A smoking cloud by day and a light of flaming fire by night.

⁶For over all, his glory will be shelter and protection: shade from the parching heat of day, refuge and cover from storm and rain.

5Let me now sing of my friend, my friend's song concerning his vineyard. My friend had a vineyard on a fertile hillside;

²He spaded it, cleared it of stones, and planted the choicest vines; Within it he built a watchtower, and hewed out a wine press. Then he looked for the crop of grapes, but what it yielded was wild grapes.

³Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard:

⁴What more was there to do for my vineyard that I had not done? Why, when I looked for the crop of grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?

⁵Now, I will let you know what I mean to do to my vineyard: Take away its hedge, give it to grazing, break through its wall, let it be trampled!

⁶Yes, I will make it a ruin: it shall not be pruned or hoed, but overgrown with thorns and briers; I will command the clouds not to send rain upon it.

⁷The vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his cherished plant; He looked for judgment, but see, bloodshed! for justice, but hark, the outcry!

⁸Woe to you who join house to house, who connect field with field, Till no room remains, and you are left to dwell alone in the midst of the land!

⁹In my hearing the LORD of hosts has sworn: Many houses shall be in ruins, large ones and fine, with no one to live in them.

¹⁰Ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one liquid measure, And a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah.

¹¹Woe to those who demand strong drink as soon as they rise in the morning, And linger into the night while wine inflames them!

¹²With harp and lyre, timbrel and flute, they feast on wine; But what the LORD does, they regard not, the work of his hands they see not.

¹³Therefore my people go into exile, because they do not understand; Their nobles die of hunger, and their masses are parched with thirst.

¹⁴Therefore the nether world enlarges its throat and opens its maw without limit; Down go their nobility and their masses, their throngs and their revelry.

¹⁵Men shall be abased, each one brought low, and the eyes of the haughty lowered,

¹⁶But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted by his judgment, and God the Holy shall be shown holy by his justice.

¹⁷Lambs shall graze there at pasture, and kids shall eat in the ruins of the rich.

¹⁸Woe to those who tug at guilt with cords of perversity, and at sin as if with cart ropes!

¹⁹To those who say, "Let him make haste and speed his work, that we may see it; On with the plan of the Holy One of Israel! let it come to pass, that we may know it!"

²⁰Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who change darkness into light, and light into darkness, who change bitter into sweet, and sweet into bitter!

²¹Woe to those who are wise in their own sight, and prudent in their own esteem!

²²Woe to the champions at drinking wine, the valiant at mixing strong drink!

²³To those who acquit the guilty for bribes, and deprive the just man of his rights!

²⁴Therefore, as the tongue of fire licks up stubble, as dry grass shrivels in the flame, Even so their root shall become rotten and their blossom scatter like dust; For they have spurned the law of the LORD of hosts, and scorned the word of the Holy One of Israel.

²⁵Therefore the wrath of the LORD blazes against his people, he raises his hand to strike them; When the mountains quake, their corpses shall be like refuse in the streets. For all this, his wrath is not turned back, and his hand is still outstretched.

²⁶He will give a signal to a far-off nation, and whistle to them from the ends of the earth; speedily and promptly will they come.

²⁷None of them will stumble with weariness, none will slumber and none will sleep. None will have his waist belt loose, nor the thong of his sandal broken.

²⁸Their arrows are sharp, and all their bows are bent. The hoofs of their horses seem like flint, and their chariot wheels like the hurricane.

²⁹Their roar is that of the lion, like the lion's whelps they roar; They growl and seize the prey, they carry it off and none will rescue it.

³⁰(They will roar over it, on that day, with a roaring like that of the sea.)

6In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple.

²Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings: with two they veiled their faces, with two they veiled their feet, and with two they hovered aloft.

³"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts!" they cried one to the other. "All the earth is filled with his glory!"

⁴At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook and the house was filled with smoke.

⁵Then I said, "Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"

⁶Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember which he had taken with tongs from the altar.

⁷He touched my mouth with it. "See," he said, "now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged."

⁸Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" "Here I am," I said; "send me!"

⁹And he replied: Go and say to this people: Listen carefully, but you shall not understand! Look intently, but you shall know nothing!

¹⁰You are to make the heart of this people sluggish, to dull their ears and close their eyes; Else their eyes will see, their ears hear, their heart understand, and they will turn and be healed.

¹¹"How long, O Lord?" I asked. And he replied: Until the cities are desolate, without inhabitants, Houses, without a man, and the earth is a desolate waste.

¹²Until the LORD removes men far away, and the land is abandoned more and more.

¹³If there be still a tenth part in it, then this in turn shall be laid waste; As with a terebinth or an oak whose trunk remains when its leaves have fallen. (Holy offspring is the trunk.)

7In the days of Ahaz, king of Judah, son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, Rezin, king of Aram, and Pekah, king of Israel, son of Remaliah, went up to attack Jerusalem, but they were not able to conquer it.

²When word came to the house of David that Aram was encamped in Ephraim, the heart of the king and heart of the people trembled, as the trees of the forest tremble in the wind.

³Then the LORD said to Isaiah: Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway of the fuller's field,

⁴and say to him: Take care you remain tranquil and do not fear; let not your courage fail before these two stumps of smoldering brands (the blazing anger of Rezin and the Arameans, and of the son of Remaliah),

⁵because of the mischief that Aram (Ephraim and the son of Remaliah) plots against you, saying,

⁶"Let us go up and tear Judah asunder, make it our own by force, and appoint the son of Tabeel king there."

⁷Thus says the LORD: This shall not stand, it shall not be!

⁸Damascus is the capital of Aram, and Rezin the head of Damascus; Samaria is the capital of Ephraim, and Remaliah's son the head of Samaria.

⁹But within sixty years and five, Ephraim shall be crushed, no longer a nation. Unless your faith is firm you shall not be firm!

¹⁰Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz:

¹¹Ask for a sign from the LORD, your God; let it be deep as the nether world, or high as the sky!

¹²But Ahaz answered, "I will not ask! I will not tempt the LORD!"

¹³Then he said: Listen, O house of David! Is it not enough for you to weary men, must you also weary my God?

¹⁴Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.

¹⁵He shall be living on curds and honey by the time he learns to reject the bad and choose the good.

¹⁶For before the child learns to reject the bad and choose the good, the land of those two kings whom you dread shall be deserted.

¹⁷The LORD shall bring upon you and your people and your father's house days worse than any since Ephraim seceded from Judah. (This means the king of Assyria.)

¹⁸On that day The LORD shall whistle for the fly that is in the farthest streams of Egypt, and for the bee in the land of Assyria.

¹⁹All of them shall come and settle in the steep ravines and in the rocky clefts, on all thornbushes and in all pastures.

²⁰On that day the LORD shall shave with the razor hired from across the River (with the king of Assyria) the head, and the hair between the legs. It shall also shave off the beard.

²¹On that day a man shall keep a heifer or a couple of sheep,

²²and from their abundant yield of milk he shall live on curds; curds and honey shall be the food of all who remain in the land.

²³On that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand pieces of silver, shall be turned to briers and thorns.

²⁴Men shall go there with bow and arrows; for all the country shall be briers and thorns.

²⁵For fear of briers and thorns you shall not go upon any mountainside which used to be hoed with the mattock; they shall be grazing land for cattle and shall be trampled upon by sheep.

8The LORD said to me: Take a large cylinder-seal, and inscribe on it in ordinary letters: "Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz."

²And I took reliable witnesses, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah, son of Jeberechiah.

³Then I went to the prophetess and she conceived and bore a son. The LORD said to me: Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz,

⁴for before the child knows how to call his father or mother by name, the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be carried off by the king of Assyria.

⁵Again the LORD spoke to me:

⁶Because this people has rejected the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, And melts with fear before the loftiness of Rezin and Remaliah's son,

⁷Therefore the LORD raises against them the waters of the River, great and mighty (the king of Assyria and all his power). It shall rise above all its channels, and overflow all its banks;

⁸It shall pass into Judah, and flood it all throughout: up to the neck it shall reach; It shall spread its wings the full width of your land, Immanuel!

⁹Know, O peoples, and be appalled! Give ear, all you distant lands! Arm, but be crushed! Arm, but be crushed!

¹⁰Form a plan, and it shall be thwarted; make a resolve, and it shall not be carried out, for "With us is God!"

¹¹For thus said the LORD to me, taking hold of me and warning me not to walk in the way of this people:

¹²Call not alliance what this people calls alliance, and fear not, nor stand in awe of what they fear.

¹³But with the LORD of hosts make your alliance-- for him be your fear and your awe.

¹⁴Yet he shall be a snare, an obstacle and a stumbling stone to both the houses of Israel, A trap and a snare to those who dwell in Jerusalem;

¹⁵And many among them shall stumble and fall, broken, snared, and captured.

¹⁶The record is to be folded and the sealed instruction kept among my disciples.

¹⁷For I will trust in the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob; yes, I will wait for him.

¹⁸Look at me and the children whom the Lord has given me: we are signs and portents in Israel from the LORD of hosts who dwells on Mount Zion.

¹⁹And when they say to you, "Inquire of mediums and fortune-tellers (who chirp and mutter!); should not a people inquire of their gods, apply to the dead on behalf of the living?"--

²⁰then this document will furnish its instruction. That kind of thing they will surely say.

²³First he degraded the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali; but in the end he has glorified the seaward road, the land West of the Jordan, the District of the Gentiles. Anguish has taken wing, dispelled is darkness; for there is no gloom where but now there was distress.

9The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; Upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone.

²You have brought them abundant joy and great rejoicing, As they rejoice before you as at the harvest, as men make merry when dividing spoils.

³For the yoke that burdened them, the pole on their shoulder, And the rod of their taskmaster you have smashed, as on the day of Midian.

⁴For every boot that tramped in battle, every cloak rolled in blood, will be burned as fuel for flames.

⁵For a child is born to us, a son is given us; upon his shoulder dominion rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.

⁶His dominion is vast and forever peaceful, From David's throne, and over his kingdom, which he confirms and sustains By judgment and justice, both now and forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this!

⁷The Lord has sent word against Jacob, it falls upon Israel;

⁸And all the people know it, Ephraim and those who dwell in Samaria, those who say in arrogance and pride of heart,

⁹"Bricks have fallen, but we will build with cut stone; Sycamores are felled, but we will replace them with cedars."

¹⁰But the LORD raises up their foes against them and stirs up their enemies to action:

¹¹Aram on the east and the Philistines on the west devour Israel with open mouth. For all this, his wrath is not turned back, and his hand is still outstretched!

¹²The people do not turn to him who struck them, nor seek the LORD of hosts.

¹³So the LORD severs from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed in one day.

¹⁴(The elder and the noble are the head, the prophet who teaches falsehood is the tail.)

¹⁵The leaders of this people mislead them and those to be led are engulfed.

¹⁶For this reason, the Lord does not spare their young men, and their orphans and widows he does not pity; They are wholly profaned and sinful, and every mouth gives vent to folly. For all this, his wrath is not turned back, his hand is still outstretched!

¹⁷For wickedness burns like fire, devouring brier and thorn; It kindles the forest thickets, which go up in columns of smoke.

¹⁸At the wrath of the LORD of hosts the land quakes, and the people are like fuel for fire; No man spares his brother, each devours the flesh of his neighbor.

¹⁹Though they hack on the right, they are hungry; though they eat on the left, they are not filled.

²⁰Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh; together they turn on Judah. For all this, his wrath is not turned back, his hand is still outstretched!

10Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and who write oppressive decrees,

²Depriving the needy of judgment and robbing my people's poor of their rights, Making widows their plunder, and orphans their prey!

³What will you do on the day of punishment, when ruin comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth,

⁴Lest it sink beneath the captive or fall beneath the slain? For all this, his wrath is not turned back, his hand is still outstretched!

⁵Woe to Assyria! My rod in anger, my staff in wrath.

⁶Against an impious nation I send him, and against a people under my wrath I order him To seize plunder, carry off loot, and tread them down like the mud of the streets.

⁷But this is not what he intends, nor does he have this in mind; Rather, it is in his heart to destroy, to make an end of nations not a few.

⁸"Are not my commanders all kings?" he says,

⁹"Is not Calno like Carchemish, Or Hamath like Arpad, or Samaria like Damascus?

¹⁰Just as my hand reached out to idolatrous kingdoms that had more images than Jerusalem and Samaria,

¹¹Just as I treated Samaria and her idols, shall I not do to Jerusalem and her graven images?"

¹²(But when the LORD has brought to an end all his work on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, I will punish the utterance of the king of Assyria's proud heart,

¹³and the boastfulness of his haughty eyes. For he says:) "By my own power I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I am shrewd. I have moved the boundaries of peoples, their treasures I have pillaged, and, like a giant, I have put down the enthroned.

¹⁴My hand has seized like a nest the riches of nations; As one takes eggs left alone, so I took in all the earth; No one fluttered a wing, or opened a mouth, or chirped!"

¹⁵Will the axe boast against him who hews with it? Will the saw exalt itself above him who wields it? As if a rod could sway him who lifts it, or a staff him who is not wood!

¹⁶Therefore the Lord, the LORD of hosts, will send among his fat ones leanness, And instead of his glory there will be kindling like the kindling of fire.

¹⁷The Light of Israel will become a fire, Israel's Holy One a flame, That burns and consumes his briers and his thorns in a single day.

¹⁸His splendid forests and orchards will be consumed, soul and body;

¹⁹And the remnant of the trees in his forest will be so few, Like poles set up for signals, that any boy can record them.

²⁰On that day The remnant of Israel, the survivors of the house of Jacob, will no more lean upon him who struck them; But they lean upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

²¹A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.

²²For though your people, O Israel, were like the sand of the sea, Only a remnant of them will return; their destruction is decreed as overwhelming justice demands.

²³Yes, the destruction he has decreed, the Lord, the GOD of hosts, will carry out within the whole land.

²⁴Therefore thus says the Lord, the GOD of hosts: O my people, who dwell in Zion, do not fear the Assyrian, though he strikes you with a rod, and raises his staff against you.

²⁵For only a brief moment more, and my anger shall be over; but them I will destroy in wrath.

²⁶Then the LORD of hosts will raise against them a scourge such as struck Midian at the rock of Oreb; and he will raise his staff over the sea as he did against Egypt.

²⁷On that day, His burden shall be taken from your shoulder, and his yoke shattered from your neck. He has come up from the direction of Rimmon,

²⁸he has reached Aiath, passed through Migron, at Michmash his supplies are stored.

²⁹They cross the ravine: "We will spend the night at Geba." Ramah is in terror, Gibeah of Saul has fled.

³⁰Cry and shriek, O daughter of Gallim! Hearken, Laishah! Answer her, Anathoth!

³¹Madmenah is in flight, the inhabitants of Gebim seek refuge.

³²Even today he will halt at Nob, he will shake his fist at the mount of daughter Zion, the hill of Jerusalem!

³³Behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, lops off the boughs with terrible violence; The tall of stature are felled, and the lofty ones brought low;

³⁴The forest thickets are felled with the axe, and Lebanon in its splendor falls.

11But a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom.

²The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, A spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD,

³and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD. Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide,

⁴But he shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land's afflicted. He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.

⁵Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.

⁶Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; The calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them.

⁷The cow and the bear shall be neighbors, together their young shall rest; the lion shall eat hay like the ox.

⁸The baby shall play by the cobra's den, and the child lay his hand on the adder's lair.

⁹There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD, as water covers the sea.

¹⁰On that day, The root of Jesse, set up as a signal for the nations, The Gentiles shall seek out, for his dwelling shall be glorious.

¹¹On that day, The Lord shall again take it in hand to reclaim the remnant of his people that is left from Assyria and Egypt, Pathros, Ethiopia, and Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the isles of the sea.

¹²He shall raise a signal to the nations and gather the outcasts of Israel; The dispersed of Judah he shall assemble from the four corners of the earth.

¹³The envy of Ephraim shall pass away, and the rivalry of Judah be removed; Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not be hostile to Ephraim;

¹⁴But they shall swoop down on the foothills of the Philistines to the west, together they shall plunder the Kedemites; Edom and Moab shall be their possessions, and the Ammonites their subjects.

¹⁵The LORD shall dry up the tongue of the Sea of Egypt, and wave his hand over the Euphrates in his fierce anger And shatter it into seven streamlets, so that it can be crossed in sandals.

¹⁶There shall be a highway for the remnant of his people that is left from Assyria, As there was for Israel when he came up from the land of Egypt.

12On that day, you will say: I give you thanks, O LORD; though you have been angry with me, your anger has abated, and you have consoled me.

²God indeed is my savior; I am confident and unafraid. My strength and my courage is the LORD, and he has been my savior.

³With joy you will draw water at the fountain of salvation,

⁴and say on that day: Give thanks to the LORD, acclaim his name; among the nations make known his deeds, proclaim how exalted is his name.

⁵Sing praise to the LORD for his glorious achievement; let this be known throughout all the earth.

⁶Shout with exultation, O city of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel!

13An oracle concerning Babylon; a vision of Isaiah, son of Amoz.

²Upon the bare mountains set up a signal; cry out to them, Wave for them to enter the gates of the volunteers.

³I have commanded my dedicated soldiers, I have summoned my warriors, eager and bold to carry out my anger.

⁴Listen! the rumble on the mountains: that of an immense throng! Listen! the noise of kingdoms, nations assembled! The LORD of hosts is mustering an army for battle.

⁵They come from a far-off country, and from the end of the heavens, The LORD and the instruments of his wrath, to destroy all the land.

⁶Howl, for the day of the LORD is near; as destruction from the Almighty it comes.

⁷Therefore all hands fall helpless, the bows of the young men fall from their hands. Every man's heart melts

⁸in terror. Pangs and sorrows take hold of them, like a woman in labor they writhe; They look aghast at each other, their faces aflame.

⁹Lo, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and burning anger; To lay waste the land and destroy the sinners within it!

¹⁰The stars and constellations of the heavens send forth no light; The sun is dark when it rises, and the light of the moon does not shine.

¹¹Thus I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their guilt. I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant, the insolence of tyrants I will humble.

¹²I will make mortals more rare than pure gold, men, than gold of Ophir.

¹³For this I will make the heavens tremble and the earth shall be shaken from its place, At the wrath of the LORD of hosts on the day of his burning anger.

¹⁴Like a hunted gazelle, or a flock that no one gathers, Every man shall turn to his kindred and flee to his own land.

¹⁵Everyone who is caught shall be run through; to a man, they shall fall by the sword.

¹⁶Their infants shall be dashed to pieces in their sight; their houses shall be plundered and their wives ravished.

¹⁷I am stirring up against them the Medes, who think nothing of silver and take no delight in gold.

¹⁸The fruit of the womb they shall not spare, nor shall they have eyes of pity for children.

¹⁹And Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the glory and pride of the Chaldeans, Shall be overthrown by God like Sodom and like Gomorrah.

²⁰She shall never be inhabited, nor dwelt in, from age to age; The Arab shall not pitch his tent there, nor shepherds couch their flocks.

²¹But wildcats shall rest there and owls shall fill the houses; There ostriches shall dwell, and satyrs shall dance.

²²Desert beasts shall howl in her castles, and jackals in her luxurious palaces. Her time is near at hand and her days shall not be prolonged.

14When the LORD has pity on Jacob and again chooses Israel and settles them on their own soil, the aliens will join them and be counted with the house of Jacob.

²The house of Israel will take them and bring them along to its place, and possess them as male and female slaves on the Lord's soil, making captives of its captors and ruling over its oppressors.

³On the day the LORD relieves you of sorrow and unrest and the hard service in which you have been enslaved,

⁴you will take up this taunt-song against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has reached his end! how the turmoil is stilled!

⁵The LORD has broken the rod of the wicked, the staff of the tyrants

⁶That struck the peoples in wrath relentless blows; That beat down the nations in anger, with oppression unchecked.

⁷The whole earth rests peacefully, song breaks forth;

⁸The very cypresses rejoice over you, and the cedars of Lebanon: "Now that you are laid to rest, there will be none to cut us down."

⁹The nether world below is all astir preparing for your coming; It awakens the shades to greet you, all the leaders of the earth; It has the kings of all nations rise from their thrones.

¹⁰All of them speak out and say to you, "You too have become weak like us, you are the same as we.

¹¹Down to the nether world your pomp is brought, the music of your harps. The couch beneath you is the maggot, your covering, the worm."

¹²How have you fallen from the heavens, O morning star, son of the dawn! How are you cut down to the ground, you who mowed down the nations!

¹³You said in your heart: "I will scale the heavens; Above the stars of God I will set up my throne; I will take my seat on the Mount of Assembly, in the recesses of the North.

¹⁴I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will be like the Most High!"

¹⁵Yet down to the nether world you go to the recesses of the pit!

¹⁶When they see you they will stare, pondering over you: "Is this the man who made the earth tremble, and kingdoms quake?

¹⁷Who made the world a desert, razed its cities, and gave his captives no release?

¹⁸All the kings of the nations lie in glory, each in his own tomb;

¹⁹But you are cast forth without burial, loathsome and corrupt, Clothed as those slain at sword-point, a trampled corpse. Going down to the pavement of the pit,

²⁰you will never be one with them in the grave." For you have ruined your land, you have slain your people! Let him not be named forever, that scion of an evil race!

²¹Make ready to slaughter his sons for the guilt of their fathers; Lest they rise and possess the earth, and fill the breadth of the world with tyrants.

²¹He shall pass through it hard-pressed and hungry, and in his hunger he shall become enraged, and curse his king and his gods. He shall look upward, but there shall be strict darkness without any dawn;

²²I will rise up against them, says the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, progeny and offspring, says the LORD.

²²He shall gaze at the earth, but there shall be distress and darkness, with the light blacked out by its clouds.

²³I will make it a haunt of hoot owls and a marshland; I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, says the LORD of hosts.

²⁴The LORD of hosts has sworn: As I have resolved, so shall it be; As I have proposed, so shall it stand:

²⁵I will break the Assyrian in my land and trample him on my mountains;

²⁵Then his yoke shall be removed from them, and his burden from their shoulder.

²⁶This is the plan proposed for the whole earth, and this the hand outstretched over all nations.

²⁷The LORD of hosts has planned; who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out; who can turn it back?

²⁸In the year that King Ahaz died, there came this oracle:

²⁹Rejoice not, O Philistia, not a man of you, that the rod which smote you is broken; For out of the serpent's root shall come an adder, its fruit shall be a flying saraph.

³⁰In my pastures the poor shall eat, and the needy lie down in safety; But I will kill your root with famine that shall slay even your remnant.

³¹Howl, O gate; cry out, O city! Philistia, all of you melts away! For there comes a smoke from the north, without a straggler in the ranks.

³²What will one answer the messengers of the nation? "The LORD has established Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people find refuge."

15Oracle on Moab: Laid waste in a night, Ar of Moab is destroyed; Laid waste in a night, Kir of Moab is destroyed.

²Up goes daughter Dibon to the high places to weep; Over Nebo and over Medeba Moab wails. Every head is shaved, every beard sheared off.

³In the streets they wear sackcloth, lamenting and weeping; On the rooftops and in the squares everyone wails.

⁴Heshbon and Elealeh cry out, they are heard as far as Jahaz. At this the loins of Moab tremble, his soul quivers within him;

⁵The heart of Moab cries out, his fugitives reach Zoar (Eglath-shelishiyah). The ascent of Luhith they climb weeping; On the way to Horonaim they utter rending cries.

⁶The waters of Nimrim have become a waste; The grass is withered, new growth is gone, nothing is green.

⁷So now whatever they have acquired or stored away they carry across the Gorge of the Poplars,

⁸For the cry has gone round the land of Moab; As far as Eglaim the wailing, and to Beer-elim, the wail.

⁹The waters of Dimon are filled with blood, but I will bring still more upon Dimon: Lions for those who are fleeing from Moab and for those who remain in the land!

16Send them forth, hugging the earth like reptiles, from Sela across the desert, to the mount of daughter Zion.

²Like flushed birds, like startled nestlings, Are the daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon.

³Offer counsel, take their part: at high noon let your shadow be like the night, To hide the outcasts, to conceal the fugitives.

⁴Let the outcasts of Moab live with you, be their shelter from the destroyer. When the struggle is ended, the ruin complete, and they have done with trampling the land,

⁵A throne shall be set up in mercy, and on it shall sit in fidelity (in David's tent) A judge upholding right and prompt to do justice.

⁶We have heard of the pride of Moab, how very proud he is, With his haughty, arrogant insolence that his empty words do not match.

⁷Therefore Moab wails for Moab, everywhere they wail; For the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth they sigh, stricken with grief.

⁸The terraced slopes of Heshbon languish, the vines of Sibmah, Whose clusters overpowered the lords of nations, While they reached as far as Jazer and scattered over the desert, And whose branches spread forth and extended over the sea.

⁹Therefore I weep with Jazer for the vines of Sibmah; I water you with tears, Heshbon and Elealeh; For on your summer fruits and harvests the battle cry has fallen.

¹⁰From the orchards are taken away joy and gladness, In the vineyards there is no singing, no shout of joy; In the wine presses no one treads grapes, the vintage shout is stilled.

¹¹Therefore for Moab my breast moans like a lyre, and my heart for Kir-hareseth.

¹²When Moab grows weary on the high places, he shall enter his sanctuary to pray, but it shall avail him nothing.

¹³This is the word the LORD spoke against Moab in times past.

¹⁴But now the LORD has spoken: In three years, like those of a hireling, the glory of Moab shall be degraded despite all its great multitude; there shall be a remnant, very small and weak.

17Oracle on Damascus: Lo, Damascus shall cease to be a city and become a ruin;

²Her cities shall be forever abandoned, given over to flocks to lie in undisturbed.

³The fortress shall be lost to Ephraim and the kingdom to Damascus; The remnant of Aram shall have the same glory as the Israelites, says the LORD of hosts.

⁴On that day The glory of Jacob shall fade, and his full body grow thin,

⁵Like the reaper's mere armful of stalks when he gathers the standing grain; Or as when one gleans the ears in the Valley of Rephaim.

⁶Only a scattering of grapes shall be left! As when an olive tree has been beaten, Two or three olives remain at the very top, four or five on its fruitful branches, says the LORD, the God of Israel.

⁷On that day man shall look to his maker, his eyes turned toward the Holy One of Israel.

⁸He shall not look to the altars, his handiwork, nor shall he regard what his fingers have made: the sacred poles or the incense stands.

⁹On that day his strong cities shall be like those abandoned by the Hivites and Amorites When faced with the children of Israel: they shall be laid waste.

¹⁰For you have forgotten God, your savior, and remembered not the Rock, your strength. Therefore, though you plant your pagan plants and set out your foreign vine slips,

¹¹Though you make them grow the day you plant them and make your sprouts blossom on the next morning, The harvest shall disappear on the day of the grievous blow, the incurable blight.

¹²Ah! the roaring of many peoples that roar like the roar of the seas! The surging of nations that surge like the surging of mighty waves!

¹³But God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far away; Windswept, like chaff on the mountains, like tumbleweed in a storm.

¹⁴In the evening, they spread terror, before morning, they are gone! Such is the portion of those who despoil us, the lot of those who plunder us.

18Ah, land of buzzing insects, beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,

²Sending ambassadors by sea, in papyrus boats on the waters! Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and bronzed, To a people dreaded near and far, a nation strong and conquering, whose land is washed by rivers.

³All you who inhabit the world, who dwell on earth, When the signal is raised on the mountain, look! When the trumpet blows, listen!

⁴For thus says the LORD to me: I will quietly look on from where I dwell, Like the glowing heat of sunshine, like a cloud of dew at harvest time.

⁵Before the vintage, when the flowering is ended, and the blooms are succeeded by ripening grapes, Then comes the cutting of branches with pruning hooks and the discarding of the lopped-off shoots.

⁶They shall all be left to the mountain birds of prey, and to the beasts in the land; The birds of prey shall summer on them and on them all the beasts of the earth shall winter.

⁷Then will gifts be brought to the LORD of hosts from a people tall and bronzed, from a people dreaded near and far, a nation strong and conquering, whose land is washed by rivers-to Mount Zion where dwells the name of the LORD of hosts.

19Oracle on Egypt: See, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud on his way to Egypt; The idols of Egypt tremble before him, the hearts of the Egyptians melt within them.

²I will rouse Egypt against Egypt: brother will war against brother, Neighbor against neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kindgom.

³The courage of the Egyptians ebbs away within them, and I will bring to nought their counsel; They shall consult idols and charmers, ghosts and spirits.

⁴I will deliver Egypt into the power of a cruel master, A harsh king who shall rule over them, says the Lord, the LORD of hosts.

⁵The waters shall be drained from the sea, the river shall shrivel and dry up;

⁶Its streams shall become foul, and the canals of Egypt shall dwindle and dry up. Reeds and rushes shall wither away,

⁷and bulrushes on the bank of the Nile; All the sown land along the Nile shall dry up and blow away, and be no more.

⁸The fishermen shall mourn and lament, all who cast hook in the Nile; Those who spread their nets in the water shall pine away.

⁹The linen-workers shall be disappointed, the combers and weavers shall turn pale;

¹⁰The spinners shall be crushed, all the hired laborers shall be despondent.

¹¹Utter fools are the princes of Zoan! the wisest of Pharaoh's advisers give stupid counsel. How can you say to Pharaoh, "I am a disciple of wise men, of ancient kings"?

¹²Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you and make known What the LORD of hosts has planned against Egypt.

¹³The princes of Zoan have become fools, the princes of Memphis have been deceived. The chiefs of her tribes have led Egypt astray.

¹⁴The LORD has prepared among them a spirit of dizziness, And they have made Egypt stagger in whatever she does, as a drunkard staggers in his vomit.

¹⁵Egypt shall have no work to do for head or tail, palm branch or reed.

¹⁶On that day the Egyptians shall be like women, trembling with fear, because of the LORD of hosts shaking his fist at them.

¹⁷And the land of Judah shall be a terror to the Egyptians. Every time they remember Judah, they shall stand in dread because of the plan which the LORD of hosts has in mind for them.

¹⁸On that day there shall be five cities in the land of Egypt speaking the language of Canaan and swearing by the LORD of hosts; one shall be called "City of the Sun."

¹⁹On that day there shall be an altar to the LORD in the land of Egypt, and a sacred pillar to the LORD near the boundary.

²⁰It shall be a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt, when they cry out to the LORD against their oppressors, and he sends them a savior to defend and deliver them.

²¹The LORD shall make himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the LORD in that day; they shall offer sacrifices and oblations, and fulfill the vows they make to the LORD.

²²Although the LORD shall smite Egypt severely, he shall heal them; they shall turn to the LORD and he shall be won over and heal them.

²³On that day there shall be a highway from Egypt to Assyria; the Assyrians shall enter Egypt, and the Egyptians enter Assyria, and Egypt shall serve Assyria.

²⁴On that day Israel shall be a third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the land,

²⁵when the LORD of hosts blesses it: "Blessed be my people Egypt, and the work of my hands Assyria, and my inheritance, Israel."

20In the year the general sent by Sargon, king of Assyria, fought against Ashdod and captured it,

²the LORD gave a warning through Isaiah, the son of Amoz: Go and take off the sackcloth from your waist, and remove the sandals from your feet. This he did, walking naked and barefoot.

³Then the LORD said: Just as my servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and portent against Egypt and Ethiopia,

⁴so shall the king of Assyria lead away captives from Egypt, and exiles from Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered (the shame of Egypt).

⁵They shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Ethiopia, their hope, and because of Egypt, their boast.

⁶The inhabitants of this coastland shall say on that day, "Look at our hope! We have fled here for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria; where can we flee now?"

21Oracle on the wastelands by the sea: Like whirlwinds sweeping in waves through the Negeb, there comes from the desert, from the fearful land,

²A cruel sight, revealed to me: the traitor betrays, the despoiler spoils. "Go up, Elam; besiege, O Media; I will put an end to all groaning!"

³Therefore my loins are filled with anguish, pangs have seized me like those of a woman in labor; I am too bewildered to hear, too dismayed to look.

⁴My mind reels, shuddering assails me; My yearning for twilight has turned into dread.

⁵They set the table, spread out the rugs; they eat, they drink. Rise up, O princes, oil the shield!

⁶For thus says my Lord to me: Go, station a watchman, let him tell what he sees.

⁷If he sees a chariot, a pair of horses, Someone riding an ass, someone riding a camel, Then let him pay heed, very close heed.

⁸Then the watchman cried, "On the watchtower, O my Lord, I stand constantly by day; And I stay at my post through all the watches of the night.

⁹Here he comes now: a single chariot, a pair of horses; He calls out and says, 'Fallen, fallen is Babylon, And all the images of her gods are smashed to the ground.'"

¹⁰O my people who have been threshed, beaten on my threshing floor! What I have heard from the LORD of hosts, The God of Israel, I have announced to you.

¹¹Oracle on Edom: They call to me from Seir, "Watchman, how much longer the night? Watchman, how much longer the night?"

¹²The watchman replies, "Morning has come, and again night. If you will ask, ask; come back again."

¹³Oracle on Arabia: In the thicket in the nomad country spend the night, O caravans of Dedanites.

¹⁴Meet the thirsty, bring them water; you who dwell in the land of Tema, greet the fugitives with bread.

¹⁵They flee from the sword, from the whetted sword; From the taut bow, from the fury of battle.

¹⁶For thus says the Lord to me: In another year, like those of a hireling, all the glory of Kedar shall come to an end.

¹⁷Few of Kedar's stalwart archers shall remain, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.

22Oracle of the Valley of Vision: What is the matter with you now, that you have gone up, all of you, to the housetops,

²O city full of noise and chaos, O wanton town! Your slain are not slain with the sword, nor killed in battle.

³All your leaders fled away together, fled afar off; All who were in you were captured together, captured without the use of a bow.

⁴At this I say: Turn away from me, let me weep bitterly; Do not try to comfort me for the ruin of the daughter of my people.

⁵It is a day of panic, rout and confusion, from the Lord, the GOD of hosts, in the Valley of Vision. Walls crash; they cry for help to the mountains.

⁶Elam takes up the quivers, Aram mounts the horses, and Kir uncovers the shields.

⁷Your choice valleys are filled with chariots, and horses are posted at the gates,

⁸and shelter over Judah is removed. On that day you looked to the weapons in the House of the Forest;

⁹you saw that the breaches in the City of David were many; you collected the water of the lower pool.

¹⁰You numbered the houses of Jerusalem, tearing some down to strengthen the wall;

¹¹you made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to the city's Maker, nor did you consider him who built it long ago.

¹²On that day the Lord, the GOD of hosts, called on you To weep and mourn, to shave your head and put on sackcloth.

¹³But look! you feast and celebrate, you slaughter oxen and butcher sheep, You eat meat and drink wine: "Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!"

¹⁴This reaches the ears of the LORD of hosts-- You shall not be pardoned this wickedness till you die, says the Lord, the GOD of hosts.

¹⁵Thus says the Lord, the GOD of hosts: Up, go to that official, Shebna, master of the palace,

¹⁶Who has hewn for himself a sepulcher on a height and carved his tomb in the rock: "What are you doing here, and what people have you here, that here you have hewn for yourself a tomb?"

¹⁷The LORD shall hurl you down headlong, mortal man! He shall grip you firmly

¹⁸And roll you up and toss you like a ball into an open land To perish there, you and the chariots you glory in, you disgrace to your master's house!

¹⁹I will thrust you from your office and pull you down from your station.

²⁰On that day I will summon my servant Eliakim, son of Hilkiah;

²¹I will clothe him with your robe, and gird him with your sash, and give over to him your authority. He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.

²²I will place the key of the House of David on his shoulder; when he opens, no one shall shut, when he shuts, no one shall open.

²³I will fix him like a peg in a sure spot, to be a place of honor for his family;

²⁴On him shall hang all the glory of his family: descendants and offspring, all the little dishes, from bowls to jugs.

²⁵On that day, says the LORD of hosts, the peg fixed in a sure spot shall give way, break off and fall, and the weight that hung on it shall be done away with; for the LORD has spoken.

23Oracle on Tyre: Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your port is destroyed; From the land of the Kittim the news reaches them.

²Silence! you who dwell on the coast, you merchants of Sidon, Whose messengers crossed the sea

³over the deep waters. The grain of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue, and she the merchant among nations.

⁴Shame, O Sidon, fortress on the sea, for the sea has spoken: "I have not been in labor, nor given birth, nor raised young men, nor reared virgins."

⁵When it is heard in Egypt they shall be in anguish at the news of Tyre.

⁶Pass over to Tarshish, wailing, you who dwell on the coast!

⁷Is this your wanton city, whose origin is from old, Whose feet have taken her to dwell in distant lands?

⁸Who has planned such a thing against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, Whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the earth's honored men?

⁹The LORD of hosts has planned it, to disgrace all pride of majesty, to degrade all the earth's honored men.

¹⁰Cross to your own land, O ship of Tarshish; the harbor is no more.

¹¹His hand he stretches out over the sea, he shakes kingdoms; The LORD has ordered the destruction of Canaan's strongholds.

¹²You shall exult no more, he says, you who are now oppressed, virgin daughter Sidon. Arise, pass over to the Kittim, even there you shall find no rest.

¹³(This people is the land of the Chaldeans, not Assyria.) She whom the impious founded, setting up towers for her, Has had her castles destroyed, and has been turned into a ruin.

¹⁴Lament, O ships of Tarshish, for your haven is destroyed.

¹⁵On that day, Tyre shall be forgotten for seventy years. With the days of another king, at the end of seventy years, it shall be for Tyre as in the song about the harlot:

¹⁶Take a harp, go about the city, O forgotten harlot; Pluck the strings skillfully, sing many songs, that they may remember you.

¹⁷At the end of the seventy years the LORD shall visit Tyre. She shall return to her hire and deal with all the world's kingdoms on the face of the earth.

¹⁸But her merchandise and her hire shall be sacred to the LORD. It shall not be stored up or laid away, but from her merchandise those who dwell before the LORD shall eat their fill and clothe themselves in choice attire.

24Lo, the LORD empties the land and lays it waste; he turns it upside down, scattering its inhabitants:

²Layman and priest alike, servant and master, The maid as her mistress, the buyer as the seller, The lender as the borrower, the creditor as the debtor.

³The earth is utterly laid waste, utterly stripped, for the LORD has decreed this thing.

⁴The earth mourns and fades, the world languishes and fades; both heaven and earth languish.

⁵The earth is polluted because of its inhabitants, who have transgressed laws, violated statutes, broken the ancient covenant.

⁶Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants pay for their guilt; Therefore they who dwell on earth turn pale, and few men are left.

⁷The wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted groan.

⁸Stilled are the cheerful timbrels, ended the shouts of the jubilant, stilled is the cheerful harp.

⁹They cannot sing and drink wine; strong drink is bitter to those who partake of it.

¹⁰Broken down is the city of chaos, shut against entry, every house.

¹¹In the streets they cry out for lack of wine; all joy has disappeared and cheer has left the land.

¹²In the city nothing remains but ruin; its gates are battered and desolate.

¹³Thus it is within the land, and among the peoples, As with an olive tree after it is beaten, as with a gleaning when the vintage is done.

¹⁴These lift up their voice in acclaim; from the sea they proclaim the majesty of the LORD:

¹⁵"For this, in the coastlands, give glory to the LORD! In the coastlands of the sea, to the name of the LORD, the God of Israel!"

¹⁶From the end of the earth we hear songs: "Splendor to the Just One!" But I said, "I am wasted, wasted away. Woe is me! The traitors betray: with treachery have the traitors betrayed!

¹⁷Terror, pit, and trap are upon you, inhabitant of the earth;

¹⁸He who flees at the sound of terror will fall into the pit; He who climbs out of the pit will be caught in the trap. For the windows on high will be opened and the foundations of the earth will shake.

¹⁹The earth will burst asunder, the earth will be shaken apart, the earth will be convulsed.

²⁰The earth will reel like a drunkard, and it will sway like a hut; Its rebellion will weigh it down, until it falls, never to rise again."

²¹On that day the LORD will punish the host of the heavens in the heavens, and the kings of the earth on the earth.

²²They will be gathered together like prisoners into a pit; They will be shut up in a dungeon, and after many days they will be punished.

²³Then the moon will blush and the sun grow pale, For the LORD of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, glorious in the sight of his elders.

25O LORD, you are my God, I will extol you and praise your name; For you have fulfilled your wonderful plans of old, faithful and true.

²For you have made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin; The castle of the insolent is a city no more, nor ever to be rebuilt.

³Therefore a strong people will honor you, fierce nations will fear you.

⁴For you are a refuge to the poor, a refuge to the needy in distress; Shelter from the rain, shade from the heat. As with the cold rain,

⁵as with the desert heat, even so you quell the uproar of the wanton.

⁶On this mountain the LORD of hosts will provide for all peoples A feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.

⁷On this mountain he will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, The web that is woven over all nations;

⁸he will destroy death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces; The reproach of his people he will remove from the whole earth; for the LORD has spoken.

⁹On that day it will be said: "Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us! This is the LORD for whom we looked; let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!"

¹⁰For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain, but Moab will be trodden down as a straw is trodden down in the mire.

¹¹He will stretch forth his hands in Moab as a swimmer extends his hands to swim; He will bring low their pride as his hands sweep over them.

¹²The high-walled fortress he will raze, and strike it down level with the earth, with the very dust.

26On that day they will sing this song in the land of Judah: "A strong city have we; he sets up walls and ramparts to protect us.

²Open up the gates to let in a nation that is just, one that keeps faith.

³A nation of firm purpose you keep in peace; in peace, for its trust in you."

⁴Trust in the LORD forever! For the LORD is an eternal Rock.

⁵He humbles those in high places, and the lofty city he brings down; He tumbles it to the ground, levels it with the dust.

⁶It is trampled underfoot by the needy, by the footsteps of the poor.

⁷The way of the just is smooth; the path of the just you make level.

⁸Yes, for your way and your judgments, O LORD, we look to you; Your name and your title are the desire of our souls.

⁹My soul yearns for you in the night, yes, my spirit within me keeps vigil for you; When your judgment dawns upon the earth, the world's inhabitants learn justice.

¹⁰The wicked man, spared, does not learn justice; in an upright land he acts perversely, and sees not the majesty of the LORD.

¹¹O LORD, your hand is uplifted, but they behold it not; Let them be shamed when they see your zeal for your people: let the fire prepared for your enemies consume them.

¹²O LORD, you mete out peace to us, for it is you who have accomplished all we have done.

¹³O LORD, our God, other lords than you have ruled us; it is from you only that we can call upon your name.

¹⁴Dead they are, they have no life, shades that cannot rise; For you have punished and destroyed them, and wiped out all memory of them.

¹⁵You have increased the nation, O LORD, increased the nation to your own glory, and extended far all the borders of the land.

¹⁶O LORD, oppressed by your punishment, we cried out in anguish under your chastising.

¹⁷As a woman about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pains, so were we in your presence, O LORD.

¹⁸We conceived and writhed in pain, giving birth to wind; Salvation we have not achieved for the earth, the inhabitants of the world cannot bring it forth.

¹⁹But your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise; awake and sing, you who lie in the dust. For your dew is a dew of light, and the land of shades gives birth.

²⁰Go, my people, enter your chambers, and close your doors behind you; Hide yourselves for a brief moment, until the wrath is past.

²¹See, the LORD goes forth from his place, to punish the wickedness of the earth's inhabitants; The earth will reveal the blood upon her, and no longer conceal her slain.

27On that day, The LORD will punish with his sword that is cruel, great, and strong, Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the coiled serpent; and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.

²On that day-- The pleasant vineyard, sing about it!

³I, the LORD, am its keeper, I water it every moment; Lest anyone harm it, night and day I guard it.

⁴I am not angry, but if I were to find briers and thorns, In battle I should march against them; I should burn them all.

⁵Or shall he cling to me for refuge? He must make peace with me; peace shall he make with me!

⁶In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall sprout and blossom, covering all the world with fruit.

⁷Is he to be smitten as his smiter was smitten? or slain as his slayer was slain?

⁸Expunging and expelling, I should strive against them, carrying them off with my cruel wind in time of storm.

⁹This, then, shall be the expiation of Jacob's guilt, this the whole fruit of the removal of his sin: He shall pulverize all the stones of the altars like pieces of chalk; no sacred poles or incense altars shall stand.

¹⁰For the fortified city shall be desolate, an abandoned pasture, a forsaken wilderness, where calves shall browse and lie. Its boughs shall be destroyed,

¹¹its branches shall wither and be broken off, and women shall come to build a fire with them. This is not an understanding people; therefore their maker shall not spare them, nor shall he who formed them have mercy on them.

¹²On that day, The LORD shall beat out the grain between the Euphrates and the Wadi of Egypt, and you shall be gleaned one by one, O sons of Israel.

¹³On that day, A great trumpet shall blow, and the lost in the land of Assyria and the outcasts in the land of Egypt Shall come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain, in Jerusalem.

28Woe to the majestic garland of the drunkard Ephraim, To the fading blooms of his glorious beauty, on the head of him who is stupefied with wine.

²Behold, the LORD has a strong one and a mighty, who, like a downpour of hail, a destructive storm, Like a flood of water, great and overflowing, levels to the ground with violence;

³With feet that will trample the majestic garland of the drunkard Ephraim.

⁴The fading blooms of his glorious beauty on the head of the fertile valley Will be like an early fig before summer: when a man sees it, he picks and swallows it at once.

⁵On that day the LORD of hosts will be a glorious crown And a brilliant diadem to the remnant of his people,

⁶A spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, And strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

⁷But these also stagger from wine and stumble from strong drink: Priest and prophet stagger from strong drink, overpowered by wine; Led astray by strong drink, staggering in their visions, tottering when giving judgment.

⁸Yes, all the tables are covered with filthy vomit, with no place left clean.

⁹"To whom would he impart knowledge? To whom would he convey the message? To those just weaned from milk, those taken from the breast?

¹⁰For he says, 'Command on command, command on command, rule on rule, rule on rule, here a little, there a little!'"

¹¹Yes, with stammering lips and in a strange language he will speak to this people

¹²to whom he said: This is the resting place, give rest to the weary; Here is repose-- but they would not listen.

¹³So for them the word of the LORD shall be: "Command on command, command on command, Rule on rule, rule on rule, here a little, there a little!" So that when they walk, they stumble backward, broken, ensnared, and captured.

¹⁴Therefore, hear the word of the LORD, you arrogant, who rule this people in Jerusalem:

¹⁵Because you say, "We have made a covenant with death, and with the nether world we have made a pact; When the overwhelming scourge passes, it will not reach us; For we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have found a hiding place,"--

¹⁶Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD: See, I am laying a stone in Zion, a stone that has been tested, A precious cornerstone as a sure foundation; he who puts his faith in it shall not be shaken.

¹⁷I will make of right a measuring line, of justice a level.-- Hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters shall flood the hiding place.

¹⁸Your covenant with death shall be canceled and your pact with the nether world shall not stand. When the overwhelming scourge passes, you shall be trampled down by it.

¹⁹Whenever it passes, it shall take you; morning after morning it shall pass, By day and by night; terror alone shall convey the message.

²⁰For the bed shall be too short to stretch out in, and the cover too narrow to wrap in.

²¹For the LORD shall rise up as on Mount Perazim, bestir himself as in the Valley of Gibeon, To carry out his work, his singular work, to perform his deed, his strange deed.

²²Now, be arrogant no more lest your bonds be tightened, For I have heard from the Lord, the GOD of hosts, the destruction decreed for the whole earth.

²³Give ear and hear my voice, pay attention and listen to what I say:

²⁴Is the plowman forever plowing, always loosening and harrowing his land for planting?

²⁵When he has leveled the surface, does he not scatter gith and sow cumin, Put in wheat and barley, with spelt as its border?

²⁶He has learned this rule, instructed by his God.

²⁷Gith is not threshed with a sledge, nor does a cartwheel roll over cumin. But gith is beaten out with a staff, and cumin crushed for food with a rod.

²⁸No, he does not thresh it unendingly, nor does he crush it with his noisy cartwheels and horses.

²⁹This too comes from the LORD of hosts; wonderful is his counsel and great his wisdom.

29Woe to Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year, let the feasts come round.

²But I will bring distress upon Ariel, with mourning and grief. You shall be to me like Ariel,

³I will encamp like David against you; I will encircle you with outposts and set up siege works against you.

⁴Prostrate you shall speak from the earth, and from the base dust your words shall come. Your voice shall be like a ghost's from the earth, and your words like chirping from the dust.

⁵The horde of your arrogant shall be like fine dust, the horde of the tyrants like flying chaff. Then suddenly, in an instant,

⁶you shall be visited by the LORD of hosts, With thunder, earthquake, and great noise, whirlwind, storm, and the flame of consuming fire.

⁷Then like a dream, a vision in the night, Shall be the horde of all the nations who war against Ariel with all the earthworks of her besiegers.

⁸As when a hungry man dreams he is eating and awakens with an empty stomach, Or when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking and awakens faint and dry, So shall the horde of all the nations be, who make war against Zion.

⁹Be irresolute, stupefied; blind yourselves and stay blind! Be drunk, but not from wine, stagger, but not from strong drink!

¹⁰For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. He has shut your eyes (the prophets) and covered your heads (the seers).

¹¹For you the revelation of all this has become like the words of a sealed scroll. When it is handed to one who can read, with the request, "Read this," he replies, "I cannot; it is sealed."

¹²When it is handed to one who cannot read, with the request, "Read this," he replies, "I cannot read."

¹³The Lord said: Since this people draws near with words only and honors me with their lips alone, though their hearts are far from me, And their reverence for me has become routine observance of the precepts of men,

¹⁴Therefore I will again deal with this people in surprising and wondrous fashion: The wisdom of its wise men shall perish and the understanding of its prudent men be hid.

¹⁵Woe to those who would hide their plans too deep for the LORD! Who work in the dark, saying, "Who sees us, or who knows us?"

¹⁶Your perversity is as though the potter were taken to be the clay: As though what is made should say of its maker, "He made me not!" Or the vessel should say of the potter, "He does not understand."

¹⁷But a very little while, and Lebanon shall be changed into an orchard, and the orchard be regarded as a forest!

¹⁸On that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book; And out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see.

¹⁹The lowly will ever find joy in the LORD, and the poor rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

²⁰For the tyrant will be no more and the arrogant will have gone; All who are alert to do evil will be cut off,

²¹those whose mere word condemns a man, Who ensnare his defender at the gate, and leave the just man with an empty claim.

²²Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of the house of Jacob, who redeemed Abraham: Now Jacob shall have nothing to be ashamed of, nor shall his face grow pale.

²³When his children see the work of my hands in his midst, They shall keep my name holy; they shall reverence the Holy One of Jacob, and be in awe of the God of Israel.

²⁴Those who err in spirit shall acquire understanding, and those who find fault shall receive instruction.

30Woe to the rebellious children, says the LORD, Who carry out plans that are not mine, who weave webs that are not inspired by me, adding sin upon sin.

²They go down to Egypt, but my counsel they do not seek. They find their strength in Pharaoh's protection and take refuge in Egypt's shadow;

³Pharaoh's protection shall be your shame, and refuge in Egypt's shadow your disgrace.

⁴When their princes are at Zoan and their messengers reach Hanes,

⁵All shall be ashamed of a people that gain them nothing, Neither help nor benefit, but only shame and reproach.

⁶(Oracle on the Beasts of the Negeb) Through the distressed and troubled land of the lioness and roaring lion, of the viper and flying saraph, They carry their riches on the backs of asses and their treasures on the humps of camels To a people good for nothing,

⁷to Egypt whose help is futile and vain. Therefore I call her "Rahab quelled."

⁸Now come, write it on a tablet they can keep, inscribe it in a record; That it may be in future days an eternal witness:

⁹This is a rebellious people, deceitful children, Children who refuse to obey the law of the LORD.

¹⁰They say to the seers, "Have no visions"; to the prophets, "Do not descry for us what is right; speak flatteries to us, conjure up illusions.

¹¹Out of the way! Out of our path! Let us hear no more of the Holy One of Israel."

¹²Therefore, thus says the Holy One of Israel: Because you reject this word, And put your trust in what is crooked and devious, and depend on it,

¹³This guilt of yours shall be like a descending rift Bulging out in a high wall whose crash comes suddenly, in an instant.

¹⁴It crashes like a potter's jar smashed beyond rescue, And among its fragments cannot be found a sherd to scoop fire from the hearth or dip water from the cistern.

¹⁵For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel: By waiting and by calm you shall be saved, in quiet and in trust your strength lies. But this you did not wish.

¹⁶"No," you said, "Upon horses we will flee." --Very well, flee! "Upon swift steeds we will ride." --Not so swift as your pursuers.

¹⁷A thousand shall tremble at the threat of one; if five threaten you, you shall flee, Until you are left like a flagstaff on the mountaintop, like a flag on the hill.

¹⁸Yet the LORD is waiting to show you favor, and he rises to pity you; For the LORD is a God of justice: blessed are all who wait for him!

¹⁹O people of Zion, who dwell in Jerusalem, no more will you weep; He will be gracious to you when you cry out, as soon as he hears he will answer you.

²⁰The Lord will give you the bread you need and the water for which you thirst. No longer will your Teacher hide himself, but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher,

²¹While from behind, a voice shall sound in your ears: "This is the way; walk in it," when you would turn to the right or to the left.

²²And you shall consider unclean your silver-plated idols and your gold-covered images; You shall throw them away like filthy rags to which you say, "Begone!"

²³He will give rain for the seed that you sow in the ground, And the wheat that the soil produces will be rich and abundant. On that day your cattle will graze in spacious meadows;

²⁴The oxen and the asses that till the ground will eat silage tossed to them with shovel and pitchfork.

²⁵Upon every high mountain and lofty hill there will be streams of running water. On the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall,

²⁶The light of the moon will be like that of the sun and the light of the sun will be seven times greater (like the light of seven days). On the day the LORD binds up the wounds of his people, he will heal the bruises left by his blows.

²⁷See the name of the LORD coming from afar in burning wrath, with lowering clouds! His lips are filled with fury, his tongue is like a consuming fire;

²⁸His breath, like a flood in a ravine that reaches suddenly to the neck, Will winnow the nations with a destructive winnowing, and with repeated winnowings will he battle against them (and a bridle on the jaws of the peoples to send them astray).

²⁹You will sing as on a night when a feast is observed, And be merry of heart, as one marching along with a flute Toward the mountain of the LORD, toward the Rock of Israel, accompanied by the timbrels and lyres.

³⁰The LORD will make his glorious voice heard, and let it be seen how his arm descends In raging fury and flame of consuming fire, in driving storm and hail.

³¹When the LORD speaks, Assyria will be shattered, as he strikes with the rod;

³²While at every sweep of the rod which the LORD will bring down on him in punishment,

³³For the pyre has long been ready, prepared for the king; Broad and deep it is piled with dry grass and wood in abundance, And the breath of the LORD, like a stream of sulphur, will set it afire.

31Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who depend upon horses: Who put their trust in chariots because of their number, and in horsemen because od their combined power, But look not to the Holy One of Israel nor seek the LORD!

²Yet he too is wise and will bring disaster; he will not turn from what he has threatened to do. He will rise up against the house of the wicked and against those who help evildoers.

³The Egyptians are men, not God, their horses are flesh, not spirit; When the LORD stretches forth his hand, the helper shall stumble, the one helped shall fall, and both of them shall perish together.

⁴Thus says the LORD to me: As a lion or a lion cub growling over its prey, With a band of shepherds assembled against it, Is neither frightened by their shouts nor disturbed by their noise, So shall the LORD of hosts come down to wage war upon the mountain and hill of Zion.

⁵Like hovering birds, so the LORD of hosts shall shield Jerusalem, To protect and deliver, to spare and rescue it.

⁶Return, O children of Israel, to him whom you have utterly deserted.

⁷On that day each one of you shall spurn his sinful idols of shlver and gold, which he made with his hands.

⁸Assyria shall fall by a sword not wielded by man,. no mortal sword shall devour him; He shall flee before the sword, and his young men shall be impressed as laborers.

⁸He shall rush past his crag in panic, and his princes shall flee in terror from his standard, Says the LORD who has a fire in Zion and a furnace in Jerusalem.

32See, a king will reign justly and princes will rule rightly.

²Each of them will be a shelter from the wind, a retreat from the rain. They will be like streams of water in a dry country, like the shade of a great rock in a parched land.

³The eyes of those who see will not be closed;. the ears of those who hear will be attentive,

⁴The flighty will become wise and capable, and the stutterers will speak fluently and clearly.

⁴No more will the fool be called noble, nor the trickster be considered honorable,

⁶For the fool speaks foolishly, planning evil in his heart:. How to do wickedness, to speak perversely against the LORD, To let the hungry go empty and the thirsty be without drink,

⁷And the trickster uses wicked trickery, planning crimes: How to ruin the poor with lies, and the needy when they plead their case.

⁸But the noble man plans noble things, and by noble things he stands.

⁹O complacent ladies, rise up and hear my voice, overconfident women, give heed to my words.

¹⁰In a little more than a year you overconfident ones will be shaken; The vintage will fail, there will be no harvest.

¹¹Tremble, you who are complacent! Shudder, you who are overconfident! Strip yourselves bare, with only a loincloth to cover you,

¹²Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, the fruitful vine,

¹³And the soil of my people, overgrown whth thorns and briers; For all the joyful houses, the wanton city.

¹⁴Yes, the castle will be forsaken, the noisy city deserted;

¹⁵Until the spirit from on high is poured out on us. Then will the desert become an orchard and the orchard be regarded as a forest.

¹⁶Right will dwell in the desert and justice abide in the orchard.

¹⁷Justice will bring about peace; right will produce calm and security.

¹⁸My people will live in peaceful country, in secure dwellings and quiet resting places.

¹⁹Down it comes, as trees come down in the forest! The city will be utterly laid low. Hill and tower will become wasteland forever for wild asses to frolic in, and flocks to pasture,

²⁰Happy are you who sow beside every stream, and let the ox and the ass go freely!

33Woe, O destroyer never destroyed, O traitor never betrayed! When you finish destroying, you will be destroyed; when wearied with betraying, you will be betrayed.

²O LORD, have pity on us, for you we wait. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of trouble!

³At the roaring sound, peoples flee; when you rise in your majesty, nations are scattered.

⁴Men gather spoil as caterpillars are gathered up; they rush upon it like the onrush of locusts.

⁵The LORD is exalted, enthroned on high; he fills Zion with right and justice.

⁶That which makes her seasons lasting, the riches that save her, are wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is her treasure.

⁷See, the men of Ariel cry out in the streets, the messengers of Shalem weep bitterly.

⁸The highways are desolate, travelers have quit the paths, Covenants are broken, their terms are spurned; yet no man gives it a thought.

⁹The country languishes in mourning, Lebanon withers with shame; Sharon is like the steppe, Bashan and Carmel are stripped bare.

¹⁰Now will I rise up, says the LORD, now will I be exalted, now be lifted up.

¹¹You conceive dry grass, bring forth stubble; my spirit shall consume you like fire.

¹²The peoples shall be as in a limekiln, like brushwood cut down for burning in the fire.

¹³Hear, you who are far off, what I have done; you who are near, acknowledge my might.

¹⁴On Zion sinners are in dread, trembling grips the impious: "Who of us can live with the consuming fire? who of us can live with the everlasting flames?"

¹⁵He who practices virtue and speaks honestly, who spurns what is gained by oppression, Brushing his hands free of contact with a bribe, stopping his ears lest he hear of bloodshed, closing his eyes lest he look on evil--

¹⁶He shall dwell on the heights, his stronghold shall be the rocky fastness, his food and drink in steady supply.

¹⁷Your eyes will see a king in his splendor, they will look upon a vast land.

¹⁸Your mind will dwell on the terror: "Where is he who counted, where is he who weighed? Where is he who counted the towers?"

¹⁹To the people of alien tongue you will look no more, the people of obscure speech, stammering in a language not understood.

²⁰Look to Zion, the city of our festivals; let your eyes see Jerusalem as a quiet abode, a tent not to be struck, Whose pegs will never be pulled up, nor any of its ropes severed.

²¹In a place of rivers and wide streams on which no boat is rowed, where no majestic ship passes,

²²Indeed the LORD will be there with us, majestic; yes, the LORD our judge, the LORD our lawgiver, the LORD our king, he it is who will save us.

²³The rigging hangs slack; it cannot hold the mast in place, nor keep the sail spread out. Then the blind will divide great spoils and the lame will carry off the loot.

²⁴No one who dwells there will say, "I am sick"; the people who live there will be forgiven their guilt.

34Come near, O nations, and hear; be attentive, O peoples! Let the earth and what fills it listen, the world and all it produces.

²The LORD is angry with all the nations and is wrathful against all their host; he has doomed them and given them over to slaughter.

³Their slain shall be cast out, their corpses shall send up a stench; The mountains shall run with their blood,

⁴and all the hills shall rot; The heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll, and all their host shall wither away, As the leaf wilts on the vine, or as the fig withers on the tree.

⁵When my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens, lo, it shall come down in judgment upon Edom, a people I have doomed.

⁶The LORD has a sword filled with blood, greasy with fat, With the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of rams' kidneys; For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

⁷Wild oxen shall be struck down with fatlings, and bullocks with bulls; Their land shall be soaked with blood, and their earth greasy with fat.

⁸For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of requital by Zion's defender.

⁹Edom's streams shall be changed into pitch and her earth into sulphur, and her land shall become burning pitch;

¹⁰Night and day it shall not be quenched, its smoke shall rise forever. From generation to generation she shall lie waste, never again shall anyone pass through her.

¹¹But the desert owl and hoot owl shall possess her, the screech owl and raven shall dwell in her. The LORD will measure her with line and plummet to be an empty waste for satyrs to dwell in.

¹²Her nobles shall be no more, nor shall kings be proclaimed there; all her princes are gone.

¹³Her castles shall be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She shall become an abode for jackals and a haunt for ostriches.

¹⁴Wildcats shall meet with desert beasts, satyrs shall call to one another; There shall the lilith repose, and find for herself a place to rest.

¹⁵There the hoot owl shall nest and lay eggs, hatch them out and gather them in her shadow; There shall the kites assemble, none shall be missing its mate.

¹⁶Look in the book of the LORD and read: No one of these shall be lacking, For the mouth of the LORD has ordered it, and his spirit shall gather them there.

¹⁷It is he who casts the lot for them, and with his hands he marks off their shares of her; They shall possess her forever, and dwell there from generation to generation.

35The desert and the parched land will exult; the steppe will rejoice and bloom.

²They will bloom with abundant flowers, and rejoice with joyful song. The glory of Lebanon will be given to them, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; They will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God.

³Strengthen the hands that are feeble, make firm the knees that are weak,

⁴Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes with vindication; With divine recompense he comes to save you.

⁵Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared;

⁶Then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the dumb will sing. Streams will burst forth in the desert, and rivers in the steppe.

⁷The burning sands will become pools, and the thirsty ground, springs of water; The abode where jackals lurk will be a marsh for the reed and papyrus.

⁸A highway will be there, called the holy way; No one unclean may pass over it, nor fools go astray on it.

⁹No lion will be there, nor beast of prey go up to be met upon it. It is for those with a journey to make, and on it the redeemed will walk.

¹⁰Those whom the LORD has ransomed will return and enter Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy; They will meet with joy and gladness, sorrow and mourning will flee.

36In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, went on an expedition against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

²From Lachish the king of Assyria sent his commander with a great army to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. When he stopped at the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway of the fuller's field,

³there came out to him the master of the palace, Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, and Shebna the scribe, and the herald Joah, son of Asaph.

⁴The commander said to them, "Tell King Hezekiah: Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, 'On what do you base this confidence of yours?

⁵Do you think mere words substitute for strategy and might in war? On whom, then, do you rely, that you rebel against me?

⁶This Egypt, the staff on which you rely, is in fact a broken reed which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it. That is what Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is to all who rely on him.

⁷But if you say to me: "We rely on the LORD, our God," is not he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, commanding Judah and Jerusalem to worship before this altar?'

⁸"Now, make a wager with my lord the king of Assyria: 'I will give you two thousand horses, if you can put riders on them.'

⁹How then can you repulse even one of the least servants of my lord? And yet you rely on Egypt for chariots and horsemen!

¹⁰'Was it without the LORD'S will that I have come up to destroy this land? The LORD said to me, "Go up and destroy that land!"'"

¹¹Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to the commander, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic; we understand it. Do not speak to us in Judean within earshot of the people who are on the wall."

¹²But the commander replied, "Was it to you and your master that my lord sent me to speak these words? Was it not rather to the men sitting on the wall, who, with you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?"

¹³Then the commander stepped forward and cried out in a loud voice in Judean, "Listen to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.

¹⁴Thus says the king: 'Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, since he cannot deliver you.

¹⁵Let not Hezekiah induce you to rely on the LORD, saying, "The LORD will surely save us; this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria."'

¹⁶Do not listen to Hezekiah, for the king of Assyria says: 'Make peace with me and surrender! Then each of you will eat of his own vine and of his own fig tree, and drink the water of his own cistern,

¹⁷until I come to take you to a land like your own, a land of grain and wine, of bread and vineyards.

¹⁸Do not let Hezekiah seduce you by saying, "The LORD will save us." Has any of the gods of the nations ever rescued his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

¹⁹Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Where are the gods of Samaria? Have they saved Samaria from my hand?

²⁰Which of all the gods of these lands ever rescued his land from my hand? Will the LORD then save Jerusalem from my hand?'"

²¹But they remained silent and did not answer him one word, for the king had ordered them not to answer him.

²²Then the master of the palace, Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, Shebna the scribe, and the herald Joah, son of Asaph, came to Hezekiah with their garments torn, and reported to him what the commander had said.

37When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his garments, wrapped himself in sackcloth, and went into the temple of the LORD.

²He sent Eliakim, the master of the palace, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, wrapped in sackcloth, to tell the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz:

³"Thus says Hezekiah: 'This is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace. Children are at the point of birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth.

⁴Perhaps the LORD, your God, will hear the words of the commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God, and will rebuke him for the words which the LORD, your God, has heard. Send up a prayer for the remnant that is here.'"

⁵When the servants of King Hezekiah had come to Isaiah,

⁶he said to them: "Tell this to your master: 'Thus says the LORD: Do not be frightened by the words you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

⁷I am about to put in him such a spirit that, when he hears a certain report, he will return to his own land, and there I will cause him to fall by the sword.'"

⁸When the commander returned to Lachish and heard that the king of Assyria had left there, he found him besieging Libnah.

⁹The king of Assyria heard a report that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, had come out to fight against him. Again he sent envoys to Hezekiah with this message: "Thus shall you say to Hezekiah, king of Judah:

¹⁰'Do not let your God on whom you rely deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.

¹¹You yourself have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries: They doomed them! Will you, then, be saved?

¹²Did the gods of the nations whom my fathers destroyed save them? Gozen, Haran, Rezeph, and the Edenites in Telassar?

¹³Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, or a king of the cities of Sepharvaim, Hena or Ivvah?'"

¹⁴Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; then he went up to the temple of the LORD, and spreading it out before him,

¹⁵he prayed to the LORD:

¹⁶"O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned upon the cherubim! You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made the heavens and the earth.

¹⁷Incline your ear, O LORD, and listen! Open your eyes, O LORD and see! Hear all the words of the letter that Sennacherib sent to taunt the living God.

¹⁸Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands,

¹⁹and cast their gods into the fire; they destroyed them because they were not gods but the work of human hands, wood and stone.

²⁰Therefore, O LORD, our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O LORD, alone are God."

²¹Then Isaiah, son of Amoz, sent this message to Hezekiah: Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: In answer to your prayer for help against Sennacherib, king of Assyria,

²²this is the word the LORD has spoken concerning him: She despises you, laughs you to scorn, the virgin daughter Zion; Behind you she wags her head, daughter Jerusalem.

²³Whom have you insulted and blasphemed, against whom have you raised your voice And lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel!

²⁴Through your servants you have insulted the Lord: You said, "With my many chariots I climbed the mountain heights, the recesses of Lebanon; I cut down its lofty cedars, its choice cypresses; I reached the remotest heights, its forest park.

²⁵I dug wells and drank water in foreign lands; I dried up with the soles of my feet all the rivers of Egypt.

²⁶Have you not heard? Long ago I prepared it, From days of old I planned it, now I have brought it to pass: That you should reduce fortified cities into heaps of ruins,

²⁷While their inhabitants, shorn of power, are dismayed and ashamed, Becoming like the plants of the field, like the green growth, like the scorched grass on the housetops.

²⁸I am aware whether you stand or sit; I know whether you come or go, and also your rage against me.

²⁹Because of your rage against me and your fury which has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and make you return the way you came.

³⁰This shall be a sign for you: this year you shall eat the aftergrowth, next year, what grows of itself; But in the third year, sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit!

³¹The remaining survivors of the house of Judah shall again strike root below and bear fruit above.

³²For out of Jerusalem shall come a remnant, and from Mount Zion, survivors. The zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.

³³Therefore, thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not reach this city, nor shoot an arrow at it, nor come before it with a shield, nor cast up siegeworks against it.

³⁴He shall return by the same way he came, without entering the city, says the LORD.

³⁵I will shield and save this city for my own sake, and for the sake of my servant David.

³⁶The angel of the LORD went forth and struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. Early the next morning, there they were, all the corpses of the dead.

³⁷So Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, broke camp and went back home to Nineveh.

³⁸When he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer slew him with the sword and fled into the land of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon reigned in his stead.

38In those days, when Hezekiah was mortally ill, the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, came and said to him: "Thus says the LORD: Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you shall not recover."

²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD:

³"O LORD, remember how faithfully and wholeheartedly I conducted myself in your presence, doing what was pleasing to you!" And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah:

⁵"Go, tell Hezekiah: Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will heal you: in three days you shall go up to the LORD'S temple; I will add fifteen years to your life.

⁶I will rescue you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; I will be a shield to this city."

⁷(Isaiah answered:) "This will be the sign for you from the LORD that he will do what he has promised:

⁸See, I will make the shadow cast by the sun on the stairway to the terrace of Ahaz go back the ten steps it has advanced." So the sun came back the ten steps it had advanced.

⁹The song of Hezekiah, king of Judah, after he had been sick and had recovered from his illness:

¹⁰Once I said, "In the noontime of life I must depart! To the gates of the nether world I shall be consigned for the rest of my years."

¹¹I said, "I shall see the LORD no more in the land of the living. No longer shall I behold my fellow men among those who dwell in the world."

¹²My dwelling, like a shepherd's tent, is struck down and borne away from me; You have folded up my life, like a weaver who severs the last thread. Day and night you give me over to torment;

¹³I cry out until the dawn. Like a lion he breaks all my bones; (day and night you give me over to torment).

¹⁴Like a swallow I utter shrill cries; I moan like a dove. My eyes grow weak, gazing heavenward: O Lord, I am in straits; be my surety!

¹⁵What am I to say or tell him? He has done it! I shall go on through all my years despite the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁶Those live whom the LORD protects; yours. . . the life of my spirit. You have given me health and life;

¹⁷thus is my bitterness transformed into peace. You have preserved my life from the pit of destruction, When you cast behind your back all my sins.

¹⁸For it is not the nether world that gives you thanks, nor death that praises you; Neither do those who go down into the pit await your kindness.

¹⁹The living, the living give you thanks, as I do today. Fathers declare to their sons, O God, your faithfulness.

²⁰The LORD is our savior; we shall sing to stringed instruments In the house of the LORD all the days of our life.

²¹Isaiah then ordered a poultice of figs to be taken and applied to the boil, that he might recover.

²²Then Hezekiah asked, "What is the sign that I shall go up to the temple of the LORD?"

39At that time when Merodach-baladan, son of Baladan, king of Babylon, heard that Hezekiah had recovered from his sickness, he sent letters and gifts to him.

²Hezekiah was pleased at this, and therefore showed the messengers his treasury, the silver and gold, the spices and fine oil, his whole armory, and everything that was in his storerooms; there was nothing in his house or in his whole realm that he did not show them.

³Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and asked him, "What did these men say to you? Where did they come from?" Hezekiah answered, "They came to me from a distant land, from Babylon."

⁴"What did they see in your house?" he asked. Hezekiah replied, "They saw everything in my house; there is nothing in my storerooms that I did not show them."

⁵Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the LORD of hosts:

⁶Behold, the days shall come when all that is in your house, and everything that your fathers have stored up until this day, shall be carried off to Babylon; nothing shall be left, says the LORD.

⁷Some of your own bodily descendants shall be taken and made servants in the palace of the king of Babylon."

⁸Hezekiah replied to Isaiah, "The word of the LORD which you have spoken is favorable." For he thought, "There will be peace and security in my lifetime."

40Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God.

²Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated; Indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins.

³A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!

⁴Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; The rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley.

⁵Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all mankind shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

⁶A voice says, "Cry out!" I answer, "What shall I cry out?" "All mankind is grass, and all their glory like the flower of the field.

⁶One man helps another, one says to the other, "Keep on!"

⁷The grass withers, the flower wilts, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it. (So then, the people is the grass.)

⁷The craftsman encourages the goldsmith, the one who beats with the hammer, him who strikes on the anvil; He says the soldering is good, and he fastens it with nails to steady it.

⁸Though the grass withers and the flower wilts, the word of our God stands forever."

⁹Go up onto a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings; Cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news! Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Judah: Here is your God!

¹⁰Here comes with power the Lord GOD, who rules by his strong arm; Here is his reward with him, his recompense before him.

¹¹Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, Carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care.

¹²Who has cupped in his hand the waters of the sea, and marked off the heavens with a span? Who has held in a measure the dust of the earth, weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?

¹³Who has directed the spirit of the LORD, or has instructed him as his counselor?

¹⁴Whom did he consult to gain knowledge? Who taught him the path of judgment, or showed him the way of understanding?

¹⁵Behold, the nations count as a drop in the bucket, as dust on the scales; the coastlands weigh no more than powder.

¹⁶Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor its animals be enough for holocausts.

¹⁷Before him all the nations are as nought, as nothing and void he accounts them.

¹⁸To whom can you liken God? With what equal can you confront him?

¹⁹An idol, cast by a craftsman, which the smith plates with gold and fits with silver chains?

²⁰Mulberry wood, the choice portion which a skilled craftsman picks out for himself, Choosing timber that will not rot, to set up an idol that will not be unsteady?

²¹Do you not know? Have you not heard? Was it not foretold you from the beginning? Have you not understood? Since the earth was founded

²²He sits enthroned above the vault of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; He stretches out the heavens like a veil, spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.

²³He brings princes to nought and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.

²⁴Scarcely are they planted or sown, scarcely is their stem rooted in the earth, When he breathes upon them and they wither, and the stormwind carries them away like straw.

²⁵To whom can you liken me as an equal? says the Holy One.

²⁶Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these: He leads out their army and numbers them, calling them all by name. By his great might and the strength of his power not one of them is missing!

²⁷Why, O Jacob, do you say, and declare, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God"?

²⁸Do you not know or have you not heard? The LORD is the eternal God, creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint nor grow weary, and his knowledge is beyond scrutiny.

²⁹He gives strength to the fainting; for the weak he makes vigor abound.

³⁰Though young men faint and grow weary, and youths stagger and fall,

³¹They that hope in the LORD will renew their strength, they will soar as with eagles' wings; They will run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint.

41Keep silence before me, O coastlands; you peoples, wait for my words! Let them draw near and speak; let us come together for judgment.

²Who has stirred up from the East the champion of justice, and summoned him to be his attendant? To him he delivers the nations and subdues the kings; With his sword he reduces them to dust, with his bow, to driven straw.

³He pursues them, passing on without loss, by a path his feet do not even tread.

⁴Who has performed these deeds? He who has called forth the generations since the beginning. I, the LORD, am the first, and with the last I will also be.

⁵The coastlands see, and fear; the ends of the earth tremble: these things are near, they come to pass.

⁸But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, offspring of Abraham my friend--

⁹You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth and summoned from its far-off places, You whom I have called my servant, whom I have chosen and will not cast off--

¹⁰Fear not, I am with you; be not dismayed; I am your God. I will strengthen you, and help you, and uphold you with my right hand of justice.

¹¹Yes, all shall be put to shame and disgrace who vent their anger against you; Those shall perish and come to nought who offer resistance.

¹²You shall seek out, but shall not find, those who strive against you; They shall be as nothing at all who do battle with you.

¹³For I am the LORD, your God, who grasp your right hand; It is I who say to you, "Fear not, I will help you."

¹⁴Fear not, O worm Jacob, O maggot Israel; I will help you, says the LORD; your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵I will make of you a threshing sledge, sharp, new, and double-edged, To thresh the mountains and crush them, to make the hills like chaff.

¹⁶When you winnow them, the wind shall carry them off and the storm shall scatter them. But you shall rejoice in the LORD, and glory in the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁷The afflicted and the needy seek water in vain, their tongues are parched with thirst. I, the LORD, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

¹⁸I will open up rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the broad valleys; I will turn the desert into a marshland, and the dry ground into springs of water.

¹⁹I will plant in the desert the cedar, acacia, myrtle, and olive; I will set in the wasteland the cypress, together with the plane tree and the pine,

²⁰That all may see and know, observe and understand, That the hand of the LORD has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.

²¹Present your case, says the LORD; bring forward your reasons, says the King of Jacob.

²²Let them come near and foretell to us what it is that shall happen! What are the things of long ago? Tell us, that we may reflect on them And know their outcome; or declare to us the things to come!

²³Foretell the things that shall come afterward, that we may know that you are gods! Do something, good or evil, that will put us in awe and in fear.

²⁴Why, you are nothing and your work is nought! To choose you is an abomination.

²⁵I have stirred up one from the north, and he comes; from the east I summon him by name; He shall trample the rulers down like red earth, as the potter treads the clay.

²⁶Who announced this from the beginning, that we might know; beforehand, that we might say it is true? Not one of you foretold it, not one spoke; no one heard you say,

²⁷"The first news for Zion: they are coming now," or, "For Jerusalem I will pick out a bearer of the glad tidings."

²⁸When I look, there is not one, no one of them to give counsel, to make an answer when I question them.

²⁹Ah, all of them are nothing, their works are nought, their idols are empty wind!

42Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased, Upon whom I have put my spirit; he shall bring forth justice to the nations,

²Not crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in the street.

³A bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering wick he shall not quench,

⁴Until he establishes justice on the earth; the coastlands will wait for his teaching.

⁵Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spreads out the earth with its crops, Who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk on it:

⁶I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice, I have grasped you by the hand; I formed you, and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations,

⁷To open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.

⁸I am the LORD, this is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols.

⁹See, the earlier things have come to pass, new ones I now foretell; Before they spring into being, I announce them to you.

¹⁰Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise from the end of the earth: Let the sea and what fills it resound, the coastlands, and those who dwell in them.

¹¹Let the steppe and its cities cry out, the villages where Kedar dwells; Let the inhabitants of Sela exult, and shout from the top of the mountains.

¹²Let them give glory to the LORD, and utter his praise in the coastlands.

¹³The LORD goes forth like a hero, like a warrior he stirs up his ardor; He shouts out his battle cry, against his enemies he shows his might:

¹⁴I have looked away, and kept silence, I have said nothing, holding myself in; But now, I cry out as a woman in labor, gasping and panting.

¹⁵I will lay waste mountains and hills, all their herbage I will dry up; I will turn the rivers into marshes, and the marshes I will dry up.

¹⁶I will lead the blind on their journey; by paths unknown I will guide them. I will turn darkness into light before them, and make crooked ways straight. These things I do for them, and I will not forsake them.

¹⁷They shall be turned back in utter shame who trust in idols; Who say to molten images, "You are our gods."

¹⁸You who are deaf, listen, you who are blind, look and see!

¹⁹Who is blind but my servant, or deaf like the messenger I send?

²⁰You see many things without taking note; your ears are open, but without hearing.

²¹Though it pleased the LORD in his justice to make his law great and glorious,

²²This is a people despoiled and plundered, all of them trapped in holes, hidden away in prisons. They are taken as booty, with no one to rescue them, as spoil, with no one to demand their return.

²³Who of you gives ear to this? Who listens and pays heed for the time to come?

²⁴Who was it that gave Jacob to be plundered, Israel to the despoilers? Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned? In his ways they refused to walk, his law they disobeyed.

²⁵So he poured out wrath upon them, his anger, and the fury of battle; It blazed round about them, yet they did not realize, it burned them, but they took it not to heart.

43But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, and formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name: you are mine.

²When you pass through the water, I will be with you; in the rivers you shall not drown. When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned; the flames shall not consume you.

³For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in return for you.

⁴Because you are precious in my eyes and glorious, and because I love you, I give men in return for you and peoples in exchange for your life.

⁵Fear not, for I am with you; from the east I will bring back your descendants, from the west I will gather you.

⁶I will say to the north: Give them up! and to the south: Hold not back! Bring back my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth:

⁷Everyone who is named as mine, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.

⁸Lead out the people who are blind though they have eyes, who are deaf though they have ears.

⁹Let all the nations gather together, let the peoples assemble! Who among them could have revealed this, or foretold to us the earlier things? Let them produce witnesses to prove themselves right, that one may hear and say, "It is true!"

¹⁰You are my witnesses, says the LORD, my servants whom I have chosen To know and believe in me and understand that it is I. Before me no god was formed, and after me there shall be none.

¹¹It is I, I the LORD; there is no savior but me.

¹²It is I who foretold, I who saved; I made it known, not any strange god among you; You are my witnesses, says the LORD. I am God,

¹³yes, from eternity I am He; There is none who can deliver from my hand: who can countermand what I do?

¹⁴Thus says the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sakes I send to Babylon; I will lower all the bars, and the Chaldeans shall cry out in lamentation.

¹⁵I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King.

¹⁶Thus says the LORD, who opens a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters,

¹⁷Who leads out chariots and horsemen, a powerful army, Till they lie prostrate together, never to rise, snuffed out and quenched like a wick.

¹⁸Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not;

¹⁹See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the desert I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers.

²⁰Wild beasts honor me, jackals and ostriches, For I put water in the desert and rivers in the wasteland for my chosen people to drink,

²¹The people whom I formed for myself, that they might announce my praise.

²²Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob, for you grew weary of me, O Israel.

²³You did not bring me sheep for your holocausts, nor honor me with your sacrifices. I did not exact from you the service of offerings, nor weary you for frankincense.

²⁴You did not buy me sweet cane for money, nor fill me with the fat of your sacrifices; Instead, you burdened me with your sins, and wearied me with your crimes.

²⁵It is I, I, who wipe out, for my own sake, your offenses; your sins I remember no more.

²⁶Would you have me remember, have us come to trial? Speak up, prove your innocence!

²⁷Your first father sinned; your spokesmen rebelled against me

²⁸Till I repudiated the holy gates, put Jacob under the ban, and exposed Israel to scorn.

44Hear then, O Jacob, my servant, Israel, whom I have chosen.

²Thus says the LORD who made you, your help, who formed you from the womb: Fear not, O Jacob, my servant, the darling whom I have chosen.

³I will pour out water upon the thirsty ground, and streams upon the dry land; I will pour out my spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing upon your descendants.

⁴They shall spring up amid the verdure like poplars beside the flowing waters.

⁵One shall say, "I am the LORD'S," another shall be named after Jacob, And this one shall write on his hand, "The LORD'S," and Israel shall be his surname.

⁶Thus says the LORD, Israel's King and redeemer, the LORD of hosts: I am the first and I am the last; there is no God but me.

⁷Who is like me? Let him stand up and speak, make it evident, and confront me with it. Who of old announced future events? Let them foretell to us the things to come.

⁸Fear not, be not troubled: did I not announce and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses! Is there a God or any Rock besides me?

⁹Idol makers all amount to nothing, and their precious works are of no avail, as they themselves give witness. To their shame, they neither see nor know anything; and they are more deaf than men are.

¹⁰Indeed, all the associates of anyone who forms a god, or casts an idol to no purpose, will be put to shame;

¹¹they will all assemble and stand forth, to be reduced to fear and shame.

¹²The smith fashions an iron image, works it over the coals, shapes it with hammers, and forges it with his strong arm. He is hungry and weak, drinks no water and becomes exhausted.

¹³The carpenter stretches a line and marks with a stylus the outline of an idol. He shapes it with a plane and measures it off with a compass, making it like a man in appearance and dignity, to occupy a shrine.

¹⁴He cuts down cedars, takes a holm or an oak, and lays hold of other trees of the forest, which the Lord had planted and the rain made grow

¹⁵to serve man for fuel. With a part of their wood he warms himself, or makes a fire for baking bread; but with another part he makes a god which he adores, an idol which he worships.

¹⁶Half of it he burns in the fire, and on its embers he roasts his meat; he eats what he has roasted until he is full, and then warms himself and says, "Ah! I am warm, I feel the fire."

¹⁷Of what remains he makes a god, his idol, and prostrate before it in worship, he implores it, "Rescue me, for you are my god."

¹⁸The idols have neither knowledge nor reason; their eyes are coated so that they cannot see, and their hearts so that they cannot understand.

¹⁹Yet he does not reflect, nor have the intelligence and sense to say, "Half of the wood I burned in the fire, and on its embers I baked bread and roasted meat which I ate. Shall I then make an abomination out of the rest, or worship a block of wood?"

²⁰He is chasing ashes-a thing that cannot save itself when the flame consumes it; yet he does not say, "Is not this thing in my right hand a fraud?"

²¹Remember this, O Jacob, you, O Israel, who are my servant! I formed you to be a servant to me; O Israel, by me you shall never be forgotten:

²²I have brushed away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like a mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.

²³Raise a glad cry, you heavens: the LORD has done this; shout, you depths of the earth. Break forth, you mountains, into song, you forest, with all your trees. For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and shows his glory through Israel.

²⁴Thus says the LORD, your redeemer, who formed you from the womb: I am the LORD, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens; when I spread out the earth, who was with me?

²⁵It is I who bring to nought the omens of liars, who make fools of diviners; I turn wise men back and make their knowledge foolish.

²⁶It is I who confirm the words of my servants, I carry out the plan announced by my messengers; I say to Jerusalem: Be inhabited; to the cities of Judah: Be rebuilt; I will raise up their ruins.

²⁷It is I who said to the deep: Be dry; I will dry up your wellsprings.

²⁸I say of Cyrus: My shepherd, who fulfills my every wish; He shall say of Jerusalem, "Let her be rebuilt," and of the temple, "Let its foundations be laid."

45Thus says the LORD to his anointed, Cyrus, whose right hand I grasp, Subduing nations before him, and making kings run in his service, Opening doors before him and leaving the gates unbarred:

²I will go before you and level the mountains; Bronze doors I will shatter, and iron bars I will snap.

³I will give you treasures out of the darkness, and riches that have been hidden away, That you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.

⁴For the sake of Jacob, my servant, of Israel my chosen one, I have called you by your name, giving you a title, though you knew me not.

⁵I am the LORD and there is no other, there is no God besides me. It is I who arm you, though you know me not,

⁶so that toward the rising and the setting of the sun men may know that there is none besides me. I am the LORD, there is no other;

⁷I form the light, and create the darkness, I make well-being and create woe; I, the LORD, do all these things.

⁸Let justice descend, O heavens, like dew from above, like gentle rain let the skies drop it down. Let the earth open and salvation bud forth; let justice also spring up! I, the LORD, have created this.

⁹Woe to him who contends with his Maker; a potsherd among potsherds of the earth! Dare the clay say to its modeler, "What are you doing?" or, "What you are making has no hands"?

¹⁰Woe to him who asks a father, "What are you begetting?" or a woman, "What are you giving birth to?"

¹¹Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, his maker: You question me about my children, or prescribe the work of my hands for me!

¹²It was I who made the earth and created mankind upon it; It was my hands that stretched out the heavens; I gave the order to all their host.

¹³It was I who stirred up one for the triumph of justice; all his ways I make level. He shall rebuild my city and let my exiles go free Without price or ransom, says the LORD of hosts.

¹⁴Thus says the LORD: The earnings of Egypt, the gain of Ethiopia, and the Sabeans, tall of stature, Shall come over to you and belong to you; they shall follow you, coming in chains. Before you they shall fall prostrate, saying in prayer: "With you only is God, and nowhere else; the gods are nought.

¹⁵Truly with you God is hidden, the God of Israel, the savior!

¹⁶Those are put to shame and disgrace who vent their anger against him; Those go in disgrace who carve images.

¹⁷Israel, you are saved by the LORD, saved forever! You shall never be put to shame or disgrace in future ages."

¹⁸For thus says the LORD, The creator of the heavens, who is God, The designer and maker of the earth who established it, Not creating it to be a waste, but designing it to be lived in: I am the LORD, and there is no other.

¹⁹I have not spoken from hiding nor from some dark place of the earth, And I have not said to the descendants of Jacob, "Look for me in an empty waste." I, the LORD, promise justice, I foretell what is right.

²⁰Come and assemble, gather together, you fugitives from among the gentiles! They are without knowledge who bear wooden idols and pray to gods that cannot save.

²¹Come here and declare in counsel together: Who announced this from the beginning and foretold it from of old? Was it not I, the LORD, besides whom there is no other God? There is no just and saving God but me.

²²Turn to me and be safe, all you ends of the earth, for I am God; there is no other!

²³By myself I swear, uttering my just decree and my unalterable word: To me every knee shall bend; by me every tongue shall swear,

²⁴Saying, "Only in the LORD are just deeds and power. Before him in shame shall come all who vent their anger against him.

²⁵In the LORD shall be the vindication and the glory of all the descendants of Israel."

46Bel bows down, Nebo stoops, their idols are upon beasts and cattle; They must be borne up on shoulders, carried as burdens by the weary.

²They stoop and bow down together; unable to save those who bear them, they too go into captivity.

³Hear me, O house of Jacob, all who remain of the house of Israel, My burden since your birth, whom I have carried from your infancy.

⁴Even to your old age I am the same, even when your hair is gray I will bear you; It is I who have done this, I who will continue, and I who will carry you to safety.

⁵Whom would you compare me with, as an equal, or match me against, as though we were alike?

⁶There are those who pour out gold from a purse and weigh out silver on the scales; Then they hire a goldsmith to make it into a god before which they fall down in worship.

⁷They lift it to their shoulders to carry; when they set it in place again, it stays, and does not move from the spot. Although they cry out to it, it cannot answer; it delivers no one from distress.

⁸Remember this and be firm, bear it well in mind, you rebels; remember the former things, those long ago:

⁹I am God, there is no other; I am God, there is none like me.

¹⁰At the beginning I foretell the outcome; in advance, things not yet done. I say that my plan shall stand, I accomplish my every purpose.

¹¹I call from the east a bird of prey, from a distant land, one to carry out my plan. Yes, I have spoken, I will accomplish it; I have planned it, and I will do it.

¹²Listen to me, you fainthearted, you who seem far from the victory of justice:

¹³I am bringing on my justice, it is not far off, my salvation shall not tarry; I will put salvation within Zion, and give to Israel my glory.

47Come down, sit in the dust, O virgin daughter Babylon; Sit on the ground, dethroned, O daughter of the Chaldeans. No longer shall you be called dainty and delicate.

²Take the millstone and grind flour, remove your veil; Strip off your train, bare your legs, pass through the streams.

³Your nakedness shall be uncovered and your shame be seen; I will take vengeance, I will yield to no entreaty, says our redeemer,

⁴Whose name is the LORD of hosts, the Holy One of Israel.

⁵Go into darkness and sit in silence, O daughter of the Chaldeans, No longer shall you be called sovereign mistress of kingdoms.

⁶Angry at my people, I profaned my inheritance, And I gave them into your hand; but you showed them no mercy, And upon old men you laid a very heavy yoke.

⁷You said, "I shall remain always, a sovereign mistress forever!" But you did not lay these things to heart, you disregarded their outcome.

⁸Now hear this, voluptuous one, enthroned securely, Saying to yourself, "I, and no one else! I shall never be a widow, or suffer the loss of my children"--

⁹Both these things shall come to you suddenly, in a single day: Complete bereavement and widowhood shall come upon you For your many sorceries and the great number of your spells;

¹⁰Because you felt secure in your wickedness, and said, "No one sees me." Your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, And you said to yourself, "I, and no one else!"

¹¹But upon you shall come evil you will not know how to predict; Disaster shall befall you which you cannot allay. Suddenly there shall come upon you ruin which you will not expect.

¹²Keep up, now, your spells and your many sorceries. Perhaps you can make them avail, perhaps you can strike terror!

¹³You wearied yourself with many consultations, at which you toiled from your youth; Let the astrologers stand forth to save you, the stargazers who forecast at each new moon what would happen to you.

¹⁴Lo, they are like stubble, fire consumes them; They cannot save themselves from the spreading flames. This is no warming ember, no fire to sit before.

¹⁵Thus do your wizards serve you with whom you have toiled from your youth; Each wanders his own way, with none to save you.

48Hear this, O house of Jacob called by the name Israel, sprung from the stock of Judah, You who swear by the name of the LORD and invoke the God of Israel without sincerity or justice,

²Though you are named after the holy city and rely on the God of Israel, whose name is the LORD of hosts.

³Things of the past I foretold long ago, they went forth from my mouth, I let you hear of them; then suddenly I took action and they came to be.

⁴Because I know that you are stubborn and that your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead bronze,

⁵I foretold them to you of old; before they took place I let you hear of them, That you might not say, "My idol did them, my statue, my molten image commanded them."

⁶Now that you have heard, look at all this; must you not admit it? From now on I announce new things to you, hidden events of which you knew not.

⁷Now, not long ago, they are brought into being, and beforetime you did not hear of them, so that you cannot claim to have known them;

⁸You neither heard nor knew, they did not reach your ears beforehand. Yes, I know you are utterly treacherous, a rebel you were called from birth.

⁹For the sake of my name I restrain my anger, for the sake of my renown I hold it back from you, lest I should destroy you.

¹⁰See, I have refined you like silver, tested you in the furnace of affliction.

¹¹For my sake, for my own sake, I do this; why should I suffer profanation? My glory I will not give to another.

¹²Listen to me, Jacob, Israel, whom I named! I, it is I who am the first, and also the last am I.

¹³Yes, my hand laid the foundations of the earth; my right hand spread out the heavens. When I call them, they stand forth at once.

¹⁴All of you assemble and listen: Who among you foretold these things? The LORD'S friend shall do his will against Babylon and the progeny of Chaldea.

¹⁵I myself have spoken, I have called him, I have brought him, and his way succeeds!

¹⁶Come near to me and hear this! Not from the beginning did I speak it in secret; At the time it comes to pass, I am present: "Now the Lord GOD has sent me, and his spirit."

¹⁷Thus says the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I, the LORD, your God, teach you what is for your good, and lead you on the way you should go.

¹⁸If you would hearken to my commandments, your prosperity would be like a river, and your vindication like the waves of the sea;

¹⁹Your descendants would be like the sand, and those born of your stock like its grains, Their name never cut off or blotted out from my presence.

²⁰Go forth from Babylon, flee from Chaldea! With shouts of joy proclaim this, make it known; Publish it to the ends of the earth, and say, "The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob.

²¹They did not thirst when he led them through dry lands; Water from the rock he set flowing for them; he cleft the rock, and waters welled forth."

²²(There is no peace for the wicked, says the LORD.)

49Hear me, O coastlands, listen, O distant peoples. The LORD called me from birth, from my mother's womb he gave me my name.

²He made of me a sharp-edged sword and concealed me in the shadow of his arm. He made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me.

³You are my servant, he said to me, Israel, through whom I show my glory.

⁴Though I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength, Yet my reward is with the LORD, my recompense is with my God.

⁵For now the LORD has spoken who formed me as his servant from the womb, That Jacob may be brought back to him and Israel gathered to him; And I am made glorious in the sight of the LORD, and my God is now my strength!

⁶It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the survivors of Israel; I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.

⁷Thus says the LORD, the redeemer and the Holy One of Israel, To the one despised, whom the nations abhor, the slave of rulers: When kings see you, they shall stand up, and princes shall prostrate themselves Because of the LORD who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.

⁸Thus says the LORD: In a time of favor I answer you, on the day of salvation I help you, To restore the land and allot the desolate heritages,

⁹Saying to the prisoners: Come out! To those in darkness: Show yourselves! Along the ways they shall find pasture, on every bare height shall their pastures be.

¹⁰They shall not hunger or thirst, nor shall the scorching wind or the sun strike them; For he who pities them leads them and guides them beside springs of water.

¹¹I will cut a road through all my mountains, and make my highways level.

¹²See, some shall come from afar, others from the north and the west, and some from the land of Syene.

¹³Sing out, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth, break forth into song, you mountains. For the LORD comforts his people and shows mercy to his afflicted.

¹⁴But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me."

¹⁵Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.

¹⁶See, upon the palms of my hands I have written your name; your walls are ever before me.

¹⁷Your rebuilders make haste, as those who tore you down and laid you waste go forth from you;

¹⁸Look about and see, they are all gathering and coming to you. As I live, says the LORD, you shall be arrayed with them all as with adornments, like a bride you shall fasten them on you.

¹⁹Though you were waste and desolate, a land of ruins, Now you shall be too small for your inhabitants, while those who swallowed you up will be far away.

²⁰The children whom you had lost shall yet say to you, "This place is too small for me, make room for me to live in."

²¹You shall ask yourself: "Who has borne me these? I was bereft and barren (exiled and repudiated); who has reared them? I was left all alone; where then do these come from?"

²²Thus says the Lord GOD: See, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and raise my signal to the peoples; They shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.

²³Kings shall be your foster fathers, their princesses your nurses; Bowing to the ground, they shall worship you and lick the dust at your feet. Then you shall know that I am the LORD, and those who hope in me shall never be disappointed.

²⁴Thus says the LORD: Can booty be taken from a warrior? or captives be rescued from a tyrant?

²⁵Yes, captives can be taken from a warrior, and booty be rescued from a tyrant; Those who oppose you I will oppose, and your sons I will save.

²⁶I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with the juice of the grape. All mankind shall know that I, the LORD, am your savior, your redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

50Thus says the LORD: Where is the bill of divorce with which I dismissed your mother? Or to which of my creditors have I sold you? It was for your sins that you were sold, for your crimes that your mother was dismissed.

²Why was no one there when I came? Why did no one answer when I called? Is my hand too short to ransom? Have I not the strength to deliver? Lo, with my rebuke I dry up the sea, I turn rivers into a desert; Their fish rot for lack of water, and die of thirst.

³I clothe the heavens in mourning, and make sackcloth their vesture.

⁴The Lord GOD has given me a well-trained tongue, That I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them. Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may hear;

⁵And I have not rebelled, have not turned back.

⁶I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; My face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.

⁷The Lord GOD is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame.

⁸He is near who upholds my right; if anyone wishes to oppose me, let us appear together. Who disputes my right? Let him confront me.

⁹See, the Lord GOD is my help; who will prove me wrong? Lo, they will all wear out like cloth, the moth will eat them up.

¹⁰Who among you fears the LORD, heeds his servant's voice, And walks in darkness without any light, Trusting in the name of the LORD and relying on his God?

¹¹All of you kindle flames and carry about you fiery darts; Walk by the light of your own fire and by the flares you have burnt! This is your fate from my hand: you shall lie down in a place of pain.

51Listen to me, you who pursue justice, who seek the LORD; Look to the rock from which you were hewn, to the pit from which you were quarried;

²Look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth; When he was but one I called him, I blessed him and made him many.

³Yes, the LORD shall comfort Zion and have pity on all her ruins; Her deserts he shall make like Eden, her wasteland like the garden of the LORD; Joy and gladness shall be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of song.

⁴Be attentive to me, my people; my folk, give ear to me. For law shall go forth from my presence, and my judgment, as the light of the peoples.

⁵I will make my justice come speedily; my salvation shall go forth (and my arm shall judge the nations); In me shall the coastlands hope, and my arm they shall await.

⁶Raise your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth below; Though the heavens grow thin like smoke, the earth wears out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies, My salvation shall remain forever and my justice shall never be dismayed.

⁷Hear me, you who know justice, you people who have my teaching at heart: Fear not the reproach of men, be not dismayed at their revilings.

⁸They shall be like a garment eaten by moths, like wool consumed by grubs; But my justice shall remain forever and my salvation, for all generations.

⁹Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD! Awake as in the days of old, in ages long ago! Was it not you who crushed Rahab, you who pierced the dragon?

¹⁰Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, Who made the depths of the sea into a way for the redeemed to pass over?

¹¹Those whom the LORD has ransomed will return and enter Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy; They will meet with joy and gladness, sorrow and mourning will flee.

¹²I, it is I who comfort you. Can you then fear mortal man, who is human only, to be looked upon as grass,

¹³And forget the LORD, your maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth? All the day you are in constant dread of the fury of the oppressor; But when he sets himself to destroy, what is there of the oppressor's fury?

¹⁴The oppressed shall soon be released; they shall not die and go down into the pit, nor shall they want for bread.

¹⁵For I am the LORD, your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; the LORD of hosts by name.

¹⁶I have put my words into your mouth and shielded you in the shadow of my hand, I, who stretched out the heavens, who laid the foundations of the earth, who say to Zion: You are my people.

¹⁷Awake, awake! Arise, O Jerusalem, You who drank at the LORD'S hand the cup of his wrath; Who drained to the dregs the bowl of staggering!

¹⁸She has no one to guide her of all the sons she bore; She has no one to grasp her by the hand, of all the sons she reared!--

¹⁹Your misfortunes are double; who is there to condole with you? Desolation and destruction, famine and sword! Who is there to comfort you?

²⁰Your sons lie helpless at every street corner like antelopes in a net. They are filled with the wrath of the LORD, the rebuke of your God.

²¹But now, hear this, O afflicted one, drunk, but not with wine,

²²Thus says the LORD, your Master, your God, who defends his people: See, I am taking from your hand the cup of staggering; The bowl of my wrath you shall no longer drink.

²³I will put it into the hands of your tormentors, those who ordered you to bow down, that they might walk over you, While you offered your back like the ground, like the street for them to walk on.

52Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; Put on your glorious garments, O Jerusalem, holy city. No longer shall the uncircumcised or the unclean enter you.

²Shake off the dust, ascend to the throne, Jerusalem; Loose the bonds from your neck, O captive daughter Zion!

³For thus says the LORD: You were sold for nothing, and without money you shall be redeemed.

⁴Thus says the Lord GOD: To Egypt in the beginning my people went down, to sojourn there; Assyria, too, oppressed them for nought.

⁵But now, what am I to do here? says the LORD. My people have been taken away without redress; their rulers make a boast of it, says the LORD; all the day my name is constantly reviled.

⁶Therefore on that day my people shall know my renown, that it is I who have foretold it. Here I am!

⁷How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings glad tidings, Announcing peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation, and saying to Zion, "Your God is King!"

⁸Hark! Your watchmen raise a cry, together they shout for joy, For they see directly, before their eyes, the LORD restoring Zion.

⁹Break out together in song, O ruins of Jerusalem! For the LORD comforts his people, he redeems Jerusalem.

¹⁰The LORD has bared his holy arm in the sight of all the nations; All the ends of the earth will behold the salvation of our God.

¹¹Depart, depart, come forth from there, touch nothing unclean! Out from there! Purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the LORD.

¹²Yet not in fearful haste will you come out, nor leave in headlong flight, For the LORD comes before you, and your rear guard is the God of Israel.

¹³See, my servant shall prosper, he shall be raised high and greatly exalted.

¹⁴Even as many were amazed at him-- so marred was his look beyond that of man, and his appearance beyond that of mortals--

¹⁵So shall he startle many nations, because of him kings shall stand speechless; For those who have not been told shall see, those who have not heard shall ponder it.

53Who would believe what we have heard? To whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

²He grew up like a sapling before him, like a shoot from the parched earth; There was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him, nor appearance that would attract us to him.

³He was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity, One of those from whom men hide their faces, spurned, and we held him in no esteem.

⁴Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured, While we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted.

⁵But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, Upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed.

⁶We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way; But the LORD laid upon him the guilt of us all.

⁷Though he was harshly treated, he submitted and opened not his mouth; Like a lamb led to the slaughter or a sheep before the shearers, he was silent and opened not his mouth.

⁸Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away, and who would have thought any more of his destiny? When he was cut off from the land of the living, and smitten for the sin of his people,

⁹A grave was assigned him among the wicked and a burial place with evildoers, Though he had done no wrong nor spoken any falsehood.

¹⁰(But the LORD was pleased to crush him in infirmity.) If he gives his life as an offering for sin, he shall see his descendants in a long life, and the will of the LORD shall be accomplished through him.

¹¹Because of his affliction he shall see the light in fullness of days; Through his suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt he shall bear.

¹²Therefore I will give him his portion among the great, and he shall divide the spoils with the mighty, Because he surrendered himself to death and was counted among the wicked; And he shall take away the sins of many, and win pardon for their offenses.

54Raise a glad cry, you barren one who did not bear, break forth in jubilant song, you who were not in labor, For more numerous are the children of the deserted wife than the children of her who has a husband, says the LORD.

²Enlarge the space for your tent, spread out your tent cloths unsparingly; lengthen your ropes and make firm your stakes.

³For you shall spread abroad to the right and to the left; Your descendants shall dispossess the nations and shall people the desolate cities.

⁴Fear not, you shall not be put to shame; you need not blush, for you shall not be disgraced. The shame of your youth you shall forget, the reproach of your widowhood no longer remember.

⁵For he who has become your husband is your Maker; his name is the LORD of hosts; Your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, called God of all the earth.

⁶The LORD calls you back, like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, A wife married in youth and then cast off, says your God.

⁷For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great tenderness I will take you back.

⁸In an outburst of wrath, for a moment I hid my face from you; But with enduring love I take pity on you, says the LORD, your redeemer.

⁹This is for me like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah should never again deluge the earth; So I have sworn not to be angry with you, or to rebuke you.

¹⁰Though the mountains leave their place and the hills be shaken, My love shall never leave you nor my covenant of peace be shaken, says the LORD, who has mercy on you.

¹¹O afflicted one, storm-battered and unconsoled, I lay your pavements in carnelians, and your foundations in sapphires;

¹²I will make your battlements of rubies, your gates of carbuncles, and all your walls of precious stones.

¹³All your sons shall be taught by the LORD, and great shall be the peace of your children.

¹⁴In justice shall you be established, far from the fear of oppression, where destruction cannot come near you.

¹⁵Should there be any attack, it shall not be of my making; whoever attacks you shall fall before you.

¹⁶Lo, I have created the craftsman who blows on the burning coals and forges weapons as his work; It is I also who have created the destroyer to work havoc.

¹⁷No weapon fashioned against you shall prevail; every tongue you shall prove false that launches an accusation against you. This is the lot of the servants of the LORD, their vindication from me, says the LORD.

55All you who are thirsty, come to the water! You who have no money, come, receive grain and eat; Come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk!

²Why spend your money for what is not bread; your wages for what fails to satisfy? Heed me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare.

³Come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life. I will renew with you the everlasting covenant, the benefits assured to David.

⁴As I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander of nations,

⁵So shall you summon a nation you knew not, and nations that knew you not shall run to you, Because of the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, who has glorified you.

⁶Seek the LORD while he may be found, call him while he is near.

⁷Let the scoundrel forsake his way, and the wicked man his thoughts; Let him turn to the LORD for mercy; to our God, who is generous in forgiving.

⁸For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.

⁹As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.

¹⁰For just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down And do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, Giving seed to him who sows and bread to him who eats,

¹¹So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.

¹²Yes, in joy you shall depart, in peace you shall be brought back; Mountains and hills shall break out in song before you, and all the trees of the countryside shall clap their hands.

¹³In place of the thornbush, the cypress shall grow, instead of nettles, the myrtle. This shall be to the LORD'S renown, an everlasting imperishable sign.

56Thus says the LORD: Observe what is right, do what is just; for my salvation is about to come, my justice, about to be revealed.

²Happy is the man who does this, the son of man who holds to it; Who keeps the sabbath free from profanation, and his hand from any evildoing.

³Let not the foreigner say, when he would join himself to the LORD, "The LORD will surely exclude me from his people"; Nor let the eunuch say, "See, I am a dry tree."

⁴For thus says the LORD: To the eunuchs who observe my sabbaths and choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant,

⁵I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name Better than sons and daughters; an eternal, imperishable name will I give them.

⁶And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, ministering to him, Loving the name of the LORD, and becoming his servants-- All who keep the sabbath free from profanation and hold to my covenant,

⁷Them I will bring to my holy mountain and make joyful in my house of prayer; Their holocausts and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar, For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

⁸Thus says the Lord GOD, who gathers the dispersed of Israel: Others will I gather to him besides those already gathered.

⁹All you wild beasts of the field, come and eat, all you beasts in the forest!

¹⁰My watchmen are blind, all of them unaware; They are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; Dreaming as they lie there, loving their sleep.

¹¹They are relentless dogs, they know not when they have enough. These are the shepherds who know no discretion; Each of them goes his own way, every one of them to his own gain:

¹²"Come, I will fetch some wine; let us carouse with strong drink, And tomorrow will be like today, or even greater."

57The just man perishes, but no one takes it to heart; Devout men are swept away, with no one giving it a thought. Though he is taken away from the presence of evil, the just man

²enters into peace; There is rest on his couch for the sincere, straightforward man.

³But you, draw near, you sons of a sorceress, adulterous, wanton race!

⁴Of whom do you make sport, at whom do you open wide your mouth, and put out your tongue? Are you not rebellious children, a worthless race;

⁵You who are in heat among the terebinths, under every green tree; You who immolate children in the wadies, behind the crevices in the cliffs?

⁶Among the smooth stones of the wadi is your portion, these are your lot; To these you poured out libations, and brought offerings. Should I decide not to punish these things?

⁷Upon a high and lofty mountain you made your bed, and there you went up to offer sacrifice.

⁸Behind the door and the doorpost you placed your indecent symbol. Deserting me, you spread out your high, wide bed; And of those whose embraces you love you carved the symbol and gazed upon it

⁹While you approached the king with scented oil, and multiplied your perfumes; While you sent your ambassadors far away, down even to the nether world.

¹⁰Though worn out by your many misdeeds, you never said, "It is hopeless"; New strength you found, and so you did not weaken.

¹¹Of whom were you afraid? Whom did you fear, that you became false And did not remember me or give me any thought? Was I to remain silent and unseeing, so that you would not have me to fear?

¹²I will expose your justice and your works;

¹³They shall not help you when you cry out, nor save you in your distress. All these the wind shall carry off, the breeze shall bear away; But he who takes refuge in me shall inherit the land, and possess my holy mountain.

¹⁴Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove the stumbling blocks from my people's path.

¹⁵For thus says he who is high and exalted, living eternally, whose name is the Holy One: On high I dwell, and in holiness, and with the crushed and dejected in spirit, To revive the spirits of the dejected, to revive the hearts of the crushed.

¹⁶I will not accuse forever, nor always be angry; For their spirits would faint before me, the souls that I have made.

¹⁷Because of their wicked avarice I was angry, and struck them, hiding myself in wrath, as they went their own rebellious way.

¹⁸I saw their ways, but I will heal them and lead them; I will give full comfort to them and to those who mourn for them,

¹⁹I, the Creator, who gave them life. Peace, peace to the far and the near, says the LORD; and I will heal them.

²⁰But the wicked are like the tossing sea which cannot be calmed, And its waters cast up mud and filth.

²¹No peace for the wicked! says my God.

58Cry out full-throated and unsparingly, lift up your voice like a trumpet blast; Tell my people their wickedness, and the house of Jacob their sins.

²They seek me day after day, and desire to know my ways, Like a nation that has done what is just and not abandoned the law of their God; They ask me to declare what is due them, pleased to gain access to God.

³"Why do we fast, and you do not see it? afflict ourselves, and you take no note of it?" Lo, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits, and drive all your laborers.

⁴Yes, your fast ends in quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw. Would that today you might fast so as to make your voice heard on high!

⁵Is this the manner of fasting I wish, of keeping a day of penance: That a man bow his head like a reed, and lie in sackcloth and ashes? Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?

⁶This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke;

⁷Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own.

⁸Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed; Your vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.

⁹Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am! If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech;

¹⁰If you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; Then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday;

¹¹Then the LORD will guide you always and give you plenty even on the parched land. He will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails.

¹²The ancient ruins shall be rebuilt for your sake, and the foundations from ages past you shall raise up; "Repairer of the breach," they shall call you, "Restorer of ruined homesteads."

¹³If you hold back your foot on the sabbath from following your own pursuits on my holy day; If you call the sabbath a delight, and the LORD'S holy day honorable; If you honor it by not following your ways, seeking your own interests, or speaking with malice--

¹⁴Then you shall delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will nourish you with the heritage of Jacob, your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

59Lo, the hand of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.

²Rather, it is your crimes that separate you from your God, It is your sins that make him hide his face so that he will not hear you.

³For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt; Your lips speak falsehood, and your tongue utters deceit.

⁴No one brings suit justly, no one pleads truthfully; They trust in emptiness and tell lies; they conceive mischief and bring forth malice.

⁵They hatch adders' eggs, and weave spiders' webs: Whoever eats their eggs will die, if one of them is pressed, it will hatch as a viper;

⁶Their webs cannot serve as clothing, nor can they cover themselves with their works. Their works are evil works, and deeds of violence come from their hands.

⁷Their feet run to evil, and they are quick to shed innocent blood; Their thoughts are destructive thoughts, plunder and ruin are on their highways.

⁸The way of peace they know not, and there is nothing that is right in their paths; Their ways they have made crooked, whoever treads them knows no peace.

⁹That is why right is far from us and justice does not reach us. We look for light, and lo, darkness; for brightness, but we walk in gloom!

¹⁰Like blind men we grope along the wall, like people without eyes we feel our way. We stumble at midday as at dusk, in Stygian darkness, like the dead.

¹¹We all growl like bears, like doves we moan without ceasing. We look for right, but it is not there; for salvation, and it is far from us.

¹²For our offenses before you are many, our sins bear witness against us. Yes, our offenses are present to us, and our crimes we know:

¹³Transgressing, and denying the LORD, turning back from following our God, Threatening outrage, and apostasy, uttering words of falsehood the heart has conceived.

¹⁴Right is repelled, and justice stands far off; For truth stumbles in the public square, uprightness cannot enter.

¹⁵Honesty is lacking, and the man who turns from evil is despoiled. The LORD saw this, and was aggrieved that right did not exist.

¹⁶He saw that there was no one, and was appalled that there was none to intervene; So his own arm brought about the victory, and his justice lent him its support.

¹⁷He put on justice as his breastplate, salvation, as the helmet on his head; He clothed himself with garments of vengeance, wrapped himself in a mantle of zeal.

¹⁸He repays his enemies their deserts, and requites his foes with wrath.

¹⁹Those in the west shall fear the name of the LORD, and those in the east, his glory; For it shall come like a pent-up river which the breath of the LORD drives on.

²⁰He shall come to Zion a redeemer to those of Jacob who turn from sin, says the LORD.

²¹This is the covenant with them which I myself have made, says the LORD: My spirit which is upon you and my words that I have put into your mouth Shall never leave your mouth, nor the mouths of your children Nor the mouths of your children's children from now on and forever, says the LORD.

60Rise up in splendor! Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you.

²See, darkness covers the earth, and thick clouds cover the peoples; But upon you the LORD shines, and over you appears his glory.

³Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance.

⁴Raise your eyes and look about; they all gather and come to you: Your sons come from afar, and your daughters in the arms of their nurses.

⁵Then you shall be radiant at what you see, your heart shall throb and overflow, For the riches of the sea shall be emptied out before you, the wealth of nations shall be brought to you.

⁶Caravans of camels shall fill you, dromedaries from Midian and Ephah; All from Sheba shall come bearing gold and frankincense, and proclaiming the praises of the LORD.

⁷All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered for you, the rams of Nebaioth shall be your sacrifices; They will be acceptable offerings on my altar, and I will enhance the splendor of my house.

⁸What are these that fly along like clouds, like doves to their cotes?

⁹All the vessels of the sea are assembled, with the ships of Tarshish in the lead, To bring your children from afar with their silver and gold, In the name of the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, who has glorified you.

¹⁰Foreigners shall rebuild your walls, and their kings shall be your attendants; Though I struck you in my wrath, yet in my good will I have shown you mercy.

¹¹Your gates shall stand open constantly; day and night they shall not be closed But shall admit to you the wealth of nations, and their kings, in the vanguard.

¹²For the people or kingdom shall perish that does not serve you; those nations shall be utterly destroyed.

¹³The glory of Lebanon shall come to you: the cypress, the plane and the pine, To bring beauty to my sanctuary, and glory to the place where I set my feet.

¹⁴The children of your oppressors shall come, bowing low before you; All those who despised you shall fall prostrate at your feet. They shall call you "City of the LORD," "Zion of the Holy One of Israel."

¹⁵Once you were forsaken, hated and unvisited, Now I will make you the pride of the ages, a joy to generation after generation.

¹⁶You shall suck the milk of nations, and be nursed at royal breasts; You shall know that I, the LORD, am your savior, your redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

¹⁷In place of bronze I will bring gold, instead of iron, silver; In place of wood, bronze, instead of stones, iron; I will appoint peace your governor, and justice your ruler.

¹⁸No longer shall violence be heard of in your land, or plunder and ruin within your boundaries. You shall call your walls "Salvation" and your gates "Praise."

¹⁹No longer shall the sun be your light by day, Nor the brightness of the moon shine upon you at night; The LORD shall be your light forever, your God shall be your glory.

²⁰No longer shall your sun go down, or your moon withdraw, For the LORD will be your light forever, and the days of your mourning shall be at an end.

²¹Your people shall all be just, they shall always possess the land, They, the bud of my planting, my handiwork to show my glory.

²²The smallest shall become a thousand, the youngest, a mighty nation; I, the LORD, will swiftly accomplish these things when their time comes.

61The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners,

²To announce a year of favor from the LORD and a day of vindication by our God, to comfort all who mourn;

³To place on those who mourn in Zion a diadem instead of ashes, To give them oil of gladness in place of mourning, a glorious mantle instead of a listless spirit. They will be called oaks of justice, planted by the LORD to show his glory.

⁴They shall rebuild the ancient ruins, the former wastes they shall raise up And restore the ruined cities, desolate now for generations.

⁵Strangers shall stand ready to pasture your flocks, foreigners shall be your farmers and vinedressers.

⁶You yourselves shall be named priests of the LORD, ministers of our God you shall be called. You shall eat the wealth of the nations and boast of riches from them.

⁷Since their shame was double and disgrace and spittle were their portion, They shall have a double inheritance in their land, everlasting joy shall be theirs.

⁸For I, the LORD, love what is right, I hate robbery and injustice; I will give them their recompense faithfully, a lasting covenant I will make with them.

⁹Their descendants shall be renowned among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples; All who see them shall acknowledge them as a race the LORD has blessed.

¹⁰I rejoice heartily in the LORD, in my God is the joy of my soul; For he has clothed me with a robe of salvation, and wrapped me in a mantle of justice, Like a bridegroom adorned with a diadem, like a bride bedecked with her jewels.

¹¹As the earth brings forth its plants, and a garden makes its growth spring up, So will the Lord GOD make justice and praise spring up before all the nations.

62For Zion's sake I will not be silent, for Jerusalem's sake I will not be quiet, Until her vindication shines forth like the dawn and her victory like a burning torch.

²Nations shall behold your vindication, and all kings your glory; You shall be called by a new name pronounced by the mouth of the LORD.

³You shall be a glorious crown in the hand of the LORD, a royal diadem held by your God.

⁴No more shall men call you "Forsaken," or your land "Desolate," But you shall be called "My Delight," and your land "Espoused." For the LORD delights in you, and makes your land his spouse.

⁵As a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you; And as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you.

⁶Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have stationed watchmen; Never, by day or by night, shall they be silent. O you who are to remind the LORD, take no rest

⁷And give no rest to him, until he re-establishes Jerusalem And makes of it the pride of the earth.

⁸The LORD has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty arm: No more will I give your grain as food to your enemies; Nor shall foreigners drink your wine, for which you toiled.

⁹But you who harvest the grain shall eat it, and you shall praise the LORD; You who gather the grapes shall drink the wine in the courts of my sanctuary.

¹⁰Pass through, pass through the gates, prepare the way for the people; Build up, build up the highway, clear it of stones, raise up a standard over the nations.

¹¹See, the LORD proclaims to the ends of the earth: Say to daughter Zion, your savior comes! Here is his reward with him, his recompense before him.

¹²They shall be called the holy people, the redeemed of the LORD, And you shall be called "Frequented," a city that is not forsaken.

63Who is this that comes from Edom, in crimsoned garments, from Bozrah- This one arrayed in majesty, marching in the greatness of his strength? "It is I, I who announce vindication, I who am mighty to save."

²Why is your apparel red, and your garments like those of the wine presser?

³"The wine press I have trodden alone, and of my people there was no one with me. I trod them in my anger, and trampled them down in my wrath; Their blood spurted on my garments; all my apparel I stained.

⁴For the day of vengeance was in my heart, my year for redeeming was at hand.

⁵I looked about, but there was no one to help, I was appalled that there was no one to lend support; So my own arm brought about the victory and my own wrath lent me its support.

⁶I trampled down the peoples in my anger, I crushed them in my wrath, and I let their blood run out upon the ground."

⁷The favors of the LORD I will recall, the glorious deeds of the LORD, Because of all he has done for us; for he is good to the house of Israel, He has favored us according to his mercy and his great kindness.

⁸He said: They are indeed my people, children who are not disloyal; So he became their savior

⁹in their every affliction. It was not a messenger or an angel, but he himself who saved them. Because of his love and pity he redeemed them himself, Lifting them and carrying them all the days of old.

¹⁰But they rebelled, and grieved his holy spirit; So he turned on them like an enemy, and fought against them.

¹¹Then they remembered the days of old and Moses, his servant; Where is he who brought up out of the sea the shepherd of his flock? Where is he who put his holy spirit in their midst;

¹²Whose glorious arm was the guide at Moses' right; Who divided the waters before them, winning for himself eternal renown;

¹³Who led them without stumbling through the depths like horses in the open country,

¹⁴Like cattle going down into the plain, the spirit of the LORD guiding them? Thus you led your people, bringing glory to your name.

¹⁵Look down from heaven and regard us from your holy and glorious palace! Where is your zealous care and your might, your surge of pity and your mercy? O Lord, hold not back,

¹⁶for you are our father. Were Abraham not to know us, nor Israel to acknowledge us, You, LORD, are our father, our redeemer you are named forever.

¹⁷Why do you let us wander, O LORD, from your ways, and harden our hearts so that we fear you not? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage.

¹⁸Why have the wicked invaded your holy place, why have our enemies trampled your sanctuary?

¹⁹Too long have we been like those you do not rule, who do not bear your name. Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, with the mountains quaking before you,

64As when brushwood is set ablaze, or fire makes the water boil! Thus your name would be made known to your enemies and the nations would tremble before you,

²While you wrought awesome deeds we could not hope for,

³such as they had not heard of from of old. No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen, any God but you doing such deeds for those who wait for him.

⁴Would that you might meet us doing right, that we were mindful of you in our ways! Behold, you are angry, and we are sinful;

⁵all of us have become like unclean men, all our good deeds are like polluted rags; We have all withered like leaves, and our guilt carries us away like the wind.

⁶There is none who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to cling to you; For you have hidden your face from us and have delivered us up to our guilt.

⁷Yet, O LORD, you are our father; we are the clay and you the potter: we are all the work of your hands.

⁸Be not so very angry, LORD, keep not our guilt forever in mind; look upon us, who are all your people.

⁹Your holy cities have become a desert, Zion is a desert, Jerusalem a waste.

¹⁰Our holy and glorious temple in which our fathers praised you Has been burned with fire; all that was dear to us is laid waste.

¹¹Can you hold back, O LORD, after all this? Can you remain silent, and afflict us so severely?

65I was ready to respond to those who asked me not, to be found by those who sought me not. I said: Here I am! Here I am! To a nation that did not call upon my name.

²I have stretched out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, Who walk in evil paths and follow their own thoughts,

³People who provoke me continually, to my face, Offering sacrifices in the groves and burning incense on bricks,

⁴Living among the graves and spending the night in caverns, Eating swine's flesh, with carrion broth in their dishes,

⁵Crying out, "Hold back, do not touch me; I am too sacred for you!" These things enkindle my wrath, a fire that burns all the day.

⁶Lo, before me it stands written; I will not be quiet until I have paid in full

⁷Your crimes and the crimes of your fathers as well, says the LORD. Since they burned incense on the mountains, and disgraced me on the hills, I will at once pour out in full measure their recompense into their laps.

⁸Thus says the LORD: When the juice is pressed from grapes, men say, "Do not discard them, for there is still good in them"; Thus will I do with my servants: I will not discard them all;

⁹From Jacob I will save offspring, from Judah, those who are to inherit my mountains; My chosen ones shall inherit the land, my servants shall dwell there.

¹⁰Sharon shall be a pasture for the flocks and the valley of Achor a resting place for the cattle of my people who have sought me.

¹¹But you who forsake the LORD, forgetting my holy mountain, You who spread a table for Fortune and fill cups of blended wine for Destiny,

¹²You I will destine for the sword; you shall all go down in slaughter. Since I called and you did not answer, I spoke and you did not listen, But did what was evil in my sight and preferred things which displease me,

¹³therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Lo, my servants shall eat, but you shall go hungry; My servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; My servants shall rejoice, but you shall be put to shame;

¹⁴My servants shall shout for joy of heart, But you shall cry out for grief of heart and howl for anguish of spirit.

¹⁵The Lord GOD shall slay you, and the name you leave Shall be used by my chosen ones for cursing; but my servants shall be called by another name

¹⁶By which he will be blessed on whom a blessing is invoked in the land; He who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of truth; For the hardships of the past shall be forgotten, and hidden from my eyes.

¹⁷Lo, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; The things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind.

¹⁸Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness in what I create; For I create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be a delight;

¹⁹I will rejoice in Jerusalem and exult in my people. No longer shall the sound of weeping be heard there, or the sound of crying;

²⁰No longer shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not round out his full lifetime; He dies a mere youth who reaches but a hundred years, and he who fails of a hundred shall be thought accursed.

²¹They shall live in the houses they build, and eat the fruit of the vineyards they plant;

²²They shall not build houses for others to live in, or plant for others to eat. As the years of a tree, so the years of my people; and my chosen ones shall long enjoy the produce of their hands.

²³They shall not toil in vain, nor beget children for sudden destruction; For a race blessed by the LORD are they and their offspring.

²⁴Before they call, I will answer; while they are yet speaking, I will hearken to them.

²⁵The wolf and the lamb shall graze alike, and the lion shall eat hay like the ox (but the serpent's food shall be dust). None shall hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the LORD.

66Thus says the LORD: The heavens are my throne, the earth is my footstool. What kind of house can you build for me; what is to be my resting place?

²My hand made all these things when all of them came to be, says the LORD. This is the one whom I approve: the lowly and afflicted man who trembles at my word.

³Merely slaughtering an ox is like slaying a man; sacrificing a lamb, like breaking a dog's neck; Bringing a cereal offering, like offering swine's blood; burning incense, like paying homage to an idol. Since these have chosen their own ways and taken pleasure in their own abominations,

⁴I in turn will choose ruthless treatment for them and bring upon them what they fear. Because, when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, no one listened; Because they did what was evil in my sight, and chose what gave me displeasure,

⁵Hear the word of the LORD, you who tremble at his word: Your brethren who, because of my name, hate and reject you, say, "Let the LORD show his glory that we may see your joy"; but they shall be put to shame.

⁶A sound of roaring from the city, a sound from the temple, The sound of the LORD repaying his enemies their deserts!

⁷Before she comes to labor, she gives birth; Before the pains come upon her, she safely delivers a male child.

⁸Who ever heard of such a thing, or saw the like? Can a country be brought forth in one day, or a nation be born in a single moment? Yet Zion is scarcely in labor when she gives birth to her children.

⁹Shall I bring a mother to the point of birth, and yet not let her child be born? says the LORD; Or shall I who allow her to conceive, yet close her womb? says your God.

¹⁰Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad because of her, all you who love her; Exult, exult with her, all you who were mourning over her!

¹¹Oh, that you may suck fully of the milk of her comfort, That you may nurse with delight at her abundant breasts!

¹²For thus says the LORD: Lo, I will spread prosperity over her like a river, and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing torrent. As nurslings, you shall be carried in her arms, and fondled in her lap;

¹³As a mother comforts her son, so will I comfort you; in Jerusalem you shall find your comfort.

¹⁴When you see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bodies flourish like the grass; The LORD'S power shall be known to his servants, but to his enemies, his wrath.

¹⁵Lo, the LORD shall come in fire, his chariots like the whirlwind, To wreak his wrath with burning heat and his punishment with fiery flames.

¹⁶For the LORD shall judge all mankind by fire and sword. and many shall be slain by the LORD.

¹⁷They who sanctify and purify themselves to go to the groves, as followers of one who stands within, they who eat swine's flesh, loathsome things and mice, shall all perish with their deeds and their thoughts, says the LORD.

¹⁸I come to gather nations of every language; they shall come and see my glory.

¹⁹I will set a sign among them; from them I will send fugitives to the nations: to Tarshish, Put and Lud, Mosoch, Tubal and Javan, to the distant coastlands that have never heard of my fame, or seen my glory; and they shall proclaim my glory among the nations.

²⁰They shall bring all your brethren from all the nations as an offering to the LORD, on horses and in chariots, in carts, upon mules and dromedaries, to Jerusalem, my holy mountain, says the LORD, just as the Israelites bring their offering to the house of the LORD in clean vessels.

²¹Some of these I will take as priests and Levites, says the LORD.

²²As the new heavens and the new earth which I will make Shall endure before me, says the LORD, so shall your race and your name endure.

²³From one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, All mankind shall come to worship before me, says the LORD.

²⁴They shall go out and see the corpses of the men who rebelled against me; Their worm shall not die, nor their fire be extinguished; and they shall be abhorrent to all mankind.

1The words of Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah, of a priestly family in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin.

²The word of the LORD first came to him in the days of Josiah, son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign,

³and continued through the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, and until the downfall and exile of Jerusalem in the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, son of Josiah, king of Judah.

⁴The word of the LORD came to me thus:

⁵Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.

⁶"Ah, Lord GOD!" I said, "I know not how to speak; I am too young."

⁷But the LORD answered me, Say not, "I am too young." To whomever I send you, you shall go; whatever I command you, you shall speak.

⁸Have no fear before them, because I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.

⁹Then the LORD extended his hand and touched my mouth, saying, See, I place my words in your mouth!

¹⁰This day I set you over nations and over kingdoms, To root up and to tear down, to destroy and to demolish, to build and to plant.

¹¹The word of the LORD came to me with the question: What do you see, Jeremiah? "I see a branch of the watching-tree," I replied.

¹²Then the LORD said to me: Well have you seen, for I am watching to fulfill my word.

¹³A second time the word of the LORD came to me with the question: What do you see? "I see a boiling cauldron," I replied, "that appears from the north."

¹⁴And from the north, said the LORD to me, evil will boil over upon all who dwell in the land.

¹⁵Lo, I am summoning all the kingdoms of the north, says the LORD; Each king shall come and set up his throne at the gateways of Jerusalem, Opposite her walls all around and opposite all the cities of Judah.

¹⁶I will pronounce my sentence against them for all their wickedness in forsaking me, And in burning incense to strange gods and adoring their own handiwork.

¹⁷But do you gird your loins; stand up and tell them all that I command you. Be not crushed on their account, as though I would leave you crushed before them;

¹⁸For it is I this day who have made you a fortified city, A pillar of iron, a wall of brass, against the whole land: Against Judah's kings and princes, against its priests and people.

¹⁹They will fight against you, but not prevail over you, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.

2This word of the LORD came to me:

²Go, cry out this message for Jerusalem to hear! I remember the devotion of your youth, how you loved me as a bride, Following me in the desert, in a land unsown.

³Sacred to the LORD was Israel, the first fruits of his harvest; Should anyone presume to partake of them, evil would befall him, says the LORD.

⁴Listen to the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob! All you clans of the house of Israel,

⁵thus says the LORD: What fault did your fathers find in me that they withdrew from me, Went after empty idols, and became empty themselves?

⁶They did not ask, "Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, Who led us through the desert, through a land of wastes and gullies, Through a land of drought and darkness, through a land which no one crosses, where no man dwells?"

⁷When I brought you into the garden land to eat its goodly fruits, You entered and defiled my land, you made my heritage loathsome.

⁸The priests asked not, "Where is the LORD?" Those who dealt with the law knew me not: the shepherds rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, and went after useless idols.

⁹Therefore will I yet accuse you, says the LORD, and even your children's children I will accuse.

¹⁰Pass over to the coast of the Kittim and see, send to Kedar and carefully inquire: Where has the like of this been done?

¹¹Does any other nation change its gods?-- yet they are not gods at all! But my people have changed their glory for useless things.

¹²Be amazed at this, O heavens, and shudder with sheer horror, says the LORD.

¹³Two evils have my people done: they have forsaken me, the source of living waters; They have dug themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that hold no water.

¹⁴Is Israel a slave, a bondman by birth? Why then has he become booty?

¹⁵Against him lions roar full-throated cries. They have made his land a waste; his cities are charred ruins, without inhabitant.

¹⁶Yes, the people of Memphis and Tahpanhes shave the crown of your head.

¹⁷Has not the forsaking of the LORD, your God, done this to you?

¹⁸And now, why go to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Nile? Why go to Assyria, to drink the waters of the Euphrates?

¹⁹Your own wickedness chastises you, your own infidelities punish you. Know then, and see, how evil and bitter is your forsaking the LORD, your God, And showing no fear of me, says the Lord, the GOD of hosts.

²⁰Long ago you broke your yoke, you tore off your bonds. "I will not serve," you said. On every high hill, under every green tree, you gave yourself to harlotry.

²¹I had planted you, a choice vine of fully tested stock; How could you turn out obnoxious to me, a spurious vine?

²²Though you scour it with soap, and use much lye, The stain of your guilt is still before me, says the Lord GOD.

²³How can you say, "I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baals"? Consider your conduct in the Valley, recall what you have done: A frenzied she-camel, coursing near and far,

²⁴breaking away toward the desert, Snuffing the wind in her ardor-- who can restrain her lust? No beasts need tire themselves seeking her; in her month they will meet her.

²⁵Stop wearing out your shoes and parching your throat! But you say, "No use! no! I love these strangers, and after them I must go."

²⁶As the thief is shamed when caught, so shall the house of Israel be shamed: They, their kings and their princes, their priests and their prophets;

²⁷They who say to a piece of wood, "You are my father," and to a stone, "You gave me birth." They turn to me their backs, not their faces; yet, in their time of trouble they cry out, "Rise up and save us!"

²⁸Where are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them rise up! Will they save you in your time of trouble? For as numerous as your cities are your gods, O Judah! And as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up for Baal.

²⁹How dare you still plead with me? You have all rebelled against me, says the LORD.

³⁰In vain I struck your children; the correction they did not take. Your sword devoured your prophets like a ravening lion.

³¹You, of this generation, take note of the word of the Lord: Have I been a desert to Israel, a land of darkness? Why do my people say, "We have moved on, we will come to you no more"?

³²Does a virgin forget her jewelry, a bride her sash? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.

³³How well you pick your way when seeking love! You who, in your wickedness, have gone by ways unclean!

³⁴You, on whose clothing there is the life-blood of the innocent, whom you found committing no burglary;

³⁵Yet withal you say, "I am innocent; at least, his anger is turned away from me." Behold, I will judge you on that word of yours, "I have not sinned."

³⁶How very base you have become in changing your course! By Egypt will you be shamed, as you were shamed by Assyria.

³⁷From there also shall you go away with hands upon your head; For the LORD has rejected those in whom you trust, with them you will have no success.

3If a man sends away his wife and, after leaving him, she marries another man, Does the first husband come back to her? Would not the land be wholly defiled? But you have sinned with many lovers, and yet you would return to me! says the LORD.

²Lift your eyes to the heights, and see, where have men not lain with you? By the waysides you waited for them like an Arab in the desert. You defiled the land by your wicked harlotry.

³Therefore the showers were withheld, the spring rain failed. But because you have a harlot's brow, you refused to blush.

⁴Even now do you not call me, "My father, you who are the bridegroom of my youth"?

⁵"Will he keep his wrath forever, will he hold his grudge to the end?" This is what you say; yet you do all the evil you can.

⁶The LORD said to me in the days of King Josiah: See now what rebellious Israel has done! She has gone up every high mountain, and under every green tree she has played the harlot.

⁷And I thought, after she has done all this she will return to me. But she did not return. Then, even though her traitor sister Judah saw

⁸that for all the adulteries rebellious Israel had committed, I put her away and gave her a bill of divorce, nevertheless her traitor sister Judah was not frightened; she too went off and played the harlot.

⁹Eager to sin, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and wood.

¹⁰With all this, the traitor sister Judah did not return to me wholeheartedly, but insincerely, says the LORD.

¹¹Then the LORD said to me: Rebel Israel is inwardly more just than traitorous Judah.

¹²Go, proclaim these words toward the north, and say: Return, rebel Israel, says the LORD, I will not remain angry with you; For I am merciful, says the LORD, I will not continue my wrath forever.

¹³Only know your guilt: how you rebelled against the LORD, your God, How you ran hither and yon to strangers (under every green tree) and would not listen to my voice, says the LORD.

¹⁴Return, rebellious children, says the LORD, for I am your Master; I will take you, one from a city, two from a clan, and bring you to Zion.

¹⁵I will appoint over you shepherds after my own heart, who will shepherd you wisely and prudently.

¹⁶When you multiply and become fruitful in the land, says the LORD, They will in those days no longer say, "The ark of the covenant of the LORD!" They will no longer think of it, or remember it, or miss it, or make another.

¹⁷At that time they will call Jerusalem the LORD'S throne; there all nations will be gathered together to honor the name of the LORD at Jerusalem, and they will walk no longer in their hardhearted wickedness.

¹⁸In those days the house of Judah will join the house of Israel; together they will come from the land of the north to the land which I gave to your fathers as a heritage.

¹⁹I had thought: How I should like to treat you as sons, And give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beautiful among the nations! You would call me, "My Father," I thought, and never cease following me.

²⁰But like a woman faithless to her lover, even so have you been faithless to me, O house of Israel, says the LORD.

²¹A cry is heard on the heights! the plaintive weeping of Israel's children, Because they have perverted their ways and forgotten the LORD, their God.

²²Return, rebellious children, and I will cure you of your rebelling. "Here we are, we now come to you because you are the LORD, our God.

²³Deceptive indeed are the hills, the thronging mountains; In the LORD, our God, alone is the salvation of Israel.

²⁴The shame-god has devoured our fathers' toil from our youth, Their sheep and their cattle, their sons and their daughters.

²⁵Let us lie down in our shame, let our disgrace cover us, for we have sinned against the LORD, our God, From our youth to this day, we and our fathers also; we listened not to the voice of the LORD, our God."

4If you wish to return, O Israel, says the LORD, return to me. If you put your detestable things out of my sight, and do not stray,

²Then you can swear, "As the LORD lives," in truth, in judgment, and in justice; Then shall the nations use his name in blessing, and glory in him.

³For to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, thus says the LORD: Till your untilled ground, sow not among thorns.

⁴For the sake of the LORD, be circumcised, remove the foreskins of your hearts, O men of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem; Lest my anger break out like fire, and burn till none can quench it, because of your evil deeds.

⁵Proclaim it in Judah, make it heard in Jerusalem; Blow the trumpet through the land, summon the recruits! Say, "Fall in, let us march to the fortified cities."

⁶Bear the standard to Zion, seek refuge without delay! Evil I bring from the north, and great destruction.

⁷Up comes the lion from his lair, the destroyer of nations has set out, has left his place, To turn your land into desolation, till your cities lie waste and empty.

⁸So gird yourselves with sackcloth, mourn and wail: "The blazing wrath of the LORD is not turned away from us."

⁹In that day, says the LORD, The king will lose heart, and the princes; the priests will be amazed, and the prophets stunned.

¹⁰"Alas! Lord GOD," they will say, "You only deceived us When you said: Peace shall be yours; for the sword touches our very soul."

¹¹At that time it will be said of this people and of Jerusalem, "From the glaring heights through the desert a wind comes toward the daughter of my people." Not to winnow, not to cleanse,

¹²does this wind from the heights come at my bidding; And I myself now pronounce sentence upon them.

¹³See! like storm clouds he advances, like a hurricane his chariots; Swifter than eagles are his steeds: "Woe to us! we are ruined."

¹⁴Cleanse your heart of evil, O Jerusalem, that you may be saved. How long must your pernicious thoughts lodge within you?

¹⁵Listen! They proclaim it from Dan, from Mount Ephraim they announce destruction:

¹⁶"Make this known to the nations, announce it to Jerusalem: The besiegers are coming from the distant land, shouting their war cry against the cities of Judah."

¹⁷Like watchmen of the fields they surround her, for she has rebelled against me, says the LORD.

¹⁸Your conduct, your misdeeds, have done this to you; how bitter is this disaster of yours, how it reaches to your very heart!

¹⁹My breast! my breast! how I suffer! The walls of my heart! My heart beats wildly, I cannot be still; For I have heard the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

²⁰Ruin after ruin is reported; the whole earth is laid waste. In an instant my tents are ravaged; in a flash, my shelters.

²¹How long must I see that signal, hear that trumpet sound!

²²Fools my people are, they know me not; Senseless children they are, having no understanding; They are wise in evil, but know not how to do good.

²³I looked at the earth, and it was waste and void; at the heavens, and their light had gone out!

²⁴I looked at the mountains, and they were trembling, and all the hills were crumbling!

²⁵I looked and behold, there was no man; even the birds of the air had flown away!

²⁶I looked and behold, the garden land was a desert, with all its cities destroyed before the LORD, before his blazing wrath.

²⁷For thus says the LORD: Waste shall the whole land be; I will (not) wholly destroy it.

²⁸Because of this the earth shall mourn, the heavens above shall darken; I have spoken, I will not repent, I have resolved, I will not turn back.

²⁹At the shout of horseman and bowman each city takes to flight; They shrink into the thickets, they scale the rocks: All the cities are abandoned, and no one dwells in them.

³⁰You now who are doomed, what do you mean by putting on purple, bedecking yourself with gold, Shading your eyes with cosmetics, beautifying yourself in vain? Your lovers spurn you, they seek your life.

³¹Yes, I hear the moaning, as of a woman in travail, like the anguish of a mother with her first child- The cry of daughter Zion gasping, as she stretches forth her hands: "Ah, woe is me! I sink exhausted before the slayers!"

5Roam the streets of Jerusalem, look about and observe, Search through her public places, to find even one Who lives uprightly and seeks to be faithful, and I will pardon her!

²Though they say, "As the LORD lives," they swear falsely.

³O LORD, do your eyes not look for honesty? You struck them, but they did not cringe; you laid them low, but they refused correction; They set their faces harder than stone, and refused to return to you.

⁴It is only the lowly, I thought, who are foolish; For they know not the way of the LORD, their duty to their God.

⁵I will go to the great ones and speak with them; For they know the way of the LORD, their duty to their God. But, one and all, they had broken the yoke, torn off the harness.

⁶Therefore lions from the forest slay them, wolves of the desert ravage them, Leopards keep watch round their cities: all who come out are torn to pieces For their many crimes and their numerous rebellions.

⁷Why should I pardon you these things? Your sons have forsaken me, they swear by gods that are not. I fed them, but they committed adultery; to the harlot's house they throng.

⁸Lustful stallions they are, each neighs after another's wife.

⁹Shall I not punish them for these things? says the LORD; On a nation such as this shall I not take vengeance?

¹⁰Climb to her terraces, and ravage them, destroy them (not) wholly. Tear away her tendrils, they do not belong to the LORD.

¹¹For they have openly rebelled against me, both the house of Israel and the house of Judah, says the LORD.

¹²They denied the LORD, saying, "Not he-- No evil shall befall us, neither sword nor famine shall we see.

¹³The prophets have become wind, and the word is not in them. May their threats be carried out against themselves!"

¹⁴Now, for this that you have said, says the LORD, the God of hosts- Behold, I make my words in your mouth, a fire, And this people is the wood that it shall devour!--

¹⁵Beware, I will bring against you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, says the LORD; A long-lived nation, an ancient nation, a people whose language you know not, whose speech you cannot understand.

¹⁶Their quivers are like open graves; all of them are warriors.

¹⁷They will devour your harvest and your bread, devour your sons and your daughters, Devour your sheep and cattle, devour your vines and fig trees; They will beat flat with the sword the fortified city in which you trust.

¹⁸Yet even in those days, says the LORD, I will not wholly destroy you.

¹⁹And when they ask, "Why has the LORD done all these things to us?" say to them, "As you have forsaken me to serve strange gods in your own land, so shall you serve strangers in a land not your own."

²⁰Announce this to the house of Jacob, proclaim it in Judah:

²¹Pay attention to this, foolish and senseless people Who have eyes and see not, who have ears and hear not.

²²Should you not fear me, says the LORD, should you not tremble before me? I made the sandy shore the sea's limit, which by eternal decree it may not overstep. Toss though it may, it is to no avail; though its billows roar, they cannot pass.

²³But this people's heart is stubborn and rebellious; they turn and go away,

²⁴And say not in their hearts, "Let us fear the LORD, our God, Who gives us rain early and late, in its time; Who watches for us over the appointed weeks of harvest."

²⁵Your crimes have prevented these things, your sins have turned back these blessings from you.

²⁶For there are among my people criminals; like fowlers they set traps, but it is men they catch.

²⁷Their houses are as full of treachery as a bird-cage is of birds; Therefore they grow powerful and rich,

²⁸fat and sleek. They go their wicked way; justice they do not defend By advancing the claim of the fatherless or judging the cause of the poor.

²⁹Shall I not punish these things? says the LORD; on a nation such as this shall I not take vengeance?

³⁰A shocking, horrible thing has happened in the land:

³¹The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests teach as they wish; Yet my people will have it so; what will you do when the end comes?

6Flee, sons of Benjamin, out of Jerusalem! Blow the trumpet in Tekoa, raise a signal over Beth-haccherem; For evil threatens from the north, and mighty destruction.

²O lovely and delicate daughter Zion, you are ruined!

³Against her, shepherds come with their flocks; all around, they pitch their tents, each one grazes his portion.

⁴"Prepare for war against her, Up! let us rush upon her at midday! Alas! the day is waning, evening shadows lengthen;

⁵Up! let us rush upon her by night, destroy her palaces!"

⁶For thus says the LORD of hosts: Hew down her trees, throw up a siege mound against Jerusalem. Woe to the city marked for punishment; nought but oppression within her!

⁷As the well gushes out its waters, so she gushes out her wickedness. Violence and destruction resound in her; ever before me are wounds and blows.

⁸Be warned, O Jerusalem, lest I be estranged from you; Lest I turn you into a desert, a land where no man dwells.

⁹Thus says the LORD of hosts: Glean, glean like a vine the remnant of Israel; Pass your hand, like a vintager, repeatedly over the tendrils.

¹⁰To whom shall I speak? whom shall I warn, and be heard? See! their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot give heed; See, the word of the LORD has become for them an object of scorn, which they will not have.

¹¹Therefore my wrath brims up within me, I am weary of holding it in; I will pour it out upon the child in the street, upon the young men gathered together. Yes, all will be taken, husband and wife, graybeard with ancient.

¹²Their houses will fall to strangers, their fields and their wives as well; For I will stretch forth my hand against those who dwell in this land, says the LORD.

¹³Small and great alike, all are greedy for gain; prophet and priest, all practice fraud.

¹⁴They would repair, as though it were nought, the injury to my people: "Peace, peace!" they say, though there is no peace.

¹⁵They are odious; they have done abominable things, yet they are not at all ashamed, they know not how to blush. Hence they shall be among those who fall; in their time of punishment they shall go down, says the LORD.

¹⁶Thus says the LORD: Stand beside the earliest roads, ask the pathways of old Which is the way to good, and walk it; thus you will find rest for your souls. But they said, "We will not walk it."

¹⁷When I raised up watchmen for them: "Hearken to the sound of the trumpet!" they said, "We will not hearken."

¹⁸Therefore hear, O nations, and know, O earth, what I will do with them:

¹⁹See, I bring evil upon this people, the fruit of their own schemes, Because they heeded not my words, because they despised my law.

²⁰Of what use to me incense that comes from Sheba, or sweet cane from far-off lands? Your holocausts find no favor with me, your sacrifices please me not.

²¹Therefore, thus says the LORD: See, I will place before this people obstacles to bring them down; Fathers and sons alike, neighbors and friends shall perish.

²²Thus says the LORD: See, a people comes from the land of the north, a great nation, roused from the ends of the earth.

²³Bow and javelin they wield; cruel and pitiless are they. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride forth on steeds, Each in his place, for battle against you, daughter Zion.

²⁴We hear the report of them; helpless fall our hands, Anguish takes hold of us, throes like a mother's in childbirth.

²⁵Go not forth into the field, step not into the street, Beware of the enemy's sword; terror on every side!

²⁶O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, roll in the ashes. Mourn as for an only child with bitter wailing, For sudden upon us comes the destroyer.

²⁷A tester among my people I have appointed you, to search and test their way.

²⁸Arch-rebels are they all, dealers in slander, all of them corrupt.

²⁹The bellows roars, the lead is consumed by the fire; In vain has the smelter refined, the wicked are not drawn off.

³⁰"Silver rejected" they shall be called, for the LORD has rejected them.

7The following message came to Jeremiah from the LORD:

²Stand at the gate of the house of the LORD, and there proclaim this message: Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah who enter these gates to worship the LORD!

³Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Reform your ways and your deeds, so that I may remain with you in this place.

⁴Put not your trust in the deceitful words: "This is the temple of the LORD! The temple of the LORD! The temple of the LORD!"

⁵Only if you thoroughly reform your ways and your deeds; if each of you deals justly with his neighbor;

⁶if you no longer oppress the resident alien, the orphan, and the widow; if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place, or follow strange gods to your own harm,

⁷will I remain with you in this place, in the land which I gave your fathers long ago and forever.

⁸But here you are, putting your trust in deceitful words to your own loss!

⁹Are you to steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal, go after strange gods that you know not,

¹⁰and yet come to stand before me in this house which bears my name, and say: "We are safe; we can commit all these abominations again"?

¹¹Has this house which bears my name become in your eyes a den of thieves? I too see what is being done, says the LORD.

¹²You may go to Shiloh, which I made the dwelling place of my name in the beginning. See what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.

¹³And now, because you have committed all these misdeeds, says the LORD, because you did not listen, though I spoke to you untiringly; because you did not answer, though I called you,

¹⁴I will do to this house named after me, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers, just as I did to Shiloh.

¹⁵I will cast you away from me, as I cast away all your brethren, all the offspring of Ephraim.

¹⁶You, now, do not intercede for this people; raise not in their behalf a pleading prayer! Do not urge me, for I will not listen to you.

¹⁷Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem?

¹⁸The children gather wood, their fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven, while libations are poured out to strange gods in order to hurt me.

¹⁹Is it I whom they hurt, says the LORD; is it not rather themselves, to their own confusion?

²⁰See now, says the Lord GOD, my anger and my wrath will pour out upon this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruits of the earth; it will burn without being quenched.

²¹Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Heap your holocausts upon your sacrifices; eat up the flesh!

²²In speaking to your fathers on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I gave them no command concerning holocaust or sacrifice.

²³This rather is what I commanded them: Listen to my voice; then I will be your God and you shall be my people. Walk in all the ways that I command you, so that you may prosper.

²⁴But they obeyed not, nor did they pay heed. They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to me.

²⁵From the day that your fathers left the land of Egypt even to this day, I have sent you untiringly all my servants the prophets.

²⁶Yet they have not obeyed me nor paid heed; they have stiffened their necks and done worse than their fathers.

²⁷When you speak all these words to them, they will not listen to you either; when you call to them, they will not answer you.

²⁸Say to them: This is the nation which does not listen to the voice of the LORD, its God, or take correction. Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself is banished from their speech.

²⁹Cut off your dedicated hair and throw it away! on the heights intone an elegy; For the LORD has rejected and cast off the generation that draws down his wrath.

³⁰The people of Judah have done what is evil in my eyes, says the LORD. They have defiled the house which bears my name by setting up in it their abominable idols.

³¹In the Valley of Ben-hinnom they have built the high place of Topheth to immolate in fire their sons and their daughters, such a thing as I never commanded or had in mind.

³²Therefore, beware! days will come, says the LORD, when Topheth and the Valley of Ben-hinnom will no longer be called such, but rather the Valley of Slaughter. For lack of space, Topheth will be a burial place.

³³The corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the field, which no one will drive away.

³⁴In the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem I will silence the cry of joy, the cry of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land will be turned to rubble.

8At that time, says the LORD, the bones of the kings and princes of Judah, the bones of the priests and the prophets, and the bones of the citizens of Jerusalem will be emptied out of their graves

²and spread out before the sun and the moon and the whole army of heaven, which they loved and served, which they followed, consulted, and worshiped. They will not be gathered up for burial, but will lie like dung upon the ground.

³Death will be preferred to life by all the survivors of this wicked race who remain in any of the places to which I banish them, says the LORD of hosts.

⁴Tell them: Thus says the LORD: When someone falls, does he not rise again? if he goes astray, does he not turn back?

⁵Why do these people rebel with obstinate resistance? Why do they cling to deceptive idols, refuse to turn back?

⁶I listen closely: they speak what is not true; No one repents of his wickedness, saying, "What have I done!" Everyone keeps on running his course, like a steed dashing into battle.

⁷Even the stork in the air knows it seasons; Turtledove, swallow and thrush observe their time of return, But my people do not know the ordinance of the LORD.

⁸How can you say, "We are wise, we have the law of the LORD"? Why, that has been changed into falsehood by the lying pen of the scribes!

⁹The wise are confounded, dismayed and ensnared; Since they have rejected the word of the LORD, of what avail is their wisdom?

¹⁰Therefore, I will give their wives to strangers, their fields to spoilers. Small and great alike, all are greedy for gain, prophet and priest, all practice fraud.

¹¹They would repair, as though it were nought, the injury to the daughter of my people: "Peace, peace!" they say, though there is no peace.

¹²They are odious; they have done abominable things, yet they are not at all ashamed, they know not how to blush. Hence they shall be among those who fall; in their time of punishment they shall go down, says the LORD.

¹³I will gather them all in, says the LORD: no grapes on the vine, No figs on the fig trees, foliage withered!

¹⁴Why do we remain here? Let us form ranks and enter the walled cities, to perish there; For the LORD has wrought our destruction, he has given us poison to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.

¹⁵We wait for peace to no avail; for a time of healing, but terror comes instead.

¹⁶From Dan is heard the snorting of his steeds; The neighing of his stallions shakes the whole land. They come devouring the land and all it contains, the city and those who dwell in it.

¹⁷Yes, I will send against you poisonous snakes, Against which no charm will work when they bite you, says the LORD.

¹⁸My grief is incurable, my heart within me is faint.

¹⁹Listen! the cry of the daughter of my people, far and wide in the land! Is the LORD no longer in Zion, is her King no longer in her midst? (Why do they provoke me with their idols, with their foreign nonentities?)

²⁰"The harvest has passed, the summer is at an end, and yet we are not safe!"

²¹I am broken by the ruin of the daughter of my people. I am disconsolate; horror has seized me.

²²Is there no balm in Gilead, no physician there? Why grows not new flesh over the wound of the daughter of my people?

²³Oh, that my head were a spring of water, my eyes a fountain of tears, That I might weep day and night over the slain of the daughter of my people!

9Would that I had in the desert a travelers' lodge! That I might leave my people and depart from them. They are all adulterers, a faithless band.

²They ready their tongues like a drawn bow; with lying, and not with truth, they hold forth in the land. They go from evil to evil, but me they know not, says the LORD.

³Be on your guard, everyone against his neighbor; put no trust in any brother. Every brother apes Jacob, the supplanter, every friend is guilty of slander.

⁴Each one deceives the other, no one speaks the truth. They have accustomed their tongues to lying, and are perverse, and cannot repent.

⁵Violence upon violence, deceit upon deceit: They refuse to recognize me, says the LORD.

⁶Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: I will smelt them and test them; how else should I deal with their wickedness?

⁷A murderous arrow is his tongue, his mouth utters deceit; He speaks cordially with his friends, but in his heart he lays an ambush!

⁸For these things, says the LORD, shall I not punish them? On a nation such as this shall I not take vengeance?

⁹Over the mountains, break out in cries of lamentation, over the pasture lands, intone a dirge: They are scorched, and no man crosses them, unheard is the bleat of the flock; Birds of the air as well as beasts, all have fled, and are gone.

¹⁰I will turn Jerusalem into a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals; The cities of Judah I will make into a waste, where no one dwells.

¹¹Who is so wise that he can understand this? Let him to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken make it known: Why is the land ravaged, scorched like a wasteland untraversed?

¹²The LORD answered: Because they have abandoned my law, which I set before them, and have not followed it or listened to my voice,

¹³but followed rather the hardness of their hearts and the Baals, as their fathers had taught them;

¹⁴therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: See now, I will give them wormwood to eat and poison to drink.

¹⁵I will scatter them among nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known; I will send the sword to pursue them until I have completely destroyed them.

¹⁶Thus says the LORD of hosts: Attention! tell the wailing women to come, summon the best of them;

¹⁷Let them come quickly and intone a dirge for us, That our eyes may be wet with weeping, our cheeks run with tears.

¹⁸The dirge is heard from Zion: Ruined we are, and greatly ashamed; We must leave the land, give up our homes!

¹⁹Hear, you women, the word of the LORD, let your ears receive his message. Teach your daughters this dirge, and each other this lament.

²⁰Death has come up through our windows, has entered our palaces; It cuts down the children in the street, young people in the squares.

²¹The corpses of the slain lie like dung on a field, Like sheaves behind the harvester, with no one to gather them.

²²Thus says the LORD: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor the strong man glory in his strength, nor the rich man glory in his riches;

²³But rather, let him who glories, glory in this, that in his prudence he knows me, Knows that I, the LORD, bring about kindness, justice and uprightness on the earth; For with such am I pleased, says the LORD.

²⁴See, days are coming, says the LORD, when I will demand an account of all those circumcised in their flesh:

²⁵Egypt and Judah, Edom and the Ammonites, Moab and the desert dwellers who shave their temples. For all these nations, like the whole house of Israel, are uncircumcised in heart.

10Hear the word which the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel.

²Thus says the LORD: Learn not the customs of the nations, and have no fear of the signs of the heavens, though the nations fear them.

³For the cult idols of the nations are nothing, wood cut from the forest, Wrought by craftsmen with the adze,

⁴adorned with silver and gold. With nails and hammers they are fastened, that they may not totter.

⁵Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field are they, they cannot speak; They must be carried about, for they cannot walk. Fear them not, they can do no harm, neither is it in their power to do good.

⁶No one is like you, O LORD, great are you, great and mighty is your name.

⁷Who would not fear you, King of the nations, for it is your due! Among all the wisest of the nations, and in all their domain, there is none like you.

⁸One and all they are dumb and senseless, these idols they teach about are wooden:

⁹Silver strips brought from Tarshish, and gold from Ophir, The work of the craftsman and the handiwork of the smelter, Clothed with violet and purple- all of them the work of artisans.

¹⁰The LORD is true God, he is the living God, the eternal King, Before whose anger the earth quakes, whose wrath the nations cannot endure:

¹¹Thus shall you say of them: Let the gods that did not make heaven and earth perish from the earth, and from beneath these heavens!

¹²He who made the earth by his power, established the world by his wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by his skill.

¹³When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar, and he brings up clouds from the end of the earth; He makes the lightning flash in the rain, and releases stormwinds from their chambers.

¹⁴Every man is stupid, ignorant; every artisan is put to shame by his idol: He has molded a fraud, without breath of life.

¹⁵Nothingness are they, a ridiculous work; they will perish in their time of punishment.

¹⁶Not like these is the portion of Jacob: he is the creator of all things; Israel is his very own tribe, LORD of hosts is his name.

¹⁷Lift your bundle and leave the land, O city living in a state of siege!

¹⁸For thus says the LORD: Behold, this time I will sling away the inhabitants of the land; I will hem them in, that they may be taken.

¹⁹Woe is me! I am undone, my wound is incurable; Yet I had thought: if I make light of my wound, I can bear it.

²⁰My tent is ruined, all its cords are severed. My sons have left me, they are no more: no one to pitch my tent, no one to raise its curtains.

²¹Yes, the shepherds were stupid as cattle, the LORD they sought not; Therefore they had no success, and all their flocks were scattered.

²²Listen! a noise! it comes closer, a great uproar from the northern land: To turn the cities of Judah into a desert haunt of jackals.

²³You know, O LORD, that man is not master of his way; Man's course is not within his choice, nor is it for him to direct his step.

²⁴Punish us, O LORD, but with equity, not in anger, lest you have us dwindle away.

²⁵Pour out your wrath on the nations that know you not, on the tribes that call not upon your name; For they have devoured Jacob utterly, and laid waste his dwelling.

11The following message came to Jeremiah from the LORD:

²Speak to the men of Judah and to the citizens of Jerusalem,

³saying to them: Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Cursed be the man who does not observe the terms of this covenant,

⁴which I enjoined upon your fathers the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, that iron foundry, saying: Listen to my voice and do all that I command you. Then you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

⁵Thus I will fulfill the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey: the one you have today. "Amen, LORD," I answered.

⁶Then the LORD said to me: Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the words of this covenant and obey them.

⁷Urgently and constantly I warned your fathers to obey my voice, from the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt even to this day.

⁸But they did not listen or give ear. Each one followed the hardness of his evil heart, till I brought upon them all the threats of this covenant which they had failed to observe as I commanded them.

⁹A conspiracy has been found, the LORD said to me, among the men of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem.

¹⁰They have returned to the crimes of their forefathers who refused to obey my words. They also have followed and served strange gods; the covenant which I had made with their fathers, the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken.

¹¹Therefore, thus says the LORD: See, I bring upon them misfortune which they cannot escape. Though they cry out to me, I will not listen to them.

¹²Then the cities of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to which they have been offering incense. But these gods will give them no help whatever when misfortune strikes.

¹³For as numerous as your cities are your gods, O Judah! And as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars for offering sacrifice to Baal.

¹⁴Do not intercede on behalf of this people, nor utter a plea for them. I will not listen when they call to me at the time of their misfortune.

¹⁵What right has my beloved in my house, while she prepares her plots? Can vows and sacred meat turn away your misfortune from you? Will you still be jubilant

¹⁶when you hear the great invasion? A spreading olive tree, goodly to behold, the LORD has named you; Now he sets fire to it, its branches burn.

¹⁷The LORD of hosts who planted you has decreed misfortune for you because of the evil done by the house of Israel and by the house of Judah, who provoked me by sacrificing to Baal.

¹⁸I knew it because the LORD informed me; at that time you, O LORD, showed me their doings.

12You would be in the right, O LORD, if I should dispute with you; even so, I must discuss the case with you. Why does the way of the godless prosper, why live all the treacherous in contentment?

²You planted them; they have taken root, they keep on growing and bearing fruit. You are upon their lips, but far from their inmost thoughts.

³You, O Lord, know me, you see me, you have found that at heart I am with you. Pick them out like sheep for the slaughter, set them apart for the day of carnage.

⁴How long must the earth mourn, the green of the whole countryside wither? For the wickedness of those who dwell in it beasts and birds disappear, because they say, "God does not see our ways."

⁵If running against men has wearied you, how will you race against horses? And if in a land of peace you fall headlong, what will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?

⁶For even your own brothers, the members of your father's house, betray you; they have recruited a force against you. Do not believe them, even if they are friendly to you in their words.

⁷I abandon my house, cast off my heritage; The beloved of my soul I deliver into the hand of her foes.

⁸My heritage has turned on me like a lion in the jungle; Because she has roared against me, I treat her as an enemy.

⁹My heritage is a prey for hyenas, is surrounded by vultures; Come, gather together, all you beasts of the field, come and eat!

¹⁰Many shepherds have ravaged my vineyard, have trodden my heritage underfoot; The portion that delighted me they have turned into a desert waste.

¹¹They have made it a mournful waste, desolate it lies before me, Desolate, all the land, because no one takes it to heart.

¹²Upon every desert height brigands have come up. The LORD has a sword which consumes the land, from end to end: no peace for all mankind.

¹³They have sown wheat and reaped thorns, they have tired themselves out to no purpose; They recoil before their harvest, the flaming anger of the LORD.

¹⁴Thus says the LORD against all my evil neighbors who plunder the heritage which I gave my people Israel as their own: See, I will pluck them up from their land; the house of Judah I will pluck up in their midst.

¹⁵But after plucking them up, I will pity them again and bring them back, each to his heritage, each to his land.

¹⁶And if they carefully learn my people's custom of swearing by my name, "As the LORD lives," they who formerly taught my people to swear by Baal shall be built up in the midst of my people.

¹⁷But if they do not obey, I will uproot and destroy that nation entirely, says the LORD.

¹⁹Yet I, like a trusting lamb led to slaughter, had not realized that they were hatching plots against me: "Let us destroy the tree in its vigor; let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will be spoken no more."

²⁰But, you, O LORD of hosts, O just Judge, searcher of mind and heart, Let me witness the vengeance you take on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause!

²¹Therefore, thus says the LORD concerning the men of Anathoth who seek your life, saying, "Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD; else you shall die by our hand."

²²Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: I am going to punish them. The young men shall die by the sword; their sons and daughters shall die by famine.

²³None shall be spared among them, for I will bring misfortune upon the men of Anathoth, the year of their punishment.

13The LORD said to me: Go buy yourself a linen loincloth; wear it on your loins, but do not put it in water.

²I bought the loincloth, as the LORD commanded, and put it on.

³A second time the word of the LORD came to me thus:

⁴Take the loincloth which you bought and are wearing, and go now to the Parath; there hide it in a cleft of the rock.

⁵Obedient to the LORD'S command, I went to the Parath and buried the loincloth.

⁶After a long interval, he said to me: Go now to the Parath and fetch the loincloth which I told you to hide there.

⁷Again I went to the Parath, sought out and took the loincloth from the place where I had hid it. But it was rotted, good for nothing!

⁸Then the message came to me from the LORD:

⁹Thus says the LORD: So also I will allow the pride of Judah to rot, the great pride of Jerusalem.

¹⁰This wicked people who refuse to obey my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts, and follow strange gods to serve and adore them, shall be like this loincloth which is good for nothing.

¹¹For, as close as the loincloth clings to a man's loins, so had I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the LORD; to be my people, my renown, my praise, my beauty. But they did not listen.

¹²Now speak to them this word: Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Every wineflask is meant to be filled with wine. If they reply, "Do we not know that every wineflask is meant to be filled with wine?"

¹³say to them: Thus says the LORD: Beware! I am filling with drunkenness all the inhabitants of this land, the kings who succeed to David's throne, the priests and prophets, and all the citizens of Jerusalem.

¹⁴I will dash them against each other, fathers and sons together, says the LORD; I will show no compassion, I will not spare or pity, but will destroy them.

¹⁵Give ear, listen humbly, for the LORD speaks.

¹⁶Give glory to the LORD, your God, before it grows dark; Before your feet stumble on darkening mountains; Before the light you look for turns to darkness, changes into black clouds.

¹⁷If you do not listen to this in your pride, I will weep in secret many tears; My eyes will run with tears for the LORD'S flock, led away to exile.

¹⁸Say to the king and to the queen mother: come down from your throne; From your heads fall your magnificent crowns.

¹⁹The cities of the Negeb are besieged, with no one to relieve them; All Judah is banished in universal exile.

²⁰Lift up your eyes and see men coming from the north. Where is the flock entrusted to you, the sheep that were your glory?

²¹What will you say when they place as rulers over you those whom you taught to be your lovers? Will not pangs seize you like those of a woman giving birth?

²²If you ask in your heart why these things befall you: For your great guilt your skirts are stripped away and you are violated.

²³Can the Ethiopian change his skin? the leopard his spots? As easily would you be able to do good, accustomed to evil as you are.

²⁴I will scatter them like chaff that flies when the desert wind blows.

²⁵This is your lot, the portion measured out to you from me, says the LORD. Because you have forgotten me, and trusted in the lying idol,

²⁶I now will strip off your skirts from you, so that your shame will appear.

²⁷Your adulteries, your neighings, your shameless prostitutions: On the hills in the highlands I see these horrible crimes of yours. Woe to you, Jerusalem, how long will it yet be before you become clean!

14The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:

²Judah mourns, her gates are lifeless; Her people sink down in mourning: from Jerusalem ascends a cry of anguish.

³The nobles send their servants for water, but when they come to the cisterns They find no water and return with empty jars. Ashamed, despairing, they cover their heads

⁴because of the stricken soil; Because there is no rain in the land the farmers are ashamed, they cover their heads.

⁵Even the hind in the field deserts her offspring because there is no grass.

⁶The wild asses stand on the bare heights, gasping for breath like jackals; Their eyes grow dim, because there is no vegetation to be seen.

⁷Even though our crimes bear witness against us, take action, O LORD, for the honor of your name-- Even though our rebellions are many, though we have sinned against you.

⁸O Hope of Israel, O LORD, our savior in time of need! Why should you be a stranger in this land, like a traveler who has stopped but for a night?

⁹Why are you like a man dumbfounded, a champion who cannot save? You are in our midst, O LORD, your name we bear: do not forsake us!

¹⁰Thus says the LORD of this people: They so love to wander that they do not spare their feet. The LORD has no pleasure in them; now he remembers their guilt, and will punish their sins.

¹¹Then the LORD said to me: Do not intercede for this people.

¹²If they fast, I will not listen to their supplication. If they offer holocausts or cereal offerings, I will not accept them. Rather, I will destroy them with the sword, famine, and pestilence.

¹³Ah! Lord GOD, I replied, it is the prophets who say to them, "You shall not see the sword; famine shall not befall you. Indeed, I will give you lasting peace in this place."

¹⁴Lies these prophets utter in my name, the LORD said to me. I did not send them; I gave them no command nor did I speak to them. Lying visions, foolish divination, dreams of their own imagination, they prophesy to you.

¹⁵Therefore, thus says the LORD: Concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, though I did not send them; who say, "Sword and famine shall not befall this land": by the sword and famine shall these prophets meet their end.

¹⁶The people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out into the streets of Jerusalem by famine and the sword. No one shall bury them, their wives, their sons, or their daughters, for I will pour out upon them their own wickedness.

¹⁷Speak to them this word: Let my eyes stream with tears day and night, without rest, Over the great destruction which overwhelms the virgin daughter of my people, over her incurable wound.

¹⁸If I walk out into the field, look! those slain by the sword; If I enter the city, look! those consumed by hunger. Even the prophet and the priest forage in a land they know not.

¹⁹Have you cast Judah off completely? Is Zion loathsome to you? Why have you struck us a blow that cannot be healed? We wait for peace, to no avail; for a time of healing, but terror comes instead.

²⁰We recognize, O LORD, our wickedness, the guilt of our fathers; that we have sinned against you.

²¹For your name's sake spurn us not, disgrace not the throne of your glory; remember your covenant with us, and break it not.

²²Among the nations' idols is there any that gives rain? Or can the mere heavens send showers? Is it not you alone, O LORD, our God, to whom we look? You alone have done all these things.

15The LORD said to me: Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me, my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them away from me.

²If they ask you where they should go, tell them, Thus says the LORD: Whoever is marked for death, to death; whoever is marked for the sword, to the sword; whoever is marked for famine, to famine; whoever is marked for captivity, to captivity.

³Four kinds of scourge I have decreed against them, says the LORD: the sword to slay them; dogs to drag them about; the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy them.

⁴And I will make them an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.

⁵Who will pity you, Jerusalem, who will console you? Who will stop to ask about your welfare?

⁶You have disowned me, says the LORD, turned your back upon me; And so I stretched out my hand to destroy you, I was weary of sparing you.

⁷I winnowed them with the fan in every city gate. I destroyed my people through bereavement; they returned not from their evil ways.

⁸Their widows were more numerous before me than the sands of the sea. I brought against the mother of youths the spoiler at midday; Suddenly I struck her with anguish and terror.

⁹The mother of seven swoons away, gasping out her life; Her sun sets in full day, she is disgraced, despairing. Their survivors I will give to the sword before their enemies, says the LORD.

¹⁰Woe to me, mother, that you gave me birth! a man of strife and contention to all the land! I neither borrow nor lend, yet all curse me.

¹¹Tell me, LORD, have I not served you for their good? Have I not interceded with you in the time of misfortune and anguish?

¹²

¹⁵You know I have. Remember me, LORD, visit me, and avenge me on my persecutors. Because of your long-suffering banish me not; know that for you I have borne insult.

¹⁶When I found your words, I devoured them; they became my joy and the happiness of my heart, Because I bore your name, O LORD, God of hosts.

¹⁷I did not sit celebrating in the circle of merrymakers; Under the weight of your hand I sat alone because you filled me with indignation.

¹⁸Why is my pain continuous, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? You have indeed become for me a treacherous brook, whose waters do not abide!

¹⁹Thus the LORD answered me: If you repent, so that I restore you, in my presence you shall stand; If you bring forth the precious without the vile, you shall be my mouthpiece. Then it shall be they who turn to you, and you shall not turn to them;

²⁰And I will make you toward this people a solid wall of brass. Though they fight against you, they shall not prevail, For I am with you, to deliver and rescue you, says the LORD.

²¹I will free you from the hand of the wicked, and rescue you from the grasp of the violent.

16This message came to me from the LORD:

²Do not marry any woman; you shall not have sons or daughters in this place,

³for thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters who will be born in this place, the mothers who will give them birth, the fathers who will beget them in this land:

⁴Of deadly disease they shall die. Unlamented and unburied they will lie like dung on the ground. Sword and famine will make an end of them, and their corpses will become food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field.

⁵Go not into a house of mourning, the LORD continued: go not there to lament or offer sympathy. For I have withdrawn my friendship from this people, says the LORD, my kindness and my pity.

⁶They shall die, the great and the lowly, in this land, and shall go unburied and unlamented. No one will gash himself or shave his head for them.

⁷They will not break bread with the bereaved to console them in their bereavement; they will not give them the cup of consolation to drink over the death of father or mother.

⁸Enter not a house where people are celebrating, to sit with them eating and drinking.

⁹For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Before your very eyes and during your lifetime I will silence from this place the cry of joy and the cry of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

¹⁰When you proclaim all these words to this people and they ask you: "Why has the LORD pronounced all these great evils against us? What is our crime? What sin have we committed against the LORD, our God?"--

¹¹you shall answer them: It is because your fathers have forsaken me, says the LORD, and followed strange gods, which they served and worshiped; but me they have forsaken, and my law they have not observed.

¹²And you have done worse than your fathers. Here you are, every one of you, walking in the hardness of his evil heart instead of listening to me.

¹³I will cast you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known; there you can serve strange gods day and night, because I will not grant you my mercy.

¹⁴However, days will surely come, says the LORD, when it will no longer be said, "As the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites out of Egypt";

¹⁵but rather, "As the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites out of the land of the north and out of all the countries to which he had banished them." I will bring them back to the land which I gave their fathers.

¹⁶Look! I will send many fishermen, says the LORD, to catch them. After that, I will send many hunters to hunt them out from every mountain and hill and from the clefts of the rocks.

¹⁷For my eyes are upon all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor does their guilt escape my view.

¹⁸I will at once repay them double for their crime and their sin of profaning my land with their detestable corpses of idols, and filling my heritage with their abominations.

¹⁹O LORD, my strength, my fortress, my refuge in the day of distress! To you will the nations come from the ends of the earth, and say, "Mere frauds are the heritage of our fathers, empty idols of no use."

²⁰Can man make for himself gods? These are not gods.

²¹Look, then: I will give them knowledge; this time I will leave them in no doubt Of my strength and my power: they shall know that my name is LORD.

17The sin of Judah is written with an iron stylus, Engraved with a diamond point upon the tablets of their hearts.(And the horns of their altars,

²when their sons remember their altars and their sacred poles, beside the green trees, on the high hills,

³the peaks in the highland.) Your wealth and all your treasures I will give as spoil. In recompense for all your sins throughout your borders,

⁴You will relinquish your hold on your heritage which I have given you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land that you know not: For a fire has been kindled by my wrath that will burn forever.

⁵Thus says the LORD: Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD.

⁶He is like a barren bush in the desert that enjoys no change of season, But stands in a lava waste, a salt and empty earth.

⁷Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD.

⁸He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: It fears not the heat when it comes, its leaves stay green; In the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit.

⁹More tortuous than all else is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand it?

¹⁰I, the LORD, alone probe the mind and test the heart, To reward everyone according to his ways, according to the merit of his deeds.

¹¹A partridge that mothers a brood not her own is the man who acquires wealth unjustly: In midlife it will desert him; in the end he is only a fool.

¹²A throne of glory, exalted from the beginning, such is our holy place.

¹³O hope of Israel, O LORD! all who forsake you shall be in disgrace; The rebels in the land shall be put to shame; they have forsaken the source of living waters (the LORD).

¹⁴Heal me, LORD, that I may be healed; save me, that I may be saved, for it is you whom I praise.

¹⁵See how they say to me, "Where is the word of the LORD? Let it come to pass!"

¹⁶Yet I did not press you to send calamity; the day without remedy I have not desired. You know what passed my lips; it is present before you.

¹⁷Do not be my ruin, you, my refuge in the day of misfortune.

¹⁸Let my persecutors, not me, be confounded; let them, not me, be broken. Bring upon them the day of misfortune, crush them with repeated destruction.

¹⁹Thus said the LORD to me: Go, stand at the Gate of Benjamin, where the kings of Judah enter and leave, and at the other gates of Jerusalem.

²⁰There say to them: Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all you citizens of Jerusalem who enter these gates!

²¹Thus says the LORD: As you love your lives, take care not to carry burdens on the sabbath day, to bring them in through the gates of Jerusalem.

²²Bring no burden from your homes on the sabbath. Do no work whatever, but keep holy the sabbath, as I commanded your fathers,

²³though they did not listen or give ear, but stiffened their necks so as not to hear or take correction.

²⁴If you obey me wholeheartedly, says the LORD, and carry no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath, keeping the sabbath holy and abstaining from all work on it,

²⁵then, through the gates of this city, kings who sit upon the throne of David will continue to enter, riding in their chariots or upon their horses, along with their princes, and the men of Judah, and the citizens of Jerusalem. This city will remain inhabited forever.

²⁶To it people will come from the cities of Judah and the neighborhood of Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin and from the foothills, from the hill country and the Negeb, to bring holocausts and sacrifices, cereal offerings and incense and thank offerings to the house of the LORD.

²⁷But if you do not obey me and keep holy the sabbath, if you carry burdens and come through the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath, I will set unquenchable fire to its gates, which will consume the palaces of Jerusalem.

18This word came to Jeremiah from the LORD:

²Rise up, be off to the potter's house; there I will give you my message.

³I went down to the potter's house and there he was, working at the wheel.

⁴Whenever the object of clay which he was making turned out badly in his hand, he tried again, making of the clay another object of whatever sort he pleased.

⁵Then the word of the Lord came to me:

⁶Can I not do to you, house of Israel, as this potter has done? says the LORD. Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.

⁷Sometimes I threaten to uproot and tear down and destroy a nation or a kingdom.

⁸But if that nation which I have threatened turns from its evil, I also repent of the evil which I threatened to do.

⁹Sometimes, again, I promise to build up and plant a nation or a kingdom.

¹⁰But if that nation does what is evil in my eyes, refusing to obey my voice, I repent of the good with which I promised to bless it.

¹¹And now, tell this to the men of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem: Thus says the LORD: Take care! I am fashioning evil against you and making a plan. Return, each of you, from his evil way; reform your ways and your deeds.

¹²But they will say, "No use! We will follow our own devices; each one of us will behave according to the stubbornness of his evil heart!"

¹³Therefore thus says the LORD: Ask among the nations- who has ever heard the like? Truly horrible things has virgin Israel done!

¹⁴Does the snow of Lebanon desert the rocky heights? Do the gushing waters dry up that flow fresh down the mountains?

¹⁵Yet my people have forgotten me: they burn incense to a thing that does not exist. They stumble out of their ways, the paths of old, To travel on bypaths, not the beaten track.

¹⁶Their land shall be turned into a desert, an object of lasting ridicule: All passers-by will be amazed, will shake their heads.

¹⁷Like the east wind, I will scatter them before their enemies; I will show them my back, not my face, in their day of disaster.

¹⁸"Come," they said, "let us contrive a plot against Jeremiah. It will not mean the loss of instruction from the priests, nor of counsel from the wise, nor of messages from the prophets. And so, let us destroy him by his own tongue; let us carefully note his every word."

¹⁹Heed me, O LORD, and listen to what my adversaries say.

²⁰Must good be repaid with evil that they should dig a pit to take my life? Remember that I stood before you to speak in their behalf, to turn away your wrath from them.

²¹So now, deliver their children to famine, do away with them by the sword. Let their wives be made childless and widows; let their men die of pestilence, their young men be slain by the sword in battle.

²²May cries be heard from their homes, when suddenly you send plunderers against them. For they have dug a pit to capture me, they have hid snares for my feet;

²³But you, O LORD, know all their plans to slay me. Forgive not their crime, blot not out their sin in your sight! Let them go down before you, proceed against them in the time of your anger.

19Thus said the LORD: Go, buy a potter's earthen flask. Take along some of the elders of the people and of the priests,

²and go out toward the Valley of Ben-hinnom, at the entrance of the Potsherd Gate; there proclaim the words which I will speak to you:

³Listen to the word of the LORD, kings of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to bring such evil upon this place that all who hear of it will feel their ears tingle.

⁴This is because they have forsaken me and alienated this place by burning in it incense to strange gods which neither they nor their fathers knew; and the kings of Judah have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.

⁵They have built high places for Baal to immolate their sons in fire as holocausts to Baal: such a thing as I neither commanded nor spoke of, nor did it ever enter my mind.

⁶Therefore, days will come, says the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Topheth, or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but rather, the Valley of Slaughter.

⁷In this place I will foil the plan of Judah and Jerusalem; I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hand of those that seek their lives. Their corpses I will give as food to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field.

⁸I will make this city an object of amazement and derision. Because of all its wounds, every passer-by will be amazed and will catch his breath.

⁹I will have them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters; they shall eat one another's flesh during the strict siege by which their enemies and those who seek their lives will confine them.

¹⁰And you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who went with you,

¹¹and say to them: Thus says the LORD of hosts: Thus will I smash this people and this city, as one smashes a clay pot so that it cannot be repaired. And Topheth shall be a burial place, for lack of place to bury elsewhere.

¹²Thus I will do to this place and to its inhabitants, says the LORD; I will make this city like Topheth.

¹³And the houses of Jerusalem and the palaces of the kings of Judah shall be defiled like the place of Topheth, all the houses upon whose roofs they burnt incense to the whole host of heaven and poured out libations to strange gods.

¹⁴When Jeremiah returned from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, he stood in the court of the house of God and said to all the people:

¹⁵Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I will surely bring upon this city all the evil with which I threatened it, because they have stiffened their necks and have not obeyed my words.

20Jeremiah was heard prophesying these things by the priest Pashhur, son of Immer, chief officer in the house of the LORD.

²So he had the prophet scourged and placed in the stocks at the upper Gate of Benjamin in the house of the LORD.

³The next morning, after Pashhur had released Jeremiah from the stocks, the prophet said to him: Instead of Pashhur, the LORD will name you "Terror on every side."

⁴For thus says the LORD: Indeed, I will deliver you to terror, you and all your friends. Your own eyes shall see them fall by the sword of their enemies. All Judah I will deliver to the king of Babylon, who shall take them captive to Babylon or slay them with the sword.

⁵All the wealth of this city, all it has toiled for and holds dear, all the treasures of the kings of Judah, I will give as plunder into the hands of their foes, who shall seize it and carry it away to Babylon.

⁶You Pashhur, and all the members of your household shall go into exile. To Babylon you shall go, you and all your friends; there you shall die and be buried, because you have prophesied lies to them.

⁷You duped me, O LORD, and I let myself be duped; you were too strong for me, and you triumphed. All the day I am an object of laughter; everyone mocks me.

⁸Whenever I speak, I must cry out, violence and outrage is my message; The word of the LORD has brought me derision and reproach all the day.

⁹I say to myself, I will not mention him, I will speak in his name no more. But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.

¹⁰Yes, I hear the whisperings of many: "Terror on every side! Denounce! let us denounce him!" All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine. "Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail, and take our vengeance on him."

¹¹But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph. In their failure they will be put to utter shame, to lasting, unforgettable confusion.

¹²O LORD of hosts, you who test the just, who probe mind and heart, Let me witness the vengeance you take on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause.

¹³Sing to the LORD, praise the LORD, For he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked!

¹⁴Cursed be the day on which I was born! May the day my mother gave me birth never be blessed!

¹⁵Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, saying, "A child, a son, has been born to you!" filling him with great joy.

¹⁶Let that man be like the cities which the LORD relentlessly overthrew; Let him hear war cries in the morning, battle alarms at noonday,

¹⁷because he did not dispatch me in the womb! Then my mother would have been my grave, her womb confining me forever.

¹⁸Why did I come forth from the womb, to see sorrow and pain, to end my days in shame?

21The message which came to Jeremiah from the LORD when King Zedekiah sent him Pashhur, son of Malchiah, and the priest Zephaniah, son of Maaseiah, with this request:

²Inquire for us of the LORD, because Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, is attacking us. Perhaps the LORD will deal with us according to all his wonderful works, so that he will withdraw from us.

³But Jeremiah answered them: This is what you shall report to Zedekiah:

⁴Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I will turn back in your hands the weapons with which you intend to fight the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who besiege you outside the walls. These weapons I will pile up in the midst of this city,

⁵and I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and mighty arm, in anger, and wrath, and great rage!

⁶I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they shall die in a great pestilence.

⁷After that, says the LORD, I will hand over Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his ministers and the people in this city who survive pestilence, sword, and famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, into the hands of their enemies and those who seek their lives. He shall strike them with the edge of the sword, without quarter, without pity or mercy.

⁸And to this people you shall say: Thus says the LORD: See, I am giving you a choice between life and death.

⁹Whoever remains in this city shall die by the sword or famine or pestilence. But whoever leaves and surrenders to the besieging Chaldeans shall live and have his life as booty.

¹⁰For I have turned against this city, for its woe and not for its good, says the LORD. It shall be given into the power of the king of Babylon who shall burn it with fire.

¹¹To the royal house of Judah: Hear the word of the LORD,

¹²O house of David! Thus says the LORD: Each morning dispense justice, rescue the oppressed from the hand of the oppressor, Lest my fury break out like fire which burns without being quenched, because of the evil of your deeds.

¹³Beware! I am against you, Valley-site, Rock of the Plain, says the LORD. You who say, "Who will attack us, who can penetrate our retreats?"

¹⁴I will punish you, says the LORD, as your deeds deserve! I will kindle a fire in its forest that shall devour all its surroundings.

22The LORD told me this: Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and there deliver this message:

²You shall say: Listen to the word of the LORD, king of Judah, who sit on the throne of David, you, your ministers, and your people that enter by these gates!

³Thus says the LORD: Do what is right and just. Rescue the victim from the hand of his oppressor. Do not wrong or oppress the resident alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.

⁴If you carry out these commands, kings who succeed to the throne of David will continue to enter the gates of this palace, riding in chariots or mounted on horses, with their ministers, and their people.

⁵But if you do not obey these commands, I swear by myself, says the LORD: this palace shall become rubble.

⁶For thus says the LORD concerning the palace of the king of Judah: Though you be to me like Gilead, like the peak of Lebanon, I will turn you into a waste, a city uninhabited.

⁷Against you I will send destroyers, each with his axe: They shall cut down your choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.

⁸Many people will pass by this city and ask one another: "Why has the LORD done this to so great a city?"

⁹And the answer will be given: "Because they have deserted their covenant with the LORD, their God, by worshiping and serving strange gods."

¹⁰Weep not for him who is dead, mourn not for him! Weep rather for him who is going away; never again will he see the land of his birth.

¹¹Thus says the LORD concerning Shallum, son of Josiah, king of Judah, who succeeded his father as king. He has left this place never to return.

¹²Rather, he shall die in the place where they exiled him; this land he shall not see again.

¹³Woe to him who builds his house on wrong, his terraces on injustice; Who works his neighbor without pay, and gives him no wages.

¹⁴Who says, "I will build myself a spacious house, with airy rooms," Who cuts out windows for it, panels it with cedar, and paints it with vermillion.

¹⁵Must you prove your rank among kings by competing with them in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink? He did what was right and just, and it went well with him.

¹⁶Because he dispensed justice to the weak and the poor, it went well with him. Is this not true knowledge of me? says the LORD.

¹⁷But your eyes and heart are set on nothing except on your own gain, On shedding innocent blood, on practicing oppression and extortion.

¹⁸Therefore, thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah: They shall not lament him, "Alas! my brother"; "Alas! sister." They shall not lament him, "Alas, Lord! alas, Majesty!"

¹⁹The burial of an ass shall he be given, dragged forth and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

²⁰Scale Lebanon and cry out, in Bashan lift up your voice; Cry out from Abarim, for all your lovers are crushed.

²¹I spoke to you when you were secure, but you answered, "I will not listen." This has been your way from your youth, not to listen to my voice.

²²The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds, your lovers shall go into exile. Surely then you shall be ashamed and confounded because of all your wickedness.

²³You who dwell on Lebanon, who nest in the cedars, How you shall groan when pains come upon you, like the pangs of a woman in travail!

²⁴As I live, says the LORD, if you, Coniah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, are a signet ring on my right hand, I will snatch you from it.

²⁵I will deliver you into the hands of those who seek your life; the hands of those whom you fear; the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and the Chaldeans.

²⁶I will cast you out, you and the mother who bore you, into a different land from the one you were born in; and there you shall die.

²⁷Neither of them shall come back to the land for which they yearn.

²⁸Is this man Coniah a vessel despised, to be broken up, an instrument that no one wants? Why are he and his descendants cast out? why thrown into a land they know not?

²⁹O land, land, land, hear the word of the LORD--

³⁰Thus says the LORD: Write this man down as one childless, who will never thrive in his lifetime! No descendant of his shall achieve a seat on the throne of David as ruler again over Judah.

23Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture, says the LORD.

²Therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, against the shepherds who shepherd my people: You have scattered my sheep and driven them away. You have not cared for them, but I will take care to punish your evil deeds.

³I myself will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands to which I have driven them and bring them back to their meadow; there they shall increase and multiply.

⁴I will appoint shepherds for them who will shepherd them so that they need no longer fear and tremble; and none shall be missing, says the LORD.

⁵Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will raise up a righteous shoot to David; As king he shall reign and govern wisely, he shall do what is just and right in the land.

⁶In his days Judah shall be saved, Israel shall dwell in security. This is the name they give him: "The LORD our justice."

⁷Therefore, the days will come, says the LORD, when they shall no longer say, "As the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt";

⁸but rather, "As the LORD lives, who brought the descendants of the house of Israel up from the land of the north"--and from all the lands to which I banished them; they shall again live on their own land.

⁹Concerning the prophets: My heart within me is broken, my bones all tremble; I am like a man who is drunk, overcome by wine, Because of the LORD, because of his holy words.

¹⁰With adulterers the land is filled; on their account the land mourns, the pasture ranges are seared. Theirs is an evil course, theirs is unjust power.

¹¹Both prophet and priest are godless! In my very house I find their wickedness, says the LORD.

¹²Hence their way shall become for them slippery ground. In the darkness they shall lose their footing, and fall headlong; Evil I will bring upon them: the year of their punishment, says the LORD.

¹³Among Samaria's prophets I saw unseemly deeds: They prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray.

¹⁴But among Jerusalem's prophets I saw deeds still more shocking: Adultery, living in lies, siding with the wicked, so that no one turns from evil; To me they are all like Sodom, its citizens like Gomorrah.

¹⁵Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts against the prophets: Behold, I will give them wormwood to eat, and poison to drink; For from Jerusalem's prophets ungodliness has gone forth into the whole land.

¹⁶Thus says the LORD of hosts: Listen not to the words of your prophets, who fill you with emptiness; Visions of their own fancy they speak, not from the mouth of the LORD.

¹⁷They say to those who despise the word of the LORD, "Peace shall be yours"; And to everyone who walks in hardness of heart, "No evil shall overtake you."

¹⁸Now, who has stood in the council of the LORD, to see him and to hear his word? Who has heeded his word, so as to announce it?

¹⁹See, the storm of the LORD! His wrath breaks forth In a whirling storm that bursts upon the heads of the wicked.

²⁰The anger of the LORD shall not abate until he has done and fulfilled what he has determined in his heart. When the time comes, you shall fully understand.

²¹I did not send these prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.

²²Had they stood in my council, and did they but proclaim to my people my words, They would have brought them back from evil ways and from their wicked deeds.

²³Am I a God near at hand only, says the LORD, and not a God far off?

²⁴Can a man hide in secret without my seeing him? says the LORD. Do I not fill both heaven and earth? says the LORD.

²⁵I have heard the prophets who prophesy lies in my name say, "I had a dream! I had a dream!"

²⁶How long will this continue? Is my name in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy lies and their own deceitful fancies?

²⁷By their dreams which they recount to each other, they think to make my people forget my name, just as their fathers forgot my name for Baal.

²⁸Let the prophet who has a dream recount his dream; let him who has my word speak my word truthfully! What has straw to do with the wheat? says the LORD.

²⁹Is not my word like fire, says the LORD, like a hammer shattering rocks?

³⁰Therefore I am against the prophets, says the LORD, who steal my words from each other.

³¹Yes, I am against the prophets, says the LORD, who borrow speeches to pronounce oracles.

³²Yes, I am against the prophets who prophesy lying dreams, says the LORD, and who lead my people astray by recounting their lies and by their empty boasting. From me they have no mission or command, and they do this people no good at all, says the LORD.

³³And when this people, or a prophet or a priest asks you, "What is the burden of the LORD?" you shall answer, "You are the burden, and I cast you off, says the LORD."

³⁴If a prophet or a priest or anyone else mentions "the burden of the LORD," I will punish that man and his house.

³⁵Thus you shall ask, when speaking to one another, "What answer did the LORD give?" or, "What did the LORD say?"

³⁶But the burden of the LORD you shall mention no more. For each man his own word becomes the burden so that you pervert the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God.

³⁷Thus shall you ask the prophet, "What answer did the LORD give?" or, "What did the LORD say?"

³⁸But if you ask about "the burden of the LORD," then thus says the LORD: Because you use this phrase, "the burden of the LORD," though I forbade you to use it,

³⁹therefore I will lift you on high and cast you from my presence, you and the city which I gave to you and your fathers.

⁴⁰And I will bring upon you eternal reproach, eternal, unforgettable shame.

24The LORD showed me two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the LORD.--This was after Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had exiled from Jerusalem Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, the artisans and the skilled workers, and brought them to Babylon.--

²One basket contained excellent figs, the early-ripening kind. But the other basket contained very bad figs, so bad they could not be eaten.

³Then the LORD said to me: What do you see, Jeremiah? "Figs," I replied; "the good ones are very good, but the bad ones very bad, so bad they cannot be eaten."

⁴Thereupon this word of the LORD came to me:

⁵Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, even so will I regard with favor Judah's exiles whom I sent away from this place into the land of the Chaldeans.

⁶I will look after them for their good, and bring them back to this land, to build them up, not to tear them down; to plant them, not to pluck them out.

⁷I will give them a heart with which to understand that I am the LORD. They shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.

⁸And like the figs that are bad, so bad they cannot be eaten--yes, thus says the LORD--even so will I treat Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his princes, the remnant of Jerusalem remaining in this land and those who have settled in the land of Egypt.

⁹I will make them an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all the places to which I will drive them.

¹⁰I will send upon them the sword, famine, and pestilence, until they have disappeared from the land which I gave them and their fathers.

25The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah (the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon).

²This word the prophet Jeremiah spoke to all the people of Judah and all the citizens of Jerusalem:

³Since the thirteenth year of Josiah, son of Amon, king of Judah, to this day-these three and twenty years-the word of the LORD has come to me and I spoke to you untiringly, but you would not listen.

⁴Though you refused to listen or pay heed, the LORD has sent you without fail all his servants the prophets

⁵with this message: Turn back, each of you, from your evil way and from your evil deeds; then you shall remain in the land which the LORD gave you and your fathers, from of old and forever.

⁶Do not follow strange gods to serve and adore them, lest you provoke me with your handiwork, and I bring evil upon you.

⁷But you would not listen to me, says the LORD, and so you provoked me with your handiwork to your own harm.

⁸Hence, thus says the LORD of hosts: Since you would not listen to my words,

⁹lo! I will send for and fetch all the tribes of the north, says the LORD (and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, my servant); I will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against all these neighboring nations. I will doom them, making them an object of horror, of ridicule, of everlasting reproach.

¹⁰Among them I will bring to an end the song of joy and the song of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstone and the light of the lamp.

¹¹This whole land shall be a ruin and a desert. Seventy years these nations shall be enslaved to the king of Babylon;

¹²but when the seventy years have elapsed, I will punish the king of Babylon and the nation and the land of the Chaldeans for their guilt, says the LORD. Their land I will turn into everlasting desert.

¹³Against that land I will fulfill all the words I have spoken against it (all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations).

¹⁴They also shall be enslaved to great nations and mighty kings, and thus I will repay them according to their own deeds and according to their own handiwork.

¹⁵For thus said the LORD, the God of Israel, to me: Take this cup of foaming wine from my hand, and have all the nations to whom I will send you drink it.

¹⁶They shall drink, and be convulsed, and go mad, because of the sword I will send among them.

¹⁷I took the cup from the hand of the LORD and gave drink to all the nations to which the LORD sent me:

¹⁸(Jerusalem, the cities of Judah, her kings and her princes, to make them a ruin and a desert, an object of ridicule and cursing, as they are today;)

¹⁹Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and his servants, his princes, all the people under him, native

²⁰and foreign; all the kings of the land of Uz; all the kings of the land of the Philistines: Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod;

²¹Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites;

²²all the kings of Tyre, of Sidon, and of the shores beyond the sea;

²³Dedan and Tema and Buz, all the desert dwellers who shave their temples;

²⁴(all the kings of Arabia;)

²⁵all the kings of Zimri, of Elam, of the Medes;

²⁶all the kings of the north, near and far, one after the other; all the kingdoms upon the face of the earth (and after them the king of Sheshach shall drink).

²⁷Tell them: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink! become drunk and vomit; fall, never to rise, before the sword that I will send among you!

²⁸If they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink, say to them: Thus says the LORD of hosts: You must drink!

²⁹For since with this city, which is called by my name, I begin to inflict evil, how can you possibly be spared? You shall not be spared! I will call down the sword upon all who inhabit the earth, says the LORD of hosts.

³⁰Prophesy against them all these things and say to them: The LORD roars from on high, from his holy dwelling he raises his voice; Mightily he roars over the range, a shout like that of vintagers over the grapes.

³¹To all who inhabit the earth to its very ends the uproar spreads; For the LORD has an indictment against the nations, he is to pass judgment upon all mankind: The godless shall be given to the sword, says the LORD.

³²Thus says the LORD of hosts: Lo! calamity stalks from nation to nation; A great storm is unleashed from the ends of the earth.

³³On that day, those whom the LORD has slain will be strewn from one end of the earth to the other. None will mourn them, none will gather them for burial; they shall lie like dung on the field.

³⁴Howl, you shepherds, and wail! roll in the dust, leaders of the flock! The time for your slaughter has come; like choice rams you shall fall.

³⁵There is no flight for the shepherds, no escape for the leaders of the flock.

³⁶Listen! Wailing from the shepherds, howling by the leaders of the flock! For the LORD lays waste their grazing place,

³⁷desolate lie the peaceful pastures;

³⁸The lion leaves his lair, and their land is made desolate By the sweeping sword, by the burning wrath of the LORD.

26In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, this message came from the LORD:

²Thus says the LORD: Stand in the court of the house of the LORD and speak to the people of all the cities of Judah who come to worship in the house of the LORD; whatever I command you, tell them, and omit nothing.

³Perhaps they will listen and turn back, each from his evil way, so that I may repent of the evil I have planned to inflict upon them for their evil deeds.

⁴Say to them: Thus says the LORD: If you disobey me, not living according to the law I placed before you

⁵and not listening to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I send you constantly though you do not obey them,

⁶I will treat this house like Shiloh, and make this the city which all the nations of the earth shall refer to when cursing another.

⁷Now the priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah speak these words in the house of the LORD.

⁸When Jeremiah finished speaking all that the LORD bade him speak to all the people, the priests and prophets laid hold of him, crying, "You must be put to death!

⁹Why do you prophesy in the name of the LORD: 'This house shall be like Shiloh,' and 'This city shall be desolate and deserted'?" And all the people gathered about Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.

¹⁰When the princes of Judah were informed of these things, they came up from the king's palace to the house of the LORD and held court at the New Gate of the house of the LORD.

¹¹The priests and prophets said to the princes and to all the people, "This man deserves death; he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears."

¹²Jeremiah gave this answer to the princes and all the people: "It was the LORD who sent me to prophesy against this house and city all that you have heard.

¹³Now, therefore, reform your ways and your deeds; listen to the voice of the LORD your God, so that the LORD will repent of the evil with which he threatens you.

¹⁴As for me, I am in your hands; do with me what you think good and right.

¹⁵But mark well: if you put me to death, it is innocent blood you bring on yourselves, on this city and its citizens. For in truth it was the LORD who sent me to you, to speak all these things for you to hear."

¹⁶Thereupon the princes and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, "This man does not deserve death; it is in the name of the LORD, our God, that he speaks to us."

¹⁷At this, some of the elders of the land came forward and said to all the people assembled,

¹⁸"Micah of Moresheth used to prophesy in the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and he told all the people of Judah: Thus says the LORD of hosts: Zion shall become a plowed field, Jerusalem a heap of ruins, and the temple mount a forest ridge.

¹⁹Did Hezekiah, king of Judah, and all Judah condemn him to death? Did they not rather fear the LORD and entreat the favor of the LORD, so that he repented of the evil with which he had threatened them? But we are on the point of committing this great evil to our own undoing."

²⁰There was another man who prophesied in the name of the LORD, Uriah, son of Shemaiah, from Kiriath-jearim; he prophesied the same things against this city and land as Jeremiah did.

²¹When King Jehoiakim and all his officers and princes were informed of his words, the king sought to kill him. But Uriah heard of it and fled in fear to Egypt.

²²Thereupon King Jehoiakim sent Elnathan, son of Achbor, and others with him into Egypt

²³to bring Uriah back to the king, who had him slain by the sword and his corpse cast into the common grave.

²⁴But Ahikam, son of Shaphan, protected Jeremiah, so that he was not handed over to the people to be put to death.

27(In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah,) . . . this message came to Jeremiah from the LORD:

²Thus said the LORD to me: Make for yourself bands and yoke bars and put them over your shoulders.

³Send to the kings of Edom, of Moab, of the Ammonites, of Tyre, and of Sidon, through the ambassadors who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah, king of Judah,

⁴and charge them thus: Tell your masters: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:

⁵It was I who made the earth, and man and beast on the face of the earth, by my great power, with my outstretched arm; and I can give them to whomever I think fit.

⁶Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, my servant; even the beasts of the field I have given him for his use.

⁷All nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson, until the time of his land, too, shall come. Then it in turn shall serve great nations and mighty kings.

⁸Meanwhile, if any nation or kingdom will not serve Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, or will not bend its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with sword, famine, and pestilence, says the LORD, until I give them into his hand.

⁹You, however, must not listen to your prophets, to your diviners and dreamers, to your soothsayers and sorcerers, who say to you, "You need not serve the king of Babylon."

¹⁰For they prophesy lies to you, in order to drive you far from your land, to make me banish you so that you will perish.

¹¹The people that submits its neck to the yoke of the king of Babylon to serve him I will leave in peace on its own land, says the LORD, to till it and dwell in it.

¹²To Zedekiah, king of Judah, I spoke the same words: Submit your necks to the yoke of the king of Babylon; serve him and his people, so that you may live.

¹³Why should you and your people die by sword, famine, and pestilence, with which the LORD has threatened the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?

¹⁴Do not listen to the words of those prophets who say, "You need not serve the king of Babylon," for they prophesy lies to you.

¹⁵I did not send them, says the LORD, but they prophesy falsely in my name, with the result that I must banish you, and you will perish, you and the prophets who are prophesying to you.

¹⁶To the priests and to all the people I spoke as follows: Thus says the LORD: Do not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you: "The vessels of the house of the LORD will be brought back from Babylon soon now," for they prophesy lies to you.

¹⁷Do not listen to them! Serve the king of Babylon that you may live; else this city will become a heap of ruins.

¹⁸If they were prophets, if the word of the LORD were with them, they would intercede with the LORD of hosts, that the vessels which remain in the house of the LORD and in the palace of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem might not be taken to Babylon.

¹⁹For thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the pillars, the bronze sea, the stands, and the rest of the vessels that remain in this city,

²⁰which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, did not take when he exiled Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, along with all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem--

²¹yes, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that remain in the house of the LORD, in the palace of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem:

²²To Babylon they shall be brought, and there they shall remain, until the day I look for them, says the LORD; then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.

28That same year, in (the beginning of) the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah, in the fifth month of the fourth year, the prophet Hananiah, son of Azzur, from Gibeon, said to me in the house of the LORD in the presence of the priests and all the people:

²"Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: 'I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.

³Within two years I will restore to this place all the vessels of the temple of the LORD which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took away from this place to Babylon.

⁴And I will bring back to this place Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the exiles of Judah who went to Babylon,' says the LORD. 'for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.'"

⁵The prophet Jeremiah answered the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and all the people assembled in the house of the LORD,

⁶and said: Amen! thus may the LORD do! May he fulfill the things you have prophesied by bringing the vessels of the house of the LORD and all the exiles back from Babylon to this place!

⁷But now, listen to what I am about to state in your hearing and the hearing of all the people.

⁸From of old, the prophets who were before you and me prophesied war, woe, and pestilence against many lands and mighty kingdoms.

⁹But the prophet who prophesies peace is recognized as truly sent by the LORD only when his prophetic prediction is fulfilled.

¹⁰Thereupon the prophet Hananiah took the yoke from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, broke it,

¹¹and said in the presence of all the people: "Thus says the LORD: 'Even so, within two years I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, from off the neck of all the nations.'" At that, the prophet Jeremiah went away.

¹²Some time after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:

¹³Go tell Hananiah this: Thus says the LORD: By breaking a wooden yoke, you forge an iron yoke!

¹⁴For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: A yoke of iron I will place on the necks of all these nations serving Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and they shall serve him; even the beasts of the field I give him.

¹⁵To the prophet Hananiah the prophet Jeremiah said: Hear this, Hananiah! The LORD has not sent you, and you have raised false confidence in this people.

¹⁶For this, says the LORD, I will dispatch you from the face of the earth; this very year you shall die, because you have preached rebellion against the LORD.

¹⁷That same year, in the seventh month, Hananiah the prophet died.

29This is the contents of the letter which the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles, to the priests, the prophets, and all the people who were exiled by Nebuchadnezzar from Jerusalem to Babylon.

²This was after King Jeconiah and the queen mother, the courtiers, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the artisans and the skilled workmen had left Jerusalem.

³Delivered in Babylon by Elasah, son of Shaphan, and by Gemariah, son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah, king of Judah, sent to the king of Babylon, the letter read:

⁴Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon:

⁵Build houses to dwell in; plant gardens, and eat their fruits.

⁶Take wives and beget sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters. There you must increase in number, not decrease.

⁷Promote the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you; pray for it to the LORD, for upon its welfare depends your own.

⁸thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let yourselves be deceived by the prophets and diviners who are among you; do not listen to those among you who dream dreams.

⁹For they prophesy lies to you in my name; I did not send them, says the LORD.

¹⁰Thus says the LORD: Only after seventy years have elapsed for Babylon will I visit you and fulfill for you my promise to bring you back to this place.

¹¹For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare, not for woe! plans to give you a future full of hope.

¹²When you call me, when you go to pray to me, I will listen to you.

¹³When you look for me, you will find me. Yes, when you seek me with all your heart,

¹⁴you will find me with you, says the LORD, and I will change your lot; I will gather you together from all the nations and all the places to which I have banished you, says the LORD, and bring you back to the place from which I have exiled you.

¹⁵As for your saying, "The LORD has raised up for us prophets here in Babylon"--

¹⁶Thus says the LORD concerning the king who sits on David's throne, and all the people who remain in this city, your brethren who did not go with you into exile;

¹⁷thus says the LORD of hosts: I am sending against them sword, famine and pestilence. I will make them like rotten figs, too bad to be eaten.

¹⁸I will pursue them with sword, famine, and pestilence, and make them an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, of malediction, astonishment, ridicule, and reproach to all the nations among which I will banish them.

¹⁹For they did not listen to my words, says the LORD, though I kept sending them my servants the prophets, only to have them go unheeded, says the LORD.

²⁰You, now, listen to the word of the LORD, all you exiles whom I sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.

²¹This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, has to say about those who prophesy lies to you in my name, Ahab, son of Kolaiah, and Zedekiah, son of Maaseiah: I am handing them over to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who will slay them before your eyes.

²²All the exiles of Judah in Babylon will pattern a curse after them: "May the LORD make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the flames."

²³For they are criminals in Israel, committing adultery with their neighbors' wives, and alleging in my name things I did not command. I know, I am witness, says the LORD.

²⁴Say this to Shemaiah, the Nehelamite:

²⁵Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you sent letters on your own authority to all the people of Jerusalem, to all the priests and to Zephaniah, the priest, son of Maaseiah, with this message:

²⁶"The LORD has appointed you priest in place of the priest Jehoiada, so that there may be police officers in the house of the LORD, to take action against all madmen and those who pose as prophets, by putting them into the stocks or the pillory.

²⁷Why, then, do you not rebuke Jeremiah of Anathoth who poses as a prophet among you?

²⁸For he sent us in Babylon this message: It will be a long time; build houses to live in; plant gardens and eat their fruits. . . ."

²⁹When the priest Zephaniah read this letter to the prophet,

³⁰the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:

³¹Send the message to all the exiles: Thus says the LORD concerning Shemaiah, the Nehelamite: Because Shemaiah prophesies to you without a mission from me, and raises false confidence,

³²says the LORD, I will therefore punish Shemaiah, the Nehelamite, and his offspring. None of them shall survive among this people to see the good I will do to this people, says the LORD, because he preached rebellion against the LORD.

30The following message came to Jeremiah from the LORD:

²Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Write all the words I have spoken to you in a book.

³For behold, the days will come, says the LORD, when I will change the lot of my people (of Israel and Judah, says the LORD), and bring them back to the land which I gave to their fathers; they shall have it as their possession.

⁴These are the words which the LORD spoke to Israel and to Judah:

⁵thus says the LORD: A cry of dismay we hear; fear reigns, not peace.

⁶Inquire, and see: since when do men bear children? Why, then, do I see all these men, with their hands on their loins like women in childbirth? Why have all their faces turned deathly pale?

⁷How mighty is that day-- none like it! A time of distress for Jacob, though he shall be saved from it.

⁸On that day, says the LORD of hosts, "I will break his yoke from off your necks and snap your bonds." Strangers shall no longer enslave them;

⁹instead, they shall serve the LORD, their God, and David, their king, whom I will raise up for them.

¹⁰But you, my servant Jacob, fear not, says the LORD, be not dismayed, O Israel! Behold, I will deliver you from the far-off land, your descendants, from their land of exile; Jacob shall again find rest, shall be tranquil and undisturbed,

¹¹for I am with you, says the LORD, to deliver you. I will make an end of all the nations among which I have scattered you; but of you I will not make an end. I will chastise you as you deserve, I will not let you go unpunished.

¹²For thus says the LORD: Incurable is your wound, grievous your bruise;

¹³There is none to plead your cause, no remedy for your running sore, no healing for you.

¹⁴All your lovers have forgotten you, they do not seek you. I struck you as an enemy would strike, punished you cruelly;

¹⁵Why cry out over your wound? your pain is without relief. Because of your great guilt, your numerous sins, I have done this to you.

¹⁶Yet all who devour you shall be devoured, all your enemies shall go into exile. All who plunder you shall be plundered, all who pillage you I will hand over to pillage.

¹⁷For I will restore you to health; of your wounds I will heal you, says the LORD. "The outcast" they have called you, "with no avenger."

¹⁸Thus says the LORD: See! I will restore the tents of Jacob, his dwellings I will pity; City shall be rebuilt upon hill, and palace restored as it was.

¹⁹From them will resound songs of praise, the laughter of happy men. I will make them not few, but many; they will not be tiny, for I will glorify them.

²⁰His sons shall be as of old, his assembly before me shall stand firm; I will punish all his oppressors.

²¹His leader shall be one of his own, and his rulers shall come from his kin. When I summon him, he shall approach me; how else should one take the deadly risk of approaching me? says the LORD.

²²You shall be my people, and I will be your God.

²³See, the storm of the LORD! His wrath breaks forth In a whirling storm that bursts upon the heads of the wicked.

²⁴The anger of the LORD will not abate until he has done and fulfilled what he has determined in his heart. When the time comes, you will fully understand.

31At that time, says the LORD, I will be the God of all the tribes of Israel, and they shall be my people.

²Thus says the LORD: The people that escaped the sword have found favor in the desert. As Israel comes forward to be given his rest,

³the LORD appears to him from afar: With age-old love I have loved you; so I have kept my mercy toward you.

⁴Again I will restore you, and you shall be rebuilt, O virgin Israel; Carrying your festive tambourines, you shall go forth dancing with the merrymakers.

⁵Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; those who plant them shall enjoy the fruits.

⁶Yes, a day will come when the watchmen will call out on Mount Ephraim: "Rise up, let us go to Zion, to the LORD, our God."

⁷For thus says the LORD: Shout with joy for Jacob, exult at the head of the nations; proclaim your praise and say: The LORD has delivered his people, the remnant of Israel.

⁸Behold, I will bring them back from the land of the north; I will gather them from the ends of the world, with the blind and the lame in their midst, The mothers and those with child; they shall return as an immense throng.

⁹They departed in tears, but I will console them and guide them; I will lead them to brooks of water, on a level road, so that none shall stumble. For I am a father to Israel, Ephraim is my first-born.

¹⁰Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, proclaim it on distant coasts, and say: He who scattered Israel, now gathers them together, he guards them as a shepherd his flock.

¹¹The LORD shall ransom Jacob, he shall redeem him from the hand of his conqueror.

¹²Shouting, they shall mount the heights of Zion, they shall come streaming to the LORD'S blessings: The grain, the wine, and the oil, the sheep and the oxen; They themselves shall be like watered gardens, never again shall they languish.

¹³Then the virgins shall make merry and dance, and young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into joy, I will console and gladden them after their sorrows.

¹⁴I will lavish choice portions upon the priests, and my people shall be filled with my blessings, says the LORD.

¹⁵Thus says the LORD: In Ramah is heard the sound of moaning, of bitter weeping! Rachel mourns her children, she refuses to be consoled because her children are no more.

¹⁶Thus says the LORD: Cease your cries of mourning, wipe the tears from your eyes. The sorrow you have shown shall have its reward, says the LORD, they shall return from the enemy's land.

¹⁷There is hope for your future, says the LORD; your sons shall return to their own borders.

¹⁸I hear, I hear Ephraim pleading: You chastised me, and I am chastened; I was an untamed calf. If you allow me, I will return, for you are the LORD, my God.

¹⁹I turn in repentance; I have come to myself, I strike my breast; I blush with shame, I bear the disgrace of my youth.

²⁰Is Ephraim not my favored son, the child in whom I delight? Often as I threaten him, I still remember him with favor; My heart stirs for him, I must show him mercy, says the LORD.

²¹Set up road markers, put up guideposts; Turn your attention to the highway, the road by which you went. Turn back, O virgin Israel, turn back to these your cities.

²²How long will you continue to stray, rebellious daughter? The LORD has created a new thing upon the earth: the woman must encompass the man with devotion.

²³Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: When I change their lot in the land of Judah and her cities, they shall again repeat this greeting: "May the LORD bless you, holy mountain, abode of justice!"

²⁴Judah and all her cities, the farmers and those who lead the flock, shall dwell there together.

²⁵For I will refresh the weary soul; every soul that languishes I will replenish.

²⁶Upon this I awoke and opened my eyes; but my sleep was sweet to me.

²⁷The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will seed the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast.

²⁸As I once watched over them to uproot and pull down, to destroy, to ruin, and to harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the LORD.

²⁹In those days they shall no longer say, "The fathers ate unripe grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge,"

³⁰but through his own fault only shall anyone die: the teeth of him who eats the unripe grapes shall be set on edge.

³¹The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

³²It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt; for they broke my covenant and I had to show myself their master, says the LORD.

³³But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD. I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

³⁴No longer will they have need to teach their friends and kinsmen how to know the LORD. All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD, for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.

³⁵Thus says the LORD, He who gives the sun to light the day, moon and stars to light the night; Who stirs up the sea till its waves roar, whose name is LORD of hosts:

³⁶If ever these natural laws give way in spite of me, says the LORD, Then shall the race of Israel cease as a nation before me forever.

³⁷Thus says the LORD: If the heavens on high can be measured, or the foundations below the earth be sounded, Then will I cast off the whole race of Israel because of all they have done, says the LORD.

³⁸The days are coming, says the LORD, when the city shall be rebuilt as the LORD'S, from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.

³⁹The measuring line shall be stretched from there straight to the hill Gareb and then turn to Goah.

⁴⁰The whole valley of corpses and ashes, all the slopes toward the Kidron Valley, as far as the corner of the Horse Gate at the east, shall be holy to the LORD. Never again shall the city be rooted up or thrown down.

32This message came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.

²At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was imprisoned in the quarters of the guard, at the king's palace.

³Zedekiah, king of Judah, had imprisoned him there, remonstrating: "How dare you prophesy: Thus says the LORD: I am handing over this city to the king of Babylon, who will capture it.

⁴Neither shall Zedekiah, king of Judah, escape the hands of the Chaldeans; rather shall he be handed over to the king of Babylon. They shall meet and speak face to face,

⁵and Zedekiah shall be taken to Babylon. There he shall remain, until I attend to him, says the LORD; in fighting the Chaldeans, you cannot win!"

⁶This message came to me from the LORD, said Jeremiah:

⁷Hanamel, son of your uncle Shallum, will come to you with the offer: "Buy for yourself my field in Anathoth, since you, as nearest relative, have the first right of purchase."

⁸Then, as the LORD foretold, Hanamel, my uncle's son, came to me to the quarters of the guard and said, "Please buy my field in Anathoth, in the district of Benjamin; as nearest relative, you have the first claim to possess it; make it yours." I knew this was what the LORD meant,

⁹so I bought the field in Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel, paying him the money, seventeen silver shekels.

¹⁰When I had written and sealed the deed, called witnesses and weighed out the silver on the scales,

¹¹I accepted the deed of purchase, both the sealed copy, containing title and conditions, and the open one.

¹²This deed of purchase I gave to Baruch, son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel and of the witnesses who had signed the deed, and before all the men of Judah who happened to be in the quarters of the guard.

¹³In their presence I gave Baruch this charge:

¹⁴Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both the sealed and the open deed of purchase, and put them in an earthen jar, so that they can be kept there a long time.

¹⁵For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.

¹⁶After giving the deed of purchase to Baruch, son of Neriah, I prayed thus to the LORD:

¹⁷Ah, Lord GOD, you have made heaven and earth by your great might, with your outstretched arm; nothing is impossible to you.

¹⁸You continue your kindness through a thousand generations; and you repay the fathers' guilt, even into the lap of their sons who follow them. O God, great and mighty, whose name is LORD of hosts,

¹⁹great in counsel, mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of men, giving to each according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds:

²⁰you have wrought signs and wonders in the land of Egypt and to this day, both in Israel and among all other men, until now you have gained renown.

²¹With strong hand and outstretched arm you brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt amid signs and wonders and great terror.

²²This land you gave them, as you had promised their fathers under oath, a land flowing with milk and honey.

²³They entered and took possession of it, but they did not listen to your voice; by your law they did not live, and what you commanded they failed to do. Hence you let all these evils befall them.

²⁴See, the siegeworks have arrived at this city to breach it; the city will be handed over to the Chaldeans who are attacking it, amid sword, famine, and pestilence. What you threatened has happened, you see it yourself;

²⁵and yet you tell me, O Lord GOD: Buy the field with money, call in witnesses. But the city has already been handed over to the Chaldeans!

²⁶Then this word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:

²⁷I am the LORD, the God of all mankind! Is anything impossible to me?

²⁸This now is what the LORD says: I will hand over this city to the Chaldeans, for Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to take.

²⁹The Chaldeans who are attacking it shall enter this city and set fire to it, burning it and its houses, on the roofs of which incense was burned to Baal and libations were poured out to strange gods as a provocation to me.

³⁰The Israelites and the Judeans from their youth have done only what is evil in my eyes; the Israelites did nothing but provoke me with the works of their hands, says the LORD.

³¹From the day it was built to this day, this city has excited my anger and wrath,

³²so that I must put it out of my sight for all the wickedness the Israelites and Judeans, with their kings and their princes, their priests and their prophets, the men of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem, have done to provoke me.

³³They turned their backs to me, not their faces; though I kept teaching them, they would not listen to my correction.

³⁴They defiled the house named after me by the horrid idols they set up in it.

³⁵They built high places to Baal in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, and immolated their sons and daughters to Molech, bringing sin upon Judah; this I never commanded them, nor did it even enter my mind that they should practice such abominations.

³⁶Now, therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city, which as you say is handed over to the king of Babylon amid sword, famine, and pestilence:

³⁷Behold, I will gather them together from all the lands to which in anger, wrath, and great rage I banish them; I will bring them back to this place and settle them here in safety.

³⁸They shall be my people, and I will be their God.

³⁹One heart and one way I will give them, that they may fear me always, to their own good and that of their children after them.

⁴⁰I will make with them an eternal covenant, never to cease doing good to them; into their hearts I will put the fear of me, that they may never depart from me.

⁴¹I will take delight in doing good to them: I will replant them firmly in this land, with all my heart and soul.

⁴²For thus says the LORD: Just as I brought upon this people all this great evil, so I will bring upon them all the good I promise them.

⁴³Fields shall again be bought in this land, which you call a desert, without man or beast, handed over to the Chaldeans.

⁴⁴Fields shall be bought with money, deeds written and sealed, and witnesses shall be used in the land of Benjamin, in the suburbs of Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah and of the hill country, in the cities of the foothills and of the Negeb, when I change their lot, says the LORD.

33The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah a second time while he was still imprisoned in the quarters of the guard:

²Thus says the LORD who made the earth and gave it form and firmness, whose name is LORD:

³Call to me, and I will answer you; I will tell to you things great beyond reach of your knowledge.

⁴Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city and the palaces of Judah's kings, which are being destroyed in the face of siegeworks and the sword:

⁵men come to battle the Chaldeans, and these houses will be filled with the corpses of those whom I slay in my anger and wrath, when I hide my face from this city for all their wickedness.

⁶Behold, I will treat and assuage the city's wounds; I will heal them, and reveal to them an abundance of lasting peace.

⁷I will change the lot of Judah and the lot of Israel, and rebuild them as of old.

⁸I will cleanse them of all the guilt they incurred by sinning against me; all their offenses by which they sinned and rebelled against me, I will forgive.

⁹Then Jerusalem shall be my joy, my praise, my glory, before all the nations of the earth, as they hear of all the good I will do among them. They shall be in fear and trembling over all the peaceful benefits I will give her.

¹⁰Thus says the LORD: In this place of which you say, "How desolate it is, without man, without beast!" and in the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem that are now deserted, without man, without citizen, without beast, there shall yet be heard

¹¹the cry of joy, the cry of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, the voice of the bride, the sound of those who bring thank offerings to the house of the LORD, singing, "Give thanks to the LORD of hosts, for the LORD is good; his mercy endures forever." For I will restore this country as of old, says the LORD.

¹²Thus says the LORD of hosts: In this place, now desolate, without man or beast, and in all its cities there shall again be sheepfolds for the shepherds to couch their flocks.

¹³In the cities of the hill country, of the foothills, and of the Negeb, in the land of Benjamin and the suburbs of Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who counts them, says the LORD.

¹⁴The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and Judah.

¹⁵In those days, in that time, I will raise up for David a just shoot; he shall do what is right and just in the land.

¹⁶In those days Judah shall be safe and Jerusalem shall dwell secure; this is what they shall call her: "The LORD our justice."

¹⁷For thus says the LORD: Never shall David lack a successor on the throne of the house of Israel,

¹⁸nor shall priests of Levi ever be lacking, to offer holocausts before me, to burn cereal offerings, and to sacrifice victims.This word of the LORD also came to Jeremiah:

¹⁹Thus says the LORD:

²⁰If you can break my covenant with day, and my covenant with night, so that day and night no longer alternate in sequence,

²¹then can my covenant with my servant David also be broken, so that he will not have a son to be king upon his throne, and my covenant with the priests of Levi who minister to me.

²²Like the host of heaven which cannot be numbered, and the sands of the sea which cannot be counted, I will multiply the descendants of my servant David and the Levites who minister to me.

²³This word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:

²⁴Have you not noticed what these people are saying: "The LORD has rejected the two tribes which he had chosen"? They spurn my people as if it were no longer a nation in their eyes.

²⁵Thus says the LORD: When I have no covenant with day and night, and have given no laws to heaven and earth,

²⁶then too will I reject the descendants of Jacob and of my servant David, so as not to take from his descendants rulers for the race of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will change their lot and show them mercy.

34This word came to Jeremiah from the LORD while Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his armies and the earth's kingdoms subject to him, as well as the other peoples, were all attacking Jerusalem and all her cities:

²Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Go to Zedekiah, king of Judah, and tell him: Thus says the LORD: I am handing this city over to the king of Babylon; he will destroy it with fire.

³Neither shall you escape his hand; rather you will be captured and fall into his hands. You shall see the king of Babylon and speak to him face to face. Then you shall be taken to Babylon.

⁴But if you obey the word of the LORD, Zedekiah, king of Judah, then, says the LORD to you, you shall not die by the sword.

⁵You shall die in peace, and they will lament you as their lord, and burn spices for your burial as they did for your fathers, the kings who preceded you from the first; it is I who make this promise, says the LORD.

⁶The prophet Jeremiah told all these things to Zedekiah, king of Judah, in Jerusalem,

⁷while the armies of the king of Babylon were attacking Jerusalem and the remaining cities of Judah, Lachish, and Azekah, since these alone were left of the fortified cities of Judah.

⁸This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah had made an agreement with all the people in Jerusalem to issue an edict of emancipation.

⁹Everyone was to free his Hebrew slaves, male and female, so that no one should hold a man of Judah, his brother, in slavery.

¹⁰All the princes and the others who entered the agreement consented to set free their male and female servants, so that they should be slaves no longer. But though they agreed and freed them,

¹¹afterward they took back their male and female slaves whom they had set free and again forced them into service.

¹²Then this word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:

¹³Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: The day I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt, out of the place where they were slaves, I made this covenant with them:

¹⁴Every seventh year each of you shall set free his Hebrew brother who has sold himself to you; six years he shall serve you, but then you shall let him go free. Your fathers, however, did not heed me or obey me.

¹⁵Today you indeed repented and did what is right in my eyes by proclaiming the emancipation of your brethren and making an agreement before me in the house that is named after me.

¹⁶But then you changed your mind and profaned my name by taking back your male and female slaves to whom you had given their freedom; you forced them once more into slavery.

¹⁷Therefore, thus says the LORD: You did not obey me by proclaiming your neighbors and kinsmen free. I now proclaim you free, says the LORD, for the sword, famine, and pestilence. I will make you an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

¹⁸The men who violated my covenant and did not observe the terms of the agreement which they made before me, I will make like the calf which they cut in two, between whose two parts they passed.

¹⁹The princes of Judah and of Jerusalem, the courtiers, the priests, and the common people, who passed between the parts of the calf,

²⁰I will hand over, all of them, to their enemies, to those who seek their lives: their corpses shall be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.

²¹Zedekiah, too, king of Judah, and his princes, I will hand over to their enemies, to those who seek their lives, to the soldiers of the king of Babylon who have at present withdrawn from you.

²²I will give the command, says the LORD, and bring them back to this city. They shall attack and capture it, and destroy it with fire; the cities of Judah I will turn into a desert where no man dwells.

35This word came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah:

²Approach the Rechabites and speak to them; bring them into the house of the LORD, to one of the rooms, and give them wine to drink.

³So I went and brought Jaazaniah, son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, his brothers and all his sons, the whole company of the Rechabites,

⁴into the house of the LORD, to the room of the sons of Hanan, son of Igdaliah, the man of God, next to the princes' room, above the room of Maaseiah, son of Shallum, keeper of the doorway.

⁵I set before these Rechabite men bowls full of wine and offered them cups to drink the wine.

⁶"We do not drink wine," they said to me: "Jonadab, Rechab's son, our father, forbade us in these words: 'Neither you nor your children shall ever drink wine.

⁷Build no house and sow no seed; neither plant nor own a vineyard. You shall dwell in tents all your life, so that you may live long on the earth where you are wayfarers.'

⁸Now we have heeded Jonadab, Rechab's son, our father, in all his prohibitions. All our lives we have not drunk wine, neither we, nor our wives, nor our sons, nor our daughters.

⁹We build no houses to live in; we own no vineyards or fields or crops,

¹⁰and we live in tents; we obediently do everything our father Jonadab commanded us.

¹¹But when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, invaded this land, we decided to come into Jerusalem to escape the army of the Chaldeans and the army of Aram; that is why we are now living in Jerusalem."

¹²Then this word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:

¹³Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Go, say to the men of Judah and to the citizens of Jerusalem: Will you not take correction and obey my words? says the LORD.

¹⁴The advice of Jonadab, Rechab's son, by which he forbade his children to drink wine, has been followed: to this day they have not drunk it; they obeyed their father's command. Me, however, you have not obeyed, although I spoke to you untiringly and insistently.

¹⁵I kept sending you all my servants the prophets, telling you to turn back, all of you, from your evil way; to reform your conduct, and not follow strange gods or serve them, if you would remain on the land which I gave you and your fathers; but you did not heed me or obey me.

¹⁶Yes, the children of Jonadab, Rechab's son, observed the command which their father laid on them; but this people does not obey me!

¹⁷Now, therefore, says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel: I will bring upon Judah and all the citizens of Jerusalem every evil that I threatened; because when I spoke they did not obey, when I called they did not answer.

¹⁸But to the company of the Rechabites Jeremiah said: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Since you have obeyed the command of Jonadab, your father, kept all his commands and done everything he commanded you,

¹⁹thus therefore says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Never shall there fail to be a descendant of Jonadab, Rechab's son, standing in my service.

36In the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD:

²Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you against Israel, Judah, and all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you, in the days of Josiah, until today.

³Perhaps, when the house of Judah hears all the evil I have in mind to do to them, they will turn back each from his evil way, so that I may forgive their wickedness and their sin.

⁴So Jeremiah called Baruch, son of Neriah, who wrote down on a scroll, as Jeremiah dictated, all the words which the LORD had spoken to him.

⁵Then Jeremiah charged Baruch: I cannot go to the house of the LORD; I am prevented from doing so.

⁶Do you go on the fast day and read publicly in the LORD'S house the LORD'S words from the scroll you wrote at my dictation; read them also to all the men of Judah who come up from their cities.

⁷Perhaps they will lay their supplication before the LORD and will all turn back from their evil way; for great is the fury of anger with which the LORD has threatened this people.

⁸Baruch, son of Neriah, did everything the prophet Jeremiah commanded; from the book-scroll he read the LORD'S words in the LORD'S house.

⁹In the ninth month, in the fifth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, a fast to placate the LORD was proclaimed for all the people of Jerusalem and all who came from Judah's cities to Jerusalem.

¹⁰It was in the room of Gemariah, son of the scribe Shaphan, in the upper court of the LORD'S house, at the entrance of the New Temple-Gate, that Baruch publicly read the words of Jeremiah from his book.

¹¹Now Micaiah, son of Gemariah, son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the LORD read from the book.

¹²So he went down to the king's palace, into the scribe's chamber, where the princes were just then in session: Elishama, the scribe, Delaiah, son of Shemaiah, Elnathan, son of Achbor, Gemariah, son of Shaphan, Zedekiah, son of Hananiah, and the other princes.

¹³To them Micaiah reported all that he had heard Baruch read publicly from his book.

¹⁴Thereupon the princes sent Jehudi, son of Nethaniah, son of Shelemiah, son of Cushi, to Baruch with the order: "Come, and bring with you the scroll you read publicly to the people." Scroll in hand, Baruch, son of Neriah, went to them.

¹⁵"Sit down," they said to him, "and read it to us." Baruch read it to them,

¹⁶and when they heard all its words, they were frightened and said to one another, "We must certainly tell the king all these things."

¹⁷Then they asked Baruch: "Tell us, please, how you came to write down all these words."

¹⁸"Jeremiah dictated all these words to me," Baruch answered them, "and I wrote them down with ink in the book."

¹⁹At this the princes said to Baruch, "Go into hiding, you and Jeremiah; let no one know where you are."

²⁰Leaving the scroll in safekeeping in the room of Elishama the scribe, they entered the room where the king was. When they told him everything that had happened,

²¹he sent Jehudi to fetch the scroll. Jehudi brought it from the room of Elishama the scribe, and read it to the king and to all the princes who were in attendance on the king.

²²Now the king was sitting in his winter house, since it was the ninth month, and fire was burning in a brazier before him.

²³Each time Jehudi finished reading three or four columns, the king would cut off the piece with a scribe's knife and cast it into the fire in the brazier, until the entire roll was consumed in the fire.

²⁴Hearing all these words did not frighten the king and his ministers or cause them to rend their garments.

²⁵And though Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them,

²⁶but commanded Jerahmeel, a royal prince, and Seraiah, son of Azriel, and Shelemiah, son of Abdeel, to arrest Baruch, the secretary, and the prophet Jeremiah. But the LORD kept them concealed.

²⁷This word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, after the king burned the scroll with the text Jeremiah had dictated to Baruch:

²⁸Take another scroll, and write on it everything that the first scroll contained, which Jehoiakim, king of Judah, burned up.

²⁹And against Jehoiakim, king of Judah, say this: Thus says the LORD: You burned that scroll, saying, "Why did you write on it: Babylon's king shall surely come and lay waste this land and empty it of man and beast?"

³⁰The LORD now says of Jehoiakim, king of Judah: No descendant of his shall succeed to David's throne; his corpse shall be cast out, exposed to the heat of day, to the cold of night.

³¹I will punish him and his descendants and his ministers for their wickedness; against them and the citizens of Jerusalem and the men of Judah I will fulfill all the threats of evil which went unheeded.

³²Jeremiah took another scroll, and gave it to his secretary, Baruch, son of Neriah; he wrote on it at Jeremiah's dictation all the words contained in the book which Jehoiakim, king of Judah, had burned in the fire, and many others of the same kind in addition.

37Coniah, son of Jehoiakim, was succeeded by King Zedekiah, son of Josiah; he was made king over the land of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.

²Neither he, nor his ministers, nor the people of the land would listen to the words of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah the prophet.

³Yet King Zedekiah sent Jehucal, son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah, son of Maaseiah the priest, to the prophet Jeremiah with this request: "Pray to the LORD, our God, for us."

⁴At this time Jeremiah had not yet been put into prison; he still came and went freely among the people.

⁵Also, Pharaoh's army had set out from Egypt, and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard this report they marched away from the city.

⁶This word of the LORD then came to the prophet Jeremiah:

⁷Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Give this answer to the king of Judah who sent you to me to consult me: Pharaoh's army which has set out to help you will return to its own land, Egypt.

⁸The Chaldeans shall return to the fight against this city; they shall capture it and destroy it with fire.

⁹Thus says the LORD: Do not deceive yourselves with the thought that the Chaldeans will leave you for good, because they shall not leave!

¹⁰Even if you were to defeat the whole Chaldean army now attacking you, and only the wounded remained, each in his tent, these would rise up and destroy the city with fire.

¹¹When the Chaldean army lifted the siege of Jerusalem at the threat of the army of Pharaoh,

¹²Jeremiah set out from Jerusalem for the district of Benjamin, to take part with his family in the division of an inheritance.

¹³But when he reached the Gate of Benjamin, he met the captain of the guard, a man named Irijah, son of Shelemiah, son of Hananiah; he seized the prophet Jeremiah, saying, "You are deserting to the Chaldeans!"

¹⁴"That is a lie!" Jeremiah answered, "I am not deserting to the Chaldeans." Without listening, Irijah kept Jeremiah in custody and brought him to the princes.

¹⁵The princes were enraged, and had Jeremiah beaten and thrown into prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe, which they were using as a jail.

¹⁶And so Jeremiah entered the vaulted dungeon, where he remained a long time.

¹⁷Once King Zedekiah had him brought to his palace and he asked him secretly whether there was any message from the LORD. Yes! Jeremiah answered: you shall be handed over to the king of Babylon.

¹⁸Jeremiah then asked King Zedekiah: In what have I wronged you, or your ministers, or this people, that you should put me in prison?

¹⁹And where are your own prophets now,

²⁰who prophesied to you that the king of Babylon would not attack you or this land? Hear now, my lord king, and grant my petition: do not send me back into the house of Jonathan the scribe, or I shall die there.

²¹King Zedekiah ordered that Jeremiah be confined in the quarters of the guard, and given a loaf of bread each day from the bakers' shop until all the bread in the city was eaten up. Thus Jeremiah remained in the quarters of the guard.

38Shephatiah, son of Mattan, Gedaliah, son of Pashhur, Jucal, son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur, son of Malchiah, heard Jeremiah speaking these words to all the people:

²Thus says the LORD: He who remains in this city shall die by sword, or famine, or pestilence; but he who goes out to the Chaldeans shall live; his life shall be spared him as booty, and he shall live.

³Thus says the LORD: This city shall certainly be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon; he shall capture it.

⁴"This man ought to be put to death," the princes said to the king; "he demoralizes the soldiers who are left in this city, and all the people, by speaking such things to them; he is not interested in the welfare of our people, but in their ruin."

⁵King Zedekiah answered: "He is in your power"; for the king could do nothing with them.

⁶And so they took Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern of Prince Malchiah, which was in the quarters of the guard, letting him down with ropes. There was no water in the cistern, only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud.

⁷Now Ebed-melech, a Cushite, a courtier in the king's palace, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern. The king happened just then to be at the Gate of Benjamin,

⁸and Ebed-melech went there from the palace and said to him,

⁹"My lord king, these men have been at fault in all they have done to the prophet Jeremiah, casting him into the cistern. He will die of famine on the spot, for there is no more food in the city."

¹⁰Then the king ordered Ebed-melech the Cushite to take three men along with him, and draw the prophet Jeremiah out of the cistern before he should die.

¹¹Ebed-melech took the men along with him, and went first to the linen closet in the palace, from which he took some old, tattered rags; these he sent down to Jeremiah in the cistern, with ropes.

¹²Then he said to Jeremiah, "Put the old, tattered rags between your armpits and the ropes." Jeremiah did so,

¹³and they drew him up with the ropes out of the cistern. But Jeremiah remained in the quarters of the guard.

¹⁴Once King Zedekiah summoned the prophet Jeremiah to come to him at the third entrance to the house of the LORD. "I have a question to ask you," the king said to Jeremiah; "hide nothing from me." Jeremiah answered Zedekiah:

¹⁵If I tell you anything, you will have me killed, will you not? If I counsel you, you will not listen to me!

¹⁶But King Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah secretly: "As the LORD lives who gave us the breath of life, I will not kill you; nor will I hand you over to these men who seek your life."

¹⁷Thereupon Jeremiah said to Zedekiah: Thus says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel: If you surrender to the princes of Babylon's king, you shall save your life; this city shall not be destroyed with fire, and you and your family shall live.

¹⁸But if you do not surrender to the princes of Babylon's king, this city shall fall into the hands of the Chaldeans, who shall destroy it with fire, and you shall not escape their hands.

¹⁹King Zedekiah, however, said to Jeremiah, "I am afraid of the men of Judah who have deserted to the Chaldeans; I may be handed over to them, and they will mistreat me."

²⁰You will not be handed over, Jeremiah answered. Please obey the voice of the LORD and do as I tell you; then it shall go well with you, and your life will be spared.

²¹But if you refuse to surrender, this is what the LORD shows me:

²²All the women left in the house of Judah's king shall be brought out to the princes of Babylon's king, and they shall taunt you thus: "They betrayed you, outdid you, your good friends! Now that your feet are stuck in the mud, they slink away."

²³All your wives and sons shall be led forth to the Chaldeans, and you shall not escape their hands; you shall be handed over to the king of Babylon, and this city shall be destroyed with fire.

²⁴Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, "Let no one know about this conversation, or you shall die.

²⁵If the princes hear I spoke to you, if they come and ask you, 'Tell us what you said to the king; do not hide it from us, or we will kill you,' or, 'What did the king say to you?'

²⁶give them this answer: 'I petitioned the king not to send me back to Jonathan's house to die there.'"

²⁷When all the princes came to Jeremiah, they questioned him, and he answered them in the very words the king had commanded. They said no more to him, for nothing had been heard of the earlier conversation.

²⁸Thus Jeremiah stayed in the quarters of the guard till the day Jerusalem was taken.When Jerusalem was taken. . . .

39In the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and all his army marched against Jerusalem and besieged it.

²On the ninth day of the fourth month, in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, a breach was made in the city's defenses.

³All the princes of the king of Babylon came and occupied the middle gate: Nergal-sharezer, of Simmagir, the chief officer, Nebushazban, the high dignitary, and all the other princes of the king of Babylon. . . .

⁴When Zedekiah, king of Judah, saw them, he and all his warriors fled by night, leaving the city on the Royal Garden Road through the gate between the two walls. He went in the direction of the Arabah,

⁵but the Chaldean army pursued them, and overtook and captured Zedekiah in the desert near Jericho. He was brought to Riblah, in the land of Hamath, where Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, pronounced sentence upon him.

⁶As Zedekiah looked on, his sons were slain at Riblah by order of the king of Babylon, who slew also all the nobles of Judah.

⁷He then blinded Zedekiah and bound him in chains to bring him to Babylon.

⁸The Chaldeans set fire to the king's palace and the houses of the people, and demolished the walls of Jerusalem.

⁹Nebuzaradan, chief of the bodyguard, deported to Babylon the rest of the people left in the city, those who had deserted to him, and the rest of the workmen.

¹⁰But some of the poor who had no property were left in the land of Judah by Nebuzaradan, chief of the bodyguard, and were given at the same time vineyards and farms.

¹¹Concerning Jeremiah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, gave the following orders through Nebuzaradan, chief of the bodyguard:

¹²"Take him and look after him; let no harm befall him, but treat him as he himself requests."

¹³Thereupon Nebuzaradan, chief of the bodyguard, and Nebushazban, the high dignitary, and Nergal-sharezer, the chief officer, and all the nobles of the king of Babylon,

¹⁴had Jeremiah taken out of the quarters of the guard, and entrusted to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, to be brought home. And so he remained among the people.

¹⁵While Jeremiah was still imprisoned in the quarters of the guard, the word of the LORD came to him:

¹⁶Go, tell this to Ebed-melech the Cushite: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am now fulfilling the words I spoke against this city, for evil and not for good; and this before your very eyes.

¹⁷But on that day I will rescue you, says the LORD; you shall not be handed over to the men of whom you are afraid.

¹⁸I will make certain that you escape and do not fall by the sword. Your life shall be spared as booty, because you trusted in me, says the LORD.

40This word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after Nebuzaradan, captain of the bodyguard, had released him in Ramah, where he had found him a prisoner in chains, among the captives of Jerusalem and Judah who were being exiled to Babylon.

²When the captain of the bodyguard took charge of Jeremiah, he said to him, "The LORD, your God, foretold the ruin of this place.

³Now he has brought about in deed what he threatened; because you sinned against the LORD and did not obey his voice, this fate has befallen you.

⁴And now, I am freeing you today from the fetters that bind your hands; if it seems good to you to come with me to Babylon, you may come: I will look after you well. But if it does not please you to come to Babylon, you need not come. See, the whole land is before you; go wherever you think good and proper";

⁵and then, before he left--"or go to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed ruler over the cities of Judah; stay with him among the people, or go wherever you please." The captain of the bodyguard gave him food and gifts and let him go.

⁶Jeremiah went to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, in Mizpah, and stayed with him among the people left in the land.

⁷When the army leaders who were still in the field with all their men heard that the king of Babylon had given Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, charge of the land, of men, women, and children, and of those poor who had not been led captive to Babylon,

⁸they came with their men to Gedaliah in Mizpah: Ishmael, son of Nethaniah; Johanan, son of Kareah; Seraiah, son of Tanhumeth; the sons of Ephai of Netophah; and Jezaniah of Beth-maacah.

⁹Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, adjured them and their men not to be afraid to serve the Chaldeans: to stay in the land and submit to the king of Babylon, for their own welfare;

¹⁰saying that he himself would remain in Mizpah, as their intermediary with the Chaldeans who should come to them. They were to collect the wine, the fruit, and the oil, to store them in jars, and to settle in the cities they occupied.

¹¹When the people of Judah in Moab, those among the Ammonites, those in Edom, and those in all other lands heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant in Judah, and had appointed over them Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan,

¹²they all returned to the land of Judah from the places to which they had scattered. They went to Gedaliah at Mizpah and had a rich harvest of wine and fruit.

¹³Now Johanan, son of Kareah, and all the leaders of the armies in the field came to Gedaliah in Mizpah

¹⁴and asked him whether he did not know that Baalis, the king of the Ammonites, had sent Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, to assassinate him.

¹⁵But Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, would not believe them. Then Johanan, son of Kareah, said secretly to Gedaliah in Mizpah: "Let me go and kill Ishmael, son of Nethaniah; no one will know it. Why should he be allowed to kill you? All the Jews who have now rallied to you will be dispersed and the remnant of Judah will perish."

¹⁶Nevertheless, Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, answered Johanan, son of Kareah, "You shall do nothing of the kind; you have lied about Ishmael."

41In the seventh month Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of royal descent, one of the king's nobles, came with ten men to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, at Mizpah. And while they were together at table in Mizpah,

²Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, and the ten who were with him, rose up and attacked with swords Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon had made ruler over the land; and they killed him.

³Ishmael also slew all the men of Judah of military age who were with Gedaliah and the Chaldean soldiers who were there.

⁴The second day after the murder of Gedaliah, before anyone knew of it,

⁵eighty men with beards shaved off, clothes in rags, and with gashes on their bodies came from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria, bringing food offerings and incense for the house of the LORD.

⁶Ishmael son of Nethaniah, went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went.

⁷"Come to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam," he said as he met them. When they were once inside the city, Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, and his men slew them and threw them into the cistern.

⁸But there were ten among them who pleaded with Ishmael: "Do not kill us; we have stores buried in the field: wheat and barley, oil and honey." And so he spared them and did not kill them, as he had killed their companions.

⁹The cistern into which Ishmael threw all the corpses of the men he had killed was the large one made by King Asa to defend himself against Baasha, king of Israel; this cistern Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, filled with the slain.

¹⁰Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, led away the remnant of the people left in Mizpah and the princesses, whom Nebuzaradan, captain of the bodyguard, had confided to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam. With these captives, Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, set out to make his way to the Ammonites.

¹¹But when Johanan, son of Kareah, and the other army leaders with him heard of the crimes Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, had committed,

¹²they took all their men and set out to attack Ishmael, son of Nethaniah. They overtook him at the Great Waters in Gibeon.

¹³At the sight of Johanan, son of Kareah, and the other army leaders, the people who were Ishmael's captives rejoiced.

¹⁴All of those whom Ishmael had brought away from Mizpah went over to Johanan, son of Kareah.

¹⁵But Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, escaped from Johanan and fled to the Ammonites with eight men.

¹⁶Then Johanan, son of Kareah, and all his army leaders took charge of the remnant of the people, both the soldiers and the women and children with their guardians, whom Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, had brought away from Mizpah after he killed Gedaliah, son of Ahikim. From Gibeon,

¹⁷they retreated to the lodging place of Chimham near Bethlehem, where they stopped, intending to flee into Egypt.

¹⁸They were afraid of the Chaldeans, because Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, had slain Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had made ruler in the land of Judah.

42Then all the army leaders, Johanan, son of Kareah, Azariah, son of Hoshaiah, and all the people, high and low, approached the prophet Jeremiah

²and said, "Grant our petition; pray for us to the LORD, your God, for all this remnant. We are now few who once were many, as you well see.

³Let the LORD, your God, show us what way we should take and what we should do."

⁴Very well! the prophet Jeremiah answered them: I will pray to the LORD, your God, as you desire; whatever the LORD answers you, I will tell you; I will withhold nothing from you.

⁵And they said to Jeremiah, "May the LORD be our witness: we will truly and faithfully follow all the instructions the LORD, your God, will send us.

⁶Whether it is pleasant or difficult, we will obey the command of the LORD, our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us for obeying the command of the LORD, our God."

⁷Ten days passed before the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah.

⁸Then he called Johanan, son of Kareah, his army leaders, and all the people, high and low,

⁹and said to them: Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to offer your prayer:

¹⁰If you remain quietly in this land I will build you up, and not tear you down; I will plant you, not uproot you; for I regret the evil I have done you.

¹¹Do not fear the king of Babylon, before whom you are now afraid; do not fear him, says the LORD, for I am with you to save you, to rescue you from his power.

¹²I will grant you mercy, so that he will be sorry for you and let you return to your land.

¹³But if you disobey the voice of the LORD, your God, and decide not to remain in this land,

¹⁴saying, "No, we will go to Egypt, where we will see no more of war, hear the trumpet alarm no longer, nor hunger for bread; there we will live";

¹⁵then listen to the word of the LORD, remnant of Judah: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: If you are determined to go to Egypt, when you arrive there to stay,

¹⁶the sword you fear shall reach you in the land of Egypt; the hunger you dread shall cling to you no less in Egypt, and there you shall die.

¹⁷All those men who determine to go to Egypt to stay, shall die by the sword, famine, and pestilence; not one shall survive or escape the evil that I will bring upon them.

¹⁸For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Just as my furious anger was poured out upon the citizens of Jerusalem, so shall my anger be poured out on you when you reach Egypt. You shall become an example of malediction and horror, a curse and a reproach, and you shall never see this place again.

¹⁹It is the LORD who has spoken to you, remnant of Judah; do not go to Egypt! You can never say that I did not warn you this day.

²⁰At the cost of your lives you have deceived me, sending me to the LORD, your God, saying, "Pray for us to the LORD, our God; make known to us all that the LORD, our God, shall say, and we will do it."

²¹Today I proclaim his message, but you obey the voice of the LORD, your God, in nothing that he has commissioned me to make known to you.

²²Have no doubt of this, you shall die by the sword, famine, and pestilence in the place where you wish to go and settle.

43When Jeremiah finished speaking to the people all these words of the LORD, their God, with which the LORD had sent him to them,

²Azariah, son of Hoshaiah, Johanan, son of Kareah, and all the insolent men shouted to Jeremiah: "You lie; it was not the LORD, our God, who sent you to tell us not to go to Egypt to settle.

³It is Baruch, son of Neriah, who stirs you up against us, to hand us over to the Chaldeans to be killed or exiled to Babylon."

⁴Johanan, son of Kareah, and the rest of the leaders and the people did not obey the LORD'S command to stay in the land of Judah.

⁵Instead, Johanan, son of Kareah, and all the army leaders took along the whole remnant of Judah that had been dispersed among the nations and had returned thence to dwell again in the land of Judah:

⁶men, women, and children, the princesses and everyone whom Nebuzaradan, captain of the bodyguard, had entrusted to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan; also Jeremiah, the prophet, and Baruch, son of Neriah.

⁷Against the LORD'S command they went to Egypt, and arrived at Tahpanhes. . . .

⁸This word of the LORD came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes:

⁹Take with you large stones and sink them in mortar in the brickyard at the entrance to the royal building in Tahpanhes, while the men of Judah look on,

¹⁰and then say to them: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I will send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and bring him here. He will set his throne upon these stones which I, Jeremiah, have sunk, and stretch his canopy over them.

¹¹He shall come and strike the land of Egypt: with death, whoever is marked for death; with exile, everyone destined for exile; with the sword, all who are intended for the sword.

¹²He shall set fire to the temples of Egypt's gods, and burn the gods or carry them off. As a shepherd delouses his cloak, he shall delouse the land of Egypt and depart victorious.

¹³He shall smash the obelisks of the temple of the sun in the land of Egypt and destroy with fire the temples of the Egyptian gods.

44This word came to Jeremiah for all the people of Judah who were living in Egypt, at Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Memphis, and in Upper Egypt:

²Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: You have seen all the evil I brought on Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah. Today they are ruins and uninhabited,

³because of the evil they did to provoke me, going after strange gods, serving them and sacrificing to them, gods which neither they, nor you, nor your fathers knew.

⁴Though I kept sending to you all my servants the prophets, with the plea not to commit this horrible deed which I hate,

⁵they would not listen or accept the warning to turn away from the evil of sacrificing to strange gods.

⁶Therefore the fury of my anger poured forth in flame over the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, so that they became the ruinous waste they are today.

⁷Now thus says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel: Why do you inflict so great an evil upon yourselves? Will you root out from Judah man and wife, child and nursling, and not leave yourselves even a remnant?

⁸Will you go on provoking me by the works of your hands, by sacrificing to strange gods here in the land of Egypt where you have come to live? Will you be rooted out and become a curse and a disgrace among all the nations of the earth?

⁹Have you forgotten the evil deeds which your fathers, and the kings of Judah and their wives, and you yourselves and your wives have done in the land of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem?

¹⁰To this day they have not been crushed; they do not fear or follow the law and the statutes which I set before you and your fathers.

¹¹Hence, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I have determined evil against you; and I will uproot all Judah.

¹²I will take away the remnant of Judah who insisted on coming to dwell in Egypt, so that they shall be wholly destroyed. In the land of Egypt they shall fall by the sword or be consumed by hunger. High and low, they shall die by the sword, or by hunger, and become an example of malediction, a horror, a curse and a reproach.

¹³Thus will I punish those who live in Egypt, just as I punished Jerusalem with sword, hunger, and pestilence. None of the remnant of Judah that have come to settle in the land of Egypt shall escape or survive.

¹⁴None shall return to the land of Judah, though they yearn to return and live there. Only scattered refugees shall return.

¹⁵From all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to strange gods, from all the women who were present in the immense crowd, and from all the people who lived in Lower and Upper Egypt, Jeremiah received this answer:

¹⁶"We will not listen to what you say in the name of the LORD.

¹⁷Rather will we continue doing what we had proposed; we will burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out libations to her, as we and our fathers, our kings and princes have done in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. Then we had enough food to eat and we were well off; we suffered no misfortune.

¹⁸But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her, we are in need of everything and are being destroyed by the sword and by hunger.

¹⁹And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out libations to her, was it without our husbands' consent that we baked for her cakes in her image and poured out libations to her?"

²⁰To all the people, men and women, who gave him this answer, Jeremiah said:

²¹Was it not this that the LORD remembered and brought to mind, that you burned incense in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem: you, your fathers, your kings and princes, and the people generally?

²²The LORD could no longer bear your evil deeds, the horrible things which you were doing; and so your land became a waste, a desert, a thing accursed and without inhabitants, as it is today.

²³Because you burned incense and sinned against the LORD, not obeying the voice of the LORD, not living by his law, his statutes, and his decrees, this evil has befallen you at the present day.

²⁴Jeremiah said further to all the people, including the women: Hear the word of the LORD, all you Judeans in the land of Egypt:

²⁵Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: You and your wives have stated your intentions, and kept them in fact: "We will continue to fulfill the vows we have made to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out libations to her." Very well! keep your vows, carry out your resolutions!

²⁶But listen then to the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who live in Egypt; I swear by my own great name, says the LORD, in the whole land of Egypt no man of Judah shall henceforth pronounce my name, saying, "As the Lord GOD lives."

²⁷I am watching over them to do evil, not good. All the men of Judah in Egypt shall perish by the sword or famine until they are utterly destroyed.

²⁸Those who escape the sword to return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah shall be few in number. The whole remnant of Judah who came to settle in Egypt shall know whose word stands, mine or theirs.

²⁹That you may know how surely my threats of punishment for you shall be fulfilled, this shall be a sign to you, says the LORD, that I will punish you in this place.

³⁰Thus says the LORD: See! I will hand over Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, to his enemies, to those who seek his life, just as I handed over Zedekiah, king of Judah, to his enemy and mortal foe, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.

45This is the message that the prophet Jeremiah gave to Baruch, son of Neriah, when he wrote in a book the prophecies that Jeremiah dictated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah:

²Thus says the LORD, God of Israel, to you, Baruch,

³because you said, "Alas! the LORD adds grief to my pain; I am weary from groaning, and can find no rest":

⁴say this to him, says the LORD: What I have built, I am tearing down; what I have planted, I am uprooting: even the whole land.

⁵And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not! I am bringing evil on all mankind, says the LORD, but your life I will leave you as booty, wherever you may go.

46This is the word of the LORD that came to the prophet Jeremiah against the nations.

²Concerning Egypt. Against the army of Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, which was defeated at Carchemish on the Euphrates by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah:

³Prepare shield and buckler! march to battle!

⁴Harness the horses, mount, charioteers! Fall in with your helmets; polish your spears, put on your breastplates.

⁵What do I see? With broken ranks They fall back; their heroes are routed, They flee headlong without making a stand. Terror on every side, says the LORD!

⁶The swift cannot flee, nor the hero escape: There in the north, on the Euphrates' bank, they stumble and fall.

⁷Who is this that surges forward like the Nile, like rivers of billowing waters?

⁸Egypt surges like the Nile, like rivers of billowing waters. "I will surge forward," he says, "and cover the earth, destroying the city and its people.

⁹Forward, horses! drive madly, chariots! Set out, warriors, Cush and Put, bearing your shields, Men of Lud, stretching your bows!"

¹⁰But this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, vengeance on his foes! The sword devours, is sated, drunk with their blood: for the Lord GOD of hosts holds a slaughter feast in the northland, on the Euphrates.

¹¹Go up to Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter Egypt! No use to multiply remedies; for you there is no cure.

¹²The nations hear of your shame, your cries fill the earth. Warrior trips over warrior, both fall together.

¹³The message which the LORD gave to the prophet Jeremiah concerning the advance of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to attack the land of Egypt:

¹⁴Announce it in Egypt, publish it in Migdol, proclaim it in Memphis and Tahpanhes! Say: Take your stand, prepare yourselves, the sword has already devoured your neighbors.

¹⁵Why has Apis fled, your mighty one failed to stand? The LORD thrust him down;

¹⁶he stumbled repeatedly, and fell. They said one to another, "Up! let us return to our own people, To the land of our birth, away from the destroying sword."

¹⁷Call Pharaoh, king of Egypt, by the name "The noise that let its time go by."

¹⁸As I live, says the King whose name is LORD of hosts, Like Tabor among the mountains he shall come, like Carmel above the sea.

¹⁹Pack your baggage for exile, capital city of daughter Egypt; Memphis shall become a desert, an empty ruin.

²⁰Egypt is a pretty heifer, from the north a horsefly lights upon her.

²¹The mercenaries in her ranks are like fatted calves; They too turn and flee together, stand not their ground, When the day of their ruin comes upon them, the time of their punishment.

²²She sounds like a retreating reptile! Yes, they come in force; like woodchoppers, they attack her with axes.

²³They cut down her forest, says the LORD, impenetrable though it be; More numerous than locusts, they cannot be counted.

²⁴Disgraced is daughter Egypt, handed over to the people of the north.

²⁵The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, has said: See! I will punish Amon of Thebes, and Egypt, her gods and her kings, Pharaoh, and those who trust in him.

²⁶I will hand them over to those who seek their lives, to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his ministers. But later on Egypt shall be inhabited again, as in times past, says the LORD.

²⁷But you, my servant Jacob, fear not; be not dismayed, O Israel. Behold, I will deliver you from the far-off land, your descendants, from their land of exile. Jacob shall again find rest, shall be tranquil and undisturbed.

²⁸You, my servant Jacob, never fear, says the LORD, for I am with you; I will make an end of all the nations to which I have driven you, But of you I will not make an end: I will chastise you as you deserve, I will not let you go unpunished.

47This is the word that came from the LORD to the prophet Jeremiah concerning the Philistines, before Pharaoh attacked Gaza:

²Thus says the LORD: Behold: waters are rising from the north, a torrent in flood; It shall flood the land and all that is in it, the cities and their people. All the people of the land set up a wailing cry.

³They hear the stamping hooves of his steeds, the rattling chariots, the rumbling wheels. Fathers turn not to save their children; their hands fall helpless

⁴Because of the day which has come to ruin all the Philistines, And cut off from Tyre and Sidon the last of their allies. Yes, the LORD is destroying the Philistines, the remnant from the coasts of Caphtor.

⁵Gaza is shaved bald, Ashkelon is reduced to silence; Ashdod, the remnant of their strength, how long will you gash yourself?

⁶Alas, sword of the LORD! how long till you find rest? Return into your scabbard; stop, be still!

⁷How can it find rest when the LORD has commanded it? Against Ashkelon and the seashore he has appointed it.

48Concerning Moab, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Woe to Nebo, it is laid waste; Kiriathaim is disgraced and captured, Disgraced and overthrown is the stronghold:

²Moab's glory is no more. Evil they plan against Heshbon: "Come, let us put an end to her as a people." You, too, Madmen, shall be reduced to silence; behind you stalks the sword.

³Listen! a cry from Horonaim of ruin and great destruction!

⁴Moab is crushed, their outcry is heard in Zoar.

⁵The ascent of Luhith they climb weeping; On the descent to Horonaim the cry of destruction is heard.

⁶"Flee, save your lives, to survive like the wild ass in the desert!"

⁷Because you trusted in your works and your treasures, you also shall be captured. Chemosh shall go into exile, his priests and princes with him.

⁸The destroyer comes upon every city, not a city escapes; Ruined is the valley, wasted the plain, as the LORD has said.

⁹Set up a memorial for Moab, for it is an utter wasteland; Its cities are turned into ruins where no one dwells.

¹⁰(Cursed be he who does the LORD'S work remissly, cursed he who holds back his sword from blood.)

¹¹Moab has been tranquil from his youth, has rested upon his lees; He was not poured from one flask to another, he went not into exile. Thus he kept his taste, and his scent was not lost.

¹²Hence, the days shall come, says the LORD, when I will send him coopers to turn him over; they shall empty his flasks and break his jars.

¹³Chemosh shall disappoint Moab, as Israel was disappointed by Bethel in which they trusted.

¹⁴How can you say, "We are heroes, men valiant in war"?

¹⁵The ravager of Moab and his cities advances, the flower of his youth goes down to be slaughtered, says the King, the LORD of hosts by name.

¹⁶Near at hand is Moab's ruin, his disaster hastens apace.

¹⁷Mourn for him, all you his neighbors, all you who knew him well! Say: How the strong staff is broken, the glorious rod!

¹⁸Come down from glory, sit on the ground, you that dwell in Dibon; Moab's ravager has come up against you, he has ruined your strongholds.

¹⁹Stand by the wayside, watch closely, you that dwell in Aroer; Ask the man who flees, the woman who tries to escape: say to them, "What has happened?"

²⁰Moab is disgraced, yes, destroyed, howl and cry out; Publish it at the Arnon, Moab is ruined!

²¹For judgment has come on the land of the plateau: on Holon, Jahzah, and Mephaath,

²²on Dibon, Nebo, and Beth-diblathaim,

²³on Kiriathaim, Beth-gamul, and Beth-meon,

²⁴on Kerioth and on Bozrah: on all the cities of Moab, far and near.

²⁵Moab's strength is broken, his might is shattered, says the LORD.

²⁶Because he boasted against the LORD, make Moab drunk so that he retches and vomits, and he too becomes a laughingstock.

²⁷Is Israel a laughingstock to you? Was she caught among thieves, that you shake your head whenever you speak of her?

²⁸Leave the cities, dwell in the crags, you that dwell in Moab. Be like a dove that nests out of reach on the edge of a chasm.

²⁹We have heard of the pride of Moab, pride beyond bounds: His loftiness, his pride, his scorn, his insolence of heart.

³⁰I know, says the LORD, his arrogance; liar in boast, liar in deed.

³¹And so I wail over Moab, over all Moab I cry, over the men of Kir-heres I moan.

³²More than for Jazer I weep over you, vineyard of Sibmah. Your tendrils trailed down to the sea, as far as Jazer they stretched. Upon your harvest, upon your vintage, the ravager has fallen.

³³Joy and jubilation are at an end in the fruit gardens of the land of Moab. I drain the wine from the wine vats, the treader treads no more, the vintage shout is stilled.

³⁴The cry of Heshbon and Elealeh is heard as far as Jahaz; they call from Zoar to Horonaim, and to Eglath-shelishiyah, for even the waters of Nimrim turn into a desert.

³⁵I will leave no one in Moab, says the LORD, to offer a holocaust on the high place, or to burn incense to his gods.

³⁶Hence the wail of flutes for Moab is in my heart; for the men of Kir-heres the wail of flutes is in my heart: the wealth they acquired has perished.

³⁷Every head has been made bald, every beard shaved; every hand is gashed, and the loins of all are clothed in sackcloth.

³⁸On every roof of Moab and in all his squares there is mourning; I have shattered Moab like a pot that no one wants, says the LORD.

³⁹How terror seizes Moab, and wailing! How he turns his back in shame! Moab has become a laughingstock and a horror to all his neighbors!

⁴⁰For thus says the LORD: Behold, like an eagle he soars, spreads his wings over Moab.

⁴¹Cities are taken, strongholds seized: On that day the hearts of Moab's heroes are like the heart of a woman in travail.

⁴²Moab shall be destroyed, no more a people, because he boasted against the LORD.

⁴³Terror, pit, and trap be upon you, people of Moab, says the LORD.

⁴⁴He who flees from the terror falls into the pit; He who climbs from the pit is caught in the trap; For I will bring these things upon Moab in the year of their punishment, says the LORD.

⁴⁵In Heshbon's shadow stop short the exhausted refugees; For fire breaks forth from Heshbon, and a blaze from the house of Sihon: It consumes the brow of Moab, the skull of the noisemakers.

⁴⁶Woe to you, O Moab, you are ruined, O people of Chemosh! Your sons are taken into exile, your daughters into captivity.

⁴⁷But I will change the lot of Moab in the days to come, says the LORD. Thus far the judgment on Moab.

49Concerning the Ammonites, thus says the LORD: Has Israel no sons? has he no heir? Why then has Milcom disinherited Gad, why have his people settled in Gad's cities?

²But the days are coming, says the LORD, when against Rabbah of the Ammonites I will sound the battle alarm; She shall become a mound of ruins, and her daughter cities shall be destroyed by fire. Israel shall inherit those who disinherited her, says the LORD.

³Howl, Heshbon, for the ravager approaches, shriek, daughters of Rabbah! Put on sackcloth and mourn, run to and fro, gashing yourselves; For Milcom goes into exile along with his priests and captains.

⁴Why do you glory in your strength, your ebbing strength, rebellious daughter? You who trust in your treasures, saying, "Who can come against me?"

⁵I am bringing terror upon you, says the Lord GOD of hosts, from all round about you; You shall be scattered, each man in headlong flight, with no one to rally the fugitives.

⁶But afterward I will change the lot of the Ammonites, says the LORD.

⁷Concerning Edom, thus says the LORD of hosts: Is there no more wisdom in Teman, has counsel perished from the prudent, has their wisdom become corrupt?

⁸Flee, retreat, hide in deep holes, you who live in Dedan: For I will bring destruction upon Esau when I come to punish him.

⁹If vintagers came upon you, they would leave no gleanings; If thieves by night, they would destroy as they pleased.

¹⁰So I myself will strip Esau; I will uncover his retreats so that he cannot hide. He is ruined: sons, and brothers, and neighbors, so that he is no more.

¹¹Leave your orphans behind, I will keep them alive; your widows, let them trust in me.

¹²For thus says the LORD: Even those not sentenced to drink the cup must drink it! Shall you then go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished; you shall surely drink it.

¹³By my own self I have sworn, says the LORD: Bozrah shall become an object of horror and a disgrace, a desolation and a curse; she and all her cities shall become ruins forever.

¹⁴I have heard a report from the LORD, a herald has been sent among the nations: Gather together, move against her, rise up for battle.

¹⁵Small will I make you among the nations, despised among men!

¹⁶The terror you spread beguiled you, and your presumption of heart; You that live in rocky crags, that hold the heights of the hill: Though you build your nest high as the eagle, from there I will drag you down, says the LORD.

¹⁷Edom shall become an object of horror. Every passer-by shall be appalled and catch his breath at all her wounds.

¹⁸As when Sodom, Gomorrah, and their neighbors were overthrown, says the LORD, not a man shall dwell there: no one shall visit there.

¹⁹As when a lion comes up from the thicket of Jordan to the permanent feeding grounds, So I, in an instant, will drive men off; and whom I choose I will establish there! For who is like me? who can call me to account? What shepherd can stand against me?

²⁰Therefore, hear the counsel of the LORD, which he has taken against Edom; Hear the plans he has made against those that live in Teman: They shall be dragged away, even the smallest sheep, their own pasture shall be aghast because of them.

²¹At the noise of their fall the earth quakes, to the Red Sea the outcry is heard!

²²See! like an eagle he soars aloft, and spreads his wings over Bozrah; On that day the hearts of Edom's heroes shall be like the heart of a woman in travail.Concerning Damascus:

²³Hamath and Arpad are covered with shame, they have heard bad news; Worried, they toss like the sea which cannot rest.

²⁴Damascus is weakened, she turns to flee, panic has seized her. Distress and pangs take hold of her, like those of a woman in travail.

²⁵How can the city of glory be forsaken, the town of delight!

²⁶But now her young men shall fall in her streets, and all her warriors shall be stilled. On that day, says the LORD of hosts,

²⁷I will set fire to the wall of Damascus, and it shall devour the palaces of Ben-hadad.

²⁸Of Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, defeated by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, thus says the LORD: Rise up, attack Kedar, ravage the Easterners.

²⁹Their tents and herds shall be taken away, their tent curtains and all their goods; Their camels they shall carry off for themselves, and shout from upon them, "Terror on every side!"

³⁰Flee! leave your homes, hide in deep holes, you that live in Hazor, says the LORD; For counsel has been taken against you, a plan has been formed against you (Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon).

³¹Rise up! set out against a nation that is at peace, that lives secure, says the LORD, That has no gates or bars, and dwells alone.

³²Their camels shall be your booty, their many herds your spoil; I will scatter to the winds those who shave their temples, from all sides I will bring ruin upon them, says the LORD.

³³Hazor shall become a haunt of jackals, a desert forever, Where no man lives, no human being stays.

³⁴The following word of the LORD against Elam came to the prophet Jeremiah at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah:

³⁵Thus says the LORD of hosts: Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the mainstay of their might.

³⁶I will bring upon Elam the four winds from the four ends of the heavens: I will scatter them to all these winds, till there is no nation to which the outcasts of Elam shall not come.

³⁷I will break Elam before their foes, before those who seek their life; I will bring evil upon them, my burning wrath, says the LORD. I will send the sword to pursue them until I have completely made an end of them;

³⁸My throne I will set up in Elam and destroy from there king and princes, says the LORD.

³⁹But in the days to come I will change the lot of Elam, says the LORD.

50The word which the LORD spoke against Babylon, against the land of the Chaldeans, through the prophet Jeremiah:

²Announce and publish it among the nations; publish it, hide it not, but say: Babylon is taken, Bel confounded, Merodach shattered; her images are put to shame, her idols shattered.

³A people from the north advances against her to turn her land into a desert, So that no one shall live there, because man and beast have fled away.

⁴In those days, at that time, says the LORD, the men of Israel and of Judah shall come, Weeping as they come, to seek the LORD, their God;

⁵to their goal in Zion they shall ask the way. "Come, let us join ourselves to the LORD with covenant everlasting, never to be forgotten."

⁶Lost sheep were my people, their shepherds misled them, straggling on the mountains; From mountain to hill they wandered, losing the way to their fold.

⁷Whoever came upon them devoured them, and their enemies said, "We incur no guilt, Because they sinned against the LORD, the hope of their fathers, their abode of justice."

⁸Flee from Babylon, leave the land of the Chaldeans, be like the rams at the head of the flock.

⁹See, I am stirring up against Babylon a band of great nations from the north; from there they advance, and she shall be taken. Their arrows are arrows of the skilled warrior; none shall return without effect.

¹⁰Chaldea shall be their plunder, and all her plunderers shall be enriched, says the LORD.

¹¹Yes, rejoice and exult, you that plunder my portion; Frisk like calves on the green, snort like stallions!

¹²Your mother shall be sorely put to shame, she that bore you shall be abashed; See, the last of the nations, a desert, dry and waste.

¹³Because of the LORD'S wrath she shall be empty, and become a total desert; Everyone who passes by Babylon will be appalled and catch his breath, at all her wounds.

¹⁴Take your posts encircling Babylon, you who bend the bow; Shoot at her, spare not your arrows,

¹⁵raise the war cry against her on all sides. She surrenders, her bastions fall, her walls are torn down: Vengeance of the LORD is this! Take revenge on her, as she has done, do to her; for she sinned against the LORD.

¹⁶Cut off from Babylon the sower and him who wields the sickle in harvest time! Before the destroying sword, each of them turns to his own people, everyone flees to his own land.

¹⁷A stray sheep was Israel that lions pursued; Formerly the king of Assyria devoured her, now Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon gnaws her bones.

¹⁸Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as once I punished the king of Assyria;

¹⁹But I will bring back Israel to her fold, to feed on Carmel and Bashan, And on Mount Ephraim and Gilead, till she has her fill.

²⁰In those days, at that time, says the LORD: They shall seek Israel's guilt, but it shall be no more, and Judah's sins, but these shall no longer be found; for I will forgive the remnant I preserve.

²¹Attack the land of Merathaim, and those who live in Pekod; Slaughter and doom them, says the LORD, do all I have commanded you.

²²Battle alarm in the land, dire destruction!

²³How has the hammer of the whole earth been broken and shattered! What an object of horror Babylon has become among the nations.

²⁴You ensnared yourself, and were caught, O Babylon, before you knew it! You were discovered and seized, because you challenged the LORD.

²⁵The LORD opens his armory and brings forth the weapons of his wrath; For the Lord GOD of hosts has work to do in the land of the Chaldeans.

²⁶Come upon her from every side, open her granaries, Pile up her goods in heaps and doom it, leave not a remnant.

²⁷Slay all her oxen, let them go down to the slaughter; Woe to them! their day has come, the time of their punishment.

²⁸Listen! the fugitives, the escaped from the land of Babylon: They announce in Zion the vengeance of the LORD, our God.

²⁹Call up against Babylon archers, all who bend the bow; Encamp around her, let no one escape. Repay her for her deeds; as she has done, do to her, For she insulted the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.

³⁰Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, all her warriors shall perish on that day, says the LORD.

³¹I am against you, man of insolence, says the Lord GOD of hosts; For your day has come, the time for me to punish you.

³²Insolence stumbles and falls; there is no one to raise him up. I will kindle in his cities a fire that shall devour everything around him.

³³Thus says the LORD of hosts: Oppressed are the men of Israel, and with them the men of Judah; All their captors hold them fast and refuse to let them go.

³⁴Strong is their avenger, whose name is LORD of hosts; He will defend their cause with success, and give rest to the earth, but unrest to those who live in Babylon.

³⁵A sword upon the Chaldeans, says the LORD, upon Babylon's people, her princes and wise men!

³⁶A sword upon the soothsayers, that they may become fools! A sword upon her warriors, that they may tremble;

³⁷A sword upon her motley throng, that they may become women! A sword upon her treasures, that they may be plundered;

³⁸A sword upon her waters, that they may dry up! For it is a land of idols, and they shall be made frantic by fearful things.

³⁹Hence, wildcats and desert beasts shall dwell there, and ostriches shall occupy it; Never again shall it be peopled, or lived in, from age to age.

⁴⁰As when God overturned Sodom and Gomorrah, with their neighbors, says the LORD, Not a man shall dwell there, no human being shall tarry there.

⁴¹See! a people comes from the north, a great nation, and mighty kings roused from the ends of the earth.

⁴²Bow and javelin they wield, cruel and pitiless are they; They sound like the roaring sea, as they ride forth on steeds, Each in his place for battle against you, daughter Babylon.

⁴³The king of Babylon hears news of them, and helpless fall his hands; Anguish seizes him, throes like a mother's in childbirth.

⁴⁴As when a lion comes up from the Jordan's thicket to the permanent feeding grounds, So I, in one instant, will drive them off, and whom I choose I will establish there; For who is like me? who calls me to account? what shepherd can stand against me?

⁴⁵Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD which he has taken against Babylon; Hear the plans he has made against the land of the Chaldeans: They shall be dragged away, even the smallest sheep; their own pasture shall be aghast because of them.

⁴⁶At the cry "Babylon is captured!" the earth quakes; the outcry is heard among the nations.

51Thus says the LORD: See! I rouse against Babylon, and against those who live in Chaldea, a destroying wind.

²Against Babylon I will send winnowers to winnow her and lay waste her land; They shall besiege her from all sides on the day of affliction.

³Let the bowman draw his bow, and flaunt his coat of mail; Spare not her young men, doom her entire army.

⁴The slain shall fall in the land of Chaldea, the transfixed, in her streets;

⁵For Israel and Judah are not widowed of their God, the LORD of hosts, And the Chaldean land is full of guilt to be punished by the Holy One of Israel.

⁶Flee out of Babylon; let each one save his life, perish not for her guilt; This is a time of vengeance for the LORD, he pays her her due.

⁷Babylon was a golden cup in the hand of the LORD which made the whole earth drunk; The nations drank its wine, with this they have become mad.

⁸Babylon suddenly falls and is crushed: howl over her! Bring balm for her wounds, in case she can be healed.

⁹"We have tried to heal Babylon, but she cannot be healed. Leave her, let us go, each to his own land." Her judgment reaches heaven, it touches the clouds.

¹⁰The LORD has brought to light our just cause; come, let us tell in Zion what the LORD, our God, has done.

¹¹Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers; The LORD has stirred up the spirit of Media's kings; Babylon he is resolved to destroy. Yes, it is the vengeance of the LORD, vengeance for his temple.

¹²Against the walls of Babylon raise a signal, make strong the watch; Post sentries, arrange ambushes! For the LORD has planned and he will carry out his threat against the inhabitants of Babylon.

¹³You who dwell by mighty waters, rich in treasure, Your end has come, the term at which you shall be cut off!

¹⁴The LORD of hosts has sworn by himself: I will fill you with men as numerous as locusts, who shall raise over you the vintage shout!

¹⁵He has sworn who made the earth by his power, and established the world by his wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by his skill.

¹⁶When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar, and he brings up clouds from the end of the earth; He makes the lightning flash in the rain, and releases stormwinds from their chambers.

¹⁷Every man is stupid, ignorant; every artisan is put to shame by his idol: He molded a fraud, without breath of life.

¹⁸Nothingness are they, a ridiculous work, that will perish in their time of punishment.

¹⁹Not like these is the portion of Jacob, he is the creator of all things; Israel is his very own tribe, LORD of hosts is his name.

²⁰You are my hammer, my weapon for war; With you I shatter nations, with you I destroy kingdoms.

²¹With you I shatter horse and rider, with you I shatter chariot and driver.

²²With you I shatter man and wife, with you I shatter old and young, with you I shatter the youth and maiden.

²³With you I shatter the shepherd and his flock, with you I shatter the farmer and his team, with you I shatter satraps and prefects.

²⁴Thus will I repay Babylon, and all who live in Chaldea All the evil they did to Zion, as you shall see with your own eyes, says the LORD.

²⁵Beware! I am against you, destroying mountain, destroyer of the entire earth, says the LORD; I will stretch forth my hand against you, roll you down over the cliffs, and make you a burnt mountain:

²⁶They will not take from you a cornerstone, or a foundation stone; Ruins forever shall you be, says the LORD.

²⁷Raise a signal on the earth, blow the trumpet among the nations; Dedicate peoples to war against her, summon against her the kingdoms, Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; Appoint recruiting officers against her, send up horses like bristling locusts.

²⁸Dedicate peoples to war against her: the king of Media, Its governors and all its prefects, every land in his domain.

²⁹The earth quakes and writhes, the LORD'S plan against Babylon is carried out, Turning the land of Babylon into a desert where no one lives.

³⁰Babylon's warriors have ceased to fight, they remain in their strongholds; Dried up is their strength, they have become women. Burned are their homes, and broken their bars.

³¹One runner meets another, herald meets herald, Telling the king of Babylon that all his city is taken.

³²The fords have been seized, and the fortresses set on fire, while warriors are in panic.

³³For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trodden; Yet a little while, and the harvest time will come for her.

³⁴He has consumed me, routed me, (Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,) he has left me as an empty vessel; He has swallowed me like a dragon: filled his belly with my delights, and cast me out.

³⁵My torn flesh be upon Babylon, says the city on Zion; My blood upon the people of Chaldea, says Jerusalem.

³⁶But now, thus says the LORD: Surely I will defend your cause, I will avenge you; I will dry up her sea, and drain her fountain.

³⁷Babylon shall become a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals; A place of horror and ridicule, where no one lives.

³⁸They all roar like lions, growl like lion cubs.

³⁹When they are parched, I will set a drink before them to make them drunk, that they may be overcome with perpetual sleep, never to awaken, says the LORD.

⁴⁰I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and goats.

⁴¹How has she been seized, made captive, the glory of the whole world! What a horror has Babylon become among nations:

⁴²against Babylon the sea rises, she is overwhelmed by the roaring waves!

⁴³Her cities have become a desert, parched and arid land Where no man lives, and no one passes through.

⁴⁴I will punish Bel in Babylon, and make him disgorge what he swallowed; peoples shall stream to him no more. The wall of Babylon falls!

⁴⁵Leave her, my people, let each one save himself from the burning wrath of the LORD.

⁴⁶Be not discouraged for fear of rumors spread in the land; this year the rumor comes, then violence in the land, tyrant against tyrant.

⁴⁷But behold, the days are coming when I will punish the idols of Babylon; her whole land shall be put to shame, and all her slain shall lie fallen within her.

⁴⁸Then heaven, and earth, and everything in them shall shout over Babylon with joy, when the destroyers come against her from the north, says the LORD.

⁴⁹Babylon, too, must fall, O slain of Israel, as at the hands of Babylon have fallen the slain of all the earth.

⁵⁰You who have escaped the sword, go on, stand not still; Remember the LORD from afar, let Jerusalem come to your minds.

⁵¹We are ashamed because we have heard taunts, confusion covers our faces; strangers have entered the holy places of the house of the LORD.

⁵²But behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will punish her idols, and in her whole land the wounded will groan.

⁵³Though Babylon scale the heavens, and make her strong heights inaccessible, destroyers from me shall reach her, says the LORD.

⁵⁴Hear! loud cries from Babylon, dire destruction from the land of the Chaldeans;

⁵⁵For the LORD lays Babylon waste, stills her loud cry, Though her waves were roaring like mighty waters, and their clamor was heard afar.

⁵⁶For the destroyer comes upon her, (Babylon,) her heroes are captured, their bows broken; The LORD is a God who requites, he will surely repay.

⁵⁷I will make her princes and her wise men drunk, her governors, her prefects, and her warriors, so that they sleep an eternal sleep, never to awaken, says the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.

⁵⁸Thus says the LORD of hosts: The walls of spacious Babylon shall be leveled utterly; her lofty gates shall be destroyed by fire. The toil of the nations is for nothing; for the flames the peoples weary themselves.

⁵⁹This was the errand given by the prophet Jeremiah to Seraiah, son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when he went to Babylon for the king in the fourth year of the reign of Zedekiah; Seraiah was chief quartermaster.

⁶⁰Jeremiah had written all the misfortune that was to befall Babylon in a single book: all these words that were written against Babylon.

⁶¹And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: When you reach Babylon, see that you read aloud all these words,

⁶²and then say: O LORD, you yourself threatened to destroy this place, so that neither man nor beast should dwell in it, since it would remain an everlasting desert.

⁶³When you have finished reading this book, tie a stone to it and throw it in the Euphrates,

⁶⁴and say: Thus shall Babylon sink. Never shall she rise, because of the evil I am bringing upon her. (To "weary themselves" are the words of Jeremiah.)

52Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

²He did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as Jehoiakim had done.

³Indeed, what was done in Jerusalem and in Judah so angered the LORD that he cast them out from his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

⁴In the tenth month of the ninth year of his reign, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his whole army advanced against Jerusalem, encamped around it, and built siege walls on every side.

⁵The siege of the city continued until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

⁶On the ninth day of the fourth month, when famine had gripped the city and the people had no more bread,

⁷the city walls were breached. Then all the soldiers took to flight and left the city by night through the gate between the two walls which was near the king's garden. With the Chaldeans surrounding the city, they went in the direction of the Arabah.

⁸But the Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the desert near Jericho, while his whole army fled from him.

⁹The king, therefore, was arrested and brought to Riblah, in the land of Hamath, to the king of Babylon, who pronounced sentence on him.

¹⁰As Zedekiah looked on, the king of Babylon slew his sons as well as all the princes of Judah at Riblah.

¹¹Then he blinded Zedekiah, bound him with fetters, and had him brought to Babylon and kept in prison until the day of his death.

¹²On the tenth day of the fifth month (this was in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon), Nebuzaradan, captain of the bodyguard, came to Jerusalem as the representative of the king of Babylon.

¹³He burned the house of the LORD, the palace of the king, and all the houses of Jerusalem; every large building he destroyed with fire.

¹⁴And the Chaldean troops who were with the captain of the guard tore down all the walls that surrounded Jerusalem.

¹⁵Then Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, led into exile the rest of the people left in the city, and those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the artisans.

¹⁶But some of the country's poor, Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, left behind as vinedressers and farmers.

¹⁷The bronze pillars that belonged to the house of the LORD, and the wheeled carts and the bronze sea in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans broke into pieces; they carried away all the bronze to Babylon.

¹⁸They took also the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the bowls, the pans, and all the bronze vessels used for service.

¹⁹The basins also, the fire holders, the bowls, the pots, the lampstands, the pans, the sacrificial bowls which were of gold or silver, these too the captain of the guard carried off,

²⁰as well as the two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve oxen of bronze under the sea, and the wheeled carts which King Solomon had made for the house of the LORD. The bronze of all these furnishings could not be weighed.

²¹Each of the pillars was eighteen cubits high and twelve cubits in diameter; each was four fingers thick, and hollow inside.

²²A bronze capital five cubits high surmounted the one pillar, and a network with pomegranates encircled the capital, all of brass; and so for the other pillar. The pomegranates. . .

²³there were ninety-six pomegranates. There were a hundred pomegranates, all around the network.

²⁴The captain of the guard also took Seraiah, the high priest, Zephaniah, the second priest, and the three keepers of the entry.

²⁵And from the city he took one courtier, a commander of soldiers, and seven men in the personal service of the king who were present in the city, and the scribe of the army commander who mustered the people of the land, and sixty of the common people who were in the city.

²⁶The captain of the guard, Nebuzaradan, arrested these and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah,

²⁷who had them struck down and put to death in Riblah, in the land of Hamath. Thus was Judah exiled from her land.

²⁸This is the number of the people whom Nebuchadnezzar led away captive: in his seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three people of Judah;

²⁹in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, eight hundred and thirty-two persons from Jerusalem;

³⁰in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, exiled seven hundred and forty-five people of Judah: four thousand six hundred persons in all.

³¹In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, Evil-merodach, king of Babylon, in the inaugural year of his reign, took up the case of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, and released him from prison.

³²He spoke kindly to him and gave him a throne higher than that of the other kings who were with him in Babylon.

³³Jehoiachin took off his prison garb and ate at the king's table as long as he lived.

³⁴The allowance given him by the king of Babylon was a perpetual allowance, in fixed daily amounts, all the days of his life until the day of his death.

1In the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was among the exiles by the river Chebar, the heavens opened, and I saw divine visions.--

²On the fifth day of the month, the fifth year, that is, of King Jehoiachin's exile,

³the word of the LORD came to the priest Ezekiel, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar.--There the hand of the LORD came upon me.

⁴As I looked, a stormwind came from the North, a huge cloud with flashing fire (enveloped in brightness), from the midst of which (the midst of the fire) something gleamed like electrum.

⁵Within it were figures resembling four living creatures that looked like this: their form was human,

⁶but each had four faces and four wings,

⁷and their legs went straight down; the soles of their feet were round. They sparkled with a gleam like burnished bronze.

⁸Human hands were under their wings, and the wings of one touched those of another.

⁹Their faces (and their wings) looked out on all their four sides; they did not turn when they moved, but each went straight forward.

¹⁰Their faces were like this: each of the four had the face of a man, but on the right side was the face of a lion, and on the left side the face of an ox, and finally each had the face of an eagle.

¹¹Each had two wings spread out above so that they touched one another's, while the other two wings of each covered his body.

¹²(Each went straight forward; wherever the spirit wished to go, there they went; they did not turn when they moved.)

¹³In among the living creatures something like burning coals of fire could be seen; they seemed like torches, moving to and fro among the living creatures. The fire gleamed, and from it came forth flashes of lightning.

¹⁵As I looked at the living creatures, I saw wheels on the ground, one beside each of the four living creatures.

¹⁶The wheels had the sparkling appearance of chrysolite, and all four of them looked the same: they were constructed as though one wheel were within another.

¹⁷They could move in any of the four directions they faced, without veering as they moved.

¹⁸The four of them had rims, and I saw that their rims were full of eyes all around.

¹⁹When the living creatures moved, the wheels moved with them; and when the living creatures were raised from the ground, the wheels also were raised.

²⁰Wherever the spirit wished to go, there the wheels went, and they were raised together with the living creatures; for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

²²Over the heads of the living creatures, something like a firmament could be seen, seeming like glittering crystal, stretched straight out above their heads.

²³Beneath the firmament their wings were stretched out, one toward the other. (Each of them had two covering his body.)

²⁴Then I heard the sound of their wings, like the roaring of mighty waters, like the voice of the Almighty. When they moved, the sound of the tumult was like the din of an army. (And when they stood still, they lowered their wings.)

²⁶Above the firmament over their heads something like a throne could be seen, looking like sapphire. Upon it was seated, up above, one who had the appearance of a man.

²⁷Upward from what resembled his waist I saw what gleamed like electrum; downward from what resembled his waist I saw what looked like fire; he was surrounded with splendor.

²⁸Like the bow which appears in the clouds on a rainy day was the splendor that surrounded him. Such was the vision of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I had seen it, I fell upon my face and heard a voice that said to me:

2Son of man, stand up! I wish to speak with you.

²As he spoke to me, spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard the one who was speaking

³say to me: Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their fathers have revolted against me to this very day.

⁴Hard of face and obstinate of heart are they to whom I am sending you. But you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD!

⁵And whether they heed or resist--for they are a rebellious house--they shall know that a prophet has been among them.

⁶But as for you, son of man, fear neither them nor their words when they contradict you and reject you, and when you sit on scorpions. Neither fear their words nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.

⁷(But speak my words to them, whether they heed or resist, for they are rebellious.)

⁸As for you, son of man, obey me when I speak to you: be not rebellious like this house of rebellion, but open your mouth and eat what I shall give you.

⁹It was then I saw a hand stretched out to me, in which was a written scroll

¹⁰which he unrolled before me. It was covered with writing front and back, and written on it was: Lamentation and wailing and woe!

3He said to me: Son of man, eat what is before you; eat this scroll, then go, speak to the house of Israel.

²So I opened my mouth and he gave me the scroll to eat.

³Son of man, he then said to me, feed your belly and fill your stomach with this scroll I am giving you. I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. He said:

⁴Son of man, go now to the house of Israel, and speak my words to them.

⁵Not to a people with difficult speech and barbarous language am I sending you,

⁶nor to the many peoples (with difficult speech and barbarous language) whose words you cannot understand. If I were to send you to these, they would listen to you;

⁷but the house of Israel will refuse to listen to you, since they will not listen to me. For the whole house of Israel is stubborn of brow and obstinate in heart.

⁸But I will make your face as hard as theirs, and your brow as stubborn as theirs,

⁹like diamond, harder than flint. Fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.

¹⁰Son of man, he said to me, take into your heart all my words that I speak to you; hear them well.

¹¹Now go to the exiles, to your countrymen, and say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD!--whether they heed or resist!

¹²Then spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the noise of a loud rumbling as the glory of the LORD rose from its place:

¹³the noise made by the wings of the living creatures striking one another, and by the wheels alongside them, a loud rumbling.

¹⁴The spirit which had lifted me up seized me, and I went off spiritually stirred, while the hand of the LORD rested heavily upon me.

¹⁵Thus I came to the exiles who lived at Tel-abib by the river Chebar, and for seven days I sat among them distraught.

¹⁶At the end of seven days. . .

¹⁷Thus the word of the LORD came to me: Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel. When you hear a word from my mouth, you shall warn them for me.

¹⁸If I say to the wicked man, You shall surely die; and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his wicked conduct so that he may live: that wicked man shall die for his sin, but I will hold you responsible for his death.

¹⁹If, on the other hand, you have warned the wicked man, yet he has not turned away from his evil nor from his wicked conduct, then he shall die for his sin, but you shall save your life.

²⁰If a virtuous man turns away from virtue and does wrong when I place a stumbling block before him, he shall die. He shall die for his sin, and his virtuous deeds shall not be remembered; but I will hold you responsible for his death if you did not warn him.

²¹When, on the other hand, you have warned a virtuous man not to sin, and he has in fact not sinned, he shall surely live because of the warning, and you shall save your own life.

²²The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he said to me: Get up and go out into the plain, where I will speak with you.

²³So I got up and went out into the plain, and I saw that the glory of the LORD was in that place, like the glory I had seen by the river Chebar. I fell prone,

²⁴but then spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and he spoke with me. He said to me: Go shut yourself up in your house.

²⁵(As for you, son of man, they will put cords upon you and bind you with them, so that you cannot go out among them.)

²⁶I will make your tongue stick to your palate so that you will be dumb and unable to rebuke them for being a rebellious house.

²⁷Only when I speak with you and open your mouth, shall you say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD! Let him heed who will, and let him resist who will, for they are a rebellious house.

4As for you, son of man, take a clay tablet; lay it in front of you, and draw on it a city (Jerusalem).

²Raise a siege against it: build a tower, lay out a ramp, pitch camps, and set up batteringrams all around.

³Then take an iron griddle and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. Fix your gaze on it: it shall be in the state of siege, and you shall besiege it. This shall be a sign for the house of Israel.

⁴Then you shall lie on your left side, while I place the sins of the house of Israel upon you. As many days as you lie thus, you shall bear their sins.

⁵For the years of their sins I allot you the same number of days, three hundred and ninety, during which you will bear the sins of the house of Israel.

⁶When you finish this, you are to lie down again, but on your right side, and bear the sins of the house of Judah forty days; one day for each year I have allotted you.

⁷Fixing your gaze on the siege of Jerusalem, with bared arm you shall prophesy against it.

⁸See, I will bind you with cords so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.

⁹Again, take wheat and barley, and beans and lentils, and millet and spelt; put them in a single vessel and make bread out of them. Eat it for as many days as you lie upon your side, three hundred and ninety.

¹⁰The food you eat shall be twenty shekels a day by weight; each day the same.

¹¹And the water you drink shall be the sixth of a hin by measure; each day the same.

¹²For your food you must bake barley loaves over human excrement in their sight, said the LORD.

¹³Thus the Israelites shall eat their food unclean among the nations where I scatter them.

¹⁴"Oh no, Lord GOD!" I protested. "Never have I been made unclean, and from my youth till now, never have I eaten carrion flesh or that torn by wild beasts; never has any unclean meat entered my mouth."

¹⁵Very well, he replied, I allow you cow's dung in place of human excrement; bake your bread on that.

¹⁶Then he said to me: Son of man, I am breaking the staff of bread in Jerusalem. They shall eat bread which they have weighed out anxiously, and they shall drink water which they have measured out fearfully,

¹⁷so that, owing to the scarcity of bread and water, everyone shall be filled with terror and waste away because of his sins.

5As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it like a barber's razor, passing it over your head and beard. Then take a set of scales and divide the hair you have cut.

²Burn a third in the fire, within the city, when the days of your siege are completed; place another third around the city and strike it with the sword; the final third strew in the wind, and pursue it with the sword.

³(But of the last take a small number and tie them in the hem of your garment.

⁴Then take some of these and throw them in the midst of the fire and burn them.) Say to the whole house of Israel:

⁵Thus says the Lord GOD: This is Jerusalem! In the midst of the nations I placed her, surrounded by foreign countries.

⁶But she rebelled against my ordinances more wickedly than the nations, and against my statutes more than the foreign countries surrounding her; she has spurned my ordinances and has not lived by my statutes.

⁷Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have been more rebellious than the nations surrounding you, not living by my statutes nor fulfilling my ordinances, but acting according to the ordinances of the surrounding nations;

⁸therefore thus says the Lord GOD: See, I am coming at you! I will inflict punishments in your midst while the nations look on.

⁹Because of all your abominations I will do with you what I have never done before, the like of which I will never do again.

¹⁰This means that fathers within you shall eat sons, and sons shall eat fathers. I will inflict punishments upon you and scatter all that remain of your people in every direction.

¹¹Therefore, as I live, says the Lord GOD, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable abominations, I swear to cut you down. I will not look upon you with pity nor have mercy.

¹²A third of your people shall die of pestilence and perish of hunger within you; another third shall fall by the sword all around you; and a third I will scatter in every direction, and I will pursue them with the sword.

¹³Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will wreak my fury upon them till I am appeased; they shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken in my jealousy when I spend my fury upon them.

¹⁴I will make you a waste and a reproach among the nations that surround you, which every passer-by may see.

¹⁵When I execute judgment upon you in anger and fury and with furious chastisements, you shall be a reproach and an object of scorn, a terrible warning to the nations that surround you. I, the LORD, have spoken!

¹⁶When I loose against you the cruel, destructive arrows of hunger, I will break your staff of bread;

¹⁷I will send famine against you, and wild beasts that shall rob you of your children. Pestilence and bloodshed shall stalk through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I, the LORD, have spoken!

6Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

²Son of man, turn toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them:

³Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD. Thus says the Lord GOD (to the mountains and hills, the ravines and valleys): See, I am bringing a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.

⁴Your altars shall be laid waste, your incense stands shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain ones before your idols;

⁵I will scatter their bones all around your altars.

⁶In all your dwelling places cities shall be made desolate and high places laid waste, so that your altars will be made desolate and laid waste, your idols broken and removed, and your incense stands smashed to bits.

⁷(The slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am the LORD.

⁸I have warned you.) When some of your people have escaped to other nations from the sword, and have been scattered over the foreign lands,

⁹then those who have escaped will remember me among the nations to which they have been exiled, after I have broken their adulterous hearts that turned away from me (and their eyes which lusted after idols). They shall loathe themselves because of their evil deeds, all their abominations.

¹⁰Then they shall know that it was not in vain that I, the LORD, threatened to inflict this calamity upon them.

¹¹Thus says the Lord GOD: Clap your hands, stamp your feet, and cry "Alas!" because of all the abominations of the house of Israel, for which they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.

¹²He that is far off shall die of pestilence, he that is near shall fall by the sword, and he that is besieged shall perish by famine; so will I spend my fury upon them.

¹³Then shall they know that I am the LORD, when their slain shall lie amid their idols, all about their altars, on every high hill and mountaintop, beneath every green tree and leafy oak, wherever they offered appeasing odors to any of their gods.

¹⁴I will stretch out my hand against them, and wherever they live I will make the land a desolate waste, from the desert to Riblah; thus shall they know that I am the LORD.

7Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

²Son of man, now say: Thus says the Lord GOD to the land of Israel: An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land!

³Now the end is upon you; I will unleash my anger against you and judge you according to your conduct and lay upon you the consequences of all your abominations.

⁴I will not look upon you with pity nor have mercy; I will bring your conduct down upon you, and the consequences of your abominations shall be in your midst; then shall you know that I am the LORD.

⁵Thus says the Lord GOD: Disaster upon disaster! See it coming!

⁶An end is coming, the end is coming upon you! See it coming!

⁷The climax has come for you who dwell in the land! The time has come, near is the day: a time of consternation, not of rejoicing.

⁸Soon now I will pour out my fury upon you and spend my anger upon you; I will judge you according to your conduct and lay upon you the consequences of all your abominations.

⁹I will not look upon you with pity nor have mercy; I will deal with you according to your conduct, and the consequences of your abominations shall be in your midst; then shall you know that it is I, the LORD, who strike.

¹⁰See, the day of the LORD! See, the end is coming! Lawlessness is in full bloom, insolence flourishes,

¹¹violence has risen to support wickedness. It shall not be long in coming, nor shall it delay.

¹²The time has come, the day dawns. Let not the buyer rejoice nor the seller mourn, for wrath shall be upon all the throng.

¹³The seller shall not regain what he sold as long as he lives, for wrath shall be upon all the throng. Because of his sins, no one shall preserve his life.

¹⁴They shall sound the trumpet and make everything ready, yet no one shall go to war, for my wrath is upon all the throng.

¹⁵The sword is outside; pestilence and hunger are within. He that is in the country shall die by the sword; pestilence and famine shall devour those in the city.

¹⁶Even those who escape and flee to the mountains like the doves of the valleys--I will put them all to death, each one for his own sins.

¹⁷All their hands shall be limp, and all their knees shall run with water.

¹⁸They shall put on sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; shame shall be on all their faces and baldness on all their heads.

¹⁹They shall fling their silver into the streets, and their gold shall be considered refuse. Their silver and gold cannot save them on the day of the LORD'S wrath. They shall not be allowed to satisfy their craving or fill their bellies, for this has been the occasion of their sin.

²⁰In the beauty of their ornaments they put their pride: they made of them their abominable images (their idols). For this reason I make them refuse.

²¹I will hand them over as booty to foreigners, to be spoiled and defiled by the wicked of the earth.

²²I will turn away my face from them, and my treasure shall be profaned: robbers shall enter and profane it.

²³They shall wreak slaughter, for the land is filled with bloodshed and the city full of violence.

²⁴I will bring in the worst of the nations, who shall take possession of their houses. I will put an end to their proud strength, and their sanctuaries shall be profaned.

²⁵When anguish comes they shall seek peace, but there will be none.

²⁶There shall be disaster after disaster, rumor after rumor. Prophetic vision shall fade; instruction shall be lacking to the priest, and counsel to the elders,

²⁷while the prince shall be enveloped in terror, and the hands of the common people shall tremble. I will deal with them according to their conduct, and according to their judgments I will judge them; thus they shall know that I am the LORD.

³Spirit lifted me up in the air and brought me in divine visions to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate, where stood the statue of jealousy which stirs up jealousy.

⁵He said to me: Son of man, look toward the north! I looked toward the north and saw northward of the gate the altar of the statue of jealousy.

⁶Son of man, he asked me, do you see what they are doing? Do you see the great abominations that the house of Israel is practicing here, so that I must depart from my sanctuary? But you shall see still greater abominations!

⁷Then he brought me to the entrance of the court, where I saw there was a hole in the wall.

⁸Son of man, he ordered, dig through the wall. I dug through the wall and saw a door.

⁹Enter, he said to me, and see the abominable evils which they are doing here.

¹⁰I entered and saw that all around upon the wall were pictured the figures of all kinds of creeping things and loathsome beasts (all the idols of the house of Israel).

¹¹Before these stood seventy of the elders of the house of Israel, among whom stood Jaazaniah, son of Shaphan, each of them with his censer in his hand, and the fragrance of the incense was rising upward.

¹²Then he said to me: Do you see, son of man, what each of these elders of the house of Israel is doing in his idol room? They think: "The LORD cannot see us; the LORD has forsaken the land."

¹³He continued: You shall see still greater abominations that they are practicing.

¹⁴Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the temple, and I saw sitting there the women who were weeping for Tammuz.

¹⁵Then he said to me: Do you see this, son of man? You shall see other abominations, greater than these!

¹⁶Then he brought me into the inner court of the LORD'S house, and there at the door of the LORD'S temple, between the vestibule and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the LORD'S temple and their faces toward the east; they were bowing down to the sun.

¹⁷Do you see, son of man? he asked me. Is it such a trivial matter for the house of Judah to do the abominable things they have done here--for they have filled the land with violence, and again and again they have provoked me--that now they must also put the branch to my nose?

¹⁸Therefore I in turn will act furiously: I will not look upon them with pity nor will I show mercy.

9Then he cried loud for me to hear: Come, you scourges of the city!

²With that I saw six men coming from the direction of the upper gate which faces the north, each with a destroying weapon in his hand. In their midst was a man dressed in linen, with a writer's case at his waist. They entered and stood beside the bronze altar.

³Then he called to the man dressed in linen with the writer's case at his waist,

⁴saying to him: Pass through the city (through Jerusalem) and mark an X on the foreheads of those who moan and groan over all the abominations that are practiced within it.

⁵To the others I heard him say: Pass through the city after him and strike! Do not look on them with pity nor show any mercy!

⁶Old men, youths and maidens, women and children--wipe them out! But do not touch any marked with the X; begin at my sanctuary. So they began with the men (the elders) who were in front of the temple.

⁷Defile the temple, he said to them, and fill the courts with the slain; then go out and strike in the city.

⁸As they began to strike, I was left alone. I fell prone, crying out, Alas, Lord GOD! Will you destroy all that is left of Israel when you pour out your fury on Jerusalem?"

⁹He answered me: The sins of the house of Israel are great beyond measure; the land is filled with bloodshed, the city with lawlessness. They think that the LORD has forsaken the land, that he does not see them.

¹⁰I, however, will not look upon them with pity, nor show any mercy. I will bring down their conduct upon their heads.

¹¹Then I saw the man dressed in linen with the writing case at his waist make his report: "I have done as you ordered."

²⁴Spirit lifted me up and brought me back to the exiles in Chaldea (in a vision, by God's spirit). Then the vision I had seen left me,

²⁵and I told the exiles everything the LORD had shown me.

10On the fifth day of the sixth month, in the sixth year, as I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, the hand of the Lord GOD fell upon me there.

10I looked and saw in the firmament above the cherubim what appeared to be sapphire stone; something like a throne could be seen upon it.

²I looked up and saw a form that looked like a man. Downward from what seemed to be his waist, there was fire; from his waist upward there seemed to be a brightness like the sheen of electrum. He stretched out what appeared to be a hand and seized me by the hair of my head. . . .

²He said to the man dressed in linen: Go within the wheelwork under the cherubim; fill both your hands with burning coals from among the cherubim, then scatter them over the city. As I looked on, he entered. The glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherubim, upon which it had been, to the threshold of the temple.

³As the man entered, the cloud filled the inner court,

⁴I saw there the glory of the God of Israel, like the vision I had seen in the plain. The cherubim were stationed to the right of the temple;

⁴and the glory of the LORD rose from over the cherubim to the threshold of the temple; the temple was filled with the cloud, and all the court was bright with the glory of the LORD.

⁵The noise of the wings of the cherubim could be heard as far as the outer court; it was like the voice of God the Almighty when he speaks.

⁶When he had commanded the man dressed in linen to take fire from within the wheelwork, among the cherubim, the man entered and stood by one of the wheels.

⁷Thereupon its cherub stretched out his hand toward the fire that was among the cherubim. He took up some of it and put it in the hands of the one dressed in linen, who took it and came out.

⁸(Something like human hands could be seen under the wings of the cherubim.)

⁹I also saw four wheels beside them, one wheel beside each cherub; the wheels appeared to have the luster of chrysolite stone.

¹⁰All four of them seemed to be made the same, as though they were a wheel within a wheel.

¹¹When they moved, they went in any one of their four directions without veering as they moved; for in whichever direction they were faced, they went straight toward it without veering as they moved.

¹²The rims of the four wheels were full of eyes all around.

¹³I heard the wheels given the name "wheelwork."

¹⁴Each had four faces: the first face was that of an ox, the second that of a man, the third that of a lion, and the fourth that of an eagle.

¹⁵Such were the living creatures I had seen by the river Chebar.

¹⁶When the cherubim moved, the wheels went beside them; when the cherubim lifted their wings to rise from the earth, even then the wheels did not leave their sides.

¹⁷When they stood still, the wheels stood still; when they rose, the wheels rose with them; for the living creatures' spirit was in them.

¹⁸Then the glory of the LORD left the threshold of the temple and rested upon the cherubim.

¹⁹These lifted their wings, and I saw them rise from the earth, the wheels rising along with them. They stood at the entrance of the eastern gate of the LORD'S house, and the glory of the God of Israel was up above them.

²⁰these were the living creatures I had seen beneath the God of Israel by the river Chebar, whom I now recognized to be cherubim.

²¹Each ohad four faces and four wings; something like human hands were under their wings.

²²Their faces looked just like those I had seen by the river Chebar; each one went straight forward.

11Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the temple. At the entrance of the gate I saw twenty-five men, among whom were Jaazaniah, son of Azzur, and Pelatiah, son of Benaiah, princes of the people.

²The LORD said to me: Son of man, these are the men who are planning evil and giving wicked counsel in this city.

³"Shall we not," they say, "be building houses soon? The city is the kettle, and we are the meat."

⁴Therefore prophesy against them, son of man, prophesy!

⁵Then the spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and he told me to say: Thus says the LORD: This is the way you talk, house of Israel, and what you are plotting I well know.

⁶You have slain many in this city and have filled its streets with your slain.

⁷Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Your slain whom you have placed within it, they are the meat, and the city is the kettle; but you I will take out of it.

⁸You fear the sword, but the sword I will bring upon you, says the Lord GOD.

⁹I will bring you out of the city, and hand you over to foreigners, and inflict punishments upon you.

¹⁰By the sword you shall fall; at the boundaries of Israel I will judge you; thus you shall know that I am the LORD.

¹¹The city shall not be a kettle for you, nor shall you be the meat within it. At the boundaries of Israel I will judge you,

¹²and you shall know that I am the LORD, by whose statutes you have not lived, and whose ordinances you have not kept; rather, you have acted according to the ordinances of the nations around you.

¹³While I was prophesying, Pelatiah, the son of Benaiah, died. I fell prone and cried out in a loud voice: "Alas, Lord GOD! will you utterly wipe out what remains of Israel?"

¹⁴Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

¹⁵Son of man, it is about your kinsmen, your fellow exiles, and the whole house of Israel that the inhabitants of Jerusalem say, "They are far away from the LORD; to us the land of Israel has been given as our possession."

¹⁶Therefore say: Thus says the Lord GOD: Though I have removed them far among the nations and scattered them over foreign countries--and was for a while their only sanctuary in the countries to which they had gone--

¹⁷I will gather you from the nations and assemble you from the countries over which you have been scattered, and I will restore to you the land of Israel.

¹⁸They shall return to it and remove from it all its detestable abominations.

¹⁹I will give them a new heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove the stony heart from their bodies, and replace it with a natural heart,

²⁰so that they will live according to my statutes, and observe and carry out my ordinances; thus they shall be my people and I will be their God.

²¹But as for those whose hearts are devoted to their detestable abominations, I will bring down their conduct upon their heads, says the Lord GOD.

²²Then the cherubim lifted their wings, and the wheels went along with them, while up above them was the glory of the God of Israel.

²³And the glory of the LORD rose from the city and took a stand on the mountain which is to the east of the city.

12Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

²Son of man, you live in the midst of a rebellious house; they have eyes to see but do not see, and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious house.

³Now, son of man, during the day while they are looking on, prepare your baggage as though for exile, and again while they are looking on, migrate from where you live to another place; perhaps they will see that they are a rebellious house.

⁴You shall bring out your baggage like an exile in the daytime while they are looking on; in the evening, again while they are looking on, you shall go out like one of those driven into exile;

⁵while they look on, dig a hole in the wall and pass through it;

⁶while they look on, shoulder the burden and set out in the darkness; cover your face that you may not see the land, for I have made you a sign for the house of Israel.

⁷I did as I was told. During the day I brought out my baggage as though it were that of an exile, and at evening I dug a hole through the wall with my hand and, while they looked on, set out in the darkness, shouldering my burden.

⁸Then, in the morning, the word of the LORD came to me:

⁹Son of man, did not the house of Israel, that rebellious house, ask you what you were doing?

¹⁰Tell them: Thus says the Lord GOD: This oracle concerns Jerusalem and the whole house of Israel within it.

¹¹I am a sign for you: as I have done, so shall it be done to them; as captives they shall go into exile.

¹²The prince who is among them shall shoulder his burden and set out in darkness, going through a hole that he has dug in the wall, and covering his face lest he be seen by anyone.

¹³But I will spread my net over him, and he shall be taken in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon, into the land of the Chaldeans--but he shall not see it--and there he shall die.

¹⁴All his retinue, his aides, and his troops I will scatter in every direction, and pursue them with the sword.

¹⁵Then shall they know that I am the LORD, when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them over foreign lands.

¹⁶Yet I will leave a few of them to escape the sword, famine and pestilence, so that they may tell of all their abominations among the nations to which they will come; thus they shall know that I am the LORD.

¹⁷Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

¹⁸Son of man, eat your bread trembling, and drink your water shaking with anxiety.

¹⁹Then say to the people of the land: Thus says the Lord GOD of the inhabitants of Jerusalem (to the land of Israel): They shall eat their bread in anxiety and drink their water in horror, that their land may be emptied of the violence of all its inhabitants that now fills it.

²⁰Inhabited cities shall be in ruins, and the land shall be a waste; thus you shall know that I am the LORD.

²¹Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

²²Son of man, what is this proverb that you have in the land of Israel: "The days drag on, and no vision ever comes to anything"?

²³Say to them therefore: Thus says the Lord GOD: I will put an end to this proverb; they shall never quote it again in Israel. Rather, say to them: The days are at hand, and also the fulfillment of every vision.

²⁴There shall no longer be any false visions or deceitful divinations within the house of Israel, because it is I, the LORD, who will speak.

²⁵Whatever I speak is final, and it shall be done without further delay. In your days, rebellious house, whatever I speak I will bring about, says the Lord GOD.

²⁶Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

²⁷Son of man, listen to the house of Israel saying, "The vision he sees is a long way off; he prophesies of the distant future!"

²⁸Say to them therefore: Thus says the Lord GOD: None of my words shall be delayed any longer; whatever I speak is final, and it shall be done, says the Lord GOD.

13Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

²Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel, prophesy! Say to those who prophesy their own thought: Hear the word of the LORD:

³Thus says the Lord GOD: Woe to those prophets who are fools, who follow their own spirit and have seen no vision.

⁴Like foxes among ruins are your prophets, O Israel!

⁵You did not step into the breach, nor did you build a wall about the house of Israel that would stand firm against attack on the day of the LORD.

⁶Their visions are false and their divination lying. They say, "Thus says the LORD!" though the LORD did not send them; then they wait for him to fulfill their word!

⁷Was not the vision you saw false, and your divination lying?

⁸Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have spoken falsehood and have seen lying visions, therefore see! I am coming at you, says the Lord GOD.

⁹But I will stretch out my hand against the prophets who have false visions and who foretell lies. They shall not belong to the community of my people, nor be recorded in the register of the house of Israel, nor enter the land of Israel; thus you shall know that I am the LORD.

¹⁰For the very reason that they led my people astray, saying, "Peace!" when there was no peace, and that, as one built a wall, they would cover it with whitewash,

¹¹say then to the whitewashers: I will bring down a flooding rain; hailstones shall fall, and a stormwind shall break out.

¹²And when the wall has fallen, will you not be asked: Where is the whitewash you spread on?

¹³Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: In my fury I will let loose stormwinds; because of my anger there shall be a flooding rain, and hailstones shall fall with destructive wrath.

¹⁴I will tear down the wall that you have whitewashed and level it to the ground, laying bare its foundations. When it falls, you shall be crushed beneath it; thus you shall know that I am the LORD.

¹⁵When I have spent my fury on the wall and its whitewashers, I tell you there shall be no wall, nor shall there be whitewashers--

¹⁶those prophets of Israel who prophesied to Jerusalem and saw for it visions of peace when there was no peace, says the Lord GOD.

¹⁷Now, son of man, turn toward the daughters of your people who prophesy their own thoughts; against these, prophesy: Thus says the Lord GOD:

¹⁸Woe to those who sew bands for everyone's wrists and make veils for every size of head so as to entrap their owners. Do you think to entrap the lives of my people, yet keep yourselves alive?

¹⁹You dishonor me before my people with handfuls of barley and crumbs of bread, killing those who should not die and keeping alive those who should not live, lying to my people who willingly hear lies.

²⁰Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: See! I am coming at those bands of yours in which you entrap men's lives: I will tear them from their arms and set free those you have caught.

²¹I will tear off your veils and rescue my people from your power, so that they shall no longer be prey to your hands. Thus you shall know that I am the LORD.

²²Because you have disheartened the upright man with lies when I did not wish him grieved, and have encouraged the wicked man not to turn from his evil conduct and save his life;

²³therefore you shall no longer see false visions and practice divination, but I will rescue my people from your power. Thus you shall know that I am the LORD.

14When certain elders of Israel came and sat down before me,

²the word of the LORD came to me:

³Son of man, these men have the memory of their idols fresh in their hearts, and they keep the occasion of their sin before them. Why should I allow myself to be consulted by them?

⁴Therefore speak with them, and say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD: If anyone of the house of Israel, holding the memory of his idols in his heart and keeping the occasion of his sin before him, has recourse to a prophet, I, the LORD, will be his answer in person because of his many idols.

⁵Thus would I bring back to their senses the house of Israel, who have become estranged from me through all their idols.

⁶Therefore say to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord GOD: Return and be converted from your idols; turn yourselves away from all your abominations.

⁷For if anyone of the house of Israel or any alien resident in Israel is estranged from me, and holds the memory of his idols in his heart and keeps the occasion of his sin before him, yet asks a prophet to consult me for him, I, the LORD, will be his answer in person.

⁸I will turn against that man, and make of him an example and a byword. I will cut him off from the midst of my people. Thus you shall know that I am the LORD.

⁹As for the prophet, if he is beguiled into speaking a word, I, the LORD, shall have beguiled that prophet; I will stretch out my hand against him and root him out of my people Israel.

¹⁰Each shall receive punishment for his sin, the inquirer and the prophet shall be punished alike,

¹¹so that the house of Israel may no longer stray from me and may no longer be defiled by all their sins. Thus they shall be my people, and I will be their God, says the Lord GOD.

¹²Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

¹³Son of man, when a land sins against me by breaking faith, I stretch out my hand against it and break its staff of bread, I let famine loose upon it and cut off from it both man and beast;

¹⁴and even if these three men were in it, Noah, Daniel, and Job, they could save only themselves by their virtue, says the Lord GOD.

¹⁵If I were to cause wild beasts to prowl the land, depopulating it so that it became a waste, traversed by none because of the wild beasts,

¹⁶and these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord GOD, I swear they could save neither sons nor daughters; they alone would be saved, and the land would be a waste.

¹⁷Or if I brought the sword upon this country, commanding the sword to pass through the land cutting off from it man and beast,

¹⁸and these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord GOD, they would be unable to save either sons or daughters; they alone would be saved.

¹⁹Or if I were to send pestilence into this land, pouring out upon it my bloodthirsty fury, cutting off from it man and beast,

²⁰even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, says the Lord GOD, I swear that they could save neither son nor daughter; they would save only themselves by their virtue.

²¹Thus says the Lord GOD: Even though I send Jerusalem my four cruel punishments, the sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast,

²²still some survivors shall be left in it who will bring out sons and daughters; when they come out to you, you shall see their conduct and their actions and be consoled regarding the evil I have brought on Jerusalem (all that I have brought upon it).

²³They shall console you when you see their conduct and actions, for you shall then know that it was not without reason that I did to it what I did, says the Lord GOD.

15Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

²Son of man, what makes the wood of the vine better than any other wood? That branch among the trees of the forest!

³Can you use its wood to make anything worthwhile? Can you make even a peg from it, to hang on it any kind of vessel?

⁴If you throw it on the fire as fuel and the fire devours both ends and even the middle is scorched, is it still good for anything?

⁵Why, even when it was whole it was good for nothing; how much less, when the fire has devoured and scorched it, can it be used for anything!

⁶Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD: Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have destined as fuel for the fire, do I make the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

⁷I will set my face against them; they have escaped from the fire, but the fire shall devour them. Thus you shall know that I am the LORD, when I turn my face against them.

⁸I will make the land a waste, because they have broken faith, says the Lord GOD.

16Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

²Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations.

³Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem: By origin and birth you are of the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.

⁴As for your birth, the day you were born your navel cord was not cut; you were neither washed with water nor anointed, nor were you rubbed with salt, nor swathed in swaddling clothes.

⁵No one looked on you with pity or compassion to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out on the ground as something loathsome, the day you were born.

⁶Then I passed by and saw you weltering in your blood. I said to you: Live in your blood

⁷and grow like a plant in the field. You grew and developed, you came to the age of puberty; your breasts were formed, your hair had grown, but you were still stark naked.

⁸Again I passed by you and saw that you were now old enough for love. So I spread the corner of my cloak over you to cover your nakedness; I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you; you became mine, says the Lord GOD.

⁹Then I bathed you with water, washed away your blood, and anointed you with oil.

¹⁰I clothed you with an embroidered gown, put sandals of fine leather on your feet; I gave you a fine linen sash and silk robes to wear.

¹¹I adorned you with jewelry: I put bracelets on your arms, a necklace about your neck,

¹²a ring in your nose, pendants in your ears, and a glorious diadem upon your head.

¹³Thus you were adorned with gold and silver; your garments were of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. Fine flour, honey, and oil were your food. You were exceedingly beautiful, with the dignity of a queen.

¹⁴You were renowned among the nations for your beauty, perfect as it was, because of my splendor which I had bestowed on you, says the Lord GOD.

¹⁵But you were captivated by your own beauty, you used your renown to make yourself a harlot, and you lavished your harlotry on every passer-by, whose own you became.

¹⁶You took some of your gowns and made for yourself gaudy high places, where you played the harlot. . . .

¹⁷You took the splendid gold and silver ornaments that I had given you and made for yourself male images, with which also you played the harlot.

¹⁸You took your embroidered gowns to cover them; my oil and my incense you set before them;

¹⁹the food that I had given you, the fine flour, the oil, and the honey with which I fed you, you set before them as an appeasing odor, says the Lord GOD.

²⁰The sons and daughters you had borne me you took and offered as sacrifices to be devoured by them! Was it not enough that you had become a harlot?

²¹You slaughtered and immolated my children to them, making them pass through fire.

²²And through all your abominations and harlotries you remembered nothing of when you were a girl, stark naked and weltering in your blood.

²³Then after all your evildoing--woe, woe to you! says the Lord GOD--

²⁴you raised for yourself a platform and a dais in every public place.

²⁵At every street corner you built a dais for yourself to use your beauty obscenely, spreading your legs for every passer-by, playing the harlot countless times.

²⁶You played the harlot with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, so many times that I was provoked to anger.

²⁷Therefore I stretched out my hand against you, I diminished your allowance and delivered you over to the will of your enemies, the Philistines, who revolted at your lewd conduct.

²⁸You also played the harlot with the Assyrians, because you were not satisfied; and after playing the harlot with them, you were still not satisfied.

²⁹Again and again you played the harlot, now going to Chaldea, the land of the traders; but despite this, you were still not satisfied.

³⁰How wild your lust! says the Lord GOD, that you did all these things, acting like a shameless prostitute,

³¹building your platform at every street corner and erecting your dais in every public place! Yet you were unlike a prostitute, since you disdained payment.

³²The adulterous wife receives, instead of her husband, payment.

³³All harlots receive gifts. But you rather bestowed your gifts on all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from all sides for your harlotry.

³⁴Thus in your harlotry you were different from all other women. No one sought you out for prostitution. Since you gave payment instead of receiving it, how different you were!

³⁵Therefore, harlot, hear the word of the LORD!

³⁶Thus says the Lord GOD: Because you poured out your lust and revealed your nakedness in your harlotry with your lovers and abominable idols, and because you sacrificed the life-blood of your children to them,

³⁷I will now gather together all your lovers whom you tried to please, whether you loved them or loved them not; I will gather them against you from all sides and expose you naked for them to see.

³⁸I will inflict on you the sentence of adulteresses and murderesses; I will wreak fury and jealousy upon you.

³⁹I will hand you over to them to tear down your platform and demolish your dais; they shall strip you of your garments and take away your splendid ornaments, leaving you stark naked.

⁴⁰They shall lead an assembly against you to stone you and hack you with their swords.

⁴¹They shall burn your apartments with fire and inflict punishments on you while many women look on. Thus I will put an end to your harlotry, and you shall never again give payment.

⁴²When I have wreaked my fury upon you I will cease to be jealous of you, I will be quiet and no longer vexed.

⁴³Because you did not remember what happened when you were a girl, but enraged me with all these things, therefore in return I am bringing down your conduct upon your head, says the Lord GOD. For did you not add lewdness to the rest of your abominable deeds?

⁴⁴See, everyone who is fond of proverbs will say of you, 'Like mother, like daughter.'

⁴⁵Yes, you are the true daughter of the mother who spurned her husband and children, and you are a true sister to those who spurned their husbands and children--your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.

⁴⁶Your elder sister was Samaria with her daughters, living to the north of you; and your younger sister, living to the south of you, was Sodom with her daughters.

⁴⁷Yet not only in their ways did you walk, and act as abominably as they did; in a very short time you became more corrupt in all your ways than they.

⁴⁸As I live, says the Lord GOD, I swear that your sister Sodom, with her daughters, has not done as you and your daughters have done!

⁴⁹And look at the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters were proud, sated with food, complacent in their prosperity, and they gave no help to the poor and needy.

⁵⁰Rather, they became haughty and committed abominable crimes in my presence; then, as you have seen, I removed them.

⁵¹Samaria did not commit half your sins! You have done more abominable things than they, and have even made your sisters appear just, with all the abominable deeds you have done.

⁵²You, then, bear your shame; you are an argument in favor of your sisters! In view of your sinful deeds, more abominable than theirs, they appear just in comparison with you. Blush for shame, and bear the shame of having made your sisters appear just.

⁵³I will restore their fortunes, the fortune of Sodom and her daughters and of Samaria and her daughters (and I will restore your fortune along with them),

⁵⁴that you may bear your shame and be disgraced for all the comfort you brought them.

⁵⁵Yes, your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, Samaria and her daughters, shall return to their former state (you and your daughters shall return to your former state).

⁵⁶Was not your sister Sodom kept in bad repute by you while you felt proud of yourself,

⁵⁷before your wickedness became evident? Now you are like her, reproached by the Edomites and all your neighbors, despised on all sides by the Philistines.

⁵⁸The penalty of your lewdness and your abominations--you must bear it all, says the LORD.

⁵⁹For thus speaks the Lord GOD: I will deal with you according to what you have done, you who despised your oath, breaking a covenant.

⁶⁰Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you when you were a girl, and I will set up an everlasting covenant with you.

⁶¹Then you shall remember your conduct and be ashamed when I take your sisters, those older and younger than you, and give them to you as daughters, even though I am not bound by my covenant with you.

⁶²For I will re-establish my covenant with you, that you may know that I am the LORD,

⁶³that you may remember and be covered with confusion, and that you may be utterly silenced for shame when I pardon you for all you have done, says the Lord GOD.

17Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

²Son of man, propose a riddle, and speak this proverb to the house of Israel:

³Thus speaks the Lord GOD: The great eagle, with great wings, with long pinions, with thick plumage, many-hued, came to Lebanon. He took the crest of the cedar,

⁴tearing off its topmost branch, And brought it to a land of tradesmen, set it in a city of merchants.

⁵Then he took some seed of the land, and planted it in a seedbed; A shoot by plentiful waters, like a willow he placed it,

⁶To sprout and grow up a vine, dense and low-lying, Its branches turned toward him, its roots lying under him. Thus it became a vine, produced branches and put forth shoots.

⁷But there was another great eagle, great of wing, rich in plumage; To him this vine bent its roots, sent out its branches, That he might water it more freely than the bed where it was planted.

⁸In a fertile field by plentiful waters it was planted, to grow branches, bear fruit, and become a majestic vine.

⁹Say: Thus says the Lord GOD: Can it prosper? Will he not rather tear it out by the roots and strip off its fruit, so that all its green growth will wither when he pulls it up by the roots? (No need of a mighty arm or many people to do this.)

¹⁰True, it is planted, but will it prosper? Will it not rather wither, when touched by the east wind, in the bed where it grew?

¹¹Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

¹²Son of man, say now to the rebellious house: Do you not understand what this means? It is this: The king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and took away its king and princes with him to Babylon.

¹³Then he selected a man of the royal line with whom he made a covenant, binding him under oath, while removing the nobles of the land,

¹⁴so that the kingdom would remain a modest one, without aspirations, and would keep his covenant and obey him.

¹⁵But this man rebelled against him, sending envoys to Egypt to obtain horses and a great army. Can he prosper? Can he who does such things escape? Can he break a covenant and still go free?

¹⁶As I live, says the Lord GOD, in the home of the king who set him up to rule, whose oath he spurned, whose covenant with him he broke, there in Babylon I swear he shall die!

¹⁷When ramps are cast up and siege towers are built for the destruction of many lives, he shall not be saved in the conflict by Pharaoh with a great army and numerous troops.

¹⁸He spurned his oath, breaking his covenant. Though he gave his hand in pledge, he did all these things. He shall not escape!

¹⁹Therefore say: Thus says the Lord GOD: As I live, my oath which he spurned, my covenant which he broke, I swear to bring down upon his head.

²⁰I will spread my net over him, and he shall be taken in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon and enter into judgment with him there over his breaking faith with me.

²¹All the crack troops among his forces shall fall by the sword, and the survivors shall be scattered in every direction. Thus you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken.

²²Therefore say: Thus says the Lord GOD: I, too, will take from the crest of the cedar, from its topmost branches tear off a tender shoot, And plant it on a high and lofty mountain;

²³on the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it. It shall put forth branches and bear fruit, and become a majestic cedar. Birds of every kind shall dwell beneath it, every winged thing in the shade of its boughs.

²⁴And all the trees of the field shall know that I, the LORD, Bring low the high tree, lift high the lowly tree, Wither up the green tree, and make the withered tree bloom. As I, the LORD, have spoken, so will I do.

18Thus the word of the LORD came to me: Son of man,

²what is the meaning of this proverb that you recite in the land of Israel: "Fathers have eaten green grapes, thus their children's teeth are on edge"?

³As I live, says the Lord GOD: I swear that there shall no longer be anyone among you who will repeat this proverb in Israel.

⁴For all lives are mine; the life of the father is like the life of the son, both are mine; only the one who sins shall die.

⁵If a man is virtuous--if he does what is right and just,

⁶if he does not eat on the mountains, nor raise his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel; if he does not defile his neighbor's wife, nor have relations with a woman in her menstrual period;

⁷if he oppresses no one, gives back the pledge received for a debt, commits no robbery; if he gives food to the hungry and clothes the naked;

⁸if he does not lend at interest nor exact usury; if he holds off from evildoing, judges fairly between a man and his opponent;

⁹if he lives by my statutes and is careful to observe my ordinances, that man is virtuous--he shall surely live, says the Lord GOD.

¹⁰But if he begets a son who is a thief, a murderer, or who does any of these things

¹¹(though the father does none of them), a son who eats on the mountains, defiles the wife of his neighbor,

¹²oppresses the poor and needy, commits robbery, does not give back a pledge, raises his eyes to idols, does abominable things,

¹³lends at interest and exacts usury--this son certainly shall not live. Because he practiced all these abominations, he shall surely die; his death shall be his own fault.

¹⁴On the other hand, if a man begets a son who, seeing all the sins his father commits, yet fears and does not imitate him;

¹⁵a son who does not eat on the mountains, or raise his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, or defile his neighbor's wife;

¹⁶who does not oppress anyone, or exact a pledge, or commit robbery; who gives his food to the hungry and clothes the naked;

¹⁷who holds off from evildoing, accepts no interest or usury, but keeps my ordinances and lives by my statutes--this one shall not die for the sins of his father, but shall surely live.

¹⁸Only the father, since he violated rights, and robbed, and did what was not good among his people, shall in truth die for his sins.

¹⁹You ask: "Why is not the son charged with the guilt of his father?" Because the son has done what is right and just, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live.

²⁰Only the one who sins shall die. The son shall not be charged with the guilt of his father, nor shall the father be charged with the guilt of his son. The virtuous man's virtue shall be his own, as the wicked man's wickedness shall be his own.

²¹But if the wicked man turns away from all the sins he committed, if he keeps all my statutes and does what is right and just, he shall surely live, he shall not die.

²²None of the crimes he committed shall be remembered against him; he shall live because of the virtue he has practiced.

²³Do I indeed derive any pleasure from the death of the wicked? says the Lord GOD. Do I not rather rejoice when he turns from his evil way that he may live?

²⁴And if the virtuous man turns from the path of virtue to do evil, the same kind of abominable things that the wicked man does, can he do this and still live? None of his virtuous deeds shall be remembered, because he has broken faith and committed sin; because of this, he shall die.

²⁵You say, "The LORD'S way is not fair!" Hear now, house of Israel: Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair?

²⁶When a virtuous man turns away from virtue to commit iniquity, and dies, it is because of the iniquity he committed that he must die.

²⁷But if a wicked man, turning from the wickedness he has committed, does what is right and just, he shall preserve his life;

²⁸since he has turned away from all the sins which he committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.

²⁹And yet the house of Israel says, "The LORD'S way is not fair!" Is it my way that is not fair, house of Israel, or rather, is it not that your ways are not fair?

³⁰Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, each one according to his ways, says the Lord GOD. Turn and be converted from all your crimes, that they may be no cause of guilt for you.

³¹Cast away from you all the crimes you have committed, and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, O house of Israel?

³²For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies, says the Lord GOD. Return and live!

19As for you, son of man, raise a lamentation over the prince of Israel:

²What a lioness was your mother, a lion of lions! Among young lions she couched to rear her whelps.

³One whelp she raised up, a young lion he became; He learned to seize prey, men he devoured.

⁴Then nations raised cries against him, in their pit he was caught; They took him away with hooks to the land of Egypt.

⁵Then she saw that in vain she had waited, her hope was destroyed. She took another of her whelps, him she made a young lion.

⁶He prowled among the lions, a young lion he became; He learned to seize prey, men he devoured;

⁷He ravaged their strongholds, their cities he wasted. The land and all in it were appalled at the noise of his roar.

⁸Nations laid out against him snares all about him; They spread their net to take him, in their pit he was caught.

⁹They put him in a cage and took him away to the king of Babylon, So that his voice would not be heard on the mountains of Israel.

¹⁰Your mother was like a vine planted by the water; Fruitful and branchy was she because of the abundant water.

¹¹One strong branch she put out as a royal scepter. Stately was her height amid the dense foliage; Notably tall was she with her many clusters.

¹²But she was torn up in fury and flung to the ground; The east wind withered her up, her fruit was torn off; Then her strong branch withered up, fire devoured it.

¹³So now she is planted in the desert, in a land dry and parched,

¹⁴For fire came out of the branch and devoured her shoots; She is now without a strong branch, a ruler's scepter. This is a lamentation and serves as a lamentation.

20In the seventh year, on the tenth day of the fifth month, some of the elders of Israel came to consult the LORD and sat down before me.

²Then the word of the LORD came to me:

³Son of man, speak with the elders of Israel and say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD: Have you come to consult me? As I live! I swear I will not allow myself to be consulted by you, says the Lord GOD.

⁴Will you judge them? Will you judge, son of man? Make known to them the abominations of their ancestors

⁵in these words: Thus speaks the Lord GOD: The day I chose Israel, I swore to the descendants of the house of Jacob; in the land of Egypt I revealed myself to them and swore: I am the LORD, your God.

⁶That day I swore to bring them out of the land of Egypt to the land I had scouted for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, a jewel among all lands.

⁷Then I said to them: Throw away, each of you, the detestable things that have held your eyes; do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the LORD, your God.

⁸But they rebelled against me and refused to listen to me; none of them threw away the detestable things that had held their eyes, they did not abandon the idols of Egypt. Then I thought of pouring out my fury on them and spending my anger on them there in the land of Egypt;

⁹but I acted for my name's sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they were, in whose presence I had made myself known to them, revealing that I would bring them out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁰Therefore I led them out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the desert.

¹¹Then I gave them my statutes and made known to them my ordinances, which everyone must keep, to have life through them.

¹²I also gave them my sabbaths to be a sign between me and them, to show that it was I, the LORD, who made them holy.

¹³But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the desert. They did not observe my statutes, and they despised my ordinances that bring life to those who keep them. My sabbaths, too, they desecrated grievously. Then I thought of pouring out my fury on them in the desert to put an end to them,

¹⁴but I acted for my name's sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations in whose presence I had brought them out.

¹⁵Nevertheless I swore to them in the desert not to bring them to the land I had given them, a land flowing with milk and honey, a jewel among all lands.

¹⁶So much were their hearts devoted to their idols, they had not lived by my statutes, but despised my ordinances and desecrated my sabbaths.

¹⁷But I looked on them with pity, not wanting to destroy them, so I did not put an end to them in the desert.

¹⁸Then I said to their children in the desert: Do not observe the statutes of your parents or keep their ordinances; do not defile yourselves with their idols.

¹⁹I am the LORD, your God: observe my statutes and be careful to keep my ordinances;

²⁰keep holy my sabbaths, as a sign between me and you to show that I am the LORD, your God.

²¹But their children rebelled against me: they did not observe my statutes or keep my ordinances that bring life to those who observe them, and my sabbaths they desecrated. Then I thought of pouring out my fury on them, of spending my anger on them in the desert;

²²but I stayed my hand, acting for my name's sake, lest it be profaned in the sight of the nations in whose presence I brought them out.

²³Nevertheless I swore to them in the desert that I would disperse them among the nations and scatter them over foreign lands;

²⁴for they did not keep my ordinances, but despised my statutes and desecrated my sabbaths, with eyes only for the idols of their fathers.

²⁵Therefore I gave them statutes that were not good, and ordinances through which they could not live.

²⁶I let them become defiled by their gifts, by their immolation of every first-born, so as to make them an object of horror.

²⁷Therefore speak to the house of Israel, son of man, and tell them: Thus says the Lord GOD: In this way also your fathers blasphemed me, breaking faith with me:

²⁸when I had brought them to the land I had sworn to give them, and they saw all its high hills and leafy trees, there they offered their sacrifices (there they brought their offensive offerings), there they sent up appeasing odors, and there they poured out their libations.

²⁹I asked them: To what sort of high place do you betake yourselves?--and so they call it a high place even to the present day.

³⁰Therefore say to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord GOD: Will you defile yourselves like your fathers? Will you lust after their detestable idols?

³¹By offering your gifts, by making your children pass through the fire, you defile yourselves with all your idols even to this day. Shall I let myself be consulted by you, house of Israel? As I live! says the Lord GOD: I swear I will not let myself be consulted by you.

³²What you are thinking of shall never happen: "We shall be like the nations, like the peoples of foreign lands, serving wood and stone."

³³As I live, says the Lord GOD, with a mighty hand and outstretched arm, with poured-out wrath, I swear I will be king over you!

³⁴With a mighty hand and outstretched arm, with poured-out wrath, I will bring you out from the nations and gather you from the countries over which you are scattered;

³⁵then I will lead you to the desert of the peoples, where I will enter into judgment with you face to face.

³⁶Just as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the desert of the land of Egypt, so will I enter into judgment with you, says the Lord GOD.

³⁷I will count you with the staff and bring back but a small number.

³⁸I will separate from you those who have rebelled and transgressed against me; from the land where they sojourned as aliens I will bring them out, but they shall not return to the land of Israel. Thus you shall know that I am the LORD.

³⁹As for you, house of Israel, thus says the Lord GOD: Come, each one of you, destroy your idols! Then listen to me, and never again profane my holy name with your gifts and your idols.

⁴⁰For on my holy mountain, on the mountain height of Israel, says the Lord GOD, there the whole house of Israel without exception shall worship me; there I will accept them, and there I will claim your tributes and the first fruits of your offerings, and all that you dedicate.

⁴¹As a pleasing odor I will accept you, when I have brought you from among the nations and gathered you out of the countries over which you were scattered; and by means of you I will manifest my holiness in the sight of the nations.

⁴²Thus you shall know that I am the LORD, when I bring you back to the land of Israel, the land which I swore to give to your fathers.

⁴³There you shall recall your conduct and all the deeds by which you defiled yourselves; and you shall loathe yourselves because of all the evil things you did.

⁴⁴And you shall know that I am the LORD when I deal with you thus, for my name's sake, and not according to your evil conduct and corrupt actions, O house of Israel, says the Lord GOD.

21Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

²Son of man, look southward, preach toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the southern land.

³Hear the word of the LORD! you shall say to the southern forest. Thus says the Lord GOD: See! I am kindling a fire in you that shall devour all trees, the green as well as the dry. The blazing flame shall not be quenched, but from south to north every face shall be scorched by it.

⁴Everyone shall see that I, the LORD, have kindled it, and it shall not be quenched.

⁵But I said, "Alas! Lord GOD, they say to me, 'Is not this the one who is forever spinning parables?'"

⁶Then the word of the LORD came to me:

⁷Son of man, look toward Jerusalem, preach against their sanctuary, and prophesy against the land of Israel,

⁸saying to the land of Israel: Thus says the LORD: See! I am coming at you; I will draw my sword from its sheath and cut off from you the virtuous and the wicked.

⁹Thus my sword shall leave its sheath against everyone from south to north,

¹⁰and everyone shall know that I, the LORD, have drawn my sword from its sheath, and it shall not be sheathed again.

¹¹As for you, son of man, groan! with shattered strength groan bitterly while they look on.

¹²And when they ask you, "Why are you groaning?", you shall say: Because of a report; when it comes every heart shall fail, every hand shall fall helpless, every spirit shall be daunted, and every knee shall run with water. See, it is coming, it is here! says the Lord GOD.

¹³Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

¹⁴Son of man, prophesy! say: Thus says the LORD: A sword, a sword has been sharpened, a sword, a sword has been burnished:

¹⁵To work slaughter has it been sharpened, to flash lightning has it been burnished. Why should I now withdraw it? You have spurned the rod and every judgment!

¹⁶I have given it over to the burnisher that he might hold it in his hand, A sword sharpened and burnished to be put in the hand of a slayer.

¹⁷Cry out and wail, son of man, for it is destined for my people; It is for all the princes of Israel, victims of the sword with my people. Therefore, slap your thigh,

¹⁸for the sword has been tested; and why should it not be so? says the Lord GOD, since you have spurned the rod.

¹⁹As for you, son of man, prophesy, brushing one hand against the other: While the sword is doubled and tripled, this sword of slaughter, This great sword of slaughter which threatens all around,

²⁰That every heart may tremble; for many will be the fallen. At all their gates I have appointed the sword for slaughter, Fashioned to flash lightning, burnished for slaughter.

²¹Cleave to the right! destroy! to the left! wherever your edge is turned.

²²Then I, too, shall brush one hand against the other and wreak my fury. I, the LORD, have spoken.

²³Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

²⁴Son of man, make for yourself two roads over which the sword of the king of Babylon can come. Both roads shall lead out from the same land. Then put a signpost at the head of each road,

²⁵so that the sword can come to Rabbah of the Ammonites or to Judah's capital, Jerusalem.

²⁶For at the fork where the two roads divide stands the king of Babylon, divining; he has shaken the arrows, inquired of the teraphim, inspected the liver.

²⁷In his right hand is the divining arrow marked "Jerusalem," bidding him to give the order for slaying, to raise his voice in the battle cry, to post battering rams at the gates, to cast up a ramp, to build a siege tower.

²⁸In their eyes this is but a lying oracle; yet they are bound by the oaths they have sworn, and the arrow taken in hand marks their guilt.

²⁹Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have drawn attention to your guilt, with your crimes laid bare and your sinfulness in all your wicked deeds revealed (because attention has been drawn to you), you shall be taken in hand.

³⁰And as for you, depraved and wicked prince of Israel, whose day is coming when your life of crime will be ended,

³¹thus says the Lord GOD: Off with the turban and away with the crown! Nothing shall be as it was! Up with the low and down with the high!

³²Twisted, twisted, twisted will I leave it; it shall not be the same until he comes who has the claim against the city; and to him I will hand it over.

³³As for you, son of man, prophesy: Thus says the Lord GOD against the Ammonites and their insults: A sword, a sword is drawn for slaughter, burnished to consume and to flash lightning,

³⁴because you planned with false visions and lying divinations to lay it on the necks of depraved and wicked men whose day has come when their crimes are at an end.

³⁵Return it to its sheath! In the place where you were created, in the land of your origin, I will judge you.

³⁶I will pour out my indignation upon you, breathing my fiery wrath upon you, I will hand you over to ravaging men, artisans of destruction.

³⁷You shall be fuel for the fire, your blood shall flow throughout the land. You shall not be remembered, for I, the LORD, have spoken.

22Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

²You, son of man, would you judge, would you judge the bloody city? Then make known all her abominations,

³and say: Thus says the Lord GOD: Woe to the city which sheds blood within herself so that her time has come, and which has made idols for her own defilement.

⁴By the blood which you shed you have been made guilty, and with the idols you made you have become defiled; you have brought on your day, so that the end of your years has come. Therefore I make you an object of scorn to the nations and a laughingstock to all foreign lands.

⁵Those near you and those far off shall deride you because of your foul reputation and your great perversity.

⁶See! the princes of Israel, family by family, are in you only for bloodshed.

⁷Within you, father and mother are despised; in your midst, they extort from the resident alien; within you, they oppress orphans and widows.

⁸What is holy to me you have spurned, and my sabbaths you have desecrated.

⁹There are those in you who slander to cause bloodshed; within you are those who feast on the mountains; in your midst are those who do lewd things.

¹⁰In you are those who uncover the nakedness of their fathers, and in you those who coerce women in their menstrual period.

¹¹There are those in you who do abominable things with the wives of their neighbors, men who defile their daughters-in-law by incest, men who coerce their sisters, the daughters of their own fathers.

¹²There are those in you who take bribes to shed blood. You exact interest and usury; you despoil your neighbors violently; and me you have forgotten, says the Lord GOD.

¹³See, I am brushing one hand against the other because of the unjust profits you have made and because of the blood shed in your midst.

¹⁴Can your heart remain firm, will your hands be strong, in the days when I deal with you? I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will act.

¹⁵I will disperse you among the nations and scatter you over foreign lands, so that I may purge your uncleanness.

¹⁶In you I will allow myself to be profaned in the eyes of the nations; thus you shall know that I am the LORD.

¹⁷Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

¹⁸Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross for me. All of them are bronze and tin, iron and lead (in the midst of a furnace): dross from silver have they become.

¹⁹Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because all of you have become dross, therefore I must gather you together within Jerusalem.

²⁰Just as silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin are gathered into a furnace and smelted in the roaring flames, so I will gather you together in my furious wrath, put you in, and smelt you.

²¹When I have assembled you, I will blast you with the fire of my anger and smelt you with it.

²²You shall be smelted by it just as silver is smelted in a furnace. Thus you shall know that I, the LORD, have poured out my fury on you.

²³Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

²⁴Son of man, say to her: You are a land unrained on (that is, not rained on) at the time of my fury.

²⁵Her princes are like roaring lions that tear prey; they devour people, seizing their wealth and precious things, and make widows of many within her.

²⁶Her priests violate my law and profane what is holy to me; they do not distinguish between the sacred and the profane, nor teach the difference between the unclean and the clean; they pay no attention to my sabbaths, so that I have been profaned in their midst.

²⁷Her nobles within her are like wolves that tear prey, shedding blood and destroying lives to get unjust gain.

²⁸Her prophets cover them with whitewash, pretending to visions that are false and performing lying divinations, saying, "Thus says the Lord GOD," although the LORD has not spoken.

²⁹The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they afflict the poor and the needy, and oppress the resident alien without justice.

³⁰Thus I have searched among them for someone who could build a wall or stand in the breach before me to keep me from destroying the land; but I found no one.

³¹Therefore I have poured out my fury upon them; with my fiery wrath I have consumed them; I have brought down their conduct upon their heads, says the Lord GOD.

23Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

²Son of man, there were two women, daughters of the same mother,

³who even as young girls played the harlot in Egypt. There the Egyptians caressed their bosoms and fondled their virginal breasts.

⁴Oholah was the name of the elder, and the name of her sister was Oholibah. They became mine and bore sons and daughters. (As for their names: Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem is Oholibah.)

⁵Oholah became a harlot faithless to me; she lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians, warriors

⁶dressed in purple, governors and officers, all of them attractive young men, knights mounted on horses.

⁷Thus she gave herself as a harlot to them, to all the elite of the Assyrians, and she defiled herself with all those for whom she lusted (with all their idols).

⁸She did not give up the harlotry which she had begun in Egypt, when they had lain with her as a young girl, fondling her virginal breasts and pouring out their impurities on her.

⁹Therefore I handed her over to her lovers, the Assyrians for whom she had lusted.

¹⁰They exposed her nakedness, her sons and daughters they took away, and herself they slew with the sword. Thus she became a byword for women, for they punished her grievously.

¹¹Though her sister Oholibah saw all this, her lust was more depraved than her sister's, and she outdid her in harlotry.

¹²She too lusted after the Assyrians, governors and officers, warriors impeccably clothed, knights mounted on horses, all of them attractive young men.

¹³I saw that she had defiled herself. Both had gone down the same path,

¹⁴yet she went further in her harlotry. When she saw men drawn on the wall, the images of Chaldeans drawn with vermillion,

¹⁵with sashes girded about their waists, flowing turbans on their heads, all looking like chariot warriors, the portraits of Babylonians, natives of Chaldea,

¹⁶she lusted for them; no sooner had she set eyes on them than she sent messengers to them in Chaldea.

¹⁷Then the Babylonians came to her, to the love couch, and defiled her with their intercourse. As soon as she was defiled by them, she became disgusted with them.

¹⁸Her harlotry was discovered and her shame was revealed, and I became disgusted with her as I had become disgusted with her sister.

¹⁹But she played the harlot all the more, recalling the days of her girlhood, when she had been a harlot in the land of Egypt.

²⁰She lusted for the lechers of Egypt, whose members are like that of an ass, and whose heat is like that of stallions.

²¹You yearned for the lewdness of your girlhood, when the Egyptians fondled your breasts, caressing your bosom.

²²Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord GOD: I will now stir up your lovers against you, those with whom you are disgusted, and I will bring them against you from every side:

²³the men of Babylon and all of Chaldea, Pekod, Shoa and Koa, along with all those of Assyria, attractive young men, all of them governors and officers, charioteers and warriors, all of them horsemen.

²⁴They shall come against you from the north with chariots and wagons and many peoples. Shields, bucklers, and helmets they shall array against you everywhere.

²⁵I will leave it to them to judge, and they will judge you by their own ordinances. I will let loose my jealousy against you, so that they shall deal with you in fury, cutting off your nose and ears; and what is left of you shall fall by the sword. They shall take away your sons and daughters, and what is left of you shall be devoured by fire.

²⁶They shall strip off your clothes and seize your splendid ornaments.

²⁷I will put an end to your lewdness and to the harlotry you began in Egypt; you shall no longer look toward it, nor shall you remember Egypt again.

²⁸For thus says the Lord GOD: I am now handing you over to those whom you hate, to those who fill you with disgust.

²⁹They shall deal with you in hatred, seizing all that you have worked for and leaving you stark naked, so that your indecent nakedness is exposed. Your lewdness and harlotry

³⁰have brought these things upon you, because you played the harlot with the nations by defiling yourself with their idols.

³¹Because you followed in the path of your sister, I will hand you her cup.

³²Thus says the Lord GOD: The cup of your sister you shall drink, so wide and deep, which holds so much,

³³Filled with destruction and grief, a cup of dismay, the cup of your sister.

³⁴You shall drain it dry, and gnaw at the very sherds of the cup, and you shall tear out your breasts; for I have spoken, says the Lord GOD.

³⁵Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back, it is for you to bear the penalty of your lewdness and harlotry.

³⁶Then the LORD said to me: Son of man, would you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then make known to them their abominations.

³⁷For they committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. They committed adultery with their idols; to feed them they immolated the children they had borne me.

³⁸(This, too, they did to me: they defiled my sanctuary and desecrated my sabbaths.

³⁹On the very day they slew their children for their idols, they entered my sanctuary to desecrate it. Thus they acted within my house.)

⁴⁰Moreover, they sent for men who had to come from afar, to whom messengers were sent. And so they came--and for them you bathed yourself, painted your eyes, and put on ornaments.

⁴¹You sat on a couch prepared for them, with a table spread before it, on which you had set my incense and oil.

⁴²Then was heard the shout of a carefree mob in the city, and these were men brought in from the desert, who put bracelets on the women's arms and splendid diadems on their heads.

⁴³So I said: "Oh, this woman jaded with adulteries! Now they will commit whoredom with her, and as for her. . . ."

⁴⁴And indeed they did come to her as men come to a harlot. Thus they came to Oholah and Oholibah, the lewd women.

⁴⁵But just men shall punish them with the sentence meted out to adulteresses and murderesses, for they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands.

⁴⁶Thus says the Lord GOD: Summon an assembly against them, and deliver them over to terror and plunder.

⁴⁷The assembly shall stone them and hack them to pieces with their swords. They shall slay their sons and daughters, and burn their houses with fire.

⁴⁸Thus I will put an end to lewdness in the land, and all the women will be warned not to imitate your lewdness.

⁴⁹They shall inflict on you the penalty of your lewdness, and you shall pay for your sins of idolatry. Thus you shall know that I am the LORD.

24On the tenth day of the tenth month, in the ninth year, the word of the LORD came to me:

²Son of man, write down this date today, for this very day the king of Babylon has invested Jerusalem.

³Propose this parable to the rebellious house: Thus says the Lord GOD: Set up the pot, set it up, then pour in some water.

⁴Put in it pieces of meat, all good pieces: thigh and shoulder; Fill it with the choicest joints

⁵taken from the pick of the flock. Then pile the wood beneath it; bring to a boil these pieces and the joints that are in it.

⁶Take out its pieces, one by one, without casting lots for it. Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD: Woe to the bloody city, a pot containing rust, whose rust has not been removed.

⁷For the blood she shed is in her midst; she poured it on the bare rock; she did not pour it out on the earth, to be covered with dust.

⁸To work up my wrath, to excite my vengeance, she put her blood on the bare rock, not to be covered.

⁹Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD: I, too, will heap up a great bonfire,

¹⁰piling on wood and kindling the fire, Till the meat has been cooked, till the broth has boiled.

¹¹Then I will set the pot empty on the coals till its metal glows red hot, till the impurities in it melt, and its rust disappears.

¹²Yet not even with fire will its great rust be removed.

¹³Because you have sullied yourself with lewdness when I would have purified you, and you refused to be purified of your uncleanness, therefore you shall not be purified until I wreak my fury on you.

¹⁴I, the LORD, have spoken; it is coming, for I will bring it about without fail. I will not have pity nor repent. By your conduct and your deeds you shall be judged, says the Lord GOD.

¹⁵Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

¹⁶Son of man, by a sudden blow I am taking away from you the delight of your eyes, but do not mourn or weep or shed any tears.

¹⁷Groan in silence, make no lament for the dead, bind on your turban, put your sandals on your feet, do not cover your beard, and do not eat the customary bread.

¹⁸That evening my wife died, and the next morning I did as I had been commanded.

¹⁹Then the people asked me, "Will you not tell us what all these things that you are doing mean for us?" I therefore spoke to the people that morning,

²⁰saying to them: Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

²¹Say to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord GOD: I will now desecrate my sanctuary, the stronghold of your pride, the delight of your eyes, the desire of your soul. The sons and daughters you left behind shall fall by the sword.

²²You shall do as I have done, not covering your beards nor eating the customary bread.

²³Your turbans shall remain on your heads, your sandals on your feet. You shall not mourn or weep, but you shall rot away because of your sins and groan one to another.

²⁴Ezekiel shall be a sign for you: all that he did you shall do when it happens. Thus you shall know that I am the LORD.

²⁵As for you, son of man, truly, on the day I take away from them their bulwark, their glorious joy, the delight of their eyes, the desire of their soul, and the pride of their hearts, their sons and daughters,

²⁶that day the fugitive will come to you, that you may hear it for yourself;

²⁷that day your mouth shall be opened and you shall be dumb no longer. Thus you shall be a sign to them, and they shall know that I am the LORD.

25Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

²Son of man, turn toward the Ammonites and prophesy against them.

³Say to the Ammonites: Hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the Lord GOD: Because you cried out your joy over the desecration of my sanctuary, the devastation of the land of Israel, and the exile of the house of Judah,

⁴therefore I will deliver you into the possession of the Easterners. They shall set up their encampments among you and pitch their tents; they shall eat your fruits and drink your milk.

⁵I will make Rabbah a pasture for camels, and the villages of the Ammonites a resting place for flocks. Thus you shall know that I am the LORD.

⁶For thus says the Lord GOD: Because you clapped your hands and stamped your feet, rejoicing most maliciously in your heart over the land of Israel,

⁷therefore I will stretch out my hand against you. I will make you plunder for the nations, I will cut you off from the peoples, and remove you from the lands. I will destroy you, and thus you shall know that I am the LORD.

⁸Thus says the Lord GOD: Because Moab said, "See! the house of Judah is like all other nations,"

⁹therefore I will clear the shoulder of Moab totally of its cities, the jewels of the land: Beth-jesimoth, Baalmeon, and Kiriathaim.

¹⁰I will hand her over, along with the Ammonites, into the possession of the Easterners, that she may not be remembered among the peoples.

¹¹Thus I will execute judgment upon Moab, that they may know that I am the LORD.

¹²Thus says the Lord GOD: Because Edom has taken vengeance on the house of Judah and has made itself grievously guilty by taking vengeance on them,

¹³therefore thus says the Lord GOD: I will stretch out my hand against Edom and cut off from it man and beast. I will make it a waste from Teman to Dedan; they shall fall by the sword.

¹⁴My vengeance upon Edom I will entrust to my people Israel, who will deal with Edom in accordance with my anger and my fury; thus they shall know my vengeance, says the Lord GOD.

¹⁵Thus says the Lord GOD: Because the Philistines have acted revengefully, and have taken vengeance with destructive malice in their hearts, with an undying enmity,

¹⁶therefore thus says the Lord GOD: See! I am stretching out my hand against the Philistines; I will cut off the Cherethites and wipe out the remnant on the seacoast.

¹⁷I will execute great acts of vengeance on them, punishing them furiously. Thus they shall know that I am the LORD, when I wreak my vengeance on them.

26On the first day of the. . . month in the eleventh year, the word of the LORD came to me:

²Son of man, because of what Tyre said of Jerusalem: "Aha! it is broken, the gateway to the peoples; now that it is ruined, its wealth reverts to me!"

³therefore thus says the Lord GOD: See! I am coming at you, Tyre; I will churn up against you many nations, even as the sea churns up its waves;

⁴They shall destroy the walls of Tyre and raze her towers. I will scrape the ground from her and leave her a bare rock;

⁵She shall be a drying place for nets in the midst of the sea. I have spoken, says the Lord GOD: and she shall be booty for the nations.

⁶And her daughters on the mainland shall be slaughtered by the sword; thus they shall know that I am the LORD.

⁷For thus says the Lord GOD: I am now bringing up against Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, the king of kings, with horses and chariots, with cavalry and a great and mighty army.

⁸Your daughters on the mainland he shall slay with the sword; He shall place a siege tower against you, cast up a ramp about you, and raise his shields against you.

⁹He shall pound your walls with battering-rams and break down your towers with his weapons.

¹⁰The surge of his horses shall cover you with dust, amid the noise of steeds, of wheels and of chariots. Your walls shall shake as he enters your gates, even as one enters a city that is breached.

¹¹With the hoofs of his horses he shall trample all your streets; Your people he shall slay by the sword; your mighty pillars he shall pull to the ground.

¹²Your wealth shall be plundered, your merchandise pillaged; Your walls shall be torn down, your precious houses demolished; Your stones, your timber, and your clay shall be cast into the sea.

¹³I will put an end to the noise of your songs, and the sound of your lyres shall be heard no more.

¹⁴I will make you a bare rock; a drying place for nets shall you be. Never shall you be rebuilt, for I have spoken, says the Lord GOD.

¹⁵Thus says the Lord GOD to Tyre: At the noise of your fall, at the groaning of the wounded, when the sword slays in your midst, shall not the isles quake?

¹⁶All the princes of the sea shall step down from their thrones, lay aside their robes, and strip off their embroidered garments. They shall be clothed in mourning and, sitting on the ground, they shall tremble at every moment and be horrified at you.

¹⁷Then they shall utter a lament over you: How have you perished, gone from the seas, city most prized! Once she was mighty on the sea, she and her dwellers, Who spread terror into all that dwelt by the sea.

¹⁸On this, the day of your fall, the islands quake! The isles in the sea are terrified at your passing.

¹⁹For thus says the Lord GOD: When I make you a city desolate like cities that are no longer inhabited, when I churn up the abyss against you, and its mighty waters cover you,

²⁰then I will thrust you down with those who descend into the pit, those of the bygone age; and I will make you dwell in the nether lands, in the everlasting ruins, with those who go down to the pit, so that you may never return to take your place in the land of the living.

²¹I will make you a devastation, and you shall be no more; you shall be sought, but never again found, says the Lord GOD.

27Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

²As for you, son of man, utter a lament over Tyre,

³and say to Tyre that is situated at the approaches of the sea, that brought the trade of the peoples to many a coastland: Thus says the Lord GOD: Tyre, you said, "I am a ship, perfect in beauty."

⁴In the midst of the sea your builders placed you, perfected your beauty.

⁵With cypress from Senir they built for you all of your decks; Cedar from Lebanon they took to make you a mast;

⁶From the highest oaks of Bashan they made your oars; Your bridge they made of cypress wood from the coasts of Kittim.

⁷Fine embroidered linen from Egypt became your sail (to serve you as a banner). Purple and scarlet from the coasts of Elishah covered your cabin.

⁸Citizens of Sidon and Arvad served as your oarsmen; Skilled men of Zemer were in you to be your mariners;

⁹The elders and experts of Gebal were in you to caulk your seams. Every ship and sailor on the sea came to you to carry trade.

¹⁰Persia and Lud and Put were in your army as warriors; shield and helmet they hung upon you, increasing your splendor.

¹¹The men of Arvad were all about your walls, and the Gamadites were in your towers; they hung their bucklers all around on your walls, and made perfect your beauty.

¹²Tarshish traded with you, so great was your wealth, exchanging silver, iron, tin, and lead for your wares.

¹³Javan, Tubal, and Meshech were also traders with you, exchanging slaves and articles of bronze for your goods.

¹⁴From Beth-togarmah horses, steeds, and mules were exchanged for your wares.

¹⁵The Rhodanites trafficked with you; many coastlands traded with you; ivory tusks and ebony wood they gave you for payment.

¹⁶Edom traded with you, so many were your products, exchanging garnets, purple, embroidered cloth, fine linen, coral, and rubies for your wares.

¹⁷Judah and the land of Israel trafficked with you, exchanging Minnith wheat, figs, honey, oil, and balm for your goods.

¹⁸Damascus traded with you, so great was your wealth, exchanging Helbon wine and Zahar wool.

¹⁹Javan exchanged wrought iron, cassia, and aromatic cane from Uzal for your wares.

²⁰Dedan traded with you for riding gear.

²¹The trade of Arabia and of all the sheikhs of Kedar belonged to you; they dealt in lambs, rams, and goats.

²²The merchants of Sheba and Raamah also traded with you, exchanging for your wares the very choicest spices, all kinds of precious stones, and gold.

²³Haran, Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad

²⁴traded with you, marketing with you rich garments, violet mantles, embroidered cloth, varicolored carpets, and firmly woven cords.

²⁵Ships of Tarshish journeyed for you in your merchandising. You were full and heavily laden in the heart of the sea.

²⁶Through the deep waters your oarsmen brought you home, But the east wind smashed you in the heart of the sea.

²⁷Your wealth, your goods, your wares, your sailors, and your crew, (the caulkers of your seams, those who traded for your goods, all your warriors who were in you, and all the great crowd within you) Sank into the heart of the sea on the day of your shipwreck.

²⁸Hearing the shouts of your mariners, the shores begin to quake.

²⁹Down from their ships come all who ply the oar; The sailors, all the mariners of the sea, stand on the shore,

³⁰Making their voice heard on your behalf, shouting bitter cries, Strewing dust on their heads, rolling in the ashes.

³¹For you they shave their heads and put on sackcloth, For you they weep in anguish, with bitter lament.

³²In their mourning they utter a lament over you; thus they wail over you: Who was ever destroyed like Tyre in the midst of the sea?

³³With your goods which you drew from the seas you filled many peoples; With your great wealth and merchandise you enriched the kings of the earth.

³⁴Now you are wrecked in the sea, in the watery depths; Your wares and all your crew have gone down with you.

³⁵All who dwell on the coastlands are aghast over you, Their kings are terrified, their faces convulsed.

³⁶The traders among the peoples now hiss at you; You have become a horror, and you shall be no more.

28Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

²Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre: Thus says the Lord GOD: Because you are haughty of heart, you say, "A god am I! I occupy a godly throne in the heart of the sea!"-- And yet you are a man, and not a god, however you may think yourself like a god.

³Oh yes, you are wiser than Daniel, there is no secret that is beyond you.

⁴By your wisdom and your intelligence you have made riches for yourself; You have put gold and silver into your treasuries.

⁵By your great wisdom applied to your trading you have heaped up your riches; your heart has grown haughty from your riches--

⁶therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have thought yourself to have the mind of a god,

⁷Therefore I will bring against you foreigners, the most barbarous of nations. They shall draw their swords against your beauteous wisdom, they shall run them through your splendid apparel.

⁸They shall thrust you down to the pit, there to die a bloodied corpse, in the heart of the sea.

⁹Will you then say, "I am a god!" when you face your murderers? No, you are a man, not a god, handed over to those who will slay you.

¹⁰You shall die the death of the uncircumcised at the hands of foreigners, for I have spoken, says the Lord GOD.

¹¹Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

¹²Son of man, utter a lament over the king of Tyre, saying to him: Thus says the Lord GOD: You were stamped with the seal of perfection, of complete wisdom and perfect beauty.

¹³In Eden, the garden of God, you were, and every precious stone was your covering (carnelian, topaz, and beryl, chrysolite, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, garnet, and emerald); Of gold your pendants and jewels were made, on the day you were created.

¹⁴With the Cherub I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God, walking among the fiery stones.

¹⁵Blameless you were in your conduct from the day you were created, Until evil was found in you,

¹⁶the result of your far-flung trade; violence was your business, and you sinned. Then I banned you from the mountain of God; the Cherub drove you from among the fiery stones.

¹⁷You became haughty of heart because of your beauty; for the sake of splendor you debased your wisdom. I cast you to the earth, so great was your guilt; I made you a spectacle in the sight of kings.

¹⁸Because of your guilt, your sinful trade, I have profaned your sanctuaries, And I have brought out fire from your midst which will devour you. I have reduced you to dust on the earth in the sight of all who should see you.

¹⁹Among the peoples, all who knew you stand aghast at you; You have become a horror, you shall be no more.

²⁰Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

²¹Son of man, look toward Sidon, and prophesy against it:

²²Thus says the Lord GOD: See! I am coming at you, Sidon; I will be glorified in your midst. Then they shall know that I am the LORD, when I inflict punishments upon it and use it to manifest my holiness.

²³Into it I will send pestilence, and blood shall flow in its streets. Within it shall fall those slain by the sword that comes against it from every side. Thus they shall know that I am the LORD.

²⁴Sidon shall no longer be a tearing thorn for the house of Israel, a brier that scratches them more than all the others about them who despise them; thus they shall know that I am the LORD.

²⁵Thus says the Lord GOD: When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, then I will manifest my holiness through them in the sight of the nations. Then they shall live on their land which I gave to my servant Jacob;

²⁶they shall live on it in security, building houses and planting vineyards. They shall dwell secure while I inflict punishments on all their neighbors who despised them; thus they shall know that I, the LORD, am their God.

29On the twelfth day of the tenth month in the tenth year, the word of the LORD came to me:

²Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt.

³Say this to him: Thus says the Lord GOD: See! I am coming at you, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, Great crouching monster amidst your Niles: Who say, "The Niles are mine; it is I who made them!"

⁴I will put hooks in your jaws and make the fish of your Niles stick to your scales, then draw you up from the midst of your Niles along with all the fish of your Niles sticking to your scales.

⁵I will cast you into the desert, you and all the fish of your Niles; You shall fall upon the open field, you shall not be taken up or buried; To the beasts of the earth and the birds of the air I give you as food,

⁶That all who dwell in Egypt may know that I am the LORD. Because you have been a reed staff for the house of Israel:

⁷When they held you in hand, you splintered, throwing every shoulder out of joint; When they leaned on you, you broke, bringing each one of them down headlong;

⁸therefore thus says the Lord GOD: See! I will bring the sword against you, and cut off from you both man and beast.

⁹The land of Egypt shall become a desolate waste; thus they shall know that I am the LORD. Because you said, "The Niles are mine; it is I who made them,"

¹⁰therefore see! I am coming at you and against your Niles; I will make the land of Egypt a waste and a desolation from Migdol to Syene, and even to the frontier of Ethiopia.

¹¹No foot of man or beast shall pass through it; they shall not pass through it, and it will be uninhabited for forty years.

¹²I will make the land of Egypt the most desolate of lands, and its cities shall be the most deserted of cities for forty years; and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and strew them over foreign lands.

¹³Yet thus says the Lord GOD: At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples among whom they are scattered,

¹⁴and I will restore Egypt's fortune, bringing them back to the land of Pathros, the land of their origin, where it will be the lowliest

¹⁵of kingdoms, never more to set itself above the nations. I will make them few, that they may not dominate the nations.

¹⁶No longer shall they be for the house of Israel to trust in, but the living reminder of its guilt for having turned to follow after them. Thus they shall know that I am the LORD.

¹⁷On the first day of the first month in the twenty-seventh year, the word of the LORD came to me:

¹⁸Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, has led his army in an exhausting campaign against Tyre. Their heads became bald and their shoulders were galled; but neither he nor his army received any wages from Tyre for the campaign he led against it.

¹⁹Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: I am now giving the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. He shall carry off its riches, plundering and pillaging it for the wages of his soldiers, who did it for me;

²⁰as payment for his toil I have given him the land of Egypt, says the Lord GOD.

²¹On that day I will make a horn sprout for the house of Israel, and I will cause you to speak out in their midst; thus they shall know that I am the LORD.

30Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

²Son of man, speak this prophecy: Thus says the Lord GOD: Cry, Oh, the day!

³for near is the day, near is the day of the LORD; a day of clouds, doomsday for the nations shall it be.

⁴Then a sword shall come upon Egypt, and anguish shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain fall in Egypt, when her riches are seized and her foundations are overthrown.

⁵Ethiopia, Put, Lud, all Arabia, Libya, and people of the allied territory shall fall by the sword with them.

⁶Those who support Egypt shall fall, and down shall come her proud strength; from Migdol to Syene they shall fall there by the sword, says the Lord GOD.

⁷She shall be the most devastated of lands, and her cities shall be the most desolate of all.

⁸Then they shall know that I am the LORD, when I set fire to Egypt and when all who help her are broken.

⁹On that day messengers shall hasten forth at my command to terrify unsuspecting Ethiopia; they shall be in anguish on the day of Egypt, which is surely coming.

¹⁰Thus says the Lord GOD: I will put an end to the throngs of Egypt by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.

¹¹He and his people with him, the most ruthless of nations, shall be brought in to devastate the land. They shall draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with the slain.

¹²I will turn the Niles into dry land and sell the land over to the power of the wicked. The land and everything in it I will hand over to foreigners to devastate. I, the LORD, have spoken.

¹³Thus says the Lord GOD: I will put an end to the great ones of Memphis and the princes of the land of Egypt, that they may be no more. I will cast fear into the land of Egypt, and devastate Pathros.

¹⁴I will set fire to Zoan, and inflict punishments on Thebes.

¹⁵I will pour out my wrath on Pelusium, Egypt's stronghold, and cut down the crowds in Memphis.

¹⁶I will set fire to Egypt; Syene shall writhe in anguish; Thebes shall be breached and its walls shall be demolished.

¹⁷The young men of On and of Pibeseth shall fall by the sword, and the cities themselves shall go into captivity.

¹⁸In Tehaphnehes the day shall be darkened when I break the scepter of Egypt. Her haughty pride shall cease from her, clouds shall cover her, and her daughters shall go into captivity.

¹⁹Thus will I inflict punishments on Egypt, that they may know that I am the LORD.

²⁰On the seventh day of the first month in the eleventh year, the word of the LORD came to me:

²¹Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and see, it has not been bound up with bandages and healing remedies that it may be strong enough to hold the sword.

²²Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: See! I am coming at Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. I will break his strong arm, so that the sword drops from his hand.

²³I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and strew them over foreign lands.

²⁴But I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand, which he will bring against Egypt so as to plunder and pillage it.

²⁵(I will make the arms of the king of Babylon strong, but the arms of Pharaoh shall drop.) Then they shall know that I am the LORD, when I put my sword in the hand of the king of Babylon for him to wield against the land of Egypt.

²⁶(I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and strew them over foreign lands.) Thus they shall know that I am the LORD.

31On the first day of the third month in the eleventh year, the word of the LORD came to me:

²Son of man, say to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to his hordes: What are you like in your greatness?

³Behold, a cypress (cedar) in Lebanon, beautiful of branch, lofty of stature, amid the very clouds lifted its crest.

⁴Waters made it grow, the abyss made it flourish, sending its rivers round where it was planted, turning its streams to all the trees of the field.

⁵Thus it grew taller than every other tree of the field, and longer of branch because of the abundant water.

⁶In its boughs nested all the birds of the air, under its branches all beasts of the field gave birth, in its shade dwelt numerous peoples of every race.

⁷It became beautiful and stately in its spread of foliage, for its roots were turned toward abundant water.

⁸The cedars in the garden of God were not its equal, nor could the fir trees match its boughs, Neither were the plane trees like it for branches; no tree in the garden of God matched its beauty.

⁹I made it beautiful, with much foliage, the envy of all Eden's trees in the garden of God.

¹⁰Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because it became lofty in stature, raising its crest among the clouds, and because it became proud in heart at its height,

¹¹I have handed it over to the mightiest of the nations, which has dealt with it in keeping with its wickedness. I humiliated it.

¹²Foreigners, the most ruthless of the nations, cut it down and left it on the mountains. Its foliage was brought low in all the valleys, its branches lay broken in all the ravines of the land, and all the peoples of the land withdrew from its shade, abandoning it.

¹³On its fallen trunk rested all the birds of the air, and by its branches were all the beasts of the field.

¹⁴Thus no tree may grow lofty in stature or raise its crest among the clouds; no tree fed by water may stand by itself in its loftiness. For all of them are destined for death, for the land below, For the company of mortals, those who go down into the pit.

¹⁵Thus says the Lord GOD: On the day he went down to the nether world I made the abyss close up over him; I stopped its streams so that the deep waters were held back. I cast gloom over Lebanon because of him, so that all the trees in the land drooped on his account.

¹⁶At the crash of his fall I made the nations rock, when I cast him down to the nether world with those who go down into the pit. In the land below, all Eden's trees were consoled, Lebanon's choice and best, all that were fed by water.

¹⁷They too have come down with him to the nether world, to those slain by the sword; those who dwelt in his shade are dispersed among the nations.

¹⁸Which was your equal in glory or size among the trees of Eden? Yet you have been brought down with the trees of Eden to the land below. You shall lie with the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword. Such are Pharaoh and all his hordes, says the Lord GOD.

32On the first day of the twelfth month in the twelfth year, the word of the LORD came to me:

²Son of man, utter a lament over Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, saying to him: Lion of the nations, you are destroyed. You were like a monster in the sea, spouting in your streams, Stirring the water with your feet and churning its streams.

³Thus says the Lord GOD: I will spread my net over you (with a host of many nations), and draw you up in my seine.

⁴I will leave you on the land; on the open field I will cast you. I will have all the birds of the air alight on you, and all the beasts of the earth eat their fill of you.

⁵I will leave your flesh on the mountains, and fill the valleys with your carcass.

⁶I will water the land with what flows from you, and the river beds shall be filled with your blood.

⁷When I snuff you out I will cover the heavens, and all their stars I will darken; The sun I will cover with clouds, and the moon shall not give its light.

⁸All the shining lights in the heavens I will darken on your account, And I will spread darkness over your land, says the Lord GOD.

⁹I will grieve the hearts of many peoples when I lead you captive among the nations, to lands which you do not know.

¹⁰Many peoples shall be appalled at you, and their kings shall shudder over you in horror when they see me brandish my sword, and on the day of your downfall every one of them shall continuously tremble for his own life.

¹¹For thus says the Lord GOD: The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon you.

¹²I will cut down your horde with the blades of warriors, all of them the most ruthless of the nations; They shall lay waste the glory of Egypt, and all her hordes shall be destroyed.

¹³I will have all of her animals perish beside her abundant waters; The foot of man shall stir them no longer, nor shall the hoof of beast disturb them.

¹⁴Then will I make their waters clear, and their streams flow like oil, says the Lord GOD.

¹⁵When I turn Egypt into a waste, the land shall be devastated of all that is in it; when I strike all who live there, they shall know that I am the LORD.

¹⁶This is a dirge, and it shall be sung: the daughters of the nations shall chant it; over Egypt and all its hordes shall they chant it, says the Lord GOD.

¹⁷On the fifteenth day of the first month in the twelfth year, the word of the LORD came to me:

¹⁸Son of man, lament over the throngs of Egypt, for the mighty nations have thrust them down to the bottom of the earth, with those who go down into the pit.

¹⁹"Whom do you excel in beauty?

²⁰In the midst of those slain by the sword shall they fall, and place shall be made with them for all their hordes. Then from the midst of the nether world, the mighty warriors shall speak to Egypt:

²¹Come down, you and your allies, lie with the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword."

²²There is Assyria with all her company, all of them slain,

²³whose graves have been made in the recesses of the pit; her company is around Egypt's grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who spread terror in the land of the living.

²⁴There is Elam with all her throng about Egypt's grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword: they have gone down uncircumcised to the bottom of the earth, who spread their terror in the land of the living, and they bear their disgrace with those who go down into the pit;

²⁵in the midst of the slain they are placed.

²⁶There are Meshech and Tubal and all their throng about her grave, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, for they spread their terror in the land of the living.

²⁷They do not lie with the mighty men fallen of old, who went down to the nether world with their weapons of war, whose swords were placed under their heads and whose shields were laid over their bones, though the mighty men caused terror in the land of the living.

²⁸But in the midst of the uncircumcised shall you lie, with those slain by the sword.

²⁹There are Edom, her kings, and all her princes, who despite their might have been placed with those slain by the sword; with the uncircumcised they lie, and with those who go down into the pit.

³⁰There are all the princes of the north and all the Sidonians, who have gone down with the slain, because of the terror their might inspired; they lie uncircumcised with those slain by the sword and bear their disgrace with those who go down to the pit.

³¹When Pharaoh sees these, he shall be comforted for all his hordes slain by the sword--Pharaoh and all his army, says the Lord GOD.

³²Since he spread his terror in the land of the living, therefore is he laid to rest among the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword--Pharaoh and all his hordes, says the Lord GOD.

33Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

²Son of man, speak thus to your countrymen: When I bring the sword against a country, and the people of this country select one of their number to be their watchman,

³and the watchman, seeing the sword coming against the country, blows the trumpet to warn the people,

⁴anyone hearing but not heeding the warning of the trumpet and therefore slain by the sword that comes against him, shall be responsible for his own death.

⁵He heard the trumpet blast yet refused to take warning; he is responsible for his own death, for had he taken warning he would have escaped with his life.

⁶But if the watchman sees the sword coming and fails to blow the warning trumpet, so that the sword comes and takes anyone, I will hold the watchman responsible for that person's death, even though that person is taken because of his own sin.

⁷You, son of man, I have appointed watchman for the house of Israel; when you hear me say anything, you shall warn them for me.

⁸If I tell the wicked man that he shall surely die, and you do not speak out to dissuade the wicked man from his way, he (the wicked man) shall die for his guilt, but I will hold you responsible for his death.

⁹But if you warn the wicked man, trying to turn him from his way, and he refuses to turn from his way, he shall die for his guilt, but you shall save yourself.

¹⁰As for you, son of man, speak to the house of Israel: You people say, "Our crimes and our sins weigh us down; we are rotting away because of them. How can we survive?"

¹¹Answer them: As I live, says the Lord GOD, I swear I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, but rather in the wicked man's conversion, that he may live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! Why should you die, O house of Israel?

¹²As for you, son of man, tell your countrymen: The virtue which a man has practiced will not save him on the day that he sins; neither will the wickedness that a man has done bring about his downfall on the day that he turns from his wickedness (nor can the virtuous man, when he sins, remain alive).

¹³Though I say to the virtuous man that he shall surely live, if he then presumes on his virtue and does wrong, none of his virtuous deeds shall be remembered; because of the wrong he has done, he shall die.

¹⁴And though I say to the wicked man that he shall surely die, if he turns away from his sin and does what is right and just,

¹⁵giving back pledges, restoring stolen goods, living by the statutes that bring life, and doing no wrong, he shall surely live, he shall not die.

¹⁶None of the sins he committed shall be held against him; he has done what is right and just, he shall surely live.

¹⁷Yet your countrymen say, "The way of the LORD is not fair!"; but it is their way that is not fair.

¹⁸When a virtuous man turns away from what is right and does wrong, he shall die for it.

¹⁹But when a wicked man turns away from wickedness and does what is right and just, because of this he shall live.

²⁰And still you say, "The way of the LORD is not fair!"? I will judge every one of you according to his ways, O house of Israel.

²¹On the fifth day of the tenth month, in the twelfth year of our exile, the fugitive came to me from Jerusalem and said, "The city is taken!"

²²The hand of the LORD had come upon me the evening before the fugitive arrived, and he opened my mouth when the fugitive reached me in the morning. My mouth was opened, and I was dumb no longer.

²³Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

²⁴Son of man, they who live in the ruins on the land of Israel reason thus: "Abraham, though but a single individual, received possession of the land; we, therefore, being many, have as permanent possession the land that has been given to us."

²⁵Give them this answer: Thus says the Lord GOD: You eat on the mountains, you raise your eyes to your idols, you shed blood--yet you would keep possession of the land?

²⁶You rely on your sword, you do abominable things, each one of you defiles his neighbor's wife--yet you would keep possession of the land?

²⁷Tell them this: Thus says the Lord GOD: As I live, those who are in the ruins I swear shall fall by the sword; those who are in the open field I have given to the wild beasts for food; and those who are in fastnesses and in caves shall die by the plague.

²⁸I will make the land a desolate waste, so that its proud strength will come to an end, and the mountains of Israel shall be so desolate that no one will cross them.

²⁹Thus they shall know that I am the LORD, when I make the land a desolate waste because of all the abominable things they have done.

³⁰As for you, son of man, your countrymen are talking about you along the walls and in the doorways of houses. They say to one another, "Come and hear the latest word that comes from the LORD."

³¹My people come to you as people always do; they sit down before you and hear your words, but they will not obey them, for lies are on their lips and their desires are fixed on dishonest gain.

³²For them you are only a ballad singer, with a pleasant voice and a clever touch. They listen to your words, but they will not obey them.

³³But when it comes--and it is surely coming!-they shall know that there was a prophet among them.

34Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

²Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, in these words prophesy to them (to the shepherds): Thus says the Lord GOD: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who have been pasturing themselves! Should not shepherds, rather, pasture sheep?

³You have fed off their milk, worn their wool, and slaughtered the fatlings, but the sheep you have not pastured.

⁴You did not strengthen the weak nor heal the sick nor bind up the injured. You did not bring back the strayed nor seek the lost, but you lorded it over them harshly and brutally.

⁵So they were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered

⁶and wandered over all the mountains and high hills; my sheep were scattered over the whole earth, with no one to look after them or to search for them.

⁷Therefore, shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:

⁸As I live, says the Lord GOD, because my sheep have been given over to pillage, and because my sheep have become food for every wild beast, for lack of a shepherd; because my shepherds did not look after my sheep, but pastured themselves and did not pasture my sheep;

⁹because of this, shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:

¹⁰Thus says the Lord GOD: I swear I am coming against these shepherds. I will claim my sheep from them and put a stop to their shepherding my sheep so that they may no longer pasture themselves. I will save my sheep, that they may no longer be food for their mouths.

¹¹For thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will look after and tend my sheep.

¹²As a shepherd tends his flock when he finds himself among his scattered sheep, so will I tend my sheep. I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered when it was cloudy and dark.

¹³I will lead them out from among the peoples and gather them from the foreign lands; I will bring them back to their own country and pasture them upon the mountains of Israel (in the land's ravines and all its inhabited places).

¹⁴In good pastures will I pasture them, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing ground. There they shall lie down on good grazing ground, and in rich pastures shall they be pastured on the mountains of Israel.

¹⁵I myself will pasture my sheep; I myself will give them rest, says the Lord GOD.

¹⁶The lost I will seek out, the strayed I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, the sick I will heal (but the sleek and the strong I will destroy), shepherding them rightly.

¹⁷As for you, my sheep, says the Lord GOD, I will judge between one sheep and another, between rams and goats.

¹⁸Was it not enough for you to graze on the best pasture, that you had to trample the rest of your pastures with your feet? Was it not enough for you to drink the clearest water, that you had to foul the remainder with your feet?

¹⁹Thus my sheep had to graze on what your feet had trampled and drink what your feet had fouled.

²⁰Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Now will I judge between the fat and the lean sheep.

²¹Because you push with side and shoulder, and butt all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them out,

²²I will save my sheep so that they may no longer be despoiled, and I will judge between one sheep and another.

²³I will appoint one shepherd over them to pasture them, my servant David; he shall pasture them and be their shepherd.

²⁴I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I, the LORD, have spoken.

²⁵I will make a covenant of peace with them, and rid the country of ravenous beasts, that they may dwell securely in the desert and sleep in the forests.

²⁶I will place them about my hill, sending rain in due season, rains that shall be a blessing to them.

²⁷The trees of the field shall bear their fruits, and the land its crops, and they shall dwell securely on their own soil. Thus they shall know that I am the LORD when I break the bonds of their yoke and free them from the power of those who enslaved them.

²⁸They shall no longer be despoiled by the nations or devoured by beasts of the earth, but shall dwell secure, with no one to frighten them.

²⁹I will prepare for them peaceful fields for planting; they shall no longer be carried off by famine in the land, or bear the reproaches of the nations.

³⁰Thus they shall know that I, the LORD, am their God, and they are my people, the house of Israel, says the Lord GOD.

³¹(You, my sheep, you are the sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, says the Lord GOD.)

35Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

²Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it.

³Say to it: Thus says the Lord GOD: See! I am coming at you, Mount Seir. I will stretch out my hand against you and make you a desolate waste.

⁴Your cities I will turn into ruins, and you shall be a waste; thus you shall know that I am the LORD.

⁵Because you never let die your hatred for the Israelites, whom you delivered over to the power of the sword at the time of their trouble, when their crimes came to an end,

⁶therefore, as I live, says the Lord GOD, you have been guilty of blood, and blood, I swear, shall pursue you.

⁷I will make Mount Seir a desolate waste, and cut off from it any traveler.

⁸With the slain I will fill your hills, your valleys, and all your ravines (in them the slain shall fall by the sword):

⁹desolate will I make you forever, and leave your cities without inhabitants; thus you shall know that I am the LORD.

¹⁰Because you said: The two nations and the two lands have become mine; we shall possess them--although the LORD was there--

¹¹therefore, as I live, says the Lord GOD, I will deal with you according to your anger and your envy which you have exercised (in your hatred) against them. I will make myself known among you when I judge you,

¹²and you shall know that I am the LORD. I have heard all the contemptuous things you have uttered against the mountains of Israel: "They are desolate, they have been given us to devour."

¹³I have heard the insolent and wild words you have spoken against me.

¹⁴Thus says the Lord GOD: Just as you rejoiced over my land because it was desolate, so will I do to you.

¹⁵In keeping with your glee over the devastation of the inheritance of the house of Israel, so will I treat you. A waste shall you be, Mount Seir, you and the whole of Edom. Thus they shall know that I am the LORD.

36As for you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel: Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD!

²Thus says the Lord GOD: Because the enemy has said of you, "Ha! the everlasting heights have become our possession"

³(therefore prophesy in these words: Thus says the Lord GOD:); because you have been ridiculed and despised on all sides for having become a possession for the rest of the nations, and have become a byword and a popular jeer;

⁴therefore, mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD: (Thus says the Lord GOD to the mountains and hills, the ravines and valleys, the desolate ruins and abandoned cities, which have been given over to the pillage and mockery of the remaining nations round about;

⁵therefore thus says the Lord GOD:) Truly, with burning jealousy I speak against the rest of the nations (and against all of Edom) who with wholehearted joy and utter contempt have considered my land their possession to be delivered over to plunder.

⁶(Therefore, prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and say to the mountains and hills, the ravines and valleys: Thus says the Lord GOD:) With jealous fury I speak, because you have borne the reproach of the nations.

⁷Therefore do I solemnly swear that your neighboring nations shall bear their own reproach.

⁸As for you, mountains of Israel, you shall grow branches and bear fruit for my people Israel, for they shall soon return.

⁹See, I come to you, it is to you that I turn; you will be tilled and sown,

¹⁰and I will settle crowds of men upon you, the whole house of Israel; cities shall be repeopled, and ruins rebuilt.

¹¹I will settle crowds of men and beasts upon you, to multiply and be fruitful. I will repeople you as in the past, and be more generous to you than in the beginning; thus you shall know that I am the LORD.

¹²(My people Israel are the ones whom I will have walk upon you; they shall take possession of you, and you shall be their heritage. Never again shall you rob them of their children.)

¹³Thus says the Lord GOD: Because they have said of you, "You are a land that devours men, and you rob your people of their children";

¹⁴therefore, never again shall you devour men or rob your people of their children, says the Lord GOD.

¹⁵No more will I permit you to hear the reproach of nations, or bear insults from peoples, or rob your people of their children, says the Lord GOD.

¹⁶Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

¹⁷Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their land, they defiled it by their conduct and deeds. In my sight their conduct was like the defilement of a menstruous woman.

¹⁸Therefore I poured out my fury upon them (because of the blood which they poured out on the ground, and because they defiled it with idols).

¹⁹I scattered them among the nations, dispersing them over foreign lands; according to their conduct and deeds I judged them.

²⁰But when they came among the nations (wherever they came), they served to profane my holy name, because it was said of them: "These are the people of the LORD, yet they had to leave their land."

²¹So I have relented because of my holy name which the house of Israel profaned among the nations where they came.

²²Therefore say to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord GOD: Not for your sakes do I act, house of Israel, but for the sake of my holy name, which you profaned among the nations to which you came.

²³I will prove the holiness of my great name, profaned among the nations, in whose midst you have profaned it. Thus the nations shall know that I am the LORD, says the Lord GOD, when in their sight I prove my holiness through you.

²⁴For I will take you away from among the nations, gather you from all the foreign lands, and bring you back to your own land.

²⁵I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.

²⁶I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts.

²⁷I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my statutes, careful to observe my decrees.

²⁸You shall live in the land I gave your fathers; you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

²⁹I will save you from all your impurities; I will order the grain to be abundant, and I will not send famine against you.

³⁰I will increase the fruit on your trees and the crops in your fields; thus you shall no longer bear among the nations the reproach of famine.

³¹Then you shall remember your evil conduct, and that your deeds were not good; you shall loathe yourselves for your sins and your abominations.

³²Not for your sakes do I act, says the Lord GOD--let this be known to you! Be ashamed and abashed because of your conduct, O house of Israel.

³³Thus says the Lord GOD: When I purify you from all your crimes, I will repeople the cities, and the ruins shall be rebuilt;

³⁴the desolate land shall be tilled, which was formerly a wasteland exposed to the gaze of every passer-by.

³⁵"This desolate land has been made into a garden of Eden," they shall say. "The cities that were in ruins, laid waste, and destroyed are now repeopled and fortified."

³⁶Thus the neighboring nations that remain shall know that I, the LORD, have rebuilt what was destroyed and replanted what was desolate. I, the LORD, have promised, and I will do it.

³⁷Thus says the Lord GOD: This also I will be persuaded to do for the house of Israel: to multiply them like sheep.

³⁸As with sacrificial sheep, the sheep of Jerusalem on its feast days, the cities which were in ruins shall be filled with flocks of men; thus they shall know that I am the LORD.

37The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he led me out in the spirit of the LORD and set me in the center of the plain, which was now filled with bones.

²He made me walk among them in every direction so that I saw how many they were on the surface of the plain. How dry they were!

³He asked me: Son of man, can these bones come to life? "Lord GOD," I answered, "you alone know that."

⁴Then he said to me: Prophesy over these bones, and say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!

⁵Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: See! I will bring spirit into you, that you may come to life.

⁶I will put sinews upon you, make flesh grow over you, cover you with skin, and put spirit in you so that you may come to life and know that I am the LORD.

⁷I prophesied as I had been told, and even as I was prophesying I heard a noise; it was a rattling as the bones came together, bone joining bone.

⁸I saw the sinews and the flesh come upon them, and the skin cover them, but there was no spirit in them.

⁹Then he said to me: Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, son of man, and say to the spirit: Thus says the Lord GOD: From the four winds come, O spirit, and breathe into these slain that they may come to life.

¹⁰I prophesied as he told me, and the spirit came into them; they came alive and stood upright, a vast army.

¹¹Then he said to me: Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They have been saying, "Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, and we are cut off."

¹²Therefore, prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel.

¹³Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and have you rise from them, O my people!

¹⁴I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land; thus you shall know that I am the LORD. I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD.

¹⁵Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

¹⁶Now, son of man, take a single stick, and write on it: Judah and those Israelites who are associated with him. Then take another stick and write on it: Joseph (the stick of Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with him.

¹⁷Then join the two sticks together, so that they form one stick in your hand.

¹⁸When your countrymen ask you, "Will you not tell us what you mean by all this?",

¹⁹answer them: Thus says the Lord GOD: (I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and of the tribes of Israel associated with him, and I will join to it the stick of Judah, making them a single stick; they shall be one in my hand.

²⁰The sticks on which you write you shall hold up before them to see.

²¹Tell them: Thus speaks the Lord GOD:) I will take the Israelites from among the nations to which they have come, and gather them from all sides to bring them back to their land.

²²I will make them one nation upon the land, in the mountains of Israel, and there shall be one prince for them all. Never again shall they be two nations, and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms.

²³No longer shall they defile themselves with their idols, their abominations, and all their transgressions. I will deliver them from all their sins of apostasy, and cleanse them so that they may be my people and I may be their God.

²⁴My servant David shall be prince over them, and there shall be one shepherd for them all; they shall live by my statutes and carefully observe my decrees.

²⁵They shall live on the land which I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where their fathers lived; they shall live on it forever, they, and their children, and their children's children, with my servant David their prince forever.

²⁶I will make with them a covenant of peace; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them, and I will multiply them, and put my sanctuary among them forever.

²⁷My dwelling shall be with them; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

²⁸Thus the nations shall know that it is I, the LORD, who make Israel holy, when my sanctuary shall be set up among them forever.

38Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

²Son of man, turn toward Gog (the land of Magog), the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him:

³Thus says the Lord GOD: See! I am coming at you, Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.

⁴I will lead you forth with all your army, horses and riders all handsomely outfitted, a great horde with bucklers and shields, all of them carrying swords:

⁵Persia, Cush, and Put with them (all with shields and helmets),

⁶Gomer with all its troops, Beth-togarmah from the recesses of the north with all its troops, many peoples with you.

⁷Prepare yourself, be ready, you and all your horde assembled about you, and be at my disposal.

⁸After many days you will be mustered (in the last years you will come) against a nation which has survived the sword, which has been assembled from many peoples (on the mountains of Israel which were long a ruin), which has been brought forth from among the peoples and all of whom now dwell in security.

⁹You shall come up like a sudden storm, advancing like a cloud to cover the earth, you and all your troops and the many peoples with you.

¹⁰Thus says the Lord GOD: At that time thoughts shall arise in your mind, and you shall devise an evil scheme:

¹¹"I will go up against a land of open villages and attack the peaceful people who are living in security, all of them living without walls, having neither bars nor gates,

¹²to plunder and pillage, turning my hand against the ruins that were repeopled and against a people gathered from the nations, a people concerned with cattle and goods, who dwell at the navel of the earth."

¹³Sheba and Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish and all her young lions shall ask you: "Is it for plunder that you have come? Is it for pillage that you have summoned your horde, to carry off silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to seize much plunder?"

¹⁴Therefore prophesy, son of man, and say to Gog: Thus says the Lord GOD: When my people Israel are dwelling in security, will you not bestir yourself

¹⁵and come from your home in the recesses of the north, you and many peoples with you, all mounted on horses, a great horde and a mighty army?

¹⁶You shall come up against my people Israel like a cloud covering the land. In the last days I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know of me, when in their sight I prove my holiness through you, O Gog.

¹⁷Thus says the Lord GOD: It is of you that I spoke in ancient times through my servants, the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days that I would bring you against them.

¹⁸But on that day, the day when Gog invades the land of Israel, says the Lord GOD, my fury shall be aroused. In my anger

¹⁹and in my jealousy, in my fiery wrath, I swear: On that day there shall be a great shaking upon the land of Israel.

²⁰Before me shall tremble the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, the beasts of the field and all the reptiles that crawl upon the ground, and all men who are on the land. Mountains shall be overturned, and cliffs shall tumble, and every wall shall fall to the ground.

²¹Against him I will summon every terror, says the Lord GOD, every man's sword against his brother. I will hold judgment with him in pestilence and bloodshed;

²²flooding rain and hailstones, fire and brimstone, I will rain upon him, upon his troops, and upon the many peoples with him.

²³I will prove my greatness and holiness and make myself known in the sight of many nations; thus they shall know that I am the LORD.

39Now, son of man, prophesy against Gog in these words: Thus says the Lord GOD: See! I am coming at you, Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.

²I will turn you about, I will urge you on, and I will make you come up from the recesses of the north; I will lead you against the mountains of Israel.

³Then I will strike the bow from your left hand, and make the arrows drop from your right.

⁴Upon the mountains of Israel you shall fall, you and all your troops and the peoples who are with you. To birds of prey of every kind and to the wild beasts I am giving you to be eaten.

⁵On the open field you shall fall, for I have decreed it, says the Lord GOD.

⁶I will send fire upon Magog and upon those who live securely in the coastlands; thus they shall know that I am the LORD.

⁷I will make my holy name known among my people Israel; I will no longer allow my holy name to be profaned. Thus the nations shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.

⁸Yes, it is coming and shall be fulfilled, says the Lord GOD. This is the day I have decreed.

⁹Then shall those who live in the cities of Israel go out and burn weapons: (shields and bucklers,) bows and arrows, clubs and lances; for seven years they shall make fires with them.

¹⁰They shall not have to bring in wood from the fields or cut it down in the forests, for they shall make fires with the weapons. Thus they shall plunder those who plundered them and pillage those who pillaged them, says the Lord GOD.

¹¹On that day I will give Gog for his tomb a well-known place in Israel, the Valley of Abarim east of the sea (it is blocked to travelers). Gog shall be buried there with all his horde, and it shall be named "Valley of Hamon-gog."

¹²To purify the land, the house of Israel shall need seven months to bury them.

¹³All the people of the land shall bury them and gain renown for it, when I reveal my glory, says the Lord GOD.

¹⁴Men shall be permanently employed to pass through the land burying those who lie unburied, so as to purify the land. For seven months they shall keep searching.

¹⁵When they pass through, should they see a human bone, let them put up a marker beside it, until others have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-gog.

¹⁶(Also the name of the city shall be Hamonah.) Thus the land shall be purified.

¹⁷As for you, son of man, says the Lord GOD, say to birds of every kind and to all the wild beasts: Come together, from all sides gather for the slaughter I am about to provide for you, a great slaughter on the mountains of Israel: you shall have flesh to eat and blood to drink.

¹⁸You shall eat the flesh of warriors and drink the blood of the princes of the land (rams, lambs, and goats, bullocks, fatlings of Bashan, all of them).

¹⁹From the slaughter which I will provide for you, you shall eat fat until you are filled and drink blood until you are drunk.

²⁰You shall be filled at my table with horses and riders, with warriors and soldiers of every kind, says the Lord GOD.

²¹Thus I will display my glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see the judgment I have executed and the hand I have laid upon them.

²²From that day forward the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD, their God.

²³The nations shall know that because of its sins the house of Israel went into exile; for they transgressed against me, and I hid my face from them and handed them over to their foes, so that all of them fell by the sword.

²⁴According to their uncleanness and their transgressions I dealt with them, hiding my face from them.

²⁵Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have pity on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for my holy name.

²⁶They shall forget their disgrace and all the times they broke faith with me, when they live in security on their land with no one to frighten them.

²⁷When I bring them back from among the peoples, I will gather them from the lands of their enemies, and will prove my holiness through them in the sight of many nations.

²⁸Thus they shall know that I, the LORD, am their God, since I who exiled them among the nations, will gather them back on their land, not leaving any of them behind.

²⁹No longer will I hide my face from them, for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, says the Lord GOD.

40On the tenth day of the month beginning the twenty-fifth year of our exile, fourteen years after the city was taken, that very day the hand of the LORD came upon me and brought me

²in divine visions to the land of Israel, where he set me down on a very high mountain. On it there seemed to be a city being built before me.

³When he had brought me there, all at once I saw a man whose appearance was that of bronze; he was standing in the gate, holding a linen cord and a measuring rod.

⁴The man said to me, "Son of man, look carefully and listen intently, and pay strict attention to all that I will show you, for you have been brought here so that I might show it to you. Tell the house of Israel all that you see."

⁵(Then I saw an outer wall that completely surrounded the temple. The man was holding a measuring rod six cubits long, each cubit being a cubit and a handbreadth; he measured the width and the height of the structure, each of which were found to be one rod.)

⁶Then he went to the gate which faced the east, climbed its steps, and measured the gate's threshold, which was found to be a rod wide.

⁷The cells were a rod long and a rod wide, and the pilasters between the cells measured five cubits. The threshold of the gate adjoining the vestibule of the gate toward the inside measured one rod.

⁸He measured the vestibule of the gate,

⁹which was eight cubits, and its pilasters, which were two cubits. The vestibule of the gate was toward the inside.

¹⁰The cells of the east gate were three on either side, of equal size, and the pilasters on either side were also of equal size.

¹¹He measured the gate's entrance, which was ten cubits wide, while the width of the gate's passage itself was thirteen cubits.

¹²The border before each of the cells on both sides was one cubit; the cells themselves were six cubits on either side, from opening to opening.

¹³He measured the gate from the back wall of one cell to the back wall of the cell on the opposite side: the width was twenty-five cubits.

¹⁴He measured the vestibule, which was twenty-five cubits. The pilasters adjoining the court on either side were six cubits.

¹⁵The length of the gate from the front entrance to the front of the vestibule on the inside was fifty cubits.

¹⁶Within the gateway on both sides there were splayed windows let into the cells (and into their pilasters); likewise, within the vestibule on both sides there were windows. The pilasters were decorated with palms.

¹⁷Then he brought me to the outer court, where there were chambers and a pavement. The pavement was laid all around the court, and the chambers, which were on the pavement, were thirty in number.

¹⁸The pavement lay alongside the gates, as wide as the gates were long; this was the lower pavement.

¹⁹He measured the width of the court from the front of the lower gate to the front of the inner gate; it was one hundred cubits between them. Then he proceeded north,

²⁰where, on the outer court, there was a gate facing north, whose length and width he measured.

²¹Its cells, three on either side, its pilasters, and its vestibule had the same measurements as those of the first gate; it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.

²²Its windows, the windows of its vestibule, and its palm decorations were of the same proportions as those of the gate facing the east. Seven steps led up to it, and its vestibule was toward the inside.

²³The inner court had a gate opposite the north gate, just as at the east gate; he measured one hundred cubits from one gate to the other.

²⁴Then he led me south, to where there was a southern gate, whose cells, pilasters, and vestibule he measured; they were the same size as the others.

²⁵The gate and its vestibule had windows on both sides, like the other windows. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.

²⁶It was ascended by seven steps; its vestibule was toward the inside; and it was decorated with palms here and there on its pilasters.

²⁷The inner court also had a southern gate; from gate to gate he measured one hundred cubits.

²⁸Then he brought me to the inner court by the south gate, where he measured the south gate. Its dimensions were the same as the others;

²⁹its cells, its pilasters, and its vestibule were the same size as the others. The gate and its vestibule had windows on both sides; and it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.

³¹But its vestibule was toward the outer court; palms were on its pilasters, and it had a stairway of eight steps.

³²Then he brought me to the gate facing the east, where he measured the gate, whose dimensions were found to be the same.

³³Its cells, its pilasters, and its vestibule were the same size as the others; the gate and its vestibule had windows on both sides; it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.

³⁴But its vestibule was toward the outer court; palms were on its pilasters here and there, and it had a stairway of eight steps.

³⁵Then he brought me to the north gate, where he measured the dimensions

³⁶of its cells, its pilasters, and its vestibule, and found them the same. The gate and its vestibule had windows on both sides; it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.

³⁷Its vestibule was toward the outer court; palms were on its pilasters here and there, and it had a stairway of eight steps.

³⁸There was a chamber opening off the vestibule of the gate, where the holocausts were rinsed.

³⁹In the vestibule of the gate there were two tables on either side, on which were slaughtered the sin offerings and guilt offerings.

⁴⁰Along the wall of the vestibule, but outside, near the entrance of the north gate, were two tables, and on the other side of the vestibule of the gate there were two tables.

⁴¹There were four tables on either side of the gate (eight tables), on which the sacrifices were slaughtered.

⁴²There were four tables for holocausts, made of cut stone, one and a half cubits long, one and a half cubits wide, and one cubit high.

⁴³The ledges, a handbreadth wide, were set on the inside all around, and on them were laid the instruments with which the holocausts were slaughtered. On the tables themselves the flesh was laid.

⁴⁴He then led me to the inner court where there were two chambers, one beside the north gate, facing south, and the other beside the south gate, facing north.

⁴⁵He said to me, "This chamber which faces south is for the priests who have charge of the temple,

⁴⁶and the chamber which faces north is for the priests who have charge of the altar. These are the Zadokites, the only Levites who may come near to minister to the LORD."

⁴⁷Then he measured the court, which was a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits wide, a perfect square. The altar stood in front of the temple.

⁴⁸Then he brought me into the vestibule of the temple and measured the pilasters on each side, which were five cubits. The width of the doorway was fourteen cubits, and the side walls on either side of the door measured three cubits.

⁴⁹The vestibule was twenty cubits wide and twelve cubits deep; ten steps led up to it, and there were columns by the pilasters, one on either side.

41Then he brought me to the nave and measured the pilasters, which were six cubits thick on either side.

²The width of the entrance was ten cubits, and the walls at either side of it measured five cubits each. He measured the length of the nave, which was found to be forty cubits, while its width was twenty.

³Then he went in beyond and measured the pilasters flanking that entrance, which were two cubits; the width of the entrance was six cubits, and the walls at either side of it extended seven cubits each.

⁴He measured the space beyond the nave, twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide, and said to me, "This is the holy of holies."

⁵Then he measured the wall of the temple, which was six cubits thick; the side chambers, which extended all the way around the temple, had a width of four cubits.

⁶There were thirty side chambers built one above the other in three stories, and there were offsets in the outside wall of the temple that enclosed the side chambers; these served as supports, so that there were no supports in the temple wall proper.

⁷There was a broad circular passageway that led upward to the side chambers, for the temple was enclosed all the way around and all the way upward; therefore the temple had a broad way running upward so that one could pass from the lowest to the middle and the highest story.

⁸About the temple was a raised pavement completely enclosing it--the foundations of the side chambers--a full rod of six cubits in extent.

⁹The width of the outside wall which enclosed the side chambers was five cubits. Between the side chambers of the temple

¹⁰and the chambers of the court was an open space twenty cubits wide going all around the temple.

¹¹The side chambers had entrances to the open space, one entrance on the north and another on the south. The width of the wall surrounding the open space was five cubits.

¹²The building fronting the free area on the west side was seventy cubits front to back; the wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, and it measured ninety cubits from side to side.

¹³He measured the temple, which was one hundred cubits long. The free area, together with the building and its walls, was a hundred cubits in length.

¹⁴The facade of the temple, along with the free area, on the east side, was one hundred cubits wide.

¹⁵He measured the building which lay the length of the free area and behind it, and together with its walls on both sides it was one hundred cubits. The inner nave and the outer vestibule

¹⁶were paneled with precious wood all around, covered from the ground to the windows. There were splayed windows with trellises about them (facing the threshold).

¹⁷As high as the lintel of the door, even into the interior part of the temple as well as outside, on every wall on every side in both the inner and outer rooms were carved

¹⁸the figures of cherubim and palmtrees: a palmtree between every two cherubim. Each cherub had two faces:

¹⁹a man's face looking at a palmtree on one side, and a lion's face looking at a palmtree on the other; thus they were figured on every side throughout the whole temple.

²⁰From the ground to the lintel of the door the cherubim and palmtrees were carved on the walls.

²¹The way into the nave was a square doorframe. In front of the holy place was something that looked like

²²a wooden altar, three cubits in height, two cubits long, and two cubits wide. It had corners, and its base and sides were of wood. He said to me, "This is the table which is before the LORD."

²³The nave had a double door, and also the holy place had

²⁴a double door. Each door had two movable leaves; two leaves were on one doorjamb and two on the other.

²⁵Carved upon them (on the doors of the nave) were cherubim and palmtrees, like those carved on the walls. Before the vestibule outside was a wooden lattice.

²⁶There were splayed windows (and palmtrees) on both side walls of the vestibule, and the side chambers of the temple. . . .

42Then he led me north to the outer court, bringing me to some chambers on the north that lay across the free area and which were also across from the building.

²Their length was a hundred cubits on the north side, and they were fifty cubits wide.

³Across the twenty cubits of the inner court and the pavement of the outer court, there were three parallel rows of them on different levels.

⁴In front of the chambers, to the inside, was a walk ten cubits broad and a wall of one cubit; but the entrances of the chambers were on the north.

⁵The outermost chambers were the lowest, for the system of levels set them at a level lower than the closest chambers and those in between;

⁶for they were in three rows and had no foundations to conform with the foundations of the courts, therefore they were on a lower terrace of the ground than the closest and the middle chambers.

⁷On the far side there was a wall running parallel to the chambers along the outer court; its length before these chambers was fifty cubits,

⁸for the length of the chambers belonging to the outer court was fifty cubits, but along its entire length the wall measured one hundred cubits.

⁹Below these chambers there was the way in from the east, so that one could enter from the outer court

¹⁰where the wall of the court began. To the south along the side of the free area and the building there were also chambers,

¹¹before which was a passage. These looked like the chambers to the north, just as long and just as wide, with the same exits and plan and entrances.

¹²Below the chambers to the south there was an entrance at the beginning of the way which led to the back wall, by which one could enter from the east.

¹³He said to me, "The north and south chambers which border on the free area are the sanctuary chambers; here the priests who draw near to the LORD shall eat the most sacred meals, and here they shall keep the most sacred offerings: cereal offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings; for it is a holy place.

¹⁴When the priests have once entered, they shall not leave the holy place for the outer court until they have left here the clothing in which they ministered, for it is holy. They shall put on other garments, and then approach the place destined for the people."

¹⁵When he had finished measuring the inner temple area, he brought me out by way of the gate which faces east and measured all the limits of the court.

¹⁶He measured the east side: five hundred cubits by his measuring rod. Then he turned

¹⁷and measured the north side: five hundred cubits by the measuring rod. He turned

¹⁸to the south and measured five hundred cubits by the measuring rod.

¹⁹Then he turned to the west and measured five hundred cubits by the measuring rod.

²⁰Thus he measured it in the four directions, five hundred cubits long and five hundred cubits wide. It was surrounded by a wall, to separate the sacred from the profane.

43Then he led me to the gate which faces the east,

²and there I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. I heard a sound like the roaring of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory.

³The vision was like that which I had seen when he came to destroy the city, and like that which I had seen by the river Chebar. I fell prone

⁴as the glory of the LORD entered the temple by way of the gate which faces the east,

⁵but spirit lifted me up and brought me to the inner court. And I saw that the temple was filled with the glory of the LORD.

⁶Then I heard someone speaking to me from the temple, while the man stood beside me.

⁷The voice said to me: Son of man, this is where my throne shall be, this is where I will set the soles of my feet; here I will dwell among the Israelites forever. Never again shall they and their kings profane my holy name with their harlotries and with the corpses of their kings (their high places).

⁸When they placed their threshold against my threshold and their doorpost next to mine, so that only a wall was between us, they profaned my holy name by their abominable deeds; therefore I consumed them in my wrath.

⁹From now on they shall put far from me their harlotry and the corpses of their kings, and I will dwell in their midst forever.

¹⁰As for you, son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel (that they may be ashamed of their sins), both its measurements and its design;

¹¹(and if they are ashamed of all that they have done,) make known to them the form and design of the temple, its exits and entrances, all its statutes and laws; write these down for them to see, that they may carefully observe all its laws and statutes.

¹²This is the law of the temple: its whole surrounding area on the mountain top shall be most sacred.

¹³These were the measurements of the altar in cubits of one cubit plus a handbreadth. Its base was one cubit high and one cubit deep, with a rim around its edges of one span. The height of the altar itself was as follows:

¹⁴from its base at the bottom up to the lower edge it was two cubits high, and this ledge was one cubit deep; from the lower to the upper ledge it was four cubits high, and this ledge also was one cubit deep;

¹⁵the hearth of the altar was four cubits high, and extending from the top of the hearth were the four horns of the altar.

¹⁶The hearth was a square: twelve cubits long and twelve cubits wide.

¹⁷The upper ledge was also a square: fourteen cubits long and fourteen cubits wide. The lower ledge, likewise a square, was sixteen cubits long and sixteen cubits wide, with a half-cubit rim surrounding it. And there was a base of one cubit all around. The steps of the altar face the east.

¹⁸Then he said to me: Son of man, thus says the Lord GOD: These are the statutes for the altar when it is set up for the offering of holocausts upon it and for the sprinkling of blood against it.

¹⁹Give a young bull as a sin offering to the priests, the Levites who are of the line of Zadok, who draw near me to minister to me, says the Lord GOD.

²⁰Take some of its blood and put it on the four horns of the altar, and on the four corners of the ledge, and on the rim all around. Thus you shall purify it and make atonement for it.

²¹Then take the bull of the sin offering, which is to be burnt in a designated part of the temple, outside the sanctuary.

²²On the second day present an unblemished he-goat as a sin offering, to purify the altar as was done with the bull.

²³When you have finished the purification, bring an unblemished young bull and an unblemished ram from the flock,

²⁴and present them before the LORD; the priests shall strew salt on them and offer them to the LORD as holocausts.

²⁵Daily for seven days you shall offer a he-goat as a sin offering, and a young bull and a ram from the flock, all unblemished, shall be offered

²⁶for seven days. Thus atonement shall be made for the altar, and it shall be purified and dedicated.

²⁷And when these days are over, from the eighth day on, the priests shall offer your holocausts and peace offerings on the altar. Then I will accept you, says the Lord GOD.

44Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, facing the east; but it was closed.

²He said to me: This gate is to remain closed; it is not to be opened for anyone to enter by it; since the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered by it, it shall remain closed.

³Only the prince may sit down in it to eat his meal in the presence of the LORD. He must enter by way of the vestibule of the gate, and leave by the same way.

⁴Then he brought me by way of the north gate to the facade of the temple, and when I looked I saw the glory of the LORD filling the LORD'S temple, and I fell prone.

⁵Then he said to me: Son of man, pay strict attention, look carefully, and listen intently to all that I will tell you about the statutes and laws of the LORD'S temple; be attentive in regard to those who are to be admitted to the temple and all those who are to be excluded from the sanctuary.

⁶Say to that rebellious house, the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord GOD: Enough of all these abominations of yours, O house of Israel!

⁷You have admitted foreigners, uncircumcised both in heart and flesh, to my sanctuary to profane it when you offered me food, fat, and blood; thus you have broken my covenant by all your abominations.

⁸Instead of caring for the service of my temple, you have appointed such as these to serve me in my sanctuary in your stead.

⁹Thus says the Lord GOD: No foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and in flesh, shall ever enter my sanctuary; none of the foreigners who live among the Israelites.

¹⁰But as for the Levites who departed from me when Israel strayed from me to pursue their idols, they shall bear the consequences of their sin.

¹¹They shall serve in my sanctuary as gatekeepers and temple servants; they shall slaughter the holocausts and the sacrifices for the people, and they shall stand before the people to minister for them.

¹²Because they used to minister for them before their idols, and became an occasion of sin to the house of Israel, therefore I have sworn an oath against them, says the Lord GOD: they shall bear the consequences of their sin.

¹³They shall no longer draw near me to serve as my priests, nor shall they touch any of my sacred things, or the most sacred things. Thus they shall bear their disgrace because of all their abominable deeds.

¹⁴But I will set them to the service of the temple, for all its work and for everything that is to be done in it.

¹⁵As for the levitical priests, however, the Zadokites who cared for my sanctuary when the Israelites strayed from me, they shall draw near me to minister to me, and they shall stand before me to offer me fat and blood, says the Lord GOD.

¹⁶It is they who shall enter my sanctuary, they who shall approach my table to minister to me, and they who shall carry out my service.

¹⁷Whenever they enter the gates of the inner court, they shall wear linen garments; they shall not put on anything woolen when they minister at the gates of the inner court or within the temple.

¹⁸They shall have linen turbans on their heads and linen drawers on their loins; they shall not gird themselves with anything that causes sweat.

¹⁹When they are to go out to the people in the outer court, they shall take off the garments in which they ministered and leave them in the chambers of the sanctuary, putting on other garments; thus they will not transmit holiness to the people with their garments.

²⁰They shall not shave their heads nor let their hair hang loose, but they shall keep their hair carefully trimmed.

²¹No priest shall drink wine when he is to enter the inner court.

²²They shall not take for their wives either widows or divorced women, but only virgins of the race of Israel; however, they may marry women who are the widows of priests.

²³They shall teach my people to distinguish between the sacred and the profane, and make known to them the difference between the clean and the unclean.

²⁴In capital cases they shall stand as judges, judging them according to my decrees. They shall observe my laws and statutes on all my festivals, and keep my sabbaths holy.

²⁵They shall not make themselves unclean by coming near any dead person, unless it be their father, mother, son, daughter, brother, or maiden sister; for these they may make themselves unclean.

²⁶After a priest has been cleansed, he must wait an additional seven days,

²⁷and on the day he enters the inner court to minister in the sanctuary, he shall present his sin offering, says the Lord GOD.

²⁸They shall have no inheritance, for I am their inheritance; you shall give them no property in Israel, for I am their property.

²⁹They shall eat the cereal offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering; whatever is under the ban in Israel shall be theirs.

³⁰All the choicest first fruits of every kind, and all the best of your offerings of every kind, shall belong to the priests; likewise the best of your dough you shall give to the priests to bring a blessing down upon your house.

³¹The priests shall not eat anything, whether flesh or fowl, that has died of itself or has been killed by wild beasts.

45When you apportion the land into inheritances, you shall set apart a sacred tract of land for the LORD, twenty-five thousand cubits long and twenty thousand wide; its whole area shall be sacred.

²Of this land a square plot, five hundred by five hundred cubits, surrounded by a free space of fifty cubits, shall be assigned to the sanctuary.

³Also from this sector measure off a strip, twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand wide, within which shall be the sanctuary, the holy of holies.

⁴This shall be the sacred part of the land belonging to the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary, who draw near to minister to the LORD; it shall be a place for their homes and pasture land for their cattle.

⁵Also there shall be a strip twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand wide as property for the Levites, the ministers of the temple, that they may have cities to live in.

⁶As property of the City you shall designate a strip five thousand cubits wide and twenty-five thousand long, parallel to the sacred tract; this shall belong to the whole house of Israel.

⁷The prince shall have a section bordering on both sides of the combined sacred tract and City property, extending westward on the western side and eastward on the eastern side, corresponding in length to one of the tribal portions from the western boundary to the eastern boundary

⁸of the land. This shall be his property in Israel, so that the princes of Israel will no longer oppress my people, but will leave the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes.

⁹Thus says the Lord GOD: Enough, you princes of Israel! Put away violence and oppression, and do what is right and just! Stop evicting my people! says the Lord GOD.

¹⁰You shall have honest scales, an honest ephah, and an honest liquid measure.

¹¹The ephah and the liquid measure shall be of the same size: the liquid measure equal to a tenth of a homer, and the ephah equal to a tenth of a homer; by the homer they shall be determined.

¹²The shekel shall be twenty gerahs. Twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, plus fifteen shekels shall be your mina.

¹³These are the offerings you shall make: one sixth of an ephah from each homer of wheat, and one sixth of an ephah from each homer of barley.

¹⁴The regulation for oil: for every measure of oil, a tenth of a measure, computed by the kor of ten liquid measures (or a homer, for ten liquid measures make a homer).

¹⁵One sheep from the flock for every two hundred from the pasturage of Israel, for sacrifice--holocausts and peace offerings and atonement sacrifices, says the Lord GOD.

¹⁶All the people of the land shall be bound to this offering (for the prince in Israel).

¹⁷It shall be the duty of the prince to provide the holocausts, cereal offerings, and libations on the feasts, new moons, and sabbaths, on all the festivals of the house of Israel. He shall offer the sin offerings, cereal offerings, holocausts, and peace offerings, to make atonement on behalf of the house of Israel.

¹⁸Thus says the Lord GOD: On the first day of the first month you shall use an unblemished young bull as a sacrifice to purify the sanctuary.

¹⁹Then the priest shall take some of the blood from the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the temple, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the doorposts of the gates of the inner court.

²⁰You shall repeat this on the first day of the seventh month for those who have sinned through inadvertence or ignorance; thus you shall make atonement for the temple.

²¹On the fourteenth day of the first month you shall observe the feast of the Passover; for seven days unleavened bread is to be eaten.

²²On that day the prince shall offer on his own behalf, and on behalf of all the people of the land, a bull as a sin offering.

²³On each of the seven days of the feast he shall offer as a holocaust to the LORD seven bulls and seven rams without blemish, and as a sin offering he shall offer one male goat each day.

²⁴As a cereal offering he shall offer one ephah for each bull and one ephah for each ram; and he shall offer one hin of oil for each ephah.

²⁵On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, the feast day, and for seven days, he shall perform the same rites, making the same sin offerings, the same holocausts, the same cereal offerings and offerings of oil.

46Thus says the Lord GOD: The gate toward the east of the inner court shall remain closed throughout the six working days, but on the sabbath and on the day of the new moon it shall be open.

²The prince shall enter from outside by way of the vestibule of the gate and remain standing at the doorpost of the gate; then while the priests offer his holocausts and peace offerings, he shall worship at the threshold of the gate and then leave; the gate shall not be closed until evening.

³The people of the land shall worship before the LORD at the door of this gate on the sabbaths and new moons.

⁴The holocausts which the prince presents to the LORD on the sabbath shall consist of six unblemished lambs and an unblemished ram,

⁵together with a cereal offering of one ephah for the ram, whatever he pleases for the lambs, and a hin of oil for each ephah.

⁶On the day of the new moon he shall provide an unblemished young bull, also six lambs and a ram without blemish,

⁷with a cereal offering of one ephah for the bull and one for the ram, for the lambs as much as he has at hand, and for each ephah a hin of oil.

⁸The prince shall always enter and depart by the vestibule of the gate.

⁹When the people of the land enter the presence of the LORD to worship on the festivals, if they enter by the north gate they shall leave by the south gate, and if they enter by the south gate they shall leave by the north gate; no one shall return by the gate through which he has entered, but he shall leave by the opposite gate.

¹⁰The prince shall be in their midst when they enter, and he shall also leave with them.

¹¹On the feasts and festivals the cereal offering shall be an ephah for a bull, an ephah for a ram, but for the lambs as much as one pleases, and a hin of oil with each ephah.

¹²When the prince makes a freewill offering to the LORD, whether holocausts or peace offerings, the eastern gate shall be opened for him, and he shall offer his holocausts or his peace offerings as on the sabbath; then he shall leave, and the gate shall be closed after his departure.

¹³He shall offer as a daily holocaust to the LORD an unblemished yearling lamb; this he shall offer every morning.

¹⁴With it every morning he shall provide as a cereal offering one sixth of an ephah, with a third of a hin of oil to moisten the fine flour. This cereal offering to the LORD is mandatory with the established holocaust.

¹⁵The lamb, the cereal offering, and the oil are to be offered every morning as an established holocaust.

¹⁶Thus says the Lord GOD: If the prince makes a gift of part of his inheritance to any of his sons, it shall belong to his sons; that property is theirs by inheritance.

¹⁷But if he makes a gift of part of his inheritance to one of his servants, it shall belong to the latter only until the year of release, when it shall revert to the prince. Only the inheritance given to his sons is permanent.

¹⁸The prince shall not seize any part of the inheritance of the people by evicting them from their property. He shall provide an inheritance for his sons from his own property, so that none of my people will be driven from their property.

¹⁹Then he brought me by the entrance which is on the side of the gate to the chambers (of the sanctuary, reserved to the priests) which face the north. There, at their west end, I saw a place,

²⁰concerning which he said to me, "Here the priests cook the guilt offerings and the sin offerings, and bake the cereal offerings, so that they do not have to take them into the outer court at the risk of transmitting holiness to the people."

²¹Then he led me into the outer court and had me pass around the four corners of the court, and I saw that in each corner there was another court:

²²in the four corners of the court, minor courts, forty cubits long and thirty wide, all four of them the same size.

²³A wall of stones surrounded each of the four, and hearths were built beneath the stones all the way around.

²⁴He said to me, "These are the kitchens where the temple ministers cook the sacrifices of the people."

47Then he brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water flowing out from beneath the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the facade of the temple was toward the east; the water flowed down from the southern side of the temple, south of the altar.

²He led me outside by the north gate, and around to the outer gate facing the east, where I saw water trickling from the southern side.

³Then when he had walked off to the east with a measuring cord in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and had me wade through the water, which was ankle-deep.

⁴He measured off another thousand and once more had me wade through the water, which was now knee-deep. Again he measured off a thousand and had me wade; the water was up to my waist.

⁵Once more he measured off a thousand, but there was now a river through which I could not wade; for the water had risen so high it had become a river that could not be crossed except by swimming.

⁶He asked me, "Have you seen this, son of man?" Then he brought me to the bank of the river, where he had me sit.

⁷Along the bank of the river I saw very many trees on both sides.

⁸He said to me, "This water flows into the eastern district down upon the Arabah, and empties into the sea, the salt waters, which it makes fresh.

⁹Wherever the river flows, every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live, and there shall be abundant fish, for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh.

¹⁰Fishermen shall be standing along it from En-gedi to En-eglaim, spreading their nets there. Its kinds of fish shall be like those of the Great Sea, very numerous.

¹¹Only its marshes and swamps shall not be made fresh; they shall be left for salt.

¹²Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of every kind shall grow; their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail. Every month they shall bear fresh fruit, for they shall be watered by the flow from the sanctuary. Their fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for medicine."

¹³Thus says the Lord GOD: These are the boundaries within which you shall apportion the land among the twelve tribes of Israel (Joseph having two portions).

¹⁴All of you shall have a like portion in this land which I swore to give to your fathers, that it might fall to you as your inheritance.

¹⁵This is the boundary of the land on the north side: from the Great Sea in the direction of Hethlon, past Labo of Hamath, to Zedad,

¹⁶Berothah, and Sibraim, along the frontiers of Hamath and Damascus, to Hazar-enon which is on the border of the Hauran.

¹⁷Thus the border shall extend from the sea to Hazar-enon, with the frontier of Hamath and Damascus to the north. This is the northern boundary.

¹⁸The eastern boundary: between the Hauran--toward Damascus--and Gilead on the one side, and the land of Israel on the other side, the Jordan shall form the boundary down to the eastern sea as far as Tamar. This is the eastern boundary.

¹⁹The southern boundary: from Tamar to the waters of Meribath-kadesh, thence to the Wadi of Egypt, and on to the Great Sea. This is the southern boundary.

²⁰The western boundary: the Great Sea forms the boundary up to a point parallel to Labo of Hamath. This is the western boundary.

²¹You shall distribute this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel.

²²You shall allot it as inheritances for yourselves and for the aliens resident in your midst who have bred children among you. The latter shall be to you like native Israelites; along with you they shall receive inheritances among the tribes of Israel.

²³In whatever tribe the alien may be resident, there you shall assign him his inheritance, says the Lord GOD.

48This is the list of the tribes. Dan: at the northern extremity, adjoining Hamath, all along from the approaches to Hethlon through Labo of Hamath to Hazar-enon, on the northerly border with Damascus, with his possession reaching from the eastern to the western boundary.

²Asher: on the frontier of Dan, from the eastern to the western boundary.

³Naphtali: on the frontier of Asher, from the eastern to the western boundary.

⁴Manasseh: on the frontier of Naphtali, from the eastern to the western boundary.

⁵Ephraim: on the frontier of Manasseh, from the eastern to the western boundary.

⁶Reuben: on the frontier of Ephraim, from the eastern to the western boundary.

⁷Judah: on the frontier of Reuben, from the eastern to the western boundary.

⁸On the frontier of Judah, from the eastern to the western boundary there shall be the tract which you shall set apart, twenty-five thousand cubits from north to south, and as wide as one of the tribal portions from the eastern to the western boundary. In the center of the tract shall be the sanctuary.

⁹The tract that you set aside for the LORD shall be twenty-five thousand cubits across by twenty thousand north and south.

¹⁰In this sacred tract the priests shall have twenty-five thousand cubits on the north, ten thousand on the west, ten thousand on the east, and twenty-five thousand on the south; and the sanctuary of the LORD shall be in its center.

¹¹The consecrated priests, the Zadokites, who fulfilled my service and did not stray along with the Israelites as the Levites did,

¹²shall have within this tract of land their own most sacred domain, next to the territory of the Levites.

¹³The Levites shall have a territory corresponding to that of the priests, twenty-five thousand cubits by ten thousand. The whole tract shall be twenty-five thousand cubits across and twenty thousand north and south.

¹⁴They may not sell or exchange or alienate this, the best part of the land, for it is sacred to the LORD.

¹⁵The remaining five thousand cubits along the twenty-five-thousand-cubit line are profane land, assigned to the City for dwellings and pasture; the City shall be at their center.

¹⁶These are the dimensions of the City: the north side, forty-five hundred cubits; the south side, forty-five hundred cubits; the east side, forty-five hundred cubits; and the west side, forty-five hundred cubits.

¹⁷The pasture lands of the City shall extend north two hundred and fifty cubits, south two hundred and fifty cubits, east two hundred and fifty cubits, and west two hundred and fifty cubits.

¹⁸There shall remain an area along the sacred tract, ten thousand cubits to the east and ten thousand to the west, whose produce shall provide food for the workers of the City.

¹⁹The workers in the City shall be taken from all the tribes of Israel.

²⁰The entire tract shall be twenty-five thousand by twenty-five thousand cubits; as a perfect square you shall set apart the sacred tract together with the City property.

²¹The remainder shall belong to the prince: the land on both sides of the sacred tract and the City property, extending along the twenty-five-thousand-cubit line eastward to the eastern boundary, and westward along the twenty-five-thousand-cubit line to the western boundary, a territory parallel with the tribal portions for the prince. The sacred tract and the sanctuary of the temple shall be in the middle.

²²Thus, except for the property of the Levites and the City property, which lie in the midst of the prince's property, the territory between the portions of Judah and of Benjamin shall belong to the prince.

²³These are the remaining tribes. Benjamin: from the eastern to the western boundary.

²⁴Simeon: on the frontier of Benjamin, from the eastern to the western boundary.

²⁵Issachar: on the frontier of Simeon, from the eastern to the western boundary.

²⁶Zebulun: on the frontier of Issachar, from the eastern to the western boundary.

²⁷Gad: on the frontier of Zebulun, from the eastern to the western boundary.

²⁸Along the frontier of Gad shall be the southern boundary, which shall extend from Tamar to the waters of Meribath-kadesh, and from there to the Wadi of Egypt, and on to the Great Sea.

²⁹Such is the land which you shall apportion as inheritances among the tribes of Israel, and these are their portions, says the Lord GOD.

³⁰These are the exits of the City, the gates of which are named after the tribes of Israel. On the north side, measuring forty-five hundred cubits,

³¹there shall be three gates: the gate of Reuben, the gate of Judah, and the gate of Levi.

³²On the east side, measuring forty-five hundred cubits, there shall be three gates: the gate of Joseph, the gate of Benjamin, and the gate of Dan.

³³On the south side, measuring forty-five hundred cubits, there shall be three gates: the gate of Simeon, the gate of Issachar, and the gate of Zebulun.

³⁴On the west side, measuring forty-five hundred cubits, there shall be three gates: the gate of Gad, the gate of Asher, and the gate of Naphtali.

³⁵The perimeter of the City is eighteen thousand cubits. The name of the City shall henceforth be "The LORD is here."

1In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came and laid siege to Jerusalem.

²The Lord handed over to him Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and some of the vessels of the temple of God, which he carried off to the land of Shinar, and placed in the temple treasury of his god.

³The king told Ashpenaz, his chief chamberlain, to bring in some of the Israelites of royal blood and of the nobility,

⁴young men without any defect, handsome, intelligent and wise, quick to learn, and prudent in judgment, such as could take their place in the king's palace; they were to be taught the language and literature of the Chaldeans;

⁵after three years' training they were to enter the king's service. The king allotted them a daily portion of food and wine from the royal table.

⁶Among these were men of Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

⁷The chief chamberlain changed their names: Daniel to Belteshazzar, Hananiah to Shadrach, Mishael to Meshach, and Azariah to Abednego.

⁸But Daniel was resolved not to defile himself with the king's food or wine; so he begged the chief chamberlain to spare him this defilement.

⁹Though God had given Daniel the favor and sympathy of the chief chamberlain,

¹⁰he nevertheless said to Daniel, "I am afraid of my lord the king; it is he who allotted your food and drink. If he sees that you look wretched by comparison with the other young men of your age, you will endanger my life with the king."

¹¹Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief chamberlain had put in charge of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,

¹²"Please test your servants for ten days. Give us vegetables to eat and water to drink.

¹³Then see how we look in comparison with the other young men who eat from the royal table, and treat your servants according to what you see."

¹⁴He acceded to this request, and tested them for ten days;

¹⁵after ten days they looked healthier and better fed than any of the young men who ate from the royal table.

¹⁶So the steward continued to take away the food and wine they were to receive, and gave them vegetables.

¹⁷To these four young men God gave knowledge and proficiency in all literature and science, and to Daniel the understanding of all visions and dreams.

¹⁸At the end of the time the king had specified for their preparation, the chief chamberlain brought them before Nebuchadnezzar.

¹⁹When the king had spoken with all of them, none was found equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; and so they entered the king's service.

²⁰In any question of wisdom or prudence which the king put to them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his kingdom.

²¹Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.

2In the second year of his reign, King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream which left his spirit no rest and robbed him of his sleep.

²So he ordered that the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and Chaldeans be summoned to interpret the dream for him. When they came and presented themselves to the king,

³he said to them, "I had a dream which will allow my spirit no rest until I know what it means."

⁴The Chaldeans answered the king (Aramaic): "O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream and we will give its meaning."

⁵The king answered the Chaldeans, "This is what I have decided: unless you tell me the dream and its meaning, you shall be cut to pieces and your houses destroyed.

⁶But if you tell me the dream and its meaning, you shall receive from me gifts and presents and great honors. Now tell me the dream and its meaning."

⁷Again they answered, "Let the king tell his servants the dream and we will give its meaning."

⁸But the king replied: "I know for certain that you are bargaining for time, since you know what I have decided.

⁹If you do not tell me the dream, there can be but one decree for you. You have framed a false and deceitful interpretation to present me with till the crisis is past. Tell me the dream, therefore, that I may be sure that you can also give its correct interpretation."

¹⁰The Chaldeans answered the king: "There is not a man on earth who can do what you ask, O king; never has any king, however great and mighty, asked such a thing of any magician, enchanter, or Chaldean.

¹¹What you demand, O king, is too difficult; there is no one who can tell it to the king except the gods who do not dwell among men."

¹²At this the king became violently angry and ordered all the wise men of Babylon to be put to death.

¹³When the decree was issued that the wise men should be slain, Daniel and his companions were also sought out.

¹⁴Then Daniel prudently took counsel with Arioch, the captain of the king's guard, who had set out to kill the wise men of Babylon:

¹⁵"O officer of the king," he asked, "what is the reason for this harsh order from the king?" When Arioch told him,

¹⁶Daniel went and asked for time from the king, that he might give him the interpretation.

¹⁷Daniel went home and informed his companions Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,

¹⁸that they might implore the mercy of the God of heaven in regard to this mystery, so that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

¹⁹During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision, and he blessed the God of heaven:

²⁰"Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and power are his.

²¹He causes the changes of the times and seasons, makes kings and unmakes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who understand.

²²He reveals deep and hidden things and knows what is in the darkness, for the light dwells with him.

²³To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, because you have given me wisdom and power. Now you have shown me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the king's dream."

²⁴So Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon, and said to him, "Do not put the wise men of Babylon to death. Bring me before the king, and I will tell him the interpretation of the dream." Arioch quickly brought Daniel to the king and said,

²⁵"I have found a man among the Judean captives who can give the interpretation to the king."

²⁶The king asked Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, "Can you tell me the dream that I had, and its meaning?"

²⁷In the king's presence Daniel made this reply: "The mystery about which the king has inquired, the wise men, enchanters, magicians, and astrologers could not explain to the king.

²⁸But there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what is to happen in days to come; this was the dream you saw as you lay in bed.

²⁹To you in your bed there came thoughts about what should happen in the future, and he who reveals mysteries showed you what is to be.

³⁰To me also this mystery has been revealed; not that I am wiser than any other living person, but in order that its meaning may be made known to the king, that you may understand the thoughts in your own mind.

³¹"In your vision, O king, you saw a statue, very large and exceedingly bright, terrifying in appearance as it stood before you.

³²The head of the statue was pure gold, its chest and arms were silver, its belly and thighs bronze,

³³the legs iron, its feet partly iron and partly tile.

³⁴While you looked at the statue, a stone which was hewn from a mountain without a hand being put to it, struck its iron and tile feet, breaking them in pieces.

³⁵The iron, tile, bronze, silver, and gold all crumbled at once, fine as the chaff on the threshing floor in summer, and the wind blew them away without leaving a trace. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

³⁶"This was the dream; the interpretation we shall also give in the king's presence.

³⁷You, O king, are the king of kings; to you the God of heaven has given dominion and strength, power and glory;

³⁸men, wild beasts, and birds of the air, wherever they may dwell, he has handed over to you, making you ruler over them all; you are the head of gold.

³⁹Another kingdom shall take your place, inferior to yours, then a third kingdom, of bronze, which shall rule over the whole earth.

⁴⁰There shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron; it shall break in pieces and subdue all these others, just as iron breaks in pieces and crushes everything else.

⁴¹The feet and toes you saw, partly of potter's tile and partly of iron, mean that it shall be a divided kingdom, but yet have some of the hardness of iron. As you saw the iron mixed with clay tile,

⁴²and the toes partly iron and partly tile, the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile.

⁴³The iron mixed with clay tile means that they shall seal their alliances by intermarriage, but they shall not stay united, any more than iron mixes with clay.

⁴⁴In the lifetime of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed or delivered up to another people; rather, it shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and put an end to them, and it shall stand forever.

⁴⁵That is the meaning of the stone you saw hewn from the mountain without a hand being put to it, which broke in pieces the tile, iron, bronze, silver, and gold. The great God has revealed to the king what shall be in the future; this is exactly what you dreamed, and its meaning is sure."

⁴⁶Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell down and worshiped Daniel and ordered sacrifice and incense offered to him.

⁴⁷To Daniel the king said, "Truly your God is the God of gods and Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries; that is why you were able to reveal this mystery."

⁴⁸He advanced Daniel to a high post, gave him many generous presents, made him ruler of the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon.

⁴⁹At Daniel's request the king made Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego administrators of the province of Babylon, while Daniel himself remained at the king's court.

3King Nebuchadnezzar had a golden statue made, sixty cubits high and six cubits wide, which he set up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.

²He then ordered the satraps, prefects, and governors, the counselors, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the officials of the provinces to be summoned to the dedication of the statue which he had set up.

³The satraps, prefects, and governors, the counselors, treasurers, judges, and magistrates and all the officials of the provinces, all these came together for the dedication and stood before the statue which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

⁴A herald cried out: "Nations and peoples of every language, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, flute, lyre, harp, psaltery, bagpipe, and all the other musical instruments,

⁵you are ordered to fall down and worship the golden statue which King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.

⁶Whoever does not fall down and worship shall be instantly cast into a white-hot furnace."

⁷Therefore, as soon as they heard the sound of the trumpet, flute, lyre, harp, psaltery, bagpipe, and all the other musical instruments, the nations and peoples of every language all fell down and worshiped the golden statue which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

⁸At that point, some of the Chaldeans came and accused the Jews

⁹to King Nebuchadnezzar: "O king, live forever!

¹⁰O king, you issued a decree that everyone who heard the sound of the trumpet, flute, lyre, harp, psaltery, bagpipe, and all the other musical instruments should fall down and worship the golden statue;

¹¹whoever did not was to be cast into a white-hot furnace.

¹²There are certain Jews whom you have made administrators of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego; these men, O king, have paid no attention to you; they will not serve your god or worship the golden statue which you set up."

¹³Nebuchadnezzar flew into a rage and sent for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who were promptly brought before the king.

¹⁴King Nebuchadnezzar questioned them: "Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you will not serve my god, or worship the golden statue that I set up?

¹⁵Be ready now to fall down and worship the statue I had made, whenever you hear the sound of the trumpet, flute, lyre, harp, psaltery, bagpipe, and all the other musical instruments; otherwise, you shall be instantly cast into the white-hot furnace; and who is the God that can deliver you out of my hands?"

¹⁶Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered King Nebuchadnezzar, "There is no need for us to defend ourselves before you in this matter.

¹⁷If our God, whom we serve, can save us from the white-hot furnace and from your hands, O king, may he save us!

¹⁸But even if he will not, know, O king, that we will not serve your god or worship the golden statue which you set up."

¹⁹Nebuchadnezzar's face became livid with utter rage against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He ordered the furnace to be heated seven times more than usual

²⁰and had some of the strongest men in his army bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and cast them into the white-hot furnace.

²¹They were bound and cast into the white-hot furnace with their coats, hats, shoes and other garments,

²²for the king's order was urgent. So huge a fire was kindled in the furnace that the flames devoured the men who threw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into it.

²³But these three fell, bound, into the midst of the white-hot furnace.

²⁴They walked about in the flames, singing to God and blessing the Lord.

²⁵In the fire Azariah stood up and prayed aloud:

²⁶"Blessed are you, and praiseworthy, O Lord, the God of our fathers, and glorious forever is your name.

²⁷For you are just in all you have done; all your deeds are faultless, all your ways right, and all your judgments proper.

²⁸You have executed proper judgments in all that you have brought upon us and upon Jerusalem, the holy city of our fathers. By a proper judgment you have done all this because of our sins;

²⁹For we have sinned and transgressed by departing from you, and we have done every kind of evil.

³⁰Your commandments we have not heeded or observed, nor have we done as you ordered us for our good.

³¹Therefore all you have brought upon us, all you have done to us,you have done by a proper judgment.

³²You have handed us over to our enemies, lawless and hateful rebels; to an unjust king, the worst in all the world.

³³Now we cannot open our mouths; we, your servants, who revere you, have become a shame and a reproach.

³⁴For your name's sake, do not deliver us up forever, or make void your covenant.

³⁵Do not take away your mercy from us, for the sake of Abraham, your beloved, Isaac your servant, and Israel your holy one,

³⁶To whom you promised to multiply their offspring like the stars of heaven, or the sand on the shore of the sea.

³⁷For we are reduced, O Lord, beyond any other nation, brought low everywhere in the world this day because of our sins.

³⁸We have in our day no prince, prophet, or leader, no holocaust, sacrifice, oblation, or incense, no place to offer first fruits, to find favor with you.

³⁹But with contrite heart and humble spirit let us be received;

⁴⁰As though it were holocausts of rams and bullocks, or thousands of fat lambs, So let our sacrifice be in your presence today as we follow you unreservedly; for those who trust in you cannot be put to shame.

⁴¹And now we follow you with our whole heart, we fear you and we pray to you.

⁴²Do not let us be put to shame, but deal with us in your kindness and great mercy.

⁴³Deliver us by your wonders, and bring glory to your name, O Lord:

⁴⁴Let all those be routed who inflict evils on your servants; Let them be shamed and powerless, and their strength broken;

⁴⁵Let them know that you alone are the Lord God, glorious over the whole world."

⁴⁶Now the king's men who had thrown them in continued to stoke the furnace with brimstone, pitch, tow, and faggots.

⁴⁷The flames rose forty-nine cubits above the furnace,

⁴⁸and spread out, burning the Chaldeans nearby.

⁴⁹But the angel of the Lord went down into the furnace with Azariah and his companions, drove the fiery flames out of the furnace,

⁵⁰and made the inside of the furnace as though a dew-laden breeze were blowing through it. The fire in no way touched them or caused them pain or harm.

⁵¹Then these three in the furnace with one voice sang, glorifying and blessing God:

⁵²"Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers, praiseworthy and exalted above all forever; And blessed is your holy and glorious name, praiseworthy and exalted above all for all ages.

⁵³Blessed are you in the temple of your holy glory, praiseworthy and glorious above all forever.

⁵⁴Blessed are you on the throne of your kingdom, praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.

⁵⁵Blessed are you who look into the depths from your throne upon the cherubim, praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.

⁵⁶Blessed are you in the firmament of heaven, praiseworthy and glorious forever.

⁵⁷Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord, praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁵⁸Angels of the Lord, bless the Lord, praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁵⁹You heavens, bless the Lord, praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁶⁰All you waters above the heavens, bless the Lord, praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁶¹All you hosts of the Lord, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁶²Sun and moon, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁶³Stars of heaven, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁶⁴Every shower and dew, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁶⁵All you winds, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁶⁶Fire and heat, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁶⁷[Cold and chill, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁶⁸Dew and rain, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁶⁹Frost and chill, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁷⁰Ice and snow, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁷¹Nights and days, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁷²Light and darkness, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁷³Lightnings and clouds, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁷⁴Let the earth bless the Lord, praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁷⁵Mountains and hills, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁷⁶Everything growing from the earth, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁷⁷You springs, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁷⁸Seas and rivers, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁷⁹You dolphins and all water creatures, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁸⁰All you birds of the air, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁸¹All you beasts, wild and tame, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁸²You sons of men, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁸³O Israel, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁸⁴Priests of the Lord, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁸⁵Servants of the Lord, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁸⁶Spirits and souls of the just, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁸⁷Holy men of humble heart, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

⁸⁸Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever. For he has delivered us from the nether world, and saved us from the power of death; He has freed us from the raging flame and delivered us from the fire.

⁸⁹Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever.

⁹⁰Bless the God of gods, all you who fear the Lord; praise him and give him thanks, because his mercy endures forever." Hearing them sing, and astonished at seeing them alive,

⁹¹King Nebuchadnezzar rose in haste and asked his nobles, "Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?" "Assuredly, O king," they answered.

⁹²"But," he replied, "I see four men unfettered and unhurt, walking in the fire, and the fourth looks like a son of God."

⁹³Then Nebuchadnezzar came to the opening of the white-hot furnace and called to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: "Servants of the most high God, come out." Thereupon Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire.

⁹⁴When the satraps, prefects, governors, and nobles of the king came together, they saw that the fire had had no power over the bodies of these men; not a hair of their heads had been singed, nor were their garments altered; there was not even a smell of fire about them.

⁹⁵Nebuchadnezzar exclaimed, "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who sent his angel to deliver the servants that trusted in him; they disobeyed the royal command and yielded their bodies rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.

⁹⁶Therefore I decree for nations and peoples of every language that whoever blasphemes the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut to pieces and his house destroyed. For there is no other God who can rescue like this."

⁹⁷Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

⁹⁸King Nebuchadnezzar to the nations and peoples of every language, wherever they dwell on earth: abundant peace!

⁹⁹It has seemed good to me to publish the signs and wonders which the most high God has accomplished in my regard.

¹⁰⁰How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders; his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures through all generations.

4I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at home in my palace, content and prosperous.

²I had a terrifying dream as I lay in bed, and the images and the visions of my mind frightened me.

³So I issued a decree that all the wise men of Babylon should be brought before me to give the interpretation of the dream.

⁴When the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans, and astrologers had come in, I related the dream before them; but none of them could tell me its meaning.

⁵Finally there came before me Daniel, whose name is Belteshazzar after the name of my god, and in whom is the spirit of the holy God. I repeated the dream to him:

⁶"Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, I know that the spirit of the holy God is in you and no mystery is too difficult for you; tell me the meaning of the visions that I saw in my dream.

⁷"These were the visions I saw while in bed: I saw a tree of great height at the center of the world.

⁸It was large and strong, with its top touching the heavens, and it could be seen to the ends of the earth.

⁹Its leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, providing food for all. Under it the wild beasts found shade, in its branches the birds of the air nested; all men ate of it.

¹⁰In the vision I saw while in bed, a holy sentinel came down from heaven,

¹¹and cried out: " 'Cut down the tree and lop off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit; let the beasts flee its shade, and the birds its branches.

¹²But leave in the earth its stump and roots, fettered with iron and bronze, in the grass of the field. Let him be bathed with the dew of heaven; his lot be to eat, among beasts, the grass of the earth.

¹³Let his mind be changed from the human; let him be given the sense of a beast, till seven years pass over him.

¹⁴By decree of the sentinels is this decided, by order of the holy ones, this sentence; That all who live may know that the Most High rules over the kingdom of men: He can give it to whom he will, or set over it the lowliest of men.'

¹⁵"This is the dream that I, King Nebuchadnezzar, had. Now, Belteshazzar, tell me its meaning. Although none of the wise men in my kingdom can tell me the meaning, you can, because the spirit of the holy God is in you."

¹⁶Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was appalled for a while, terrified by his thoughts. "Belteshazzar," the king said to him, "let not the dream or its meaning terrify you."

¹⁷"My lord," Belteshazzar replied, "this dream should be for your enemies, and its meaning for your foes. The large, strong tree that you saw, with its top touching the heavens, that could be seen by the whole earth,

¹⁸which had beautiful foliage and abundant fruit, providing food for all, under which the wild beasts lived, and in whose branches the birds of the air dwelt--

¹⁹you are that tree, O king, large and strong! Your majesty has become so great as to touch the heavens, and your rule extends over the whole earth.

²⁰As for the king's vision of a holy sentinel that came down from heaven and proclaimed: 'Cut down the tree and destroy it, but leave in the earth its stump and roots, fettered with iron and bronze in the grass of the field; let him be bathed with the dew of heaven, and let his lot be among wild beasts till seven years pass over him'--

²¹this is its meaning, O king; this is the sentence which the Most High has passed upon my lord king:

²²You shall be cast out from among men and dwell with wild beasts; you shall be given grass to eat like an ox and be bathed with the dew of heaven; seven years shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules over the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.

²³The command that the stump and roots of the tree are to be left means that your kingdom shall be preserved for you, once you have learned it is heaven that rules.

²⁴Therefore, O king, take my advice; atone for your sins by good deeds, and for your misdeeds by kindness to the poor; then your prosperity will be long."

²⁵All this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar.

²⁶Twelve months later, as he was walking on the roof of the royal palace in Babylon,

²⁷the king said, "Babylon the great! Was it not I, with my great strength, who built it as a royal residence for my splendor and majesty?"

²⁸While these words were still on the king's lips, a voice spoke from heaven, "It has been decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar, that your kingdom is taken from you!

²⁹You shall be cast out from among men, and shall dwell with wild beasts; you shall be given grass to eat like an ox, and seven years shall pass over you, until you learn that the Most High rules over the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will."

³⁰At once this was fulfilled. Nebuchadnezzar was cast out from among men, he ate grass like an ox, and his body was bathed with the dew of heaven, until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle, and his nails like the claws of a bird.

³¹When this period was over, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes to heaven; my reason was restored to me, and I blessed the Most High, I praised and glorified him who lives forever: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures through all generations.

³²All who live on the earth are counted as nothing; he does as he pleases with the powers of heaven as well as with those who live on the earth. There is no one who can stay his hand or say to him, "What have you done?"

³³At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and my splendor returned to me. My nobles and lords sought me out; I was restored to my kingdom, and became much greater than before.

³⁴Therefore, I, Nebuchadnezzar, now praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because all his works are right and his ways just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.

5King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his lords, with whom he drank.

²Under the influence of the wine, he ordered the gold and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar, his father, had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, to be brought in so that the king, his lords, his wives and his entertainers might drink from them.

³When the gold and silver vessels taken from the house of God in Jerusalem had been brought in, and while the king, his lords, his wives and his entertainers were drinking

⁴wine from them, they praised their gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.

⁵Suddenly, opposite the lampstand, the fingers of a human hand appeared, writing on the plaster of the wall in the king's palace. When the king saw the wrist and hand that wrote,

⁶his face blanched; his thoughts terrified him, his hip joints shook, and his knees knocked.

⁷The king shouted for the enchanters, Chaldeans, and astrologers to be brought in. "Whoever reads this writing and tells me what it means," he said to the wise men of Babylon, "shall be clothed in purple, wear a golden collar about his neck, and be third in the government of the kingdom."

⁸But though all the king's wise men came in, none of them could either read the writing or tell the king what it meant.

⁹Then King Belshazzar was greatly terrified; his face went ashen, and his lords were thrown into confusion.

¹⁰When the queen heard of the discussion between the king and his lords, she entered the banquet hall and said, "O king, live forever! Be not troubled in mind, nor look so pale!

¹¹There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy God; during the lifetime of your father he was seen to have brilliant knowledge and god-like wisdom. In fact, King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, made him chief of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans, and astrologers,

¹²because of the extraordinary mind possessed by this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. He knew and understood how to interpret dreams, explain enigmas, and solve difficulties. Now therefore, summon Daniel to tell you what this means."

¹³Then Daniel was brought into the presence of the king. The king asked him, "Are you the Daniel, the Jewish exile, whom my father, the king, brought from Judah?

¹⁴I have heard that the spirit of God is in you, that you possess brilliant knowledge and extraordinary wisdom.

¹⁵Now, the wise men and enchanters were brought in to me to read this writing and tell me its meaning, but they could not say what the words meant.

¹⁶But I have heard that you can interpret dreams and solve difficulties; if you are able to read the writing and tell me what it means, you shall be clothed in purple, wear a gold collar about your neck, and be third in the government of the kingdom."

¹⁷Daniel answered the king: "You may keep your gifts, or give your presents to someone else; but the writing I will read for you, O king, and tell you what it means.

¹⁸The Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar a great kingdom and glorious majesty.

¹⁹Because he made him so great, the nations and peoples of every language dreaded and feared him. Whomever he wished, he killed or let live; whomever he wished, he exalted or humbled.

²⁰But when his heart became proud and his spirit hardened by insolence, he was put down from his royal throne and deprived of his glory;

²¹he was cast out from among men and was made insensate as a beast; he lived with wild asses, and ate grass like an ox; his body was bathed with the dew of heaven, until he learned that the Most High God rules over the kingdom of men and appoints over it whom he will.

²²You, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this;

²³you have rebelled against the Lord of heaven. You had the vessels of his temple brought before you, so that you and your nobles, your wives and your entertainers, might drink wine from them; and you praised the gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, that neither see nor hear nor have intelligence. But the God in whose hand is your life breath and the whole course of your life, you did not glorify.

²⁴By him were the wrist and hand sent, and the writing set down.

²⁵"This is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, TEKEL, and PERES. These words mean:

²⁶MENE, God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it;

²⁷TEKEL, you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting;

²⁸PERES, your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians."

²⁹Then by order of Belshazzar they clothed Daniel in purple, with a gold collar about his neck, and proclaimed him third in the government of the kingdom.

³⁰The same night Belshazzar, the Chaldean king, was slain:

6And Darius the Mede succeeded to the kingdom at the age of sixty-two.

²Darius decided to appoint over his entire kingdom one hundred and twenty satraps, to safeguard his interests;

³these were accountable to three supervisors, one of whom was Daniel.

⁴Daniel outshone all the supervisors and satraps because an extraordinary spirit was in him, and the king thought of giving him authority over the entire kingdom.

⁵Therefore the supervisors and satraps tried to find grounds for accusation against Daniel as regards the administration. But they could accuse him of no wrongdoing; because he was trustworthy, no fault of neglect or misconduct was to be found in him.

⁶Then these men said to themselves, "We shall find no grounds for accusation against this Daniel unless by way of the law of his God."

⁷So these supervisors and satraps went thronging to the king and said to him, "King Darius, live forever!

⁸All the supervisors of the kingdom, the prefects, satraps, nobles, and governors are agreed that the following prohibition ought to be put in force by royal decree: no one is to address any petition to god or man for thirty days, except to you, O king; otherwise he shall be cast into a den of lions.

⁹Now, O king, issue the prohibition over your signature, immutable and irrevocable under Mede and Persian law."

¹⁰So King Darius signed the prohibition and made it law.

¹¹Even after Daniel heard that this law had been signed, he continued his custom of going home to kneel in prayer and give thanks to his God in the upper chamber three times a day, with the windows open toward Jerusalem.

¹²So these men rushed in and found Daniel praying and pleading before his God.

¹³Then they went to remind the king about the prohibition: "Did you not decree, O king, that no one is to address a petition to god or man for thirty days, except to you, O king; otherwise he shall be cast into a den of lions?" The king answered them, "The decree is absolute, irrevocable under the Mede and Persian law."

¹⁴To this they replied, "Daniel, the Jewish exile, has paid no attention to you, O king, or to the decree you issued; three times a day he offers his prayer."

¹⁵The king was deeply grieved at this news and he made up his mind to save Daniel; he worked till sunset to rescue him.

¹⁶But these men insisted. "Keep in mind, O king," they said, "that under the Mede and Persian law every royal prohibition or decree is irrevocable."

¹⁷So the king ordered Daniel to be brought and cast into the lions' den. To Daniel he said, "May your God, whom you serve so constantly, save you."

¹⁸To forestall any tampering, the king sealed with his own ring and the rings of the lords the stone that had been brought to block the opening of the den.

¹⁹Then the king returned to his palace for the night; he refused to eat and he dismissed the entertainers. Since sleep was impossible for him,

²⁰the king rose very early the next morning and hastened to the lions' den.

²¹As he drew near, he cried out to Daniel sorrowfully, "O Daniel, servant of the living God, has the God whom you serve so constantly been able to save you from the lions?"

²²Daniel answered the king: "O king, live forever!

²³My God has sent his angel and closed the lions' mouths so that they have not hurt me. For I have been found innocent before him; neither to you have I done any harm, O king!"

²⁴This gave the king great joy. At his order Daniel was removed from the den, unhurt because he trusted in his God.

²⁵The king then ordered the men who had accused Daniel, along with their children and their wives, to be cast into the lions' den. Before they reached the bottom of the den, the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.

²⁶Then King Darius wrote to the nations and peoples of every language, wherever they dwell on the earth: "All peace to you!

²⁷I decree that throughout my royal domain the God of Daniel is to be reverenced and feared: "For he is the living God, enduring forever; his kingdom shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be without end.

²⁸He is a deliverer and savior, working signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, and he delivered Daniel from the lions' power."

²⁹So Daniel fared well during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.

7In the first year of King Belshazzar of Babylon, Daniel had a dream as he lay in bed, and was terrified by the visions of his mind. Then he wrote down the dream; the account began:

²In the vision I saw during the night, suddenly the four winds of heaven stirred up the great sea,

³from which emerged four immense beasts, each different from the others.

⁴The first was like a lion, but with eagle's wings. While I watched, the wings were plucked; it was raised from the ground to stand on two feet like a man, and given a human mind.

⁵The second was like a bear; it was raised up on one side, and among the teeth in its mouth were three tusks. It was given the order, "Up, devour much flesh."

⁶After this I looked and saw another beast, like a leopard; on its back were four wings like those of a bird, and it had four heads. To this beast dominion was given.

⁷After this, in the visions of the night I saw the fourth beast, different from all the others, terrifying, horrible, and of extraordinary strength; it had great iron teeth with which it devoured and crushed, and what was left it trampled with its feet.

⁸I was considering the ten horns it had, when suddenly another, a little horn, sprang out of their midst, and three of the previous horns were torn away to make room for it. This horn had eyes like a man, and a mouth that spoke arrogantly.

⁹As I watched, Thrones were set up and the Ancient One took his throne. His clothing was snow bright, and the hair on his head as white as wool; His throne was flames of fire, with wheels of burning fire.

¹⁰A surging stream of fire flowed out from where he sat; Thousands upon thousands were ministering to him, and myriads upon myriads attended him. The court was convened, and the books were opened.

¹¹I watched, then, from the first of the arrogant words which the horn spoke, until the beast was slain and its body thrown into the fire to be burnt up.

¹²The other beasts, which also lost their dominion, were granted a prolongation of life for a time and a season.

¹³As the visions during the night continued, I saw One like a son of man coming, on the clouds of heaven; When he reached the Ancient One and was presented before him,

¹⁴He received dominion, glory, and kingship; nations and peoples of every language serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away, his kingship shall not be destroyed.

¹⁵I, Daniel, found my spirit anguished within its sheath of flesh, and I was terrified by the visions of my mind.

¹⁶I approached one of those present and asked him what all this meant in truth; in answer, he made known to me the meaning of the things:

¹⁷"These four great beasts stand for four kingdoms which shall arise on the earth.

¹⁸But the holy ones of the Most High shall receive the kingship, to possess it forever and ever."

¹⁹But I wished to make certain about the fourth beast, so very terrible and different from the others, devouring and crushing with its iron teeth and bronze claws, and trampling with its feet what was left;

²⁰about the ten horns on its head, and the other one that sprang up, before which three horns fell; about the horn with the eyes and the mouth that spoke arrogantly, which appeared greater than its fellows.

²¹For, as I watched, that horn made war against the holy ones and was victorious

²²until the Ancient One arrived; judgment was pronounced in favor of the holy ones of the Most High, and the time came when the holy ones possessed the kingdom.

²³He answered me thus: "The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, different from all the others; It shall devour the whole earth, beat it down, and crush it.

²⁴The ten horns shall be ten kings rising out of that kingdom; another shall rise up after them, Different from those before him, who shall lay low three kings.

²⁵He shall speak against the Most High and oppress the holy ones of the Most High, thinking to change the feast days and the law. They shall be handed over to him for a year, two years, and a half-year.

²⁶But when the court is convened, and his power is taken away by final and absolute destruction,

²⁷Then the kingship and dominion and majesty of all the kingdoms under the heavens shall be given to the holy people of the Most High, Whose kingdom shall be everlasting: all dominions shall serve and obey him."

²⁸The report concluded: I, Daniel, was greatly terrified by my thoughts, and my face blanched, but I kept the matter to myself.

8After this first vision, I, Daniel, had another, in the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar.

²In my vision I saw myself in the fortress of Susa in the province of Elam; I was beside the river Ulai.

³I looked up and saw standing by the river a ram with two great horns, the one larger and newer than the other.

⁴I saw the ram butting toward the west, north, and south. No beast could withstand it or be rescued from its power; it did what it pleased and became very powerful.

⁵As I was reflecting, a he-goat with a prominent horn on its forehead suddenly came from the west across the whole earth without touching the ground.

⁶It approached the two-horned ram I had seen standing by the river, and rushed toward it with savage force.

⁷I saw it attack the ram with furious blows when they met, and break both its horns. It threw the ram, which had not the force to withstand it, to the ground, and trampled upon it; and no one could rescue it from its power.

⁸The he-goat became very powerful, but at the height of its power the great horn was shattered, and in its place came up four others, facing the four winds of heaven.

⁹Out of one of them came a little horn which kept growing toward the south, the east, and the glorious country.

¹⁰Its power extended to the host of heaven, so that it cast down to earth some of the host and some of the stars and trampled on them.

¹¹It boasted even against the prince of the host, from whom it removed the daily sacrifice, and whose sanctuary it cast down,

¹²as well as the host, while sin replaced the daily sacrifice. It cast truth to the ground, and was succeeding in its undertaking.

¹³I heard a holy one speaking, and another said to whichever one it was that spoke, "How long shall the events of this vision last concerning the daily sacrifice, the desolating sin which is placed there, the sanctuary, and the trampled host?"

¹⁴He answered him, "For two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary shall be purified."

¹⁵While I, Daniel, sought the meaning of the vision I had seen, a manlike figure stood before me,

¹⁶and on the Ulai I heard a human voice that cried out, "Gabriel, explain the vision to this man."

¹⁷When he came near where I was standing, I fell prostrate in terror. But he said to me, "Understand, son of man, that the vision refers to the end time."

¹⁸As he spoke to me, I fell forward in a faint; he touched me and made me stand up.

¹⁹"I will show you," he said, "what is to happen later in the period of wrath; for at the appointed time, there will be an end.

²⁰"The two-horned ram you saw represents the kings of the Medes and Persians.

²¹The he-goat is the king of the Greeks, and the great horn on its forehead is the first king.

²²The four that rose in its place when it was broken are four kingdoms that will issue from his nation, but without his strength.

²³"After their reign, when sinners have reached their measure, There shall arise a king, impudent and skilled in intrigue.

²⁴He shall be strong and powerful, bring about fearful ruin, and succeed in his undertaking. He shall destroy powerful peoples;

²⁵his cunning shall be against the holy ones, his treacherous conduct shall succeed. He shall be proud of heart and destroy many by stealth. But when he rises against the prince of princes, he shall be broken without a hand being raised.

²⁶The vision of the evenings and the mornings is true, as spoken; Do you, however, keep this vision undisclosed, because the days are to be many."

²⁷I, Daniel, was weak and ill for some days; then I arose and took care of the king's affairs. But I was appalled at the vision, which I could not understand.

9It was the first year that Darius, son of Ahasuerus, of the race of the Medes, reigned over the kingdom of the Chaldeans;

²in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, tried to understand in the Scriptures the counting of the years of which the LORD spoke to the prophet Jeremiah: that for the ruins of Jerusalem seventy years must be fulfilled.

³I turned to the Lord God, pleading in earnest prayer, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

⁴I prayed to the LORD, my God, and confessed, "Ah, Lord, great and awesome God, you who keep your merciful covenant toward those who love you and observe your commandments!

⁵We have sinned, been wicked and done evil; we have rebelled and departed from your commandments and your laws.

⁶We have not obeyed your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers, and all the people of the land.

⁷Justice, O Lord, is on your side; we are shamefaced even to this day: the men of Judah, the residents of Jerusalem, and all Israel, near and far, in all the countries to which you have scattered them because of their treachery toward you.

⁸O LORD, we are shamefaced, like our kings, our princes, and our fathers, for having sinned against you.

⁹But yours, O Lord, our God, are compassion and forgiveness! Yet we rebelled against you

¹⁰and paid no heed to your command, O LORD, our God, to live by the law you gave us through your servants the prophets.

¹¹Because all Israel transgressed your law and went astray, not heeding your voice, the sworn malediction, recorded in the law of Moses, the servant of God, was poured out over us for our sins.

¹²You carried out the threats you spoke against us and against those who governed us, by bringing upon us in Jerusalem the greatest calamity that has ever occurred under heaven.

¹³As it is written in the law of Moses, this calamity came full upon us. As we did not appease the LORD, our God, by turning back from our wickedness and recognizing his constancy,

¹⁴so the LORD kept watch over the calamity and brought it upon us. You, O LORD, our God, are just in all that you have done, for we did not listen to your voice.

¹⁵"Now, O Lord, our God, who led your people out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand, and made a name for yourself even to this day, we have sinned, we are guilty.

¹⁶O Lord, in keeping with all your just deeds, let your anger and your wrath be turned away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain. On account of our sins and the crimes of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become the reproach of all our neighbors.

¹⁷Hear, therefore, O God, the prayer and petition of your servant; and for your own sake, O Lord, let your face shine upon your desolate sanctuary.

¹⁸Give ear, O my God, and listen; open your eyes and see our ruins and the city which bears your name. When we present our petition before you, we rely not on our just deeds, but on your great mercy.

¹⁹O Lord, hear! O Lord, pardon! O Lord, be attentive and act without delay, for your own sake, O my God, because this city and your people bear your name!"

²⁰I was still occupied with my prayer, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, presenting my petition to the LORD, my God, on behalf of his holy mountain--

²¹I was still occupied with this prayer, when Gabriel, the one whom I had seen before in vision, came to me in rapid flight at the time of the evening sacrifice.

²²He instructed me in these words: "Daniel, I have now come to give you understanding.

²³When you began your petition, an answer was given which I have come to announce, because you are beloved. Therefore, mark the answer and understand the vision.

²⁴"Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and for your holy city: Then transgression will stop and sin will end, guilt will be expiated, Everlasting justice will be introduced, vision and prophecy ratified, and a most holy will be anointed.

²⁵Know and understand this: From the utterance of the word that Jerusalem was to be rebuilt Until one who is anointed and a leader, there shall be seven weeks. During sixty-two weeks it shall be rebuilt, With streets and trenches, in time of affliction.

²⁶After the sixty-two weeks an anointed shall be cut down when he does not possess the city; And the people of a leader who will come shall destroy the sanctuary. Then the end shall come like a torrent; until the end there shall be war, the desolation that is decreed.

²⁷For one week he shall make a firm compact with the many; Half the week he shall abolish sacrifice and oblation; On the temple wing shall be the horrible abomination until the ruin that is decreed is poured out upon the horror."

10In the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, a revelation was given to Daniel, who had been named Belteshazzar. The revelation was certain: a great war; he understood it from the vision.

²In those days, I, Daniel, mourned three full weeks.

³I ate no savory food, I took no meat or wine, and I did not anoint myself at all until the end of the three weeks.

⁴On the twenty-fourth day of the first month I was on the bank of the great river, the Tigris.

⁵As I looked up, I saw a man dressed in linen with a belt of fine gold around his waist.

⁶His body was like chrysolite, his face shown like lightning, his eyes were like fiery torches, his arms and feet looked like burnished bronze, and his voice sounded like the roar of a multitude.

⁷I alone, Daniel, saw the vision; but great fear seized the men who were with me; they fled and hid themselves, although they did not see the vision.

⁸So I was left alone, seeing this great vision. No strength remained in me; I turned the color of death and was powerless.

⁹When I heard the sound of his voice, I fell face forward in a faint.

¹⁰But then a hand touched me, raising me to my hands and knees.

¹¹"Daniel, beloved," he said to me, "understand the words which I am speaking to you; stand up, for my mission now is to you." When he said this to me, I stood up trembling.

¹²"Fear not, Daniel," he continued; "from the first day you made up your mind to acquire understanding and humble yourself before God, your prayer was heard. Because of it I started out,

¹³but the prince of the kingdom of Persia stood in my way for twenty-one days, until finally Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me. I left him there with the prince of the kings of Persia,

¹⁴and came to make you understand what shall happen to your people in the days to come; for there is yet a vision concerning those days."

¹⁵While he was speaking thus to me, I fell forward and kept silent.

¹⁶Then something like a man's hand touched my lips; I opened my mouth and said to the one facing me, "My lord, I was seized with pangs at the vision and I was powerless.

¹⁷How can my lord's servant speak with you, my lord? For now no strength or even breath is left in me."

¹⁸The one who looked like a man touched me again and strengthened me, saying,

¹⁹"Fear not, beloved, you are safe; take courage and be strong."

²⁰When he spoke to me, I grew strong and said, "Speak, my lord, for you have strengthened me." "Do you know," he asked, "why I have come to you? Soon I must fight the prince of Persia again. When I leave, the prince of Greece will come;

²¹but I shall tell you what is written in the truthful book. No one supports me against all these except Michael, your prince,

11standing as a reinforcement and a bulwark for me.

²Now I shall tell you the truth. "Three kings of Persia are yet to come; and a fourth shall acquire the greatest riches of all. Strengthened by his riches, he shall rouse all the kingdom of Greece.

³But a powerful king shall appear and rule with great might, doing as he pleases.

⁴No sooner shall he appear than his kingdom shall be broken and divided in four directions under heaven; but not among his descendants or in keeping with his mighty rule, for his kingdom shall be torn to pieces and belong to others than they.

⁵"The king of the south shall grow strong, but one of his princes shall grow stronger still and govern a domain greater than his.

⁶After some years they shall become allies: the daughter of the king of the south shall come to the king of the north in the interest of peace. But her bid for power shall fail: and her line shall not be recognized, and she shall be given up, together with those who brought her, her son and her husband. But later

⁷a descendant of her line shall succeed to his rank, and shall come against the rampart and enter the stronghold of the king of the north, and conquer them.

⁸Even their gods, with their molten images and their precious vessels of silver and gold, he shall carry away as booty into Egypt. For years he shall have nothing to do with the king of the north.

⁹Then the latter shall invade the land of the king of the south, and return to his own country.

¹⁰"But his sons shall prepare and assemble a great armed host, which shall advance like a flood, then withdraw. When it returns and surges around the stronghold,

¹¹the king of the south, provoked, shall go out to fight against the king of the north, whose great host shall make a stand but shall be given into his hand

¹²and be carried off. In the pride of his heart, he shall lay low tens of thousands, but he shall not triumph.

¹³For the king of the north shall raise another army, greater than before; after some years he shall attack with this large army and great resources.

¹⁴In those times many shall resist the king of the south, and outlaws of your people shall rise up in fulfillment of vision, but they shall fail.

¹⁵When the king of the north comes, he shall set up siegeworks and take the fortified city by storm. The power of the south shall not withstand him, and not even his picked troops shall have the strength to resist.

¹⁶He shall attack him and do as he pleases, with no one to withstand him. He shall stop in the glorious land, dealing destruction.

¹⁷He shall set himself to penetrate the entire strength of his kingdom. He shall conclude an agreement with him and give him a daughter in marriage in order to destroy the kingdom, but this shall not succeed in his favor.

¹⁸He shall turn to the coastland and take many, but a leader shall put an end to his shameful conduct, so that he cannot renew it against him.

¹⁹He shall turn to the strongholds of his own land, but shall stumble and fall, to be found no more.

²⁰In his stead one shall arise who will send a tax collector through the glorious kingdom, but he shall soon be destroyed, though not in conflict or in battle.

²¹"There shall rise in his place a despicable person, to whom the royal insignia shall not be given. By stealth and fraud he shall seize the kingdom.

²²Armed might shall be completely overwhelmed by him and crushed, and even the prince of the covenant.

²³After allying with him, he shall treacherously rise to power with a small party.

²⁴By stealth he shall enter prosperous provinces and do that which his fathers or grandfathers never did; he shall distribute spoil, booty, and riches among them and devise plots against their strongholds; but only for a time.

²⁵He shall call on his strength and cleverness to meet the king of the south with a great army; the king of the south shall prepare for battle with a very large and strong army, but he shall not succeed because of the plots devised against him.

²⁶Even his table companions shall seek to destroy him, his army shall be overwhelmed, and many shall fall slain.

²⁷The two kings, resolved on evil, shall sit at table together and exchange lies, but they shall have no success, because the appointed end is not yet.

²⁸"He shall turn back toward his land with great riches, his mind set against the holy covenant; he shall arrange matters and return to his land.

²⁹At the time appointed he shall come again to the south, but this time it shall not be as before.

³⁰When ships of the Kittim confront him, he shall lose heart and retreat. Then he shall direct his rage and energy against the holy covenant; those who forsake it he shall once more single out.

³¹Armed forces shall move at his command and defile the sanctuary stronghold, abolishing the daily sacrifice and setting up the horrible abomination.

³²By his deceit he shall make some who were disloyal to the covenant apostatize; but those who remain loyal to their God shall take strong action.

³³The nation's wise men shall instruct the many; though for a time they will become victims of the sword, of flames, exile, and plunder.

³⁴When they fall, few people shall help them, but many shall join them out of treachery.

³⁵Of the wise men, some shall fall, so that the rest may be tested, refined, and purified, until the end time which is still appointed to come.

³⁶"The king shall do as he pleases, exalting himself and making himself greater than any god; he shall utter dreadful blasphemies against the God of gods. He shall prosper only till divine wrath is ready, for what is determined must take place.

³⁷He shall have no regard for the gods of his ancestors or for the one in whom women delight; for no god shall he have regard, because he shall make himself greater than all.

³⁸Instead, he shall give glory to the god of strongholds; a god unknown to his fathers he shall glorify with gold, silver, precious stones, and other treasures.

³⁹To defend the strongholds he shall station a people of a foreign god. Whoever acknowledges him he shall provide with abundant honor; he shall make them rule over the many and distribute the land as a reward.

⁴⁰"At the appointed time the king of the south shall come to grips with him, but the king of the north shall overwhelm him with chariots and horsemen and a great fleet, passing through the countries like a flood.

⁴¹He shall enter the glorious land and many shall fall, except Edom, Moab, and the chief part of Ammon, which shall escape from his power.

⁴²He shall extend his power over the countries, and not even the land of Egypt shall escape.

⁴³He shall control the riches of gold and silver and all the treasures of Egypt; Libya and Ethiopia shall be in his train.

⁴⁴When news from the east and the north terrifies him, he shall set out with great fury to slay and to doom many.

⁴⁵He shall pitch the tents of his royal pavilion between the sea and the glorious holy mountain, but he shall come to his end with none to help him.

12"At that time there shall arise Michael, the great prince, guardian of your people; It shall be a time unsurpassed in distress since nations began until that time. At that time your people shall escape, everyone who is found written in the book.

²Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some shall live forever, others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace.

³But the wise shall shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament, And those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever.

⁴"As for you, Daniel, keep secret the message and seal the book until the end time; many shall fall away and evil shall increase."

⁵I, Daniel, looked and saw two others, one standing on either bank of the river.

⁶One of them said to the man clothed in linen, who was upstream, "How long shall it be to the end of these appalling things?"

⁷The man clothed in linen, who was upstream, lifted his right and left hands to heaven; and I heard him swear by him who lives forever that it should be for a year, two years, a half-year; and that, when the power of the destroyer of the holy people was brought to an end, all these things should end.

⁸I heard, but I did not understand; so I asked, "My lord, what follows this?"

⁹"Go, Daniel," he said, "because the words are to be kept secret and sealed until the end time.

¹⁰Many shall be refined, purified, and tested, but the wicked shall prove wicked; none of them shall have understanding, but the wise shall have it.

¹¹From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the horrible abomination is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days.

¹²Blessed is the man who has patience and perseveres until the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.

¹³Go, take your rest, you shall rise for your reward at the end of days."

13In Babylon there lived a man named Joakim,

²who married a very beautiful and God-fearing woman, Susanna, the daughter of Hilkiah;

³her pious parents had trained their daughter according to the law of Moses.

⁴Joakim was very rich; he had a garden near his house, and the Jews had recourse to him often because he was the most respected of them all.

⁵That year, two elders of the people were appointed judges, of whom the Lord said, "Wickedness has come out of Babylon: from the elders who were to govern the people as judges."

⁶These men, to whom all brought their cases, frequented the house of Joakim.

⁷When the people left at noon, Susanna used to enter her husband's garden for a walk.

⁸When the old men saw her enter every day for her walk, they began to lust for her.

⁹They suppressed their consciences; they would not allow their eyes to look to heaven, and did not keep in mind just judgments.

¹⁰Though both were enamored of her, they did not tell each other their trouble,

¹¹for they were ashamed to reveal their lustful desire to have her.

¹²Day by day they watched eagerly for her.

¹³One day they said to each other, "Let us be off for home, it is time for lunch." So they went out and parted;

¹⁴but both turned back, and when they met again, they asked each other the reason. They admitted their lust, and then they agreed to look for an occasion when they could meet her alone.

¹⁵One day, while they were waiting for the right moment, she entered the garden as usual, with two maids only. She decided to bathe, for the weather was warm.

¹⁶Nobody else was there except the two elders, who had hidden themselves and were watching her.

¹⁷"Bring me oil and soap," she said to the maids, "and shut the garden doors while I bathe."

¹⁸They did as she said; they shut the garden doors and left by the side gate to fetch what she had ordered, unaware that the elders were hidden inside.

¹⁹As soon as the maids had left, the two old men got up and hurried to her.

²⁰"Look," they said, "the garden doors are shut, and no one can see us; give in to our desire, and lie with us.

²¹If you refuse, we will testify against you that you dismissed your maids because a young man was here with you."

²²"I am completely trapped," Susanna groaned. "If I yield, it will be my death; if I refuse, I cannot escape your power.

²³Yet it is better for me to fall into your power without guilt than to sin before the Lord."

²⁴Then Susanna shrieked, and the old men also shouted at her,

²⁵as one of them ran to open the garden doors.

²⁶When the people in the house heard the cries from the garden, they rushed in by the side gate to see what had happened to her.

²⁷At the accusations by the old men, the servants felt very much ashamed, for never had any such thing been said about Susanna.

²⁸When the people came to her husband Joakim the next day, the two wicked elders also came, fully determined to put Susanna to death. Before all the people they ordered:

²⁹"Send for Susanna, the daughter of Hilkiah, the wife of Joakim." When she was sent for,

³⁰she came with her parents, children and all her relatives.

³¹Susanna, very delicate and beautiful,

³²was veiled; but those wicked men ordered her to uncover her face so as to sate themselves with her beauty.

³³All her relatives and the onlookers were weeping.

³⁴In the midst of the people the two elders rose up and laid their hands on her head.

³⁵Through her tears she looked up to heaven, for she trusted in the Lord wholeheartedly.

³⁶The elders made this accusation: "As we were walking in the garden alone, this woman entered with two girls and shut the doors of the garden, dismissing the girls.

³⁷A young man, who was hidden there, came and lay with her.

³⁸When we, in a corner of the garden, saw this crime, we ran toward them.

³⁹We saw them lying together, but the man we could not hold, because he was stronger than we; he opened the doors and ran off.

⁴⁰Then we seized this one and asked who the young man was,

⁴¹but she refused to tell us. We testify to this." The assembly believed them, since they were elders and judges of the people, and they condemned her to death.

⁴²But Susanna cried aloud: "O eternal God, you know what is hidden and are aware of all things before they come to be:

⁴³you know that they have testified falsely against me. Here I am about to die, though I have done none of the things with which these wicked men have charged me."

⁴⁴The Lord heard her prayer.

⁴⁵As she was being led to execution, God stirred up the holy spirit of a young boy named Daniel,

⁴⁶and he cried aloud: "I will have no part in the death of this woman."

⁴⁷All the people turned and asked him, "What is this you are saying?"

⁴⁸He stood in their midst and continued, "Are you such fools, O Israelites! To condemn a woman of Israel without examination and without clear evidence?

⁴⁹Return to court, for they have testified falsely against her."

⁵⁰Then all the people returned in haste. To Daniel the elders said, "Come, sit with us and inform us, since God has given you the prestige of old age."

⁵¹But he replied, "Separate these two far from one another that I may examine them."

⁵²After they were separated one from the other, he called one of them and said: "How you have grown evil with age! Now have your past sins come to term:

⁵³passing unjust sentences, condemning the innocent, and freeing the guilty, although the Lord says, "The innocent and the just you shall not put to death.'

⁵⁴Now, then, if you were a witness, tell me under what tree you saw them together."

⁵⁵"Under a mastic tree," he answered. "Your fine lie has cost you your head," said Daniel; "for the angel of God shall receive the sentence from him and split you in two."

⁵⁶Putting him to one side, he ordered the other one to be brought. "Offspring of Canaan, not of Judah," Daniel said to him, "beauty has seduced you, lust has subverted your conscience.

⁵⁷This is how you acted with the daughters of Israel, and in their fear they yielded to you; but a daughter of Judah did not tolerate your wickedness.

⁵⁸Now, then, tell me under what tree you surprised them together."

⁵⁹"Under an oak," he said. "Your fine lie has cost you also your head," said Daniel; "for the angel of God waits with a sword to cut you in two so as to make an end of you both."

⁶⁰The whole assembly cried aloud, blessing God who saves those that hope in him.

⁶¹They rose up against the two elders, for by their own words Daniel had convicted them of perjury. According to the law of Moses, they inflicted on them the penalty they had plotted to impose on their neighbor:

⁶²they put them to death. Thus was innocent blood spared that day.

⁶³Hilkiah and his wife praised God for their daughter Susanna, as did Joakim her husband and all her relatives, because she was found innocent of any shameful deed.

⁶⁴And from that day onward Daniel was greatly esteemed by the people.

14After King Astyages was laid with his fathers, Cyrus the Persian succeeded to his kingdom.

²Daniel was the king's favorite and was held in higher esteem than any of the friends of the king.

³The Babylonians had an idol called Bel, and every day they provided for it six barrels of fine flour, forty sheep, and six measures of wine.

⁴The king worshiped it and went every day to adore it; but Daniel adored only his God.

⁵When the king asked him, "Why do you not adore Bel?" Daniel replied, "Because I worship not idols made with hands, but only the living God who made heaven and earth and has dominion over all mankind."

⁶Then the king continued, "You do not think Bel is a living god? Do you not see how much he eats and drinks every day?"

⁷Daniel began to laugh. "Do not be deceived, O king," he said; "it is only clay inside and bronze outside; it has never taken any food or drink."

⁸Enraged, the king called his priests and said to them, "Unless you tell me who it is that consumes these provisions, you shall die.

⁹But if you can show that Bel consumes them, Daniel shall die for blaspheming Bel." Daniel said to the king, "Let it be as you say!"

¹⁰There were seventy priests of Bel, besides their wives and children. When the king went with Daniel into the temple of Bel,

¹¹the priests of Bel said, "See, we are going to leave. Do you, O king, set out the food and prepare the wine; then shut the door and seal it with your ring.

¹²If you do not find that Bel has eaten it all when you return in the morning, we are to die; otherwise Daniel shall die for his lies against us."

¹³They were not perturbed, because under the table they had made a secret entrance through which they always came in to consume the food.

¹⁴After they departed the king set the food before Bel, while Daniel ordered his servants to bring some ashes, which they scattered through the whole temple; the king alone was present. Then they went outside, sealed the closed door with the king's ring, and departed.

¹⁵The priests entered that night as usual, with their wives and children, and they ate and drank everything.

¹⁶Early the next morning, the king came with Daniel.

¹⁷"Are the seals unbroken, Daniel?" he asked. And Daniel answered, "They are unbroken, O king."

¹⁸As soon as he had opened the door, the king looked at the table and cried aloud, "Great you are, O Bel; there is no trickery in you."

¹⁹But Daniel laughed and kept the king from entering. "Look at the floor," he said; "whose footprints are these?"

²⁰"I see the footprints of men, women, and children!" said the king.

²¹The angry king arrested the priests, their wives, and their children. They showed him the secret door by which they used to enter to consume what was on the table.

²²He put them to death, and handed Bel over to Daniel, who destroyed it and its temple.

²³There was a great dragon which the Babylonians worshiped.

²⁴"Look!" said the king to Daniel, "you cannot deny that this is a living god, so adore it."

²⁵But Daniel answered, "I adore the Lord, my God, for he is the living God.

²⁶Give me permission, O king, and I will kill this dragon without sword or club." "I give you permission," the king said.

²⁷Then Daniel took some pitch, fat, and hair; these he boiled together and made into cakes. He put them into the mouth of the dragon, and when the dragon ate them, he burst asunder. "This," he said, "is what you worshiped."

²⁸When the Babylonians heard this, they were angry and turned against the king. "The king has become a Jew," they said; "he has destroyed Bel, killed the dragon, and put the priests to death."

²⁹They went to the king and demanded: "Hand Daniel over to us, or we will kill you and your family."

³⁰When he saw himself threatened with violence, the king was forced to hand Daniel over to them.

³¹They threw Daniel into a lions' den, where he remained six days.

³²In the den were seven lions, and two carcasses and two sheep had been given to them daily. But now they were given nothing, so that they would devour Daniel.

³³In Judea there was a prophet, Habakkuk; he mixed some bread in a bowl with the stew he had boiled, and was going to bring it to the reapers in the field,

³⁴when an angel of the Lord told him, "Take the lunch you have to Daniel in the lions' den at Babylon."

³⁵But Habakkuk answered, "Babylon, sir, I have never seen, and I do not know the den!"

³⁶The angel of the Lord seized him by the crown of his head and carried him by the hair; with the speed of the wind, he set him down in Babylon above the den.

³⁷"Daniel, Daniel," cried Habakkuk, "take the lunch God has sent you."

³⁸"You have remembered me, O God," said Daniel; "you have not forsaken those who love you."

³⁹While Daniel began to eat, the angel of the Lord at once brought Habakkuk back to his own place.

⁴⁰On the seventh day the king came to mourn for Daniel. As he came to the den and looked in, there was Daniel, sitting there!

⁴¹The king cried aloud, "You are great, O Lord, the God of Daniel, and there is no other besides you!"

⁴²Daniel he took out, but those who had tried to destroy him he threw into the den, and they were devoured in a moment before his eyes.

1The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

²Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.

³Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar. Perez became the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram,

⁴Ram the father of Amminadab. Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon,

⁵Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. Boaz became the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth. Obed became the father of Jesse,

⁶Jesse the father of David the king. David became the father of Solomon, whose mother had been the wife of Uriah.

⁷Solomon became the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asaph.

⁸Asaph became the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, Joram the father of Uzziah.

⁹Uzziah became the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah.

¹⁰Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amos, Amos the father of Josiah.

¹¹Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the Babylonian exile.

¹²After the Babylonian exile, Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,

¹³Zerubbabel the father of Abiud. Abiud became the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor,

¹⁴Azor the father of Zadok. Zadok became the father of Achim, Achim the father of Eliud,

¹⁵Eliud the father of Eleazar. Eleazar became the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob,

¹⁶Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Messiah.

¹⁷Thus the total number of generations from Abraham to David is fourteen generations; from David to the Babylonian exile, fourteen generations; from the Babylonian exile to the Messiah, fourteen generations.

¹⁸Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the holy Spirit.

¹⁹Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly.

²⁰Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.

²¹She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

²²All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:

²³"Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means "God is with us."

²⁴When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.

²⁵He had no relations with her until she bore a son, and he named him Jesus.

2When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem,

²saying, "Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage."

³When King Herod heard this, he was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

⁴Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.

⁵They said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it has been written through the prophet:

⁶'And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; since from you shall come a ruler, who is to shepherd my people Israel.'"

⁷Then Herod called the magi secretly and ascertained from them the time of the star's appearance.

⁸He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and search diligently for the child. When you have found him, bring me word, that I too may go and do him homage."

⁹After their audience with the king they set out. And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.

¹⁰They were overjoyed at seeing the star,

¹¹and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

¹²And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way.

¹³When they had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him."

¹⁴Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt.

¹⁵He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, "Out of Egypt I called my son."

¹⁶When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious. He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi.

¹⁷Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet:

¹⁸"A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more."

¹⁹When Herod had died, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt

²⁰and said, "Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead."

²¹He rose, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel.

²²But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go back there. And because he had been warned in a dream, he departed for the region of Galilee.

²³He went and dwelt in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, "He shall be called a Nazorean."

3In those days John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea

²(and) saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!"

³It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said: "A voice of one crying out in the desert, 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.'"

⁴John wore clothing made of camel's hair and had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.

⁵At that time Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him

⁶and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.

⁷When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

⁸Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.

⁹And do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones.

¹⁰Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

¹¹I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire.

¹²His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

¹³Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.

¹⁴John tried to prevent him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?"

¹⁵Jesus said to him in reply, "Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he allowed him.

¹⁶After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened (for him), and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove (and) coming upon him.

¹⁷And a voice came from the heavens, saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."

4Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.

²He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry.

³The tempter approached and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread."

⁴He said in reply, "It is written: 'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.'"

⁵Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the temple,

⁶and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: 'He will command his angels concerning you and 'with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.'"

⁷Jesus answered him, "Again it is written, 'You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.'"

⁸Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence,

⁹and he said to him, "All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me."

¹⁰At this, Jesus said to him, "Get away, Satan! It is written: 'The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.'"

¹¹Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him.

¹²When he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee.

¹³He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali,

¹⁴that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled:

¹⁵"Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles,

¹⁶the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death light has arisen."

¹⁷From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

¹⁸As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen.

¹⁹He said to them, "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men."

²⁰At once they left their nets and followed him.

²¹He walked along from there and saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them,

²²and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.

²³He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people.

²⁴His fame spread to all of Syria, and they brought to him all who were sick with various diseases and racked with pain, those who were possessed, lunatics, and paralytics, and he cured them.

²⁵And great crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan followed him.

5When he saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him.

²He began to teach them, saying:

³"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

⁴Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.

⁵Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.

⁶Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.

⁷Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

⁸Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.

⁹Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

¹⁰Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you (falsely) because of me.

¹²Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

¹³"You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

¹⁴You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.

¹⁵Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house.

¹⁶Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.

¹⁷"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.

¹⁸Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.

¹⁹Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

²⁰I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

²¹"You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, 'You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.'

²²But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, 'Raqa,' will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna.

²³Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you,

²⁴leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

²⁵Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison.

²⁶Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.

²⁷"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.'

²⁸But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

²⁹If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna.

³⁰And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna.

³¹"It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce.'

³²But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

³³"Again you have heard that it was said to your ancestors, 'Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow.'

³⁴But I say to you, do not swear at all; not by heaven, for it is God's throne;

³⁵nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.

³⁶Do not swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black.

³⁷Let your 'Yes' mean 'Yes,' and your 'No' mean 'No.' Anything more is from the evil one.

³⁸"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'

³⁹But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on (your) right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.

⁴⁰If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well.

⁴¹Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles.

⁴²Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.

⁴³"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'

⁴⁴But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you,

⁴⁵that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

⁴⁶For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same?

⁴⁷And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same?

⁴⁸So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.

6"(But) take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.

²When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.

³But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing,

⁴so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

⁵"When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.

⁶But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

⁷In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words.

⁸Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

⁹"This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,

¹⁰your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.

¹¹Give us today our daily bread;

¹²and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors;

¹³and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one.

¹⁴If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you.

¹⁵But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.

¹⁶"When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.

¹⁷But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,

¹⁸so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.

¹⁹"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal.

²⁰But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal.

²¹For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.

²²"The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light;

²³but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be.

²⁴"No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

²⁵"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat (or drink), or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

²⁶Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they?

²⁷Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?

²⁸Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin.

²⁹But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them.

³⁰If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?

³¹So do not worry and say, 'What are we to eat?' or 'What are we to drink?' or 'What are we to wear?'

³²All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

³³But seek first the kingdom (of God) and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.

³⁴Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil.

7"Stop judging, that you may not be judged.

²For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.

³Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?

⁴How can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove that splinter from your eye,' while the wooden beam is in your eye?

⁵You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother's eye.

⁶"Do not give what is holy to dogs, or throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces.

⁷"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

⁸For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

⁹Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asks for a loaf of bread,

¹⁰or a snake when he asks for a fish?

¹¹If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him.

¹²"Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets.

¹³"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many.

¹⁴How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.

¹⁵"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves.

¹⁶By their fruits you will know them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?

¹⁷Just so, every good tree bears good fruit, and a rotten tree bears bad fruit.

¹⁸A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit.

¹⁹Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

²⁰So by their fruits you will know them.

²¹"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

²²Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?'

²³Then I will declare to them solemnly, 'I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.'

²⁴"Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.

²⁵The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.

²⁶And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand.

²⁷The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined."

²⁸When Jesus finished these words, the crowds were astonished at his teaching,

²⁹for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.

8When Jesus came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him.

²And then a leper approached, did him homage, and said, "Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean."

³He stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, "I will do it. Be made clean." His leprosy was cleansed immediately.

⁴Then Jesus said to him, "See that you tell no one, but go show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them."

⁵When he entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him and appealed to him,

⁶saying, "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully."

⁷He said to him, "I will come and cure him."

⁸The centurion said in reply, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed.

⁹For I too am a person subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come here,' and he comes; and to my slave, 'Do this,' and he does it."

¹⁰When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, "Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.

¹¹I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the kingdom of heaven,

¹²but the children of the kingdom will be driven out into the outer darkness, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth."

¹³And Jesus said to the centurion, "You may go; as you have believed, let it be done for you." And at that very hour (his) servant was healed.

¹⁴Jesus entered the house of Peter, and saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever.

¹⁵He touched her hand, the fever left her, and she rose and waited on him.

¹⁶When it was evening, they brought him many who were possessed by demons, and he drove out the spirits by a word and cured all the sick,

¹⁷to fulfill what had been said by Isaiah the prophet: "He took away our infirmities and bore our diseases."

¹⁸When Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side.

¹⁹A scribe approached and said to him, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go."

²⁰Jesus answered him, "Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head."

²¹Another of (his) disciples said to him, "Lord, let me go first and bury my father."

²²But Jesus answered him, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead."

²³He got into a boat and his disciples followed him.

²⁴Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves; but he was asleep.

²⁵They came and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We are perishing!"

²⁶He said to them, "Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?" Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm.

²⁷The men were amazed and said, "What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the sea obey?"

²⁸When he came to the other side, to the territory of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs who were coming from the tombs met him. They were so savage that no one could travel by that road.

²⁹They cried out, "What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?"

³⁰Some distance away a herd of many swine was feeding.

³¹The demons pleaded with him, "If you drive us out, send us into the herd of swine."

³²And he said to them, "Go then!" They came out and entered the swine, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea where they drowned.

³³The swineherds ran away, and when they came to the town they reported everything, including what had happened to the demoniacs.

³⁴Thereupon the whole town came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him they begged him to leave their district.

9He entered a boat, made the crossing, and came into his own town.

²And there people brought to him a paralytic lying on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Courage, child, your sins are forgiven."

³At that, some of the scribes said to themselves, "This man is blaspheming."

⁴Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said, "Why do you harbor evil thoughts?

⁵Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'?

⁶But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" --he then said to the paralytic, "Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home."

⁷He rose and went home.

⁸When the crowds saw this they were struck with awe and glorified God who had given such authority to human beings.

⁹As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, "Follow me." And he got up and followed him.

¹⁰While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples.

¹¹The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"

¹²He heard this and said, "Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.

¹³Go and learn the meaning of the words, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' I did not come to call the righteous but sinners."

¹⁴Then the disciples of John approached him and said, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast (much), but your disciples do not fast?"

¹⁵Jesus answered them, "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.

¹⁶No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse.

¹⁷People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved."

¹⁸While he was saying these things to them, an official came forward, knelt down before him, and said, "My daughter has just died. But come, lay your hand on her, and she will live."

¹⁹Jesus rose and followed him, and so did his disciples.

²⁰A woman suffering hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the tassel on his cloak.

²¹She said to herself, "If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be cured."

²²Jesus turned around and saw her, and said, "Courage, daughter! Your faith has saved you." And from that hour the woman was cured.

²³When Jesus arrived at the official's house and saw the flute players and the crowd who were making a commotion,

²⁴he said, "Go away! The girl is not dead but sleeping." And they ridiculed him.

²⁵When the crowd was put out, he came and took her by the hand, and the little girl arose.

²⁶And news of this spread throughout all that land.

²⁷And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed (him), crying out, "Son of David, have pity on us!"

²⁸When he entered the house, the blind men approached him and Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I can do this?" "Yes, Lord," they said to him.

²⁹Then he touched their eyes and said, "Let it be done for you according to your faith."

³⁰And their eyes were opened. Jesus warned them sternly, "See that no one knows about this."

³¹But they went out and spread word of him through all that land.

³²As they were going out, a demoniac who could not speak was brought to him,

³³and when the demon was driven out the mute person spoke. The crowds were amazed and said, "Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel."

³⁴But the Pharisees said, "He drives out demons by the prince of demons."

³⁵Jesus went around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness.

³⁶At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.

³⁷Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;

³⁸so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest."

10Then he summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness.

²The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John;

³Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus;

⁴Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.

⁵Jesus sent out these twelve after instructing them thus, "Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town.

⁶Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

⁷As you go, make this proclamation: 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'

⁸Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.

⁹Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts;

¹⁰no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or sandals, or walking stick. The laborer deserves his keep.

¹¹Whatever town or village you enter, look for a worthy person in it, and stay there until you leave.

¹²As you enter a house, wish it peace.

¹³If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; if not, let your peace return to you.

¹⁴Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words--go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet.

¹⁵Amen, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.

¹⁶"Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.

¹⁷But beware of people, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues,

¹⁸and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans.

¹⁹When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say.

²⁰For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

²¹Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death.

²²You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved.

²³When they persecute you in one town, flee to another. Amen, I say to you, you will not finish the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

²⁴No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master.

²⁵It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, for the slave that he become like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household!

²⁶"Therefore do not be afraid of them. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known.

²⁷What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.

²⁸And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

²⁹Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge.

³⁰Even all the hairs of your head are counted.

³¹So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

³²Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.

³³But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.

³⁴"Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword.

³⁵For I have come to set a man 'against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

³⁶and one's enemies will be those of his household.'

³⁷"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;

³⁸and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.

³⁹Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

⁴⁰"Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.

⁴¹Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is righteous will receive a righteous man's reward.

⁴²And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because he is a disciple--amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward."

11When Jesus finished giving these commands to his twelve disciples, he went away from that place to teach and to preach in their towns.

²When John heard in prison of the works of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to him

³with this question, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?"

⁴Jesus said to them in reply, "Go and tell John what you hear and see:

⁵the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.

⁶And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me."

⁷As they were going off, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John, "What did you go out to the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind?

⁸Then what did you go out to see? Someone dressed in fine clothing? Those who wear fine clothing are in royal palaces.

⁹Then why did you go out? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.

¹⁰This is the one about whom it is written: 'Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way before you.'

¹¹Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

¹²From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent are taking it by force.

¹³All the prophets and the law prophesied up to the time of John.

¹⁴And if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah, the one who is to come.

¹⁵Whoever has ears ought to hear.

¹⁶"To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another,

¹⁷'We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.'

¹⁸For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, 'He is possessed by a demon.'

¹⁹The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, 'Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.' But wisdom is vindicated by her works."

²⁰Then he began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented.

²¹"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes.

²²But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.

²³And as for you, Capernaum: 'Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld.' For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.

²⁴But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you."

²⁵At that time Jesus said in reply, "I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.

²⁶Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.

²⁷All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.

²⁸"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.

²⁹Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves.

³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden light."

12At that time Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them.

²When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, "See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath."

³He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry,

⁴how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering, which neither he nor his companions but only the priests could lawfully eat?

⁵Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath and are innocent?

⁶I say to you, something greater than the temple is here.

⁷If you knew what this meant, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned these innocent men.

⁸For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath."

⁹Moving on from there, he went into their synagogue.

¹⁰And behold, there was a man there who had a withered hand. They questioned him, "Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath?" so that they might accuse him.

¹¹He said to them, "Which one of you who has a sheep that falls into a pit on the sabbath will not take hold of it and lift it out?

¹²How much more valuable a person is than a sheep. So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath."

¹³Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and it was restored as sound as the other.

¹⁴But the Pharisees went out and took counsel against him to put him to death.

¹⁵When Jesus realized this, he withdrew from that place. Many (people) followed him, and he cured them all,

¹⁶but he warned them not to make him known.

¹⁷This was to fulfill what had been spoken through Isaiah the prophet:

¹⁸"Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom I delight; I shall place my spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.

¹⁹He will not contend or cry out, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.

²⁰A bruised reed he will not break, a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory.

²¹And in his name the Gentiles will hope."

²²Then they brought to him a demoniac who was blind and mute. He cured the mute person so that he could speak and see.

²³All the crowd was astounded, and said, "Could this perhaps be the Son of David?"

²⁴But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, "This man drives out demons only by the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons."

²⁵But he knew what they were thinking and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste, and no town or house divided against itself will stand.

²⁶And if Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself; how, then, will his kingdom stand?

²⁷And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own people drive them out? Therefore they will be your judges.

²⁸But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

²⁹How can anyone enter a strong man's house and steal his property, unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house.

³⁰Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

³¹Therefore, I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.

³²And 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.

³³"Either declare the tree good and its fruit is good, or declare the tree rotten and its fruit is rotten, for a tree is known by its fruit.

³⁴You brood of vipers, how can you say good things when you are evil? For from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.

³⁵A good person brings forth good out of a store of goodness, but an evil person brings forth evil out of a store of evil.

³⁶I tell you, on the day of judgment people will render an account for every careless word they speak.

³⁷By your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."

³⁸Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, "Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you."

³⁹He said to them in reply, "An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet.

⁴⁰Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.

⁴¹At the judgment, the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and there is something greater than Jonah here.

⁴²At the judgment the queen of the south will arise with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and there is something greater than Solomon here.

⁴³"When an unclean spirit goes out of a person it roams through arid regions searching for rest but finds none.

⁴⁴Then it says, 'I will return to my home from which I came.' But upon returning, it finds it empty, swept clean, and put in order.

⁴⁵Then it goes and brings back with itself seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they move in and dwell there; and the last condition of that person is worse than the first. Thus it will be with this evil generation."

⁴⁶While he was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers appeared outside, wishing to speak with him.

⁴⁷(Someone told him, "Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with you.")

⁴⁸But he said in reply to the one who told him, "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?"

⁴⁹And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers.

⁵⁰For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother."

13On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea.

²Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood along the shore.

³And he spoke to them at length in parables, saying: "A sower went out to sow.

⁴And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and birds came and ate it up.

⁵Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep,

⁶and when the sun rose it was scorched, and it withered for lack of roots.

⁷Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it.

⁸But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.

⁹Whoever has ears ought to hear."

¹⁰The disciples approached him and said, "Why do you speak to them in parables?"

¹¹He said to them in reply, "Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted.

¹²To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

¹³This is why I speak to them in parables, because 'they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.'

¹⁴Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says: 'You shall indeed hear but not understand you shall indeed look but never see.

¹⁵Gross is the heart of this people, they will hardly hear with their ears, they have closed their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and be converted, and I heal them.'

¹⁶"But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear.

¹⁷Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

¹⁸"Hear then the parable of the sower.

¹⁹The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the kingdom without understanding it, and the evil one comes and steals away what was sown in his heart.

²⁰The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy.

²¹But he has no root and lasts only for a time. When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away.

²²The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word, but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word and it bears no fruit.

²³But the seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold."

²⁴He proposed another parable to them. "The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field.

²⁵While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off.

²⁶When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well.

²⁷The slaves of the householder came to him and said, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?'

²⁸He answered, 'An enemy has done this.' His slaves said to him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?'

²⁹He replied, 'No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them.

³⁰Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, "First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn."'"

³¹He proposed another parable to them. "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in a field.

³²It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the 'birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.'"

³³He spoke to them another parable. "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened."

³⁴All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables. He spoke to them only in parables,

³⁵to fulfill what had been said through the prophet: "I will open my mouth in parables, I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation (of the world)."

³⁶Then, dismissing the crowds, he went into the house. His disciples approached him and said, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field."

³⁷He said in reply, "He who sows good seed is the Son of Man,

³⁸the field is the world, the good seed the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the children of the evil one,

³⁹and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

⁴⁰Just as weeds are collected and burned (up) with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.

⁴¹The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers.

⁴²They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

⁴³Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears ought to hear.

⁴⁴"The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

⁴⁵Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls.

⁴⁶When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.

⁴⁷Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind.

⁴⁸When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away.

⁴⁹Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous

⁵⁰and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

⁵¹"Do you understand all these things?" They answered, "Yes."

⁵²And he replied, "Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old."

⁵³When Jesus finished these parables, he went away from there.

⁵⁴He came to his native place and taught the people in their synagogue. They were astonished and said, "Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds?

⁵⁵Is he not the carpenter's son? Is not his mother named Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas?

⁵⁶Are not his sisters all with us? Where did this man get all this?"

⁵⁷And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house."

⁵⁸And he did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith.

14At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the reputation of Jesus

²and said to his servants, "This man is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead; that is why mighty powers are at work in him."

³Now Herod had arrested John, bound (him), and put him in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip,

⁴for John had said to him, "It is not lawful for you to have her."

⁵Although he wanted to kill him, he feared the people, for they regarded him as a prophet.

⁶But at a birthday celebration for Herod, the daughter of Herodias performed a dance before the guests and delighted Herod

⁷so much that he swore to give her whatever she might ask for.

⁸Prompted by her mother, she said, "Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist."

⁹The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests who were present, he ordered that it be given,

¹⁰and he had John beheaded in the prison.

¹¹His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl, who took it to her mother.

¹²His disciples came and took away the corpse and buried him; and they went and told Jesus.

¹³When Jesus heard of it, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. The crowds heard of this and followed him on foot from their towns.

¹⁴When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick.

¹⁵When it was evening, the disciples approached him and said, "This is a deserted place and it is already late; dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves."

¹⁶(Jesus) said to them, "There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves."

¹⁷But they said to him, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have here."

¹⁸Then he said, "Bring them here to me,"

¹⁹and he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds.

²⁰They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up the fragments left over --twelve wicker baskets full.

²¹Those who ate were about five thousand men, not counting women and children.

²²Then he made the disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.

²³After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When it was evening he was there alone.

²⁴Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore, was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it.

²⁵During the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them, walking on the sea.

²⁶When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified. "It is a ghost," they said, and they cried out in fear.

²⁷At once (Jesus) spoke to them, "Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid."

²⁸Peter said to him in reply, "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water."

²⁹He said, "Come." Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus.

³⁰But when he saw how (strong) the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!"

³¹Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him, and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?"

³²After they got into the boat, the wind died down.

³³Those who were in the boat did him homage, saying, "Truly, you are the Son of God."

³⁴After making the crossing, they came to land at Gennesaret.

³⁵When the men of that place recognized him, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought to him all those who were sick

³⁶and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak, and as many as touched it were healed.

15Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said,

²"Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They do not wash (their) hands when they eat a meal."

³He said to them in reply, "And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?

⁴For God said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and 'Whoever curses father or mother shall die.'

⁵But you say, 'Whoever says to father or mother, "Any support you might have had from me is dedicated to God,"

⁶need not honor his father.' You have nullified the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

⁷Hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy about you when he said:

⁸'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;

⁹in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.'"

¹⁰He summoned the crowd and said to them, "Hear and understand.

¹¹It is not what enters one's mouth that defiles that person; but what comes out of the mouth is what defiles one."

¹²Then his disciples approached and said to him, "Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?"

¹³He said in reply, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.

¹⁴Let them alone; they are blind guides (of the blind). If a blind person leads a blind person, both will fall into a pit."

¹⁵Then Peter said to him in reply, "Explain (this) parable to us."

¹⁶He said to them, "Are even you still without understanding?

¹⁷Do you not realize that everything that enters the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled into the latrine?

¹⁸But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile.

¹⁹For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, unchastity, theft, false witness, blasphemy.

²⁰These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile."

²¹Then Jesus went from that place and withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

²²And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out, "Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon."

²³But he did not say a word in answer to her. His disciples came and asked him, "Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us."

²⁴He said in reply, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

²⁵But the woman came and did him homage, saying, "Lord, help me."

²⁶He said in reply, "It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs."

²⁷She said, "Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters."

²⁸Then Jesus said to her in reply, "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed from that hour.

²⁹Moving on from there Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, went up on the mountain, and sat down there.

³⁰Great crowds came to him, having with them the lame, the blind, the deformed, the mute, and many others. They placed them at his feet, and he cured them.

³¹The crowds were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the deformed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind able to see, and they glorified the God of Israel.

³²Jesus summoned his disciples and said, "My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, for they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, for fear they may collapse on the way."

³³The disciples said to him, "Where could we ever get enough bread in this deserted place to satisfy such a crowd?"

³⁴Jesus said to them, "How many loaves do you have?" "Seven," they replied, "and a few fish."

³⁵He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground.

³⁶Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, gave thanks, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds.

³⁷They all ate and were satisfied. They picked up the fragments left over--seven baskets full.

³⁸Those who ate were four thousand men, not counting women and children.

³⁹And when he had dismissed the crowds, he got into the boat and came to the district of Magadan.

16The Pharisees and Sadducees came and, to test him, asked him to show them a sign from heaven.

²He said to them in reply, "(In the evening you say, 'Tomorrow will be fair, for the sky is red';

³and, in the morning, 'Today will be stormy, for the sky is red and threatening.' You know how to judge the appearance of the sky, but you cannot judge the signs of the times.)

⁴An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah." Then he left them and went away.

⁵In coming to the other side of the sea, the disciples had forgotten to bring bread.

⁶Jesus said to them, "Look out, and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."

⁷They concluded among themselves, saying, "It is because we have brought no bread."

⁸When Jesus became aware of this he said, "You of little faith, why do you conclude among yourselves that it is because you have no bread?

⁹Do you not yet understand, and do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many wicker baskets you took up?

¹⁰Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you took up?

¹¹How do you not comprehend that I was not speaking to you about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."

¹²Then they understood that he was not telling them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

¹³When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"

¹⁴They replied, "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

¹⁵He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"

¹⁶Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."

¹⁷Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.

¹⁸And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.

¹⁹I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

²⁰Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was the Messiah.

²¹From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.

²²Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, "God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you."

²³He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."

²⁴Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

²⁵For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

²⁶What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life?

²⁷For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father's glory, and then he will repay everyone according to his conduct.

²⁸Amen, 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."

17After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.

²And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.

³And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him.

⁴Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, "Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."

⁵While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them, then from the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him."

⁶When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate and were very much afraid.

⁷But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Rise, and do not be afraid."

⁸And when the disciples raised their eyes, they saw no one else but Jesus alone.

⁹As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, "Do not tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead."

¹⁰Then the disciples asked him, "Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?"

¹¹He said in reply, "Elijah will indeed come and restore all things;

¹²but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased. So also will the Son of Man suffer at their hands."

¹³Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.

¹⁴When they came to the crowd a man approached, knelt down before him,

¹⁵and said, "Lord, have pity on my son, for he is a lunatic and suffers severely; often he falls into fire, and often into water.

¹⁶I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him."

¹⁷Jesus said in reply, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I endure you? Bring him here to me."

¹⁸Jesus rebuked him and the demon came out of him, and from that hour the boy was cured.

¹⁹Then the disciples approached Jesus in private and said, "Why could we not drive it out?"

²⁰He said to them, "Because of your little faith. Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

²¹)

²²As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is to be handed over to men,

²³and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day." And they were overwhelmed with grief.

²⁴When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax approached Peter and said, "Doesn't your teacher pay the temple tax?"

²⁵"Yes," he said. When he came into the house, before he had time to speak, Jesus asked him, "What is your opinion, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take tolls or census tax? From their subjects or from foreigners?"

²⁶When he said, "From foreigners," Jesus said to him, "Then the subjects are exempt.

²⁷But that we may not offend them, go to the sea, drop in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up. Open its mouth and you will find a coin worth twice the temple tax. Give that to them for me and for you."

18At that time the disciples approached Jesus and said, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"

²He called a child over, placed it in their midst,

³and said, "Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

⁴Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

⁵And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.

⁶"Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

⁷Woe to the world because of things that cause sin! Such things must come, but woe to the one through whom they come!

⁸If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life maimed or crippled than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into eternal fire.

⁹And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into fiery Gehenna.

¹⁰"See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.

¹¹

¹²What is your opinion? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray?

¹³And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray.

¹⁴In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.

¹⁵"If your brother sins (against you), go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.

¹⁶If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that 'every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.'

¹⁷If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.

¹⁸Amen, 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.

¹⁹Again, (amen,) I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father.

²⁰For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

²¹Then Peter approaching asked him, "Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?"

²²Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.

²³That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants.

²⁴When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.

²⁵Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt.

²⁶At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.'

²⁷Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan.

²⁸When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, 'Pay back what you owe.'

²⁹Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'

³⁰But he refused. Instead, he had him put in prison until he paid back the debt.

³¹Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair.

³²His master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.

³³Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?'

³⁴Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt.

³⁵So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart."

19When Jesus finished these words, he left Galilee and went to the district of Judea across the Jordan.

²Great crowds followed him, and he cured them there.

³Some Pharisees approached him, and tested him, saying, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?"

⁴He said in reply, "Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female'

⁵and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'?

⁶So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate."

⁷They said to him, "Then why did Moses command that the man give the woman a bill of divorce and dismiss (her)?"

⁸He said to them, "Because of the hardness of your hearts Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

⁹I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) and marries another commits adultery."

¹⁰[His] disciples said to him, "If that is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry."

¹¹He answered, "Not all can accept [this] word, but only those to whom that is granted.

¹²Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made so by others; some, because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it."

¹³Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked them,

¹⁴but Jesus said, "Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

¹⁵After he placed his hands on them, he went away.

¹⁶Now someone approached him and said, "Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?"

¹⁷He answered him, "Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments."

¹⁸He asked him, "Which ones?" And Jesus replied, " 'You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness;

¹⁹honor your father and your mother'; and 'you shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"

²⁰The young man said to him, "All of these I have observed. What do I still lack?"

²¹Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to (the) poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

²²When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

²³Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.

²⁴Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

²⁵When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, "Who then can be saved?"

²⁶Jesus looked at them and said, "For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible."

²⁷Then Peter said to him in reply, "We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?"

²⁸Jesus said to them, "Amen, I say to you that you who have followed me, in the new age, when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory, will yourselves sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

²⁹And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life.

³⁰But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.

20"The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard.

²After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard.

³Going out about nine o'clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace,

⁴and he said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.'

⁵So they went off. (And) he went out again around noon, and around three o'clock, and did likewise.

⁶Going out about five o'clock, he found others standing around, and said to them, 'Why do you stand here idle all day?'

⁷They answered, 'Because no one has hired us.' He said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard.'

⁸When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.'

⁹When those who had started about five o'clock came, each received the usual daily wage.

¹⁰So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage.

¹¹And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner,

¹²saying, 'These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day's burden and the heat.'

¹³He said to one of them in reply, 'My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?

¹⁴Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you?

¹⁵(Or) am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?'

¹⁶Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last."

¹⁷As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve (disciples) aside by themselves, and said to them on the way,

¹⁸"Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death,

¹⁹and hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day."

²⁰Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee approached him with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something.

²¹He said to her, "What do you wish?" She answered him, "Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom."

²²Jesus said in reply, "You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?" They said to him, "We can."

²³He replied, "My cup you will indeed drink, but to sit at my right and at my left (, this) is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father."

²⁴When the ten heard this, they became indignant at the two brothers.

²⁵But Jesus summoned them and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt.

²⁶But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant;

²⁷whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.

²⁸Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."

²⁹As they left Jericho, a great crowd followed him.

³⁰Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, "[Lord,] Son of David, have pity on us!"

³¹The crowd warned them to be silent, but they called out all the more, "Lord, Son of David, have pity on us!"

³²Jesus stopped and called them and said, "What do you want me to do for you?"

³³They answered him, "Lord, let our eyes be opened."

³⁴Moved with pity, Jesus touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight, and followed him.

21When they drew near Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples,

²saying to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find an ass tethered, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them here to me.

³And if anyone should say anything to you, reply, 'The master has need of them.' Then he will send them at once."

⁴This happened so that what had been spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled:

⁵"Say to daughter Zion, 'Behold, your king comes to you, meek and riding on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.'"

⁶The disciples went and did as Jesus had ordered them.

⁷They brought the ass and the colt and laid their cloaks over them, and he sat upon them.

⁸The very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and strewed them on the road.

⁹The crowds preceding him and those following kept crying out and saying: "Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest."

¹⁰And when he entered Jerusalem the whole city was shaken and asked, "Who is this?"

¹¹And the crowds replied, "This is Jesus the prophet, from Nazareth in Galilee."

¹²Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all those engaged in selling and buying there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves.

¹³And he said to them, "It is written: 'My house shall be a house of prayer,' but you are making it a den of thieves."

¹⁴The blind and the lame approached him in the temple area, and he cured them.

¹⁵When the chief priests and the scribes saw the wondrous things he was doing, and the children crying out in the temple area, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they were indignant

¹⁶and said to him, "Do you hear what they are saying?" Jesus said to them, "Yes; and have you never read the text, 'Out of the mouths of infants and nurslings you have brought forth praise'?"

¹⁷And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany, and there he spent the night.

¹⁸When he was going back to the city in the morning, he was hungry.

¹⁹Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went over to it, but found nothing on it except leaves. And he said to it, "May no fruit ever come from you again." And immediately the fig tree withered.

²⁰When the disciples saw this, they were amazed and said, "How was it that the fig tree withered immediately?"

²¹Jesus said to them in reply, "Amen, I say to you, if you have faith and do not waver, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' it will be done.

²²Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive."

²³When he had come into the temple area, the chief priests and the elders of the people approached him as he was teaching and said, "By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority?"

²⁴Jesus said to them in reply, "I shall ask you one question, and if you answer it for me, then I shall tell you by what authority I do these things.

²⁵Where was John's baptism from? Was it of heavenly or of human origin?" They discussed this among themselves and said, "If we say 'Of heavenly origin,' he will say to us, 'Then why did you not believe him?'

²⁶But if we say, 'Of human origin,' we fear the crowd, for they all regard John as a prophet."

²⁷So they said to Jesus in reply, "We do not know." He himself said to them, "Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things.

²⁸"What is your opinion? A man had two sons. He came to the first and said, 'Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.'

²⁹He said in reply, 'I will not,' but afterwards he changed his mind and went.

³⁰The man came to the other son and gave the same order. He said in reply, 'Yes, sir,' but did not go.

³¹Which of the two did his father's will?" They answered, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you.

³²When John came to you in the way of righteousness, you did not believe him; but tax collectors and prostitutes did. Yet even when you saw that, you did not later change your minds and believe him.

³³"Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey.

³⁴When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce.

³⁵But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned.

³⁶Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones, but they treated them in the same way.

³⁷Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, 'They will respect my son.'

³⁸But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.'

³⁹They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

⁴⁰What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?"

⁴¹They answered him, "He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times."

⁴²Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the scriptures: 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes'?

⁴³Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.

⁴⁴( The one who falls on this stone will be dashed to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.)"

⁴⁵When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew that he was speaking about them.

⁴⁶And although they were attempting to arrest him, they feared the crowds, for they regarded him as a prophet.

22Jesus again in reply spoke to them in parables, saying,

²"The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.

³He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come.

⁴A second time he sent other servants, saying, 'Tell those invited: "Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast."'

⁵Some ignored the invitation and went away, one to his farm, another to his business.

⁶The rest laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them.

⁷The king was enraged and sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.

⁸Then he said to his servants, 'The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come.

⁹Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.'

¹⁰The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests.

¹¹But when the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment.

¹²He said to him, 'My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?' But he was reduced to silence.

¹³Then the king said to his attendants, 'Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.'

¹⁴Many are invited, but few are chosen."

¹⁵Then the Pharisees went off and plotted how they might entrap him in speech.

¹⁶They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. And you are not concerned with anyone's opinion, for you do not regard a person's status.

¹⁷Tell us, then, what is your opinion: Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?"

¹⁸Knowing their malice, Jesus said, "Why are you testing me, you hypocrites?

¹⁹Show me the coin that pays the census tax." Then they handed him the Roman coin.

²⁰He said to them, "Whose image is this and whose inscription?"

²¹They replied, "Caesar's." At that he said to them, "Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God."

²²When they heard this they were amazed, and leaving him they went away.

²³On that day Sadducees approached him, saying that there is no resurrection. They put this question to him,

²⁴saying, "Teacher, Moses said, 'If a man dies without children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up descendants for his brother.'

²⁵Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died and, having no descendants, left his wife to his brother.

²⁶The same happened with the second and the third, through all seven.

²⁷Finally the woman died.

²⁸Now at the resurrection, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had been married to her."

²⁹Jesus said to them in reply, "You are misled because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God.

³⁰At the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the angels in heaven.

³¹And concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God,

³²'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living."

³³When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

³⁴When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together,

³⁵and one of them [a scholar of the law] tested him by asking,

³⁶"Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"

³⁷He said to him, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

³⁸This is the greatest and the first commandment.

³⁹The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

⁴⁰The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."

⁴¹While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus questioned them,

⁴²saying, "What is your opinion about the Messiah? Whose son is he?" They replied, "David's."

⁴³He said to them, "How, then, does David, inspired by the Spirit, call him 'lord,' saying:

⁴⁴'The Lord said to my lord, "Sit at my right hand until I place your enemies under your feet"'?

⁴⁵If David calls him 'lord,' how can he be his son?"

⁴⁶No one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

23Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples,

²saying, "The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.

³Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice.

⁴They tie up heavy burdens (hard to carry) and lay them on people's shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them.

⁵All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.

⁶They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues,

⁷greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation 'Rabbi.'

⁸As for you, do not be called 'Rabbi.' You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers.

⁹Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven.

¹⁰Do not be called 'Master'; you have but one master, the Messiah.

¹¹The greatest among you must be your servant.

¹²Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

¹³"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the kingdom of heaven before human beings. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.

¹⁴)

¹⁵"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves.

¹⁶"Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'If one swears by the temple, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gold of the temple, one is obligated.'

¹⁷Blind fools, which is greater, the gold, or the temple that made the gold sacred?

¹⁸And you say, 'If one swears by the altar, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gift on the altar, one is obligated.'

¹⁹You blind ones, which is greater, the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?

²⁰One who swears by the altar swears by it and all that is upon it;

²¹one who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it;

²²one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who is seated on it.

²³"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. (But) these you should have done, without neglecting the others.

²⁴Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!

²⁵"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence.

²⁶Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.

²⁷"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men's bones and every kind of filth.

²⁸Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing.

²⁹"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the memorials of the righteous,

³⁰and you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets' blood.'

³¹Thus you bear witness against yourselves that you are the children of those who murdered the prophets;

³²now fill up what your ancestors measured out!

³³You serpents, you brood of vipers, how can you flee from the judgment of Gehenna?

³⁴Therefore, behold, I send to you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and pursue from town to town,

³⁵so that there may come upon you all the righteous blood shed upon earth, from the righteous blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.

³⁶Amen, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

³⁷"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her young under her wings, but you were unwilling!

³⁸Behold, your house will be abandoned, desolate.

³⁹I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'"

24Jesus left the temple area and was going away, when his disciples approached him to point out the temple buildings.

²He said to them in reply, "You see all these things, do you not? Amen, I say to you, there will not be left here a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down."

³As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples approached him privately and said, "Tell us, when will this happen, and what sign will there be of your coming, and of the end of the age?"

⁴Jesus said to them in reply, "See that no one deceives you.

⁵For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Messiah,' and they will deceive many.

⁶You will hear of wars and reports of wars; see that you are not alarmed, for these things must happen, but it will not yet be the end.

⁷Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be famines and earthquakes from place to place.

⁸All these are the beginning of the labor pains.

⁹Then they will hand you over to persecution, and they will kill you. You will be hated by all nations because of my name.

¹⁰And then many will be led into sin; they will betray and hate one another.

¹¹Many false prophets will arise and deceive many;

¹²and because of the increase of evildoing, the love of many will grow cold.

¹³But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.

¹⁴And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the world as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come.

¹⁵"When you see the desolating abomination spoken of through Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place (let the reader understand),

¹⁶then those in Judea must flee to the mountains,

¹⁷a person on the housetop must not go down to get things out of his house,

¹⁸a person in the field must not return to get his cloak.

¹⁹Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days.

²⁰Pray that your flight not be in winter or on the sabbath,

²¹for at that time there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will be.

²²And if those days had not been shortened, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect they will be shortened.

²³If anyone says to you then, 'Look, here is the Messiah!' or, 'There he is!' do not believe it.

²⁴False messiahs and false prophets will arise, and they will perform signs and wonders so great as to deceive, if that were possible, even the elect.

²⁵Behold, I have told it to you beforehand.

²⁶So if they say to you, 'He is in the desert,' do not go out there; if they say, 'He is in the inner rooms,' do not believe it.

²⁷For just as lightning comes from the east and is seen as far as the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

²⁸Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

²⁹"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 the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

³⁰And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

³¹And he will send out his angels with a trumpet blast, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

³²"Learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near.

³³In the same way, when you see all these things, know that he is near, at the gates.

³⁴Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.

³⁵Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

³⁶"But of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.

³⁷For as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

³⁸In (those) days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark.

³⁹They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be (also) at the coming of the Son of Man.

⁴⁰Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left.

⁴¹Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left.

⁴²Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.

⁴³Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into.

⁴⁴So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.

⁴⁵"Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household to distribute to them their food at the proper time?

⁴⁶Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so.

⁴⁷Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.

⁴⁸But if that wicked servant says to himself, 'My master is long delayed,'

⁴⁹and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with drunkards,

⁵⁰the servant's master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour

⁵¹and will punish him severely and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

25"Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.

²Five of them were foolish and five were wise.

³The foolish ones, when taking their lamps, brought no oil with them,

⁴but the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps.

⁵Since the bridegroom was long delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

⁶At midnight, there was a cry, 'Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!'

⁷Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps.

⁸The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.'

⁹But the wise ones replied, 'No, for there may not be enough for us and you. Go instead to the merchants and buy some for yourselves.'

¹⁰While they went off to buy it, the bridegroom came and those who were ready went into the wedding feast with him. Then the door was locked.

¹¹Afterwards the other virgins came and said, 'Lord, Lord, open the door for us!'

¹²But he said in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.'

¹³Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

¹⁴"It will be as when a man who was going on a journey called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them.

¹⁵To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one--to each according to his ability. Then he went away. Immediately

¹⁶the one who received five talents went and traded with them, and made another five.

¹⁷Likewise, the one who received two made another two.

¹⁸But the man who received one went off and dug a hole in the ground and buried his master's money.

¹⁹After a long time the master of those servants came back and settled accounts with them.

²⁰The one who had received five talents came forward bringing the additional five. He said, 'Master, you gave me five talents. See, I have made five more.'

²¹His master said to him, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master's joy.'

²²(Then) the one who had received two talents also came forward and said, 'Master, you gave me two talents. See, I have made two more.'

²³His master said to him, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master's joy.'

²⁴Then the one who had received the one talent came forward and said, 'Master, I knew you were a demanding person, harvesting where you did not plant and gathering where you did not scatter;

²⁵so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground. Here it is back.'

²⁶His master said to him in reply, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I did not plant and gather where I did not scatter?

²⁷Should you not then have put my money in the bank so that I could have got it back with interest on my return?

²⁸Now then! Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten.

²⁹For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

³⁰And throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.'

³¹"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne,

³²and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

³³He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

³⁴Then the king will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

³⁵For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me,

³⁶naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.'

³⁷Then the righteous will answer him and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?

³⁸When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?

³⁹When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?'

⁴⁰And the king will say to them in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.'

⁴¹Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

⁴²For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,

⁴³a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.'

⁴⁴Then they will answer and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?'

⁴⁵He will answer them, 'Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.'

⁴⁶And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

26When Jesus finished all these words, he said to his disciples,

²"You know that in two days' time it will be Passover, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified."

³Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas,

⁴and they consulted together to arrest Jesus by treachery and put him to death.

⁵But they said, "Not during the festival, that there may not be a riot among the people."

⁶Now when Jesus was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,

⁷a woman came up to him with an alabaster jar of costly perfumed oil, and poured it on his head while he was reclining at table.

⁸When the disciples saw this, they were indignant and said, "Why this waste?

⁹It could have been sold for much, and the money given to the poor."

¹⁰Since Jesus knew this, he said to them, "Why do you make trouble for the woman? She has done a good thing for me.

¹¹The poor you will always have with you; but you will not always have me.

¹²In pouring this perfumed oil upon my body, she did it to prepare me for burial.

¹³Amen, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be spoken of, in memory of her."

¹⁴Then one of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscar iot, went to the chief priests

¹⁵and said, "What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?" They paid him thirty pieces of silver,

¹⁶and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.

¹⁷On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples approached Jesus and said, "Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?"

¹⁸He said, "Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, 'The teacher says, "My appointed time draws near; in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples."'"

¹⁹The disciples then did as Jesus had ordered, and prepared the Passover.

²⁰When it was evening, he reclined at table with the Twelve.

²¹And while they were eating, he said, "Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me."

²²Deeply distressed at this, they began to say to him one after another, "Surely it is not I, Lord?"

²³He said in reply, "He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me is the one who will betray me.

²⁴The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born."

²⁵Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply, "Surely it is not I, Rabbi?" He answered, "You have said so."

²⁶While they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, "Take and eat; this is my body."

²⁷Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you,

²⁸for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins.

²⁹I tell you, from now on I shall not drink this fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it with you new in the kingdom of my Father."

³⁰Then, after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

³¹Then Jesus said to them, "This night all of you will have your faith in me shaken, for it is written: 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be dispersed';

³²but after I have been raised up, I shall go before you to Galilee."

³³Peter said to him in reply, "Though all may have their faith in you shaken, mine will never be."

³⁴Jesus said to him, "Amen, I say to you, this very night before the cock crows, you will deny me three times."

³⁵Peter said to him, "Even though I should have to die with you, I will not deny you." And all the disciples spoke likewise.

³⁶Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray."

³⁷He took along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to feel sorrow and distress.

³⁸Then he said to them, "My soul is sorrowful even to death. Remain here and keep watch with me."

³⁹He advanced a little and fell prostrate in prayer, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will."

⁴⁰When he returned to his disciples he found them asleep. He said to Peter, "So you could not keep watch with me for one hour?

⁴¹Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

⁴²Withdrawing a second time, he prayed again, "My Father, if it is not possible that this cup pass without my drinking it, your will be done!"

⁴³Then he returned once more and found them asleep, for they could not keep their eyes open.

⁴⁴He left them and withdrew again and prayed a third time, saying the same thing again.

⁴⁵Then he returned to his disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Behold, the hour is at hand when the Son of Man is to be handed over to sinners.

⁴⁶Get up, let us go. Look, my betrayer is at hand."

⁴⁷While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived, accompanied by a large crowd, with swords and clubs, who had come from the chief priests and the elders of the people.

⁴⁸His betrayer had arranged a sign with them, saying, "The man I shall kiss is the one; arrest him."

⁴⁹Immediately he went over to Jesus and said, "Hail, Rabbi!" and he kissed him.

⁵⁰Jesus answered him, "Friend, do what you have come for." Then stepping forward they laid hands on Jesus and arrested him.

⁵¹And behold, one of those who accompanied Jesus put his hand to his sword, drew it, and struck the high priest's servant, cutting off his ear.

⁵²Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back into its sheath, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.

⁵³Do you think that I cannot call upon my Father and he will not provide me at this moment with more than twelve legions of angels?

⁵⁴But then how would the scriptures be fulfilled which say that it must come to pass in this way?"

⁵⁵At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, "Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to seize me? Day after day I sat teaching in the temple area, yet you did not arrest me.

⁵⁶But all this has come to pass that the writings of the prophets may be fulfilled." Then all the disciples left him and fled.

⁵⁷Those who had arrested Jesus led him away to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled.

⁵⁸Peter was following him at a distance as far as the high priest's courtyard, and going inside he sat down with the servants to see the outcome.

⁵⁹The chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus in order to put him to death,

⁶⁰but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. Finally two came forward

⁶¹who stated, "This man said, 'I can destroy the temple of God and within three days rebuild it.'"

⁶²The high priest rose and addressed him, "Have you no answer? What are these men testifying against you?"

⁶³But Jesus was silent. Then the high priest said to him, "I order you to tell us under oath before the living God whether you are the Messiah, the Son of God."

⁶⁴Jesus said to him in reply, "You have said so. But I tell you: From now on you will see 'the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power' and 'coming on the clouds of heaven.'"

⁶⁵Then the high priest tore his robes and said, "He has blasphemed! What further need have we of witnesses? You have now heard the blasphemy;

⁶⁶what is your opinion?" They said in reply, "He deserves to die!"

⁶⁷Then they spat in his face and struck him, while some slapped him,

⁶⁸saying, "Prophesy for us, Messiah: who is it that struck you?"

⁶⁹Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. One of the maids came over to him and said, "You too were with Jesus the Galilean."

⁷⁰But he denied it in front of everyone, saying, "I do not know what you are talking about!"

⁷¹As he went out to the gate, another girl saw him and said to those who were there, "This man was with Jesus the Nazorean."

⁷²Again he denied it with an oath, "I do not know the man!"

⁷³A little later the bystanders came over and said to Peter, "Surely you too are one of them; even your speech gives you away."

⁷⁴At that he began to curse and to swear, "I do not know the man." And immediately a cock crowed.

⁷⁵Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had spoken: "Before the cock crows you will deny me three times." He went out and began to weep bitterly.

27When it was morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death.

²They bound him, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate, the governor.

³Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that Jesus had been condemned, deeply regretted what he had done. He returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,

⁴saying, "I have sinned in betraying innocent blood." They said, "What is that to us? Look to it yourself."

⁵Flinging the money into the temple, he departed and went off and hanged himself.

⁶The chief priests gathered up the money, but said, "It is not lawful to deposit this in the temple treasury, for it is the price of blood."

⁷After consultation, they used it to buy the potter's field as a burial place for foreigners.

⁸That is why that field even today is called the Field of Blood.

⁹Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet, "And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of a man with a price on his head, a price set by some of the Israelites,

¹⁰and they paid it out for the potter's field just as the Lord had commanded me."

¹¹Now Jesus stood before the governor, and he questioned him, "Are you the king of the Jews?" Jesus said, "You say so."

¹²And when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he made no answer.

¹³Then Pilate said to him, "Do you not hear how many things they are testifying against you?"

¹⁴But he did not answer him one word, so that the governor was greatly amazed.

¹⁵Now on the occasion of the feast the governor was accustomed to release to the crowd one prisoner whom they wished.

¹⁶And at that time they had a notorious prisoner called (Jesus) Barabbas.

¹⁷So when they had assembled, Pilate said to them, "Which one do you want me to release to you, (Jesus) Barabbas, or Jesus called Messiah?"

¹⁸For he knew that it was out of envy that they had handed him over.

¹⁹While he was still seated on the bench, his wife sent him a message, "Have nothing to do with that righteous man. I suffered much in a dream today because of him."

²⁰The chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas but to destroy Jesus.

²¹The governor said to them in reply, "Which of the two do you want me to release to you?" They answered, "Barabbas!"

²²Pilate said to them, "Then what shall I do with Jesus called Messiah?" They all said, "Let him be crucified!"

²³But he said, "Why? What evil has he done?" They only shouted the louder, "Let him be crucified!"

²⁴When Pilate saw that he was not succeeding at all, but that a riot was breaking out instead, he took water and washed his hands in the sight of the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood. Look to it yourselves."

²⁵And the whole people said in reply, "His blood be upon us and upon our children."

²⁶Then he released Barabbas to them, but after he had Jesus scourged, he handed him over to be crucified.

²⁷Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus inside the praetorium and gathered the whole cohort around him.

²⁸They stripped off his clothes and threw a scarlet military cloak about him.

²⁹Weaving a crown out of thorns, they placed it on his head, and a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!"

³⁰They spat upon him and took the reed and kept striking him on the head.

³¹And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the cloak, dressed him in his own clothes, and led him off to crucify him.

³²As they were going out, they met a Cyrenian named Simon; this man they pressed into service to carry his cross.

³³And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of the Skull),

³⁴they gave Jesus wine to drink mixed with gall. But when he had tasted it, he refused to drink.

³⁵After they had crucified him, they divided his garments by casting lots;

³⁶then they sat down and kept watch over him there.

³⁷And they placed over his head the written charge against him: This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.

³⁸Two revolutionaries were crucified with him, one on his right and the other on his left.

³⁹Those passing by reviled him, shaking their heads

⁴⁰and saying, "You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, if you are the Son of God, (and) come down from the cross!"

⁴¹Likewise the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him and said,

⁴²"He saved others; he cannot save himself. So he is the king of Israel! Let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him.

⁴³He trusted in God; let him deliver him now if he wants him. For he said, 'I am the Son of God.'"

⁴⁴The revolutionaries who were crucified with him also kept abusing him in the same way.

⁴⁵From noon onward, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.

⁴⁶And about three o'clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

⁴⁷Some of the bystanders who heard it said, "This one is calling for Elijah."

⁴⁸Immediately one of them ran to get a sponge; he soaked it in wine, and putting it on a reed, gave it to him to drink.

⁴⁹But the rest said, "Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to save him."

⁵⁰But Jesus cried out again in a loud voice, and gave up his spirit.

⁵¹And behold, the veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked, rocks were split,

⁵²tombs were opened, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised.

⁵³And coming forth from their tombs after his resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many.

⁵⁴The centurion and the men with him who were keeping watch over Jesus feared greatly when they saw the earthquake and all that was happening, and they said, "Truly, this was the Son of God!"

⁵⁵There were many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him.

⁵⁶Among them were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

⁵⁷When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who was himself a disciple of Jesus.

⁵⁸He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be handed over.

⁵⁹Taking the body, Joseph wrapped it (in) clean linen

⁶⁰and laid it in his new tomb that he had hewn in the rock. Then he rolled a huge stone across the entrance to the tomb and departed.

⁶¹But Mary Magdalene and the other Mary remained sitting there, facing the tomb.

⁶²The next day, the one following the day of preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate

⁶³and said, "Sir, we remember that this impostor while still alive said, 'After three days I will be raised up.'

⁶⁴Give orders, then, that the grave be secured until the third day, lest his disciples come and steal him and say to the people, 'He has been raised from the dead.' This last imposture would be worse than the first."

⁶⁵Pilate said to them, "The guard is yours; go secure it as best you can."

⁶⁶So they went and secured the tomb by fixing a seal to the stone and setting the guard.

28After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.

²And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, approached, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it.

³His appearance was like lightning and his clothing was white as snow.

⁴The guards were shaken with fear of him and became like dead men.

⁵Then the angel said to the women in reply, "Do not be afraid! I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified.

⁶He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

⁷Then go quickly and tell his disciples, 'He has been raised from the dead, and he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him.' Behold, I have told you."

⁸Then they went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce this to his disciples.

⁹And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them. They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage.

¹⁰Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me."

¹¹While they were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had happened.

¹²They assembled with the elders and took counsel; then they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers,

¹³telling them, "You are to say, 'His disciples came by night and stole him while we were asleep.'

¹⁴And if this gets to the ears of the governor, we will satisfy (him) and keep you out of trouble."

¹⁵The soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has circulated among the Jews to the present (day).

¹⁶The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them.

¹⁷When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.

¹⁸Then Jesus approached and said to them, "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

¹⁹Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit,

²⁰teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."

1The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ (the Son of God).

²As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: "Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way.

³A voice of one crying out in the desert: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.'"

⁴John (the) Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

⁵People of the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.

⁶John was clothed in camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He fed on locusts and wild honey.

⁷And this is what he proclaimed: "One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.

⁸I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the holy Spirit."

⁹It happened in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John.

¹⁰On coming up out of the water he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him.

¹¹And a voice came from the heavens, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."

¹²At once the Spirit drove him out into the desert,

¹³and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.

¹⁴After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:

¹⁵"This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel."

¹⁶As he passed by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea; they were fishermen.

¹⁷Jesus said to them, "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men."

¹⁸Then they abandoned their nets and followed him.

¹⁹He walked along a little farther and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They too were in a boat mending their nets.

²⁰Then he called them. So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him.

²¹Then they came to Capernaum, and on the sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught.

²²The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.

²³In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit;

²⁴he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God!"

²⁵Jesus rebuked him and said, "Quiet! Come out of him!"

²⁶The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.

²⁷All were amazed and asked one another, "What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him."

²⁸His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.

²⁹On leaving the synagogue he entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.

³⁰Simon's mother-in-law lay sick with a fever. They immediately told him about her.

³¹He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up. Then the fever left her and she waited on them.

³²When it was evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons.

³³The whole town was gathered at the door.

³⁴He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons, not permitting them to speak because they knew him.

³⁵Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.

³⁶Simon and those who were with him pursued him

³⁷and on finding him said, "Everyone is looking for you."

³⁸He told them, "Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come."

³⁹So he went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.

⁴⁰A leper came to him (and kneeling down) begged him and said, "If you wish, you can make me clean."

⁴¹Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, "I do will it. Be made clean."

⁴²The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.

⁴³Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.

⁴⁴Then he said to him, "See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them."

⁴⁵The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter. He spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remained outside in deserted places, and people kept coming to him from everywhere.

2When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it became known that he was at home.

²Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them, not even around the door, and he preached the word to them.

³They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.

⁴Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him. After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying.

⁵When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Child, your sins are forgiven."

⁶Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves,

⁷"Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins?"

⁸Jesus immediately knew in his mind what they were thinking to themselves, so he said, "Why are you thinking such things in your hearts?

⁹Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise, pick up your mat and walk'?

¹⁰But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth"--

¹¹he said to the paralytic, "I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home."

¹²He rose, picked up his mat at once, and went away in the sight of everyone. They were all astounded and glorified God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this."

¹³Once again he went out along the sea. All the crowd came to him and he taught them.

¹⁴As he passed by, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting at the customs post. He said to him, "Follow me." And he got up and followed him.

¹⁵While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners sat with Jesus and his disciples; for there were many who followed him.

¹⁶Some scribes who were Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors and said to his disciples, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?"

¹⁷Jesus heard this and said to them (that), "Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners."

¹⁸The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast. People came to him and objected, "Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?"

¹⁹Jesus answered them, "Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.

²⁰But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.

²¹No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls away, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.

²²Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins."

²³As he was passing through a field of grain on the sabbath, his disciples began to make a path while picking the heads of grain.

²⁴At this the Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?"

²⁵He said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry?

²⁶How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the bread of offering that only the priests could lawfully eat, and shared it with his companions?"

²⁷Then he said to them, "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.

²⁸That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath."

3Again he entered the synagogue. There was a man there who had a withered hand.

²They watched him closely to see if he would cure him on the sabbath so that they might accuse him.

³He said to the man with the withered hand, "Come up here before us."

⁴Then he said to them, "Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?" But they remained silent.

⁵Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart, he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out and his hand was restored.

⁶The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death.

⁷Jesus withdrew toward the sea with his disciples. A large number of people (followed) from Galilee and from Judea.

⁸Hearing what he was doing, a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem, from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan, and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon.

⁹He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him.

¹⁰He had cured many and, as a result, those who had diseases were pressing upon him to touch him.

¹¹And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him and shout, "You are the Son of God."

¹²He warned them sternly not to make him known.

¹³He went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted and they came to him.

¹⁴He appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) that they might be with him and he might send them forth to preach

¹⁵and to have authority to drive out demons:

¹⁶(he appointed the twelve:) Simon, whom he named Peter;

¹⁷James, son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James, whom he named Boanerges, that is, sons of thunder;

¹⁸Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus; Thaddeus, Simon the Cananean,

¹⁹and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.

²⁰He came home. Again (the) crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat.

²¹When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, "He is out of his mind."

²²The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said, "He is possessed by Beelzebul," and "By the prince of demons he drives out demons."

²³Summoning them, he began to speak 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 will not be able to stand.

²⁶And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand; that is the end of him.

²⁷But no one can enter a strong man's house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house.

²⁸Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them.

²⁹But whoever blasphemes against the holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin."

³⁰For they had said, "He has an unclean spirit."

³¹His mother and his brothers arrived. Standing outside they sent word to him and called him.

³²A crowd seated around him told him, "Your mother and your brothers (and your sisters) are outside asking for you."

³³But he said to them in reply, "Who are my mother and (my) brothers?"

³⁴And looking around at those seated in the circle he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers.

³⁵(For) whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."

4On another occasion he began to teach by the sea. A very large crowd gathered around him so that he got into a boat on the sea and sat down. And the whole crowd was beside the sea on land.

²And he taught them at length in parables, and in the course of his instruction he said to them,

³"Hear this! A sower went out to sow.

⁴And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up.

⁵Other seed fell on rocky ground where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep.

⁶And when the sun rose, it was scorched and it withered for lack of roots.

⁷Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it and it produced no grain.

⁸And some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit. It came up and grew and yielded thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold."

⁹He added, "Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear."

¹⁰And when he was alone, those present along with the Twelve questioned him about the parables.

¹¹He answered them, "The mystery of the kingdom of God has been granted to you. But to those outside everything comes in parables,

¹²so that 'they may look and see but not perceive, and hear and listen but not understand, in order that they may not be converted and be forgiven.'"

¹³Jesus said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables?

¹⁴The sower sows the word.

¹⁵These are the ones on the path where the word is sown. As soon as they hear, Satan comes at once and takes away the word sown in them.

¹⁶And these are the ones sown on rocky ground who, when they hear the word, receive it at once with joy.

¹⁷But they have no root; they last only for a time. Then when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.

¹⁸Those sown among thorns are another sort. They are the people who hear the word,

¹⁹but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word, and it bears no fruit.

²⁰But those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold."

²¹He said to them, "Is a lamp brought in to be placed under a bushel basket or under a bed, and not to be placed on a lampstand?

²²For there is nothing hidden except to be made visible; nothing is secret except to come to light.

²³Anyone who has ears to hear ought to hear."

²⁴He also told them, "Take care what you hear. The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you, and still more will be given to you.

²⁵To the one who has, more will be given; from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away."

²⁶He said,"This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land

²⁷and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how.

²⁸Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.

²⁹And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come."

³⁰He said, "To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it?

³¹It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.

³²But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade."

³³With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it.

³⁴Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.

³⁵On that day, as evening drew on, he said to them, "Let us cross to the other side."

³⁶Leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat just as he was. And other boats were with him.

³⁷A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up.

³⁸Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. They woke him and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"

³⁹He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Quiet! Be still!" The wind ceased and there was great calm.

⁴⁰Then he asked them, "Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?"

⁴¹They were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?"

5They came to the other side of the sea, to the territory of the Gerasenes.

²When he got out of the boat, at once a man from the tombs who had an unclean spirit met him.

³The man had been dwelling among the tombs, and no one could restrain him any longer, even with a chain.

⁴In fact, he had frequently been bound with shackles and chains, but the chains had been pulled apart by him and the shackles smashed, and no one was strong enough to subdue him.

⁵Night and day among the tombs and on the hillsides he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones.

⁶Catching sight of Jesus from a distance, he ran up and prostrated himself before him,

⁷crying out in a loud voice, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me!"

⁸(He had been saying to him, "Unclean spirit, come out of the man!")

⁹He asked him, "What is your name?" He replied, "Legion is my name. There are many of us."

¹⁰And he pleaded earnestly with him not to drive them away from that territory.

¹¹Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside.

¹²And they pleaded with him, "Send us into the swine. Let us enter them."

¹³And he let them, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine. The herd of about two thousand rushed down a steep bank into the sea, where they were drowned.

¹⁴The swineherds ran away and reported the incident in the town and throughout the countryside. And people came out to see what had happened.

¹⁵As they approached Jesus, they caught sight of the man who had been possessed by Legion, sitting there clothed and in his right mind. And they were seized with fear.

¹⁶Those who witnessed the incident explained to them what had happened to the possessed man and to the swine.

¹⁷Then they began to beg him to leave their district.

¹⁸As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed pleaded to remain with him.

¹⁹But he would not permit him but told him instead, "Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his pity has done for you."

²⁰Then the man went off and began to proclaim in the Decapolis what Jesus had done for him; and all were amazed.

²¹When Jesus had crossed again (in the boat) to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to the sea.

²²One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward. Seeing him he fell at his feet

²³and pleaded earnestly with him, saying, "My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live."

²⁴He went off with him, and a large crowd followed him and pressed upon him.

²⁵There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years.

²⁶She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped but only grew worse.

²⁷She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak.

²⁸She said, "If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured."

²⁹Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.

³⁰Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who has touched my clothes?"

³¹But his disciples said to him, "You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, 'Who touched me?'"

³²And he looked around to see who had done it.

³³The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth.

³⁴He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction."

³⁵While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official's house arrived and said, "Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?"

³⁶Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the synagogue official, "Do not be afraid; just have faith."

³⁷He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.

³⁸When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official, he caught sight of a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.

³⁹So he went in and said to them, "Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep."

⁴⁰And they ridiculed him. Then he put them all out. He took along the child's father and mother and those who were with him and entered the room where the child was.

⁴¹He took the child by the hand and said to her, "Talitha koum," which means, "Little girl, I say to you, arise!"

⁴²The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around. (At that) they were utterly astounded.

⁴³He gave strict orders that no one should know this and said that she should be given something to eat.

6He departed from there and came to his native place, accompanied by his disciples.

²When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished. They said, "Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands!

³Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him.

⁴Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house."

⁵So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them.

⁶He was amazed at their lack of faith. He went around to the villages in the vicinity teaching.

⁷He summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits.

⁸He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick--no food, no sack, no money in their belts.

⁹They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic.

¹⁰He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there.

¹¹Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them."

¹²So they went off and preached repentance.

¹³They drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

¹⁴King Herod heard about it, for his fame had become widespread, and people were saying, "John the Baptist has been raised from the dead; that is why mighty powers are at work in him."

¹⁵Others were saying, "He is Elijah"; still others, "He is a prophet like any of the prophets."

¹⁶But when Herod learned of it, he said, "It is John whom I beheaded. He has been raised up."

¹⁷Herod was the one who had John arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married.

¹⁸John had said to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife."

¹⁹Herodias harbored a grudge against him and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so.

²⁰Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man, and kept him in custody. When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed, yet he liked to listen to him.

²¹She had an opportunity one day when Herod, on his birthday, gave a banquet for his courtiers, his military officers, and the leading men of Galilee.

²²Herodias's own daughter came in and performed a dance that delighted Herod and his guests. The king said to the girl, "Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you."

²³He even swore (many things) to her, "I will grant you whatever you ask of me, even to half of my kingdom."

²⁴She went out and said to her mother, "What shall I ask for?" She replied, "The head of John the Baptist."

²⁵The girl hurried back to the king's presence and made her request, "I want you to give me at once on a platter the head of John the Baptist."

²⁶The king was deeply distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests he did not wish to break his word to her.

²⁷So he promptly dispatched an executioner with orders to bring back his head. He went off and beheaded him in the prison.

²⁸He brought in the head on a platter and gave it to the girl. The girl in turn gave it to her mother.

²⁹When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

³⁰The apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught.

³¹He said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while." People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat.

³²So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place.

³³People saw them leaving and many came to know about it. They hastened there on foot from all the towns and arrived at the place before them.

³⁴When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.

³⁵By now it was already late and his disciples approached him and said, "This is a deserted place and it is already very late.

³⁶Dismiss them so that they can go to the surrounding farms and villages and buy themselves something to eat."

³⁷He said to them in reply, "Give them some food yourselves." But they said to him, "Are we to buy two hundred days' wages worth of food and give it to them to eat?"

³⁸He asked them, "How many loaves do you have? Go and see." And when they had found out they said, "Five loaves and two fish."

³⁹So he gave orders to have them sit down in groups on the green grass.

⁴⁰The people took their places in rows by hundreds and by fifties.

⁴¹Then, taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to (his) disciples to set before the people; he also divided the two fish among them all.

⁴²They all ate and were satisfied.

⁴³And they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments and what was left of the fish.

⁴⁴Those who ate (of the loaves) were five thousand men.

⁴⁵Then he made his disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side toward Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd.

⁴⁶And when he had taken leave of them, he went off to the mountain to pray.

⁴⁷When it was evening, the boat was far out on the sea and he was alone on shore.

⁴⁸Then he saw that they were tossed about while rowing, for the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them.

⁴⁹But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out.

⁵⁰They had all seen him and were terrified. But at once he spoke with them, "Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!"

⁵¹He got into the boat with them and the wind died down. They were (completely) astounded.

⁵²They had not understood the incident of the loaves. On the contrary, their hearts were hardened.

⁵³After making the crossing, they came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there.

⁵⁴As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him.

⁵⁵They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was.

⁵⁶Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.

7Now when the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him,

²they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.

³(For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders.

⁴And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles (and beds).)

⁵So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, "Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?"

⁶He responded, "Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;

⁷In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.'

⁸You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition."

⁹He went on to say, "How well you have set aside the commandment of God in order to uphold your tradition!

¹⁰For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and 'Whoever curses father or mother shall die.'

¹¹Yet you say, 'If a person says to father or mother, "Any support you might have had from me is qorban"' (meaning, dedicated to God),

¹²you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother.

¹³You nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many such things."

¹⁴He summoned the crowd again and said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and understand.

¹⁵Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile."

¹⁶)

¹⁷When he got home away from the crowd his disciples questioned him about the parable.

¹⁸He said to them, "Are even you likewise without understanding? Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile,

¹⁹since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.)

²⁰"But what comes out of a person, that is what defiles.

²¹From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,

²²adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.

²³All these evils come from within and they defile."

²⁴From that place he went off to the district of Tyre. He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it, but he could not escape notice.

²⁵Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell at his feet.

²⁶The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.

²⁷He said to her, "Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs."

²⁸She replied and said to him, "Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children's scraps."

²⁹Then he said to her, "For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter."

³⁰When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

³¹Again he left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis.

³²And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him.

³³He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man's ears and, spitting, touched his tongue;

³⁴then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, "Ephphatha!" (that is, "Be opened!")

³⁵And (immediately) the man's ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly.

³⁶He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it.

³⁷They were exceedingly astonished and they said, "He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and (the) mute speak."

8In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat, he summoned the disciples and said,

²"My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat.

³If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance."

⁴His disciples answered him, "Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?"

⁵Still he asked them, "How many loaves do you have?" "Seven," they replied.

⁶He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd.

⁷They also had a few fish. He said the blessing over them and ordered them distributed also.

⁸They ate and were satisfied. They picked up the fragments left over--seven baskets.

⁹There were about four thousand people. He dismissed them

¹⁰and got into the boat with his disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha.

¹¹The Pharisees came forward and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him.

¹²He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said, "Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation."

¹³Then he left them, got into the boat again, and went off to the other shore.

¹⁴They had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat.

¹⁵He enjoined them, "Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."

¹⁶They concluded among themselves that it was because they had no bread.

¹⁷When he became aware of this he said to them, "Why do you conclude that it is because you have no bread? Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened?

¹⁸Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear? And do you not remember,

¹⁹when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many wicker baskets full of fragments you picked up?" They answered him, "Twelve."

²⁰"When I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many full baskets of fragments did you pick up?" They answered (him), "Seven."

²¹He said to them, "Do you still not understand?"

²²When they arrived at Bethsaida, they brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him.

²³He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. Putting spittle on his eyes he laid his hands on him and asked, "Do you see anything?"

²⁴Looking up he replied, "I see people looking like trees and walking."

²⁵Then he laid hands on his eyes a second time and he saw clearly; his sight was restored and he could see everything distinctly.

²⁶Then he sent him home and said, "Do not even go into the village."

²⁷Now Jesus and his disciples set out for the villages of Caesarea Philippi. Along the way he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?"

²⁸They said in reply, "John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others one of the prophets."

²⁹And he asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter said to him in reply, "You are the Messiah."

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

³¹He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days.

³²He spoke this openly. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

³³At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."

³⁴He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

³⁵For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.

³⁶What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?

³⁷What could one give in exchange for his life?

³⁸Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this faithless and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."

9He also said to them, "Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come in power."

²After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them,

³and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.

⁴Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus.

⁵Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, "Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."

⁶He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.

⁷Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; then from the cloud came a voice, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him."

⁸Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them.

⁹As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

¹⁰So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant.

¹¹Then they asked him, "Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?"

¹²He told them, "Elijah will indeed come first and restore all things, yet how is it written regarding the Son of Man that he must suffer greatly and be treated with contempt?

¹³But I tell you that Elijah has come and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written of him."

¹⁴When they came to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and scribes arguing with them.

¹⁵Immediately on seeing him, the whole crowd was utterly amazed. They ran up to him and greeted him.

¹⁶He asked them, "What are you arguing about with them?"

¹⁷Someone from the crowd answered him, "Teacher, I have brought to you my son possessed by a mute spirit.

¹⁸Wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive it out, but they were unable to do so."

¹⁹He said to them in reply, "O faithless generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I endure you? Bring him to me."

²⁰They brought the boy to him. And when he saw him, the spirit immediately threw the boy into convulsions. As he fell to the ground, he began to roll around and foam at the mouth.

²¹Then he questioned his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" He replied, "Since childhood.

²²It has often thrown him into fire and into water to kill him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us."

²³Jesus said to him, " 'If you can!' Everything is possible to one who has faith."

²⁴Then the boy's father cried out, "I do believe, help my unbelief!"

²⁵Jesus, on seeing a crowd rapidly gathering, rebuked the unclean spirit and said to it, "Mute and deaf spirit, I command you: come out of him and never enter him again!"

²⁶Shouting and throwing the boy into convulsions, it came out. He became like a corpse, which caused many to say, "He is dead!"

²⁷But Jesus took him by the hand, raised him, and he stood up.

²⁸When he entered the house, his disciples asked him in private, "Why could we not drive it out?"

²⁹He said to them, "This kind can only come out through prayer."

³⁰They left from there and began a journey through Galilee, but he did not wish anyone to know about it.

³¹He was teaching his disciples and telling them, "The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death he will rise."

³²But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him.

³³They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, he began to ask them, "What were you arguing about on the way?"

³⁴But they remained silent. They had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest.

³⁵Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, "If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all."

³⁶Taking a child he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it he said to them,

³⁷"Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the one who sent me."

³⁸John said to him, "Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us."

³⁹Jesus replied, "Do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me.

⁴⁰For whoever is not against us is for us.

⁴¹Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.

⁴²"Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe (in me) to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

⁴³If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire.

⁴⁴

⁴⁵And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna.

⁴⁷And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna,

⁴⁸where 'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'

⁴⁹"Everyone will be salted with fire.

⁵⁰Salt is good, but if salt becomes insipid, with what will you restore its flavor? Keep salt in yourselves and you will have peace with one another."

10He set out from there and went into the district of Judea (and) across the Jordan. Again crowds gathered around him and, as was his custom, he again taught them.

²The Pharisees approached and asked, "Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?" They were testing him.

³He said to them in reply, "What did Moses command you?"

⁴They replied, "Moses permitted him to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her."

⁵But Jesus told them, "Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment.

⁶But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.

⁷For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother (and be joined to his wife),

⁸and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two but one flesh.

⁹Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate."

¹⁰In the house the disciples again questioned him about this.

¹¹He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her;

¹²and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."

¹³And people were bringing children to him that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them.

¹⁴When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them, "Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

¹⁵Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it."

¹⁶Then he embraced them and blessed them, placing his hands on them.

¹⁷As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

¹⁸Jesus answered him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.

¹⁹You know the commandments: 'You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and your mother.'"

²⁰He replied and said to him, "Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth."

²¹Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, "You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to (the) poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."

²²At that statement his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

²³Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!"

²⁴The disciples were amazed at his words. So Jesus again said to them in reply, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!

²⁵It is easier for a camel to pass through (the) eye of (a) needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

²⁶They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves, "Then who can be saved?"

²⁷Jesus looked at them and said, "For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God."

²⁸Peter began to say to him, "We have given up everything and followed you."

²⁹Jesus said, "Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel

³⁰who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come.

³¹But many that are first will be last, and (the) last will be first."

³²They were on the way, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went ahead of them. They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them what was going to happen to him.

³³"Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles

³⁴who will mock him, spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death, but after three days he will rise."

³⁵Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you."

³⁶He replied, "What do you wish (me) to do for you?"

³⁷They answered him, "Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left."

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

³⁹They said to him, "We can." Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized;

⁴⁰but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared."

⁴¹When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John.

⁴²Jesus summoned them and said to them, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt.

⁴³But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant;

⁴⁴whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.

⁴⁵For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."

⁴⁶They came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging.

⁴⁷On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, son of David, have pity on me."

⁴⁸And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more, "Son of David, have pity on me."

⁴⁹Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." So they called the blind man, saying to him, "Take courage; get up, he is calling you."

⁵⁰He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.

⁵¹Jesus said to him in reply, "What do you want me to do for you?" The blind man replied to him, "Master, I want to see."

⁵²Jesus told him, "Go your way; your faith has saved you." Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.

11When they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples

²and said to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately on entering it, you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here.

³If anyone should say to you, 'Why are you doing this?' reply, 'The Master has need of it and will send it back here at once.'"

⁴So they went off and found a colt tethered at a gate outside on the street, and they untied it.

⁵Some of the bystanders said to them, "What are you doing, untying the colt?"

⁶They answered them just as Jesus had told them to, and they permitted them to do it.

⁷So they brought the colt to Jesus and put their cloaks over it. And he sat on it.

⁸Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields.

⁹Those preceding him as well as those following kept crying out: "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

¹⁰Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come! Hosanna in the highest!"

¹¹He entered Jerusalem and went into the temple area. He looked around at everything and, since it was already late, went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

¹²The next day as they were leaving Bethany he was hungry.

¹³Seeing from a distance a fig tree in leaf, he went over to see if he could find anything on it. When he reached it he found nothing but leaves; it was not the time for figs.

¹⁴And he said to it in reply, "May no one ever eat of your fruit again!" And his disciples heard it.

¹⁵They came to Jerusalem, and on entering the temple area he began to drive out those selling and buying there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves.

¹⁶He did not permit anyone to carry anything through the temple area.

¹⁷Then he taught them saying, "Is it not written: 'My house shall be called a house of prayerfor all peoples'? But you have made it a den of thieves."

¹⁸The chief priests and the scribes came to hear of it and were seeking a way to put him to death, yet they feared him because the whole crowd was astonished at his teaching.

¹⁹When evening came, they went out of the city.

²⁰Early in the morning, as they were walking along, they saw the fig tree withered to its roots.

²¹Peter remembered and said to him, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered."

²²Jesus said to them in reply, "Have faith in God.

²³Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it shall be done for him.

²⁴Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours.

²⁵When you stand to pray, forgive anyone against whom you have a grievance, so that your heavenly Father may in turn forgive you your transgressions."

²⁶)

²⁷They returned once more to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple area, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders approached him

²⁸and said to him, "By what authority are you doing these things? Or who gave you this authority to do them?"

²⁹Jesus said to them, "I shall ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.

³⁰Was John's baptism of heavenly or of human origin? Answer me."

³¹They discussed this among themselves and said, "If we say, 'Of heavenly origin,' he will say, '(Then) why did you not believe him?'

³²But shall we say, 'Of human origin'?"--they feared the crowd, for they all thought John really was a prophet.

³³So they said to Jesus in reply, "We do not know." Then Jesus said to them, "Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things."

12He began to speak to them in parables. "A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and left on a journey.

²At the proper time he sent a servant to the tenants to obtain from them some of the produce of the vineyard.

³But they seized him, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed.

⁴Again he sent them another servant. And that one they beat over the head and treated shamefully.

⁵He sent yet another whom they killed. So, too, many others; some they beat, others they killed.

⁶He had one other to send, a beloved son. He sent him to them last of all, thinking, 'They will respect my son.'

⁷But those tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.'

⁸So they seized him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.

⁹What (then) will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come, put the tenants to death, and give the vineyard to others.

¹⁰Have you not read this scripture passage: 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;

¹¹by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes'?"

¹²They were seeking to arrest him, but they feared the crowd, for they realized that he had addressed the parable to them. So they left him and went away.

¹³They sent some Pharisees and Herodians to him to ensnare him in his speech.

¹⁴They came and said to him, "Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you are not concerned with anyone's opinion. You do not regard a person's status but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not? Should we pay or should we not pay?"

¹⁵Knowing their hypocrisy he said to them, "Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius to look at."

¹⁶They brought one to him and he said to them, "Whose image and inscription is this?" They replied to him, "Caesar's."

¹⁷So Jesus said to them, "Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.' They were utterly amazed at him.

¹⁸Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and put this question to him,

¹⁹saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us, 'If someone's brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.'

²⁰Now there were seven brothers. The first married a woman and died, leaving no descendants.

²¹So the second married her and died, leaving no descendants, and the third likewise.

²²And the seven left no descendants. Last of all the woman also died.

²³At the resurrection (when they arise) whose wife will she be? For all seven had been married to her."

²⁴Jesus said to them, "Are you not misled because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God?

²⁵When they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they are like the angels in heaven.

²⁶As for the dead being raised, have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God told him, 'I am the God of Abraham, (the) God of Isaac, and (the) God of Jacob'?

²⁷He is not God of the dead but of the living. You are greatly misled."

²⁸One of the scribes, when he came forward and heard them disputing and saw how well he had answered them, asked him, "Which is the first of all the commandments?"

²⁹Jesus replied, "The first is this: 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!

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 scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, 'He is One and there is no other than he.'

³³And 'to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself' is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."

³⁴And when Jesus saw that (he) answered with understanding, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

³⁵As Jesus was teaching in the temple area he said, "How do the scribes claim that the Messiah is the son of David?

³⁶David himself, inspired by the holy Spirit, said: 'The Lord said to my lord, "Sit at my right hand until I place your enemies under your feet."'

³⁷David himself calls him 'lord'; so how is he his son?" (The) great crowd heard this with delight.

³⁸In the course of his teaching he said, "Beware of the scribes, who like to go around in long robes and accept greetings in the marketplaces,

³⁹seats of honor in synagogues, and places of honor at banquets.

⁴⁰They devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext, recite lengthy prayers. They will receive a very severe condemnation."

⁴¹He sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums.

⁴²A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents.

⁴³Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, "Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury.

⁴⁴For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood."

13As he was making his way out of the temple area one of his disciples said to him, "Look, teacher, what stones and what buildings!"

²Jesus said to him, "Do you see these great buildings? There will not be one stone left upon another that will not be thrown down."

³As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple area, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately,

⁴"Tell us, when will this happen, and what sign will there be when all these things are about to come to an end?"

⁵Jesus began to say to them, "See that no one deceives you.

⁶Many will come in my name saying, 'I am he,' and they will deceive many.

⁷When you hear of wars and reports of wars do not be alarmed; such things must happen, but it will not yet be the end.

⁸Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes from place to place and there will be famines. These are the beginnings of the labor pains.

⁹"Watch out for yourselves. They will hand you over to the courts. You will be beaten in synagogues. You will be arraigned before governors and kings because of me, as a witness before them.

¹⁰But the gospel must first be preached to all nations.

¹¹When they lead you away and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say. But say whatever will be given to you at that hour. For it will not be you who are speaking but the holy Spirit.

¹²Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death.

¹³You will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.

¹⁴"When you see the desolating abomination standing where he should not (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains,

¹⁵(and) a person on a housetop must not go down or enter to get anything out of his house,

¹⁶and a person in a field must not return to get his cloak.

¹⁷Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days.

¹⁸Pray that this does not happen in winter.

¹⁹For those times will have tribulation such as has not been since the beginning of God's creation until now, nor ever will be.

²⁰If the Lord had not shortened those days, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect whom he chose, he did shorten the days.

²¹If anyone says to you then, 'Look, here is the Messiah! Look, there he is!' do not believe it.

²²False messiahs and false prophets will arise and will perform signs and wonders in order to mislead, if that were possible, the elect.

²³Be watchful! I have told it all to you beforehand.

²⁴"But in those days after that tribulation the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light,

²⁵and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

²⁶And then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in the clouds' with great power and glory,

²⁷and then he will send out the angels and gather (his) elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.

²⁸"Learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near.

²⁹In the same way, when you see these things happening, know that he is near, at the gates.

³⁰Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.

³¹Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

³²"But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

³³Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.

³⁴It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch.

³⁵Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning.

³⁶May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.

³⁷What I say to you, I say to all: 'Watch!'"

14The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were to take place in two days' time. So the chief priests and the scribes were seeking a way to arrest him by treachery and put him to death.

²They said, "Not during the festival, for fear that there may be a riot among the people."

³When he was in Bethany reclining at table in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of perfumed oil, costly genuine spikenard. She broke the alabaster jar and poured it on his head.

⁴There were some who were indignant. "Why has there been this waste of perfumed oil?

⁵It could have been sold for more than three hundred days' wages and the money given to the poor." They were infuriated with her.

⁶Jesus said, "Let her alone. Why do you make trouble for her? She has done a good thing for me.

⁷The poor you will always have with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them, but you will not always have me.

⁸She has done what she could. She has anticipated anointing my body for burial.

⁹Amen, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed to the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her."

¹⁰Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went off to the chief priests to hand him over to them.

¹¹When they heard him they were pleased and promised to pay him money. Then he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.

¹²On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, "Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?"

¹³He sent two of his disciples and said to them, "Go into the city and a man will meet you, carrying a jar of water. Follow him.

¹⁴Wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, 'The Teacher says, "Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?"'

¹⁵Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Make the preparations for us there."

¹⁶The disciples then went off, entered the city, and found it just as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover.

¹⁷When it was evening, he came with the Twelve.

¹⁸And as they reclined at table and were eating, Jesus said, "Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me."

¹⁹They began to be distressed and to say to him, one by one, "Surely it is not I?"

²⁰He said to them, "One of the Twelve, the one who dips with me into the dish.

²¹For the Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born."

²²While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, and said, "Take it; this is my body."

²³Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it.

²⁴He said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many.

²⁵Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."

²⁶Then, after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

²⁷Then Jesus said to them, "All of you will have your faith shaken, for it is written: 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be dispersed.'

²⁸But after I have been raised up, I shall go before you to Galilee."

²⁹Peter said to him, "Even though all should have their faith shaken, mine will not be."

³⁰Then Jesus said to him, "Amen, I say to you, this very night before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times."

³¹But he vehemently replied, "Even though I should have to die with you, I will not deny you." And they all spoke similarly.

³²Then they came to a place named Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, "Sit here while I pray."

³³He took with him Peter, James, and John, and began to be troubled and distressed.

³⁴Then he said to them, "My soul is sorrowful even to death. Remain here and keep watch."

³⁵He advanced a little and fell to the ground and prayed that if it were possible the hour might pass by him;

³⁶he said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible to you. Take this cup away from me, but not what I will but what you will."

³⁷When he returned he found them asleep. He said to Peter, "Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour?

³⁸Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak."

³⁹Withdrawing again, he prayed, saying the same thing.

⁴⁰Then he returned once more and found them asleep, for they could not keep their eyes open and did not know what to answer him.

⁴¹He returned a third time and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough. The hour has come. Behold, the Son of Man is to be handed over to sinners.

⁴²Get up, let us go. See, my betrayer is at hand."

⁴³Then, while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived, accompanied by a crowd with swords and clubs who had come from the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders.

⁴⁴His betrayer had arranged a signal with them, saying, "The man I shall kiss is the one; arrest him and lead him away securely."

⁴⁵He came and immediately went over to him and said, "Rabbi." And he kissed him.

⁴⁶At this they laid hands on him and arrested him.

⁴⁷One of the bystanders drew his sword, struck the high priest's servant, and cut off his ear.

⁴⁸Jesus said to them in reply, "Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs, to seize me?

⁴⁹Day after day I was with you teaching in the temple area, yet you did not arrest me; but that the scriptures may be fulfilled."

⁵⁰And they all left him and fled.

⁵¹Now a young man followed him wearing nothing but a linen cloth about his body. They seized him,

⁵²but he left the cloth behind and ran off naked.

⁵³They led Jesus away to the high priest, and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together.

⁵⁴Peter followed him at a distance into the high priest's courtyard and was seated with the guards, warming himself at the fire.

⁵⁵The chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus in order to put him to death, but they found none.

⁵⁶Many gave false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree.

⁵⁷Some took the stand and testified falsely against him, alleging,

⁵⁸"We heard him say, 'I will destroy this temple made with hands and within three days I will build another not made with hands.'"

⁵⁹Even so their testimony did not agree.

⁶⁰The high priest rose before the assembly and questioned Jesus, saying, "Have you no answer? What are these men testifying against you?"

⁶¹But he was silent and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him and said to him, "Are you the Messiah, the son of the Blessed One?"

⁶²Then Jesus answered, "I am; and 'you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.'"

⁶³At that the high priest tore his garments and said, "What further need have we of witnesses?

⁶⁴You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?" They all condemned him as deserving to die.

⁶⁵Some began to spit on him. They blindfolded him and struck him and said to him, "Prophesy!" And the guards greeted him with blows.

⁶⁶While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the high priest's maids came along.

⁶⁷Seeing Peter warming himself, she looked intently at him and said, "You too were with the Nazarene, Jesus."

⁶⁸But he denied it saying, "I neither know nor understand what you are talking about." So he went out into the outer court. [Then the cock crowed.]

⁶⁹The maid saw him and began again to say to the bystanders, "This man is one of them."

⁷⁰Once again he denied it. A little later the bystanders said to Peter once more, "Surely you are one of them; for you too are a Galilean."

⁷¹He began to curse and to swear, "I do not know this man about whom you are talking."

⁷²And immediately a cock crowed a second time. Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had said to him, "Before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times." He broke down and wept.

15As soon as morning came, the chief priests with the elders and the scribes, that is, the whole Sanhedrin, held a council. They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.

²Pilate questioned him, "Are you the king of the Jews?" He said to him in reply, "You say so."

³The chief priests accused him of many things.

⁴Again Pilate questioned him, "Have you no answer? See how many things they accuse you of."

⁵Jesus gave him no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.

⁶Now on the occasion of the feast he used to release to them one prisoner whom they requested.

⁷A man called Barabbas was then in prison along with the rebels who had committed murder in a rebellion.

⁸The crowd came forward and began to ask him to do for them as he was accustomed.

⁹Pilate answered, "Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?"

¹⁰For he knew that it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed him over.

¹¹But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead.

¹²Pilate again said to them in reply, "Then what (do you want) me to do with (the man you call) the king of the Jews?"

¹³They shouted again, "Crucify him."

¹⁴Pilate said to them, "Why? What evil has he done?" They only shouted the louder, "Crucify him."

¹⁵So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas to them and, after he had Jesus scourged, handed him over to be crucified.

¹⁶The soldiers led him away inside the palace, that is, the praetorium, and assembled the whole cohort.

¹⁷They clothed him in purple and, weaving a crown of thorns, placed it on him.

¹⁸They began to salute him with, "Hail, King of the Jews!"

¹⁹and kept striking his head with a reed and spitting upon him. They knelt before him in homage.

²⁰And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak, dressed him in his own clothes, and led him out to crucify him.

²¹They pressed into service a passer-by, Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross.

²²They brought him to the place of Golgotha (which is translated Place of the Skull).

²³They gave him wine drugged with myrrh, but he did not take it.

²⁴Then they crucified him and divided his garments by casting lots for them to see what each should take.

²⁵It was nine o'clock in the morning when they crucified him.

²⁶The inscription of the charge against him read, "The King of the Jews."

²⁷With him they crucified two revolutionaries, one on his right and one on his left.

²⁸)

²⁹Those passing by reviled him, shaking their heads and saying, "Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days,

³⁰save yourself by coming down from the cross."

³¹Likewise the chief priests, with the scribes, mocked him among themselves and said, "He saved others; he cannot save himself.

³²Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe." Those who were crucified with him also kept abusing him.

³³At noon darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.

³⁴And at three o'clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which is translated, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

³⁵Some of the bystanders who heard it said, "Look, he is calling Elijah."

³⁶One of them ran, soaked a sponge with wine, put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink, saying, "Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to take him down."

³⁷Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.

³⁸The veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom.

³⁹When the centurion who stood facing him saw how he breathed his last he said, "Truly this man was the Son of God!"

⁴⁰There were also women looking on from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of the younger James and of Joses, and Salome.

⁴¹These women had followed him when he was in Galilee and ministered to him. There were also many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem.

⁴²When it was already evening, since it was the day of preparation, the day before the sabbath,

⁴³Joseph of Arimathea, a distinguished member of the council, who was himself awaiting the kingdom of God, came and courageously went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

⁴⁴Pilate was amazed that he was already dead. He summoned the centurion and asked him if Jesus had already died.

⁴⁵And when he learned of it from the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph.

⁴⁶Having bought a linen cloth, he took him down, wrapped him in the linen cloth and laid him in a tomb that had been hewn out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb.

⁴⁷Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses watched where he was laid.

16When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go and anoint him.

²Very early when the sun had risen, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb.

³They were saying to one another, "Who will roll back the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?"

⁴When they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back; it was very large.

⁵On entering the tomb they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a white robe, and they were utterly amazed.

⁶He said to them, "Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Behold the place where they laid him.

⁷But go and tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you.'"

⁸Then they went out and fled from the tomb, seized with trembling and bewilderment. They said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

⁹( When he had risen, early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons.

¹⁰She went and told his companions who were mourning and weeping.

¹¹When they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.

¹²After this he appeared in another form to two of them walking along on their way to the country.

¹³They returned and told the others; but they did not believe them either.

¹⁴(But) later, as the eleven were at table, he appeared to them and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who saw him after he had been raised.

¹⁵He said to them, "Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.

¹⁶Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.

¹⁷These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages.

¹⁸They will pick up serpents (with their hands), and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."

¹⁹So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God.

²⁰But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.)

1Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us,

²just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us,

³I too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you, most excellent Theophilus,

⁴so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received.

⁵In the days of Herod, King of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah of the priestly division of Abijah; his wife was from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.

⁶Both were righteous in the eyes of God, observing all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly.

⁷But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren and both were advanced in years.

⁸Once when he was serving as priest in his division's turn before God,

⁹according to the practice of the priestly service, he was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord to burn incense.

¹⁰Then, when the whole assembly of the people was praying outside at the hour of the incense offering,

¹¹the angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right of the altar of incense.

¹²Zechariah was troubled by what he saw, and fear came upon him.

¹³But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall name him John.

¹⁴And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth,

¹⁵for he will be great in the sight of (the) Lord. He will drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will be filled with the holy Spirit even from his mother's womb,

¹⁶and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.

¹⁷He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers toward children and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to prepare a people fit for the Lord."

¹⁸Then Zechariah said to the angel, "How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years."

¹⁹And the angel said to him in reply, "I am Gabriel, who stand before God. I was sent to speak to you and to announce to you this good news.

²⁰But now you will be speechless and unable to talk until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled at their proper time."

²¹Meanwhile the people were waiting for Zechariah and were amazed that he stayed so long in the sanctuary.

²²But when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He was gesturing to them but remained mute.

²³Then, when his days of ministry were completed, he went home.

²⁴After this time his wife Elizabeth conceived, and she went into seclusion for five months, saying,

²⁵"So has the Lord done for me at a time when he has seen fit to take away my disgrace before others."

²⁶In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,

²⁷to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary.

²⁸And coming to her, he said, "Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you."

²⁹But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

³⁰Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

³¹Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.

³²He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,

³³and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."

³⁴But Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?"

³⁵And the angel said to her in reply, "The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.

³⁶And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;

³⁷for nothing will be impossible for God."

³⁸Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.

³⁹During those days Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah,

⁴⁰where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.

⁴¹When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit,

⁴²cried out in a loud voice and said, "Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

⁴³And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

⁴⁴For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.

⁴⁵Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled."

⁴⁶And Mary said: "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;

⁴⁷my spirit rejoices in God my savior.

⁴⁸For he has looked upon his handmaid's lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed.

⁴⁹The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

⁵⁰His mercy is from age to age to those who fear him.

⁵¹He has shown might with his arm, dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart.

⁵²He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly.

⁵³The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty.

⁵⁴He has helped Israel his servant, remembering his mercy,

⁵⁵according to his promise to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants forever."

⁵⁶Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.

⁵⁷When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child she gave birth to a son.

⁵⁸Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her, and they rejoiced with her.

⁵⁹When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child, they were going to call him Zechariah after his father,

⁶⁰but his mother said in reply, "No. He will be called John."

⁶¹But they answered her, "There is no one among your relatives who has this name."

⁶²So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called.

⁶³He asked for a tablet and wrote, "John is his name," and all were amazed.

⁶⁴Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed, and he spoke blessing God.

⁶⁵Then fear came upon all their neighbors, and all these matters were discussed throughout the hill country of Judea.

⁶⁶All who heard these things took them to heart, saying, "What, then, will this child be?" For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.

⁶⁷Then Zechariah his father, filled with the holy Spirit, prophesied, saying:

⁶⁸"Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has visited and brought redemption to his people.

⁶⁹He has raised up a horn for our salvation within the house of David his servant,

⁷⁰even as he promised through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old:

⁷¹salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us,

⁷²to show mercy to our fathers and to be mindful of his holy covenant

⁷³and of the oath he swore to Abraham our father, and to grant us that,

⁷⁴rescued from the hand of enemies, without fear we might worship him

⁷⁵in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

⁷⁶And you, child, will be called prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

⁷⁷to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins,

⁷⁸because of the tender mercy of our God by which the daybreak from on high will visit us

⁷⁹to shine on those who sit in darkness and death's shadow, to guide our feet into the path of peace."

⁸⁰The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the desert until the day of his manifestation to Israel.

2In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled.

²This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria.

³So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town.

⁴And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David,

⁵to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

⁶While they were there, the time came for her to have her child,

⁷and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

⁸Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock.

⁹The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear.

¹⁰The angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

¹¹For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord.

¹²And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger."

¹³And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying:

¹⁴"Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."

¹⁵When the angels went away from them to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us."

¹⁶So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger.

¹⁷When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child.

¹⁸All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds.

¹⁹And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.

²⁰Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them.

²¹When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

²²When the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses, they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord,

²³just as it is written in the law of the Lord, "Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord,"

²⁴and to offer the sacrifice of "a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons," in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord.

²⁵Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the holy Spirit was upon him.

²⁶It had been revealed to him by the holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Messiah of the Lord.

²⁷He came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform the custom of the law in regard to him,

²⁸he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying:

²⁹"Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word,

³⁰for my eyes have seen your salvation,

³¹which you prepared in sight of all the peoples,

³²a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel."

³³The child's father and mother were amazed at what was said about him;

³⁴and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, "Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted

³⁵(and you yourself a sword will pierce) so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed."

³⁶There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived seven years with her husband after her marriage,

³⁷and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer.

³⁸And coming forward at that very time, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.

³⁹When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.

⁴⁰The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

⁴¹Each year his parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover,

⁴²and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom.

⁴³After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it.

⁴⁴Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances,

⁴⁵but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him.

⁴⁶After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions,

⁴⁷and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers.

⁴⁸When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, "Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety."

⁴⁹And he said to them, "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?"

⁵⁰But they did not understand what he said to them.

⁵¹He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart.

⁵²And Jesus advanced (in) wisdom and age and favor before God and man.

3In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene,

²during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.

³He went throughout (the) whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,

⁴as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah: "A voice of one crying out in the desert: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.

⁵Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The winding roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth,

⁶and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"

⁷He said to the crowds who came out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

⁸Produce good fruits as evidence of your repentance; and do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father,' for I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones.

⁹Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire."

¹⁰And the crowds asked him, "What then should we do?"

¹¹He said to them in reply, "Whoever has two cloaks should share with the person who has none. And whoever has food should do likewise."

¹²Even tax collectors came to be baptized and they said to him, "Teacher, what should we do?"

¹³He answered them, "Stop collecting more than what is prescribed."

¹⁴Soldiers also asked him, "And what is it that we should do?" He told them, "Do not practice extortion, do not falsely accuse anyone, and be satisfied with your wages."

¹⁵Now the people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Messiah.

¹⁶John answered them all, saying, "I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire.

¹⁷His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

¹⁸Exhorting them in many other ways, he preached good news to the people.

¹⁹Now Herod the tetrarch, who had been censured by him because of Herodias, his brother's wife, and because of all the evil deeds Herod had committed,

²⁰added still another to these by (also) putting John in prison.

²¹After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened

²²and the holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."

²³When Jesus began his ministry he was about thirty years of age. He was the son, as was thought, of Joseph, the son of Heli,

²⁴the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph,

²⁵the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai,

²⁶the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda,

²⁷the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri,

²⁸the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er,

²⁹the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi,

³⁰the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim,

³¹the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David,

³²the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Sala, the son of Nahshon,

³³the son of Amminadab, the son of Admin, the son of Arni, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah,

³⁴the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor,

³⁵the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah,

³⁶the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech,

³⁷the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan,

³⁸the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

4Filled with the holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert

²for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry.

³The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread."

⁴Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'"

⁵Then he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant.

⁶The devil said to him, "I shall give to you all this power and their glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish.

⁷All this will be yours, if you worship me."

⁸Jesus said to him in reply, "It is written: 'You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.'"

⁹Then he led him to Jerusalem, made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here,

¹⁰for it is written: 'He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,'

¹¹and: 'With their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.'"

¹²Jesus said to him in reply, "It also says, 'You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.'"

¹³When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.

¹⁴Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news of him spread throughout the whole region.

¹⁵He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all.

¹⁶He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read

¹⁷and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:

¹⁸"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,

¹⁹and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord."

²⁰Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.

²¹He said to them, "Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."

²²And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They also asked, "Isn't this the son of Joseph?"

²³He said to them, "Surely you will quote me this proverb, 'Physician, cure yourself,' and say, 'Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.'"

²⁴And he said, "Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.

²⁵Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land.

²⁶It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.

²⁷Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian."

²⁸When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury.

²⁹They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong.

³⁰But he passed through the midst of them and went away.

³¹Jesus then went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee. He taught them on the sabbath,

³²and they were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority.

³³In the synagogue there was a man with the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out in a loud voice,

³⁴"Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God!"

³⁵Jesus rebuked him and said, "Be quiet! Come out of him!" Then the demon threw the man down in front of them and came out of him without doing him any harm.

³⁶They were all amazed and said to one another, "What is there about his word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out."

³⁷And news of him spread everywhere in the surrounding region.

³⁸After he left the synagogue, he entered the house of Simon. Simon's mother-in-law was afflicted with a severe fever, and they interceded with him about her.

³⁹He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up immediately and waited on them.

⁴⁰At sunset, all who had people sick with various diseases brought them to him. He laid his hands on each of them and cured them.

⁴¹And demons also came out from many, shouting, "You are the Son of God." But he rebuked them and did not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Messiah.

⁴²At daybreak, Jesus left and went to a deserted place. The crowds went looking for him, and when they came to him, they tried to prevent him from leaving them.

⁴³But he said to them, "To the other towns also I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God, because for this purpose I have been sent."

⁴⁴And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

5While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.

²He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets.

³Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.

⁴After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch."

⁵Simon said in reply, "Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets."

⁶When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing.

⁷They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. They came and filled both boats so that they were in danger of sinking.

⁸When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man."

⁹For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him,

¹⁰and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners of Simon. Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men."

¹¹When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.

¹²Now there was a man full of leprosy in one of the towns where he was; and when he saw Jesus, he fell prostrate, pleaded with him, and said, "Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean."

¹³Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, "I do will it. Be made clean." And the leprosy left him immediately.

¹⁴Then he ordered him not to tell anyone, but "Go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them."

¹⁵The report about him spread all the more, and great crowds assembled to listen to him and to be cured of their ailments,

¹⁶but he would withdraw to deserted places to pray.

¹⁷One day as Jesus was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was with him for healing.

¹⁸And some men brought on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed; they were trying to bring him in and set (him) in his presence.

¹⁹But not finding a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on the stretcher through the tiles into the middle in front of Jesus.

²⁰When he saw their faith, he said, "As for you, your sins are forgiven."

²¹Then the scribes and Pharisees began to ask themselves, "Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who but God alone can forgive sins?"

²²Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them in reply, "What are you thinking in your hearts?

²³Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'?

²⁴But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins''--he said to the man who was paralyzed, "I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home."

²⁵He stood up immediately before them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home, glorifying God.

²⁶Then astonishment seized them all and they glorified God, and, struck with awe, they said, "We have seen incredible things today."

²⁷After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, "Follow me."

²⁸And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.

²⁹Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them.

³⁰The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"

³¹Jesus said to them in reply, "Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do.

³²I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners."

³³And they said to him, "The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same; but yours eat and drink."

³⁴Jesus answered them, "Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?

³⁵But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days."

³⁶And he also told them a parable. "No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak.

³⁷Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined.

³⁸Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins.

³⁹(And) no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, 'The old is good.'"

6While he was going through a field of grain on a sabbath, his disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them.

²Some Pharisees said, "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?"

³Jesus said to them in reply, "Have you not read what David did when he and those (who were) with him were hungry?

⁴(How) he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering, which only the priests could lawfully eat, ate of it, and shared it with his companions."

⁵Then he said to them, "The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath."

⁶On another sabbath he went into the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered.

⁷The scribes and the Pharisees watched him closely to see if he would cure on the sabbath so that they might discover a reason to accuse him.

⁸But he realized their intentions and said to the man with the withered hand, "Come up and stand before us." And he rose and stood there.

⁹Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?"

¹⁰Looking around at them all, he then said to him, "Stretch out your hand." He did so and his hand was restored.

¹¹But they became enraged and discussed together what they might do to Jesus.

¹²In those days he departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God.

¹³When day came, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named apostles:

¹⁴Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew,

¹⁵Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called a Zealot,

¹⁶and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

¹⁷And he came down with them and stood on a stretch of level ground. A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon

¹⁸came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured.

¹⁹Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him because power came forth from him and healed them all.

²⁰And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours.

²¹Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh.

²²Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man.

²³Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.

²⁴But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

²⁵But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep.

²⁶Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.

²⁷"But to you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

²⁸bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

²⁹To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic.

³⁰Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back.

³¹Do to others as you would have them do to you.

³²For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.

³³And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same.

³⁴If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit (is) that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, and get back the same amount.

³⁵But rather, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.

³⁶Be merciful, just as (also) your Father is merciful.

³⁷"Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.

³⁸Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you."

³⁹And he told them a parable, "Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit?

⁴⁰No disciple is superior to the teacher; but when fully trained, every disciple will be like his teacher.

⁴¹Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?

⁴²How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,' when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother's eye.

⁴³"A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.

⁴⁴For every tree is known by its own fruit. For people do not pick figs from thornbushes, nor do they gather grapes from brambles.

⁴⁵A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.

⁴⁶"Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' but not do what I command?

⁴⁷I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, listens to my words, and acts on them.

⁴⁸That one is like a person building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when the flood came, the river burst against that house but could not shake it because it had been well built.

⁴⁹But the one who listens and does not act is like a person who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, it collapsed at once and was completely destroyed."

7When he had finished all his words to the people, he entered Capernaum.

²A centurion there had a slave who was ill and about to die, and he was valuable to him.

³When he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and save the life of his slave.

⁴They approached Jesus and strongly urged him to come, saying, "He deserves to have you do this for him,

⁵for he loves our nation and he built the synagogue for us."

⁶And Jesus went with them, but when he was only a short distance from the house, the centurion sent friends to tell him, "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof.

⁷Therefore, I did not consider myself worthy to come to you; but say the word and let my servant be healed.

⁸For I too am a person subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come here,' and he comes; and to my slave, 'Do this,' and he does it."

⁹When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him and, turning, said to the crowd following him, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith."

¹⁰When the messengers returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.

¹¹Soon afterward he journeyed to a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd accompanied him.

¹²As he drew near to the gate of the city, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. A large crowd from the city was with her.

¹³When the Lord saw her, he was moved with pity for her and said to her, "Do not weep."

¹⁴He stepped forward and touched the coffin; at this the bearers halted, and he said, "Young man, I tell you, arise!"

¹⁵The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.

¹⁶Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, exclaiming, "A great prophet has arisen in our midst," and "God has visited his people."

¹⁷This report about him spread through the whole of Judea and in all the surrounding region.

¹⁸The disciples of John told him about all these things. John summoned two of his disciples

¹⁹and sent them to the Lord to ask, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?"

²⁰When the men came to him, they said, "John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, 'Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?'"

²¹At that time he cured many of their diseases, sufferings, and evil spirits; he also granted sight to many who were blind.

²²And he said to them in reply, "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.

²³And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me."

²⁴When the messengers of John had left, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John. "What did you go out to the desert to see--a reed swayed by the wind?

²⁵Then what did you go out to see? Someone dressed in fine garments? Those who dress luxuriously and live sumptuously are found in royal palaces.

²⁶Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.

²⁷This is the one about whom scripture says: 'Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, he will prepare your way before you.'

²⁸I tell you, among those born of women, no one is greater than John; yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he."

²⁹(All the people who listened, including the tax collectors, and who were baptized with the baptism of John, acknowledged the righteousness of God;

³⁰but the Pharisees and scholars of the law, who were not baptized by him, rejected the plan of God for themselves.)

³¹"Then to what shall I compare the people of this generation? What are they like?

³²They are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another, 'We played the flute for you, but you did not dance. We sang a dirge, but you did not weep.'

³³For John the Baptist came neither eating food nor drinking wine, and you said, 'He is possessed by a demon.'

³⁴The Son of Man came eating and drinking and you said, 'Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.'

³⁵But wisdom is vindicated by all her children."

³⁶A Pharisee invited him to dine with him, and he entered the Pharisee's house and reclined at table.

³⁷Now there was a sinful woman in the city who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee. Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment,

³⁸she stood behind him at his feet weeping and began to bathe his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment.

³⁹When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner."

⁴⁰Jesus said to him in reply, "Simon, I have something to say to you." "Tell me, teacher," he said.

⁴¹"Two people were in debt to a certain creditor; one owed five hundred days' wages and the other owed fifty.

⁴²Since they were unable to repay the debt, he forgave it for both. Which of them will love him more?"

⁴³Simon said in reply, "The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven." He said to him, "You have judged rightly."

⁴⁴Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? When I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet, but she has bathed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair.

⁴⁵You did not give me a kiss, but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered.

⁴⁶You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with ointment.

⁴⁷So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little."

⁴⁸He said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."

⁴⁹The others at table said to themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"

⁵⁰But he said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

8Afterward he journeyed from one town and village to another, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. Accompanying him were the Twelve

²and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out,

³Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward Chuza, Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their resources.

⁴When a large crowd gathered, with people from one town after another journeying to him, he spoke in a parable.

⁵"A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path and was trampled, and the birds of the sky ate it up.

⁶Some seed fell on rocky ground, and when it grew, it withered for lack of moisture.

⁷Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it.

⁸And some seed fell on good soil, and when it grew, it produced fruit a hundredfold." After saying this, he called out, "Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear."

⁹Then his disciples asked him what the meaning of this parable might be.

¹⁰He answered, "Knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of God has been granted to you; but to the rest, they are made known through parables so that 'they may look but not see, and hear but not understand.'

¹¹"This is the meaning of the parable. The seed is the word of God.

¹²Those on the path are the ones who have heard, but the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts that they may not believe and be saved.

¹³Those on rocky ground are the ones who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, but they have no root; they believe only for a time and fall away in time of trial.

¹⁴As for the seed that fell among thorns, they are the ones who have heard, but as they go along, they are choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life, and they fail to produce mature fruit.

¹⁵But as for the seed that fell on rich soil, they are the ones who, when they have heard the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance.

¹⁶"No one who lights a lamp conceals it with a vessel or sets it under a bed; rather, he places it on a lampstand so that those who enter may see the light.

¹⁷For there is nothing hidden that will not become visible, and nothing secret that will not be known and come to light.

¹⁸Take care, then, how you hear. To anyone who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he seems to have will be taken away."

¹⁹Then his mother and his brothers came to him but were unable to join him because of the crowd.

²⁰He was told, "Your mother and your brothers are standing outside and they wish to see you."

²¹He said to them in reply, "My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it."

²²One day he got into a boat with his disciples and said to them, "Let us cross to the other side of the lake." So they set sail,

²³and while they were sailing he fell asleep. A squall blew over the lake, and they were taking in water and were in danger.

²⁴They came and woke him saying, "Master, master, we are perishing!" He awakened, rebuked the wind and the waves, and they subsided and there was a calm.

²⁵Then he asked them, "Where is your faith?" But they were filled with awe and amazed and said to one another, "Who then is this, who commands even the winds and the sea, and they obey him?"

²⁶Then they sailed to the territory of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee.

²⁷When he came ashore a man from the town who was possessed by demons met him. For a long time he had not worn clothes; he did not live in a house, but lived among the tombs.

²⁸When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him; in a loud voice he shouted, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me!"

²⁹For he had ordered the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (It had taken hold of him many times, and he used to be bound with chains and shackles as a restraint, but he would break his bonds and be driven by the demon into deserted places.)

³⁰Then Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" He replied, "Legion," because many demons had entered him.

³¹And they pleaded with him not to order them to depart to the abyss.

³²A herd of many swine was feeding there on the hillside, and they pleaded with him to allow them to enter those swine; and he let them.

³³The demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

³⁴When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran away and reported the incident in the town and throughout the countryside.

³⁵People came out to see what had happened and, when they approached Jesus, they discovered the man from whom the demons had come out sitting at his feet. He was clothed and in his right mind, and they were seized with fear.

³⁶Those who witnessed it told them how the possessed man had been saved.

³⁷The entire population of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them because they were seized with great fear. So he got into a boat and returned.

³⁸The man from whom the demons had come out begged to remain with him, but he sent him away, saying,

³⁹"Return home and recount what God has done for you." The man went off and proclaimed throughout the whole town what Jesus had done for him.

⁴⁰When Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him.

⁴¹And a man named Jairus, an official of the synagogue, came forward. He fell at the feet of Jesus and begged him to come to his house,

⁴²because he had an only daughter, about twelve years old, and she was dying. As he went, the crowds almost crushed him.

⁴³And a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years, who (had spent her whole livelihood on doctors and) was unable to be cured by anyone,

⁴⁴came up behind him and touched the tassel on his cloak. Immediately her bleeding stopped.

⁴⁵Jesus then asked, "Who touched me?" While all were denying it, Peter said, "Master, the crowds are pushing and pressing in upon you."

⁴⁶But Jesus said, "Someone has touched me; for I know that power has gone out from me."

⁴⁷When the woman realized that she had not escaped notice, she came forward trembling. Falling down before him, she explained in the presence of all the people why she had touched him and how she had been healed immediately.

⁴⁸He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has saved you; go in peace."

⁴⁹While he was still speaking, someone from the synagogue official's house arrived and said, "Your daughter is dead; do not trouble the teacher any longer."

⁵⁰On hearing this, Jesus answered him, "Do not be afraid; just have faith and she will be saved."

⁵¹When he arrived at the house he allowed no one to enter with him except Peter and John and James, and the child's father and mother.

⁵²All were weeping and mourning for her, when he said, "Do not weep any longer, for she is not dead, but sleeping."

⁵³And they ridiculed him, because they knew that she was dead.

⁵⁴But he took her by the hand and called to her, "Child, arise!"

⁵⁵Her breath returned and she immediately arose. He then directed that she should be given something to eat.

⁵⁶Her parents were astounded, and he instructed them to tell no one what had happened.

9He summoned the Twelve and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases,

²and he sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal (the sick).

³He said to them, "Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic.

⁴Whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there.

⁵And as for those who do not welcome you, when you leave that town, shake the dust from your feet in testimony against them."

⁶Then they set out and went from village to village proclaiming the good news and curing diseases everywhere.

⁷Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was happening, and he was greatly perplexed because some were saying, "John has been raised from the dead";

⁸others were saying, "Elijah has appeared"; still others, "One of the ancient prophets has arisen."

⁹But Herod said, "John I beheaded. Who then is this about whom I hear such things?" And he kept trying to see him.

¹⁰When the apostles returned, they explained to him what they had done. He took them and withdrew in private to a town called Bethsaida.

¹¹The crowds, meanwhile, learned of this and followed him. He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and he healed those who needed to be cured.

¹²As the day was drawing to a close, the Twelve approached him and said, "Dismiss the crowd so that they can go to the surrounding villages and farms and find lodging and provisions; for we are in a deserted place here."

¹³He said to them, "Give them some food yourselves." They replied, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have, unless we ourselves go and buy food for all these people."

¹⁴Now the men there numbered about five thousand. Then he said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of (about) fifty."

¹⁵They did so and made them all sit down.

¹⁶Then taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.

¹⁷They all ate and were satisfied. And when the leftover fragments were picked up, they filled twelve wicker baskets.

¹⁸Once when Jesus was praying in solitude, and the disciples were with him, he asked them, "Who do the crowds say that I am?"

¹⁹They said in reply, "John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, 'One of the ancient prophets has arisen.'"

²⁰Then he said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter said in reply, "The Messiah of God."

²¹He rebuked them and directed them not to tell this to anyone.

²²He said, "The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised."

²³Then he said to all, "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

²⁴For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

²⁵What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?

²⁶Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

²⁷Truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God."

²⁸About eight days after he said this, he took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to pray.

²⁹While he was praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white.

³⁰And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah,

³¹who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.

³²Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep, but becoming fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him.

³³As they were about to part from him, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is good that we are here; let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." But he did not know what he was saying.

³⁴While he was still speaking, a cloud came and cast a shadow over them, and they became frightened when they entered the cloud.

³⁵Then from the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my chosen Son; listen to him."

³⁶After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. They fell silent and did not at that time tell anyone what they had seen.

³⁷On the next day, when they came down from the mountain, a large crowd met him.

³⁸There was a man in the crowd who cried out, "Teacher, I beg you, look at my son; he is my only child.

³⁹For a spirit seizes him and he suddenly screams and it convulses him until he foams at the mouth; it releases him only with difficulty, wearing him out.

⁴⁰I begged your disciples to cast it out but they could not."

⁴¹Jesus said in reply, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you and endure you? Bring your son here."

⁴²As he was coming forward, the demon threw him to the ground in a convulsion; but Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and returned him to his father.

⁴³And all were astonished by the majesty of God. While they were all amazed at his every deed, he said to his disciples,

⁴⁴"Pay attention to what I am telling you. The Son of Man is to be handed over to men."

⁴⁵But they did not understand this saying; its meaning was hidden from them so that they should not understand it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

⁴⁶An argument arose among the disciples about which of them was the greatest.

⁴⁷Jesus realized the intention of their hearts and took a child and placed it by his side

⁴⁸and said to them, "Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. For the one who is least among all of you is the one who is the greatest."

⁴⁹Then John said in reply, "Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow in our company."

⁵⁰Jesus said to him, "Do not prevent him, for whoever is not against you is for you."

⁵¹When the days for his being taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem,

⁵²and he sent messengers ahead of him. On the way they entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his reception there,

⁵³but they would not welcome him because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem.

⁵⁴When the disciples James and John saw this they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?"

⁵⁵Jesus turned and rebuked them,

⁵⁶and they journeyed to another village.

⁵⁷As they were proceeding on their journey someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."

⁵⁸Jesus answered him, "Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head."

⁵⁹And to another he said, "Follow me." But he replied, "(Lord,) let me go first and bury my father."

⁶⁰But he answered him, "Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God."

⁶¹And another said, "I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home."

⁶²(To him) Jesus said, "No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God."

10After this the Lord appointed seventy (-two) others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit.

²He said to them, "The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.

³Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves.

⁴Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way.

⁵Into whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this household.'

⁶If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you.

⁷Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the laborer deserves his payment. Do not move about from one house to another.

⁸Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you,

⁹cure the sick in it and say to them, 'The kingdom of God is at hand for you.'

¹⁰Whatever town you enter and they do not receive you, go out into the streets and say,

¹¹'The dust of your town that clings to our feet, even that we shake off against you.' Yet know this: the kingdom of God is at hand.

¹²I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom on that day than for that town.

¹³"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

¹⁴But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you.

¹⁵And as for you, Capernaum, 'Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld.'"

¹⁶Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."

¹⁷The seventy (-two) returned rejoicing, and said, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name."

¹⁸Jesus said, "I have observed Satan fall like lightning from the sky.

¹⁹Behold, I have given you the power 'to tread upon serpents' and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy and nothing will harm you.

²⁰Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven."

²¹At that very moment he rejoiced (in) the holy Spirit and said, "I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.

²²All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him."

²³Turning to the disciples in private he said, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.

²⁴For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it."

²⁵There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test him and said, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

²⁶Jesus said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?"

²⁷He said in reply, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself."

²⁸He replied to him, "You have answered correctly; do this and you will live."

²⁹But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

³⁰Jesus replied, "A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.

³¹A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.

³²Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.

³³But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight.

³⁴He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn and cared for him.

³⁵The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, 'Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.'

³⁶Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers' victim?"

³⁷He answered, "The one who treated him with mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

³⁸As they continued their journey he entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.

³⁹She had a sister named Mary (who) sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak.

⁴⁰Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me."

⁴¹The Lord said to her in reply, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.

⁴²There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her."

11He was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."

²He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.

³Give us each day our daily bread

⁴and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test."

⁵And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,

⁶for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him,'

⁷and he says in reply from within, 'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.'

⁸I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.

⁹"And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

¹⁰For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

¹¹What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish?

¹²Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?

¹³If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the holy Spirit to those who ask him?"

¹⁴He was driving out a demon (that was) mute, and when the demon had gone out, the mute person spoke and the crowds were amazed.

¹⁵Some of them said, "By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out demons."

¹⁶Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven.

¹⁷But he knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and house will fall against house.

¹⁸And if Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that it is by Beelzebul that I drive out demons.

¹⁹If I, then, drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own people drive them out? Therefore they will be your judges.

²⁰But if it is by the finger of God that (I) drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

²¹When a strong man fully armed guards his palace, his possessions are safe.

²²But when one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him, he takes away the armor on which he relied and distributes the spoils.

²³Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

²⁴"When an unclean spirit goes out of someone, it roams through arid regions searching for rest but, finding none, it says, 'I shall return to my home from which I came.'

²⁵But upon returning, it finds it swept clean and put in order.

²⁶Then it goes and brings back seven other spirits more wicked than itself who move in and dwell there, and the last condition of that person is worse than the first."

²⁷While he was speaking, a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, "Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed."

²⁸He replied, "Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it."

²⁹While still more people gathered in the crowd, he said to them, "This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah.

³⁰Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.

³¹At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here.

³²At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.

³³"No one who lights a lamp hides it away or places it (under a bushel basket), but on a lampstand so that those who enter might see the light.

³⁴The lamp of the body is your eye. When your eye is sound, then your whole body is filled with light, but when it is bad, then your body is in darkness.

³⁵Take care, then, that the light in you not become darkness.

³⁶If your whole body is full of light, and no part of it is in darkness, then it will be as full of light as a lamp illuminating you with its brightness."

³⁷After he had spoken, a Pharisee invited him to dine at his home. He entered and reclined at table to eat.

³⁸The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not observe the prescribed washing before the meal.

³⁹The Lord said to him, "Oh you Pharisees! Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil.

⁴⁰You fools! Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside?

⁴¹But as to what is within, give alms, and behold, everything will be clean for you.

⁴²Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb, but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God. These you should have done, without overlooking the others.

⁴³Woe to you Pharisees! You love the seat of honor in synagogues and greetings in marketplaces.

⁴⁴Woe to you! You are like unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk."

⁴⁵Then one of the scholars of the law said to him in reply, "Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too."

⁴⁶And he said, "Woe also to you scholars of the law! You impose on people burdens hard to carry, but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them.

⁴⁷Woe to you! You build the memorials of the prophets whom your ancestors killed.

⁴⁸Consequently, you bear witness and give consent to the deeds of your ancestors, for they killed them and you do the building.

⁴⁹Therefore, the wisdom of God said, 'I will send to them prophets and apostles; some of them they will kill and persecute'

⁵⁰in order that this generation might be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world,

⁵¹from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who died between the altar and the temple building. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be charged with their blood!

⁵²Woe to you, scholars of the law! You have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter."

⁵³When he left, the scribes and Pharisees began to act with hostility toward him and to interrogate him about many things,

⁵⁴for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say.

12Meanwhile, so many people were crowding together that they were trampling one another underfoot. He began to speak, first to his disciples, "Beware of the leaven--that is, the hypocrisy--of the Pharisees.

²"There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known.

³Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed on the housetops.

⁴I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body but after that can do no more.

⁵I shall show you whom to fear. Be afraid of the one who after killing has the power to cast into Gehenna; yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one.

⁶Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins? Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God.

⁷Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.

⁸I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God.

⁹But whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God.

¹⁰"Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

¹¹When they take you before synagogues and before rulers and authorities, do not worry about how or what your defense will be or about what you are to say.

¹²For the holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say."

¹³Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me."

¹⁴He replied to him, "Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?"

¹⁵Then he said to the crowd, "Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one's life does not consist of possessions."

¹⁶Then he told them a parable. "There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest.

¹⁷He asked himself, 'What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?'

¹⁸And he said, 'This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods

¹⁹and I shall say to myself, "Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!"

²⁰But God said to him, 'You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?'

²¹Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God."

²²He said to (his) disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life and what you will eat, or about your body and what you will wear.

²³For life is more than food and the body more than clothing.

²⁴Notice the ravens: they do not sow or reap; they have neither storehouse nor barn, yet God feeds them. How much more important are you than birds!

²⁵Can any of you by worrying add a moment to your lifespan?

²⁶If even the smallest things are beyond your control, why are you anxious about the rest?

²⁷Notice how the flowers grow. They do not toil or spin. But I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of them.

²⁸If God so clothes the grass in the field that grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?

²⁹As for you, do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not worry anymore.

³⁰All the nations of the world seek for these things, and your Father knows that you need them.

³¹Instead, seek his kingdom, and these other things will be given you besides.

³²Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.

³³Sell your belongings and give alms. Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy.

³⁴For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.

³⁵"Gird your loins and light your lamps

³⁶and be like servants who await their master's return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.

³⁷Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival. Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.

³⁸And should he come in the second or third watch and find them prepared in this way, blessed are those servants.

³⁹Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.

⁴⁰You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come."

⁴¹Then Peter said, "Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?"

⁴²And the Lord replied, "Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward whom the master will put in charge of his servants to distribute (the) food allowance at the proper time?

⁴³Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so.

⁴⁴Truly, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.

⁴⁵But if that servant says to himself, 'My master is delayed in coming,' and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, to eat and drink and get drunk,

⁴⁶then that servant's master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely and assign him a place with the unfaithful.

⁴⁷That servant who knew his master's will but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will shall be beaten severely;

⁴⁸and the servant who was ignorant of his master's will but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating shall be beaten only lightly. Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.

⁴⁹"I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!

⁵⁰There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!

⁵¹Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.

⁵²From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three;

⁵³a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."

⁵⁴He also said to the crowds, "When you see (a) cloud rising in the west you say immediately that it is going to rain--and so it does;

⁵⁵and when you notice that the wind is blowing from the south you say that it is going to be hot--and so it is.

⁵⁶You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

⁵⁷"Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?

⁵⁸If you are to go with your opponent before a magistrate, make an effort to settle the matter on the way; otherwise your opponent will turn you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the constable, and the constable throw you into prison.

⁵⁹I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny."

13At that time some people who were present there told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.

²He said to them in reply, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?

³By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!

⁴Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them --do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem?

⁵By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!"

⁶And he told them this parable: "There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none,

⁷he said to the gardener, 'For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. (So) cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?'

⁸He said to him in reply, 'Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it;

⁹it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.'"

¹⁰He was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath.

¹¹And a woman was there who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spirit; she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect.

¹²When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said, "Woman, you are set free of your infirmity."

¹³He laid his hands on her, and she at once stood up straight and glorified God.

¹⁴But the leader of the synagogue, indignant that Jesus had cured on the sabbath, said to the crowd in reply, "There are six days when work should be done. Come on those days to be cured, not on the sabbath day."

¹⁵The Lord said to him in reply, "Hypocrites! Does not each one of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger and lead it out for watering?

¹⁶This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now, ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day from this bondage?"

¹⁷When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated; and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.

¹⁸Then he said, "What is the kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it?

¹⁹It is like a mustard seed that a person took and planted in the garden. When it was fully grown, it became a large bush and 'the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.'"

²⁰Again he said, "To what shall I compare the kingdom of God?

²¹It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed (in) with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened."

²²He passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem.

²³Someone asked him, "Lord, will only a few people be saved?" He answered them,

²⁴"Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.

²⁵After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, 'Lord, open the door for us.' He will say to you in reply, 'I do not know where you are from.'

²⁶And you will say, 'We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.'

²⁷Then he will say to you, 'I do not know where (you) are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!'

²⁸And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves cast out.

²⁹And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God.

³⁰For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last."

³¹At that time some Pharisees came to him and said, "Go away, leave this area because Herod wants to kill you."

³²He replied, "Go and tell that fox, 'Behold, I cast out demons and I perform healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I accomplish my purpose.

³³Yet I must continue on my way today, tomorrow, and the following day, for it is impossible that a prophet should die outside of Jerusalem.'

³⁴"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were unwilling!

³⁵Behold, your house will be abandoned. (But) I tell you, you will not see me until (the time comes when) you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'"

14On a sabbath he went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees, and the people there were observing him carefully.

²In front of him there was a man suffering from dropsy.

³Jesus spoke to the scholars of the law and Pharisees in reply, asking, "Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath or not?"

⁴But they kept silent; so he took the man and, after he had healed him, dismissed him.

⁵Then he said to them, "Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern, would not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day?"

⁶But they were unable to answer his question.

⁷He told a parable to those who had been invited, noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table.

⁸"When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor. A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him,

⁹and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say, 'Give your place to this man,' and then you would proceed with embarrassment to take the lowest place.

¹⁰Rather, when you are invited, go and take the lowest place so that when the host comes to you he may say, 'My friend, move up to a higher position.' Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table.

¹¹For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

¹²Then he said to the host who invited him, "When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment.

¹³Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;

¹⁴blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

¹⁵One of his fellow guests on hearing this said to him, "Blessed is the one who will dine in the kingdom of God."

¹⁶He replied to him, "A man gave a great dinner to which he invited many.

¹⁷When the time for the dinner came, he dispatched his servant to say to those invited, 'Come, everything is now ready.'

¹⁸But one by one, they all began to excuse themselves. The first said to him, 'I have purchased a field and must go to examine it; I ask you, consider me excused.'

¹⁹And another said, 'I have purchased five yoke of oxen and am on my way to evaluate them; I ask you, consider me excused.'

²⁰And another said, 'I have just married a woman, and therefore I cannot come.'

²¹The servant went and reported this to his master. Then the master of the house in a rage commanded his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in here the poor and the crippled, the blind and the lame.'

²²The servant reported, 'Sir, your orders have been carried out and still there is room.'

²³The master then ordered the servant, 'Go out to the highways and hedgerows and make people come in that my home may be filled.

²⁴For, I tell you, none of those men who were invited will taste my dinner.'"

²⁵Great crowds were traveling with him, and he turned and addressed them,

²⁶"If any one comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

²⁷Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

²⁸Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion?

²⁹Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him

³⁰and say, 'This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.'

³¹Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down and decide whether with ten thousand troops he can successfully oppose another king advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops?

³²But if not, while he is still far away, he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms.

³³In the same way, everyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.

³⁴"Salt is good, but if salt itself loses its taste, with what can its flavor be restored?

³⁵It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear."

15The tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to him,

²but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."

³So to them he addressed this parable.

⁴"What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it?

⁵And when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy

⁶and, upon his arrival home, he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them, 'Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.'

⁷I tell you, in just the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.

⁸"Or what woman having ten coins and losing one would not light a lamp and sweep the house, searching carefully until she finds it?

⁹And when she does find it, she calls together her friends and neighbors and says to them, 'Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost.'

¹⁰In just the same way, I tell you, there will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

¹¹Then he said, "A man had two sons,

¹²and the younger son said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.' So the father divided the property between them.

¹³After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings and set off to a distant country where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation.

¹⁴When he had freely spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he found himself in dire need.

¹⁵So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to his farm to tend the swine.

¹⁶And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any.

¹⁷Coming to his senses he thought, 'How many of my father's hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here am I, dying from hunger.

¹⁸I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.

¹⁹I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers."'

²⁰So he got up and went back to his father. While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.

²¹His son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.'

²²But his father ordered his servants, 'Quickly bring the finest robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

²³Take the fattened calf and slaughter it. Then let us celebrate with a feast,

²⁴because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.' Then the celebration began.

²⁵Now the older son had been out in the field and, on his way back, as he neared the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing.

²⁶He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean.

²⁷The servant said to him, 'Your brother has returned and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.'

²⁸He became angry, and when he refused to enter the house, his father came out and pleaded with him.

²⁹He said to his father in reply, 'Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends.

³⁰But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf.'

³¹He said to him, 'My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours.

³²But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.'"

16Then he also said to his disciples, "A rich man had a steward who was reported to him for squandering his property.

²He summoned him and said, 'What is this I hear about you? Prepare a full account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be my steward.'

³The steward said to himself, 'What shall I do, now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me? I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg.

⁴I know what I shall do so that, when I am removed from the stewardship, they may welcome me into their homes.'

⁵He called in his master's debtors one by one. To the first he said, 'How much do you owe my master?'

⁶He replied, 'One hundred measures of olive oil.' He said to him, 'Here is your promissory note. Sit down and quickly write one for fifty.'

⁷Then to another he said, 'And you, how much do you owe?' He replied, 'One hundred kors of wheat.' He said to him, 'Here is your promissory note; write one for eighty.'

⁸And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently. "For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.

⁹I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

¹⁰The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones.

¹¹If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with true wealth?

¹²If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another, who will give you what is yours?

¹³No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."

¹⁴The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all these things and sneered at him.

¹⁵And he said to them, "You justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts; for what is of human esteem is an abomination in the sight of God.

¹⁶"The law and the prophets lasted until John; but from then on the kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone who enters does so with violence.

¹⁷It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for the smallest part of a letter of the law to become invalid.

¹⁸"Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and the one who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.

¹⁹"There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day.

²⁰And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,

²¹who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man's table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores.

²²When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried,

²³and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.

²⁴And he cried out, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames.'

²⁵Abraham replied, 'My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented.

²⁶Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.'

²⁷He said, 'Then I beg you, father, send him to my father's house,

²⁸for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment.'

²⁹But Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.'

³⁰He said, 'Oh no, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'

³¹Then Abraham said, 'If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.'"

17He said to his disciples, "Things that cause sin will inevitably occur, but woe to the person through whom they occur.

²It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.

³Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.

⁴And if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times saying, 'I am sorry,' you should forgive him."

⁵And the apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith."

⁶The Lord replied, "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to (this) mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.

⁷"Who among you would say to your servant who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, 'Come here immediately and take your place at table'?

⁸Would he not rather say to him, 'Prepare something for me to eat. Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink. You may eat and drink when I am finished'?

⁹Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded?

¹⁰So should it be with you. When you have done all you have been commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.'"

¹¹As he continued his journey to Jerusalem, he traveled through Samaria and Galilee.

¹²As he was entering a village, ten lepers met (him). They stood at a distance from him

¹³and raised their voice, saying, "Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!"

¹⁴And when he saw them, he said, "Go show yourselves to the priests." As they were going they were cleansed.

¹⁵And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice;

¹⁶and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. He was a Samaritan.

¹⁷Jesus said in reply, "Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine?

¹⁸Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?"

¹⁹Then he said to him, "Stand up and go; your faith has saved you."

²⁰Asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he said in reply, "The coming of the kingdom of God cannot be observed,

²¹and no one will announce, 'Look, here it is,' or, 'There it is.' For behold, the kingdom of God is among you."

²²Then he said to his disciples, "The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.

²³There will be those who will say to you, 'Look, there he is,' (or) 'Look, here he is.' Do not go off, do not run in pursuit.

²⁴For just as lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be (in his day).

²⁵But first he must suffer greatly and be rejected by this generation.

²⁶As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man;

²⁷they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.

²⁸Similarly, as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building;

²⁹on the day when Lot left Sodom, fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy them all.

³⁰So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed.

³¹On that day, a person who is on the housetop and whose belongings are in the house must not go down to get them, and likewise a person in the field must not return to what was left behind.

³²Remember the wife of Lot.

³³Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it.

³⁴I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed; one will be taken, the other left.

³⁵And there will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken, the other left."

³⁶

³⁷They said to him in reply, "Where, Lord?" He said to them, "Where the body is, there also the vultures will gather."

18Then he told them a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. He said,

²"There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being.

³And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, 'Render a just decision for me against my adversary.'

⁴For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought, 'While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being,

⁵because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.'"

⁶The Lord said, "Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says.

⁷Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them?

⁸I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

⁹He then addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else.

¹⁰"Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.

¹¹The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, 'O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity--greedy, dishonest, adulterous--or even like this tax collector.

¹²I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.'

¹³But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, 'O God, be merciful to me a sinner.'

¹⁴I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

¹⁵People were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them, and when the disciples saw this, they rebuked them.

¹⁶Jesus, however, called the children to himself and said, "Let the children come to me and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

¹⁷Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it."

¹⁸An official asked him this question, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

¹⁹Jesus answered him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.

²⁰You know the commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery; you shall not kill; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honor your father and your mother.'"

²¹And he replied, "All of these I have observed from my youth."

²²When Jesus heard this he said to him, "There is still one thing left for you: sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor, and you will have a treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

²³But when he heard this he became quite sad, for he was very rich.

²⁴Jesus looked at him (now sad) and said, "How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!

²⁵For it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God."

²⁶Those who heard this said, "Then who can be saved?"

²⁷And he said, "What is impossible for human beings is possible for God."

²⁸Then Peter said, "We have given up our possessions and followed you."

²⁹He said to them, "Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God

³⁰who will not receive (back) an overabundant return in this present age and eternal life in the age to come."

³¹Then he took the Twelve aside and said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem and everything written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled.

³²He will be handed over to the Gentiles and he will be mocked and insulted and spat upon;

³³and after they have scourged him they will kill him, but on the third day he will rise."

³⁴But they understood nothing of this; the word remained hidden from them and they failed to comprehend what he said.

³⁵Now as he approached Jericho a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging,

³⁶and hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what was happening.

³⁷They told him, "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by."

³⁸He shouted, "Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!"

³⁹The people walking in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent, but he kept calling out all the more, "Son of David, have pity on me!"

⁴⁰Then Jesus stopped and ordered that he be brought to him; and when he came near, Jesus asked him,

⁴¹"What do you want me to do for you?" He replied, "Lord, please let me see."

⁴²Jesus told him, "Have sight; your faith has saved you."

⁴³He immediately received his sight and followed him, giving glory to God. When they saw this, all the people gave praise to God.

19He came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town.

²Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man,

³was seeking to see who Jesus was; but he could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short in stature.

⁴So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way.

⁵When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house."

⁶And he came down quickly and received him with joy.

⁷When they all saw this, they began to grumble, saying, "He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner."

⁸But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, "Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over."

⁹And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham.

¹⁰For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost."

¹¹While they were listening to him speak, he proceeded to tell a parable because he was near Jerusalem and they thought that the kingdom of God would appear there immediately.

¹²So he said, "A nobleman went off to a distant country to obtain the kingship for himself and then to return.

¹³He called ten of his servants and gave them ten gold coins and told them, 'Engage in trade with these until I return.'

¹⁴His fellow citizens, however, despised him and sent a delegation after him to announce, 'We do not want this man to be our king.'

¹⁵But when he returned after obtaining the kingship, he had the servants called, to whom he had given the money, to learn what they had gained by trading.

¹⁶The first came forward and said, 'Sir, your gold coin has earned ten additional ones.'

¹⁷He replied, 'Well done, good servant! You have been faithful in this very small matter; take charge of ten cities.'

¹⁸Then the second came and reported, 'Your gold coin, sir, has earned five more.'

¹⁹And to this servant too he said, 'You, take charge of five cities.'

²⁰Then the other servant came and said, 'Sir, here is your gold coin; I kept it stored away in a handkerchief,

²¹for I was afraid of you, because you are a demanding person; you take up what you did not lay down and you harvest what you did not plant.'

²²He said to him, 'With your own words I shall condemn you, you wicked servant. You knew I was a demanding person, taking up what I did not lay down and harvesting what I did not plant;

²³why did you not put my money in a bank? Then on my return I would have collected it with interest.'

²⁴And to those standing by he said, 'Take the gold coin from him and give it to the servant who has ten.'

²⁵But they said to him, 'Sir, he has ten gold coins.'

²⁶'I tell you, to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

²⁷Now as for those enemies of mine who did not want me as their king, bring them here and slay them before me.'"

²⁸After he had said this, he proceeded on his journey up to Jerusalem.

²⁹As he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples.

³⁰He said, "Go into the village opposite you, and as you enter it you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here.

³¹And if anyone should ask you, 'Why are you untying it?' you will answer, 'The Master has need of it.'"

³²So those who had been sent went off and found everything just as he had told them.

³³And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, "Why are you untying this colt?"

³⁴They answered, "The Master has need of it."

³⁵So they brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks over the colt, and helped Jesus to mount.

³⁶As he rode along, the people were spreading their cloaks on the road;

³⁷and now as he was approaching the slope of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of his disciples began to praise God aloud with joy for all the mighty deeds they had seen.

³⁸They proclaimed: "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest."

³⁹Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples."

⁴⁰He said in reply, "I tell you, if they keep silent, the stones will cry out!"

⁴¹As he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it,

⁴²saying, "If this day you only knew what makes for peace--but now it is hidden from your eyes.

⁴³For the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against you; they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides.

⁴⁴They will smash you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not recognize the time of your visitation."

⁴⁵Then Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out those who were selling things,

⁴⁶saying to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.'"

⁴⁷And every day he was teaching in the temple area. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people, meanwhile, were seeking to put him to death,

⁴⁸but they could find no way to accomplish their purpose because all the people were hanging on his words.

20One day as he was teaching the people in the temple area and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests and scribes, together with the elders, approached him

²and said to him, "Tell us, by what authority are you doing these things? Or who is the one who gave you this authority?"

³He said to them in reply, "I shall ask you a question. Tell me,

⁴was John's baptism of heavenly or of human origin?"

⁵They discussed this among themselves, and said, "If we say, 'Of heavenly origin,' he will say, 'Why did you not believe him?'

⁶But if we say, 'Of human origin,' then all the people will stone us, for they are convinced that John was a prophet."

⁷So they answered that they did not know from where it came.

⁸Then Jesus said to them, "Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things."

⁹Then he proceeded to tell the people this parable. "(A) man planted a vineyard, leased it to tenant farmers, and then went on a journey for a long time.

¹⁰At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenant farmers to receive some of the produce of the vineyard. But they beat the servant and sent him away empty-handed.

¹¹So he proceeded to send another servant, but him also they beat and insulted and sent away empty-handed.

¹²Then he proceeded to send a third, but this one too they wounded and threw out.

¹³The owner of the vineyard said, 'What shall I do? I shall send my beloved son; maybe they will respect him.'

¹⁴But when the tenant farmers saw him they said to one another, 'This is the heir. Let us kill him that the inheritance may become ours.'

¹⁵So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What will the owner of the vineyard do to them?

¹⁶He will come and put those tenant farmers to death and turn over the vineyard to others." When the people heard this, they exclaimed, "Let it not be so!"

¹⁷But he looked at them and asked, "What then does this scripture passage mean: 'The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone'?

¹⁸Everyone who falls on that stone will be dashed to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls."

¹⁹The scribes and chief priests sought to lay their hands on him at that very hour, but they feared the people, for they knew that he had addressed this parable to them.

²⁰They watched him closely and sent agents pretending to be righteous who were to trap him in speech, in order to hand him over to the authority and power of the governor.

²¹They posed this question to him, "Teacher, we know that what you say and teach is correct, and you show no partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.

²²Is it lawful for us to pay tribute to Caesar or not?"

²³Recognizing their craftiness he said to them,

²⁴"Show me a denarius; whose image and name does it bear?" They replied, "Caesar's."

²⁵So he said to them, "Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God."

²⁶They were unable to trap him by something he might say before the people, and so amazed were they at his reply that they fell silent.

²⁷Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to him,

²⁸saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us, 'If someone's brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.'

²⁹Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless.

³⁰Then the second

³¹and the third married her, and likewise all the seven died childless.

³²Finally the woman also died.

³³Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her."

³⁴Jesus said to them, "The children of this age marry and remarry;

³⁵but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.

³⁶They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise.

³⁷That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called 'Lord' the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;

³⁸and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive."

³⁹Some of the scribes said in reply, "Teacher, you have answered well."

⁴⁰And they no longer dared to ask him anything.

⁴¹Then he said to them, "How do they claim that the Messiah is the Son of David?

⁴²For David himself in the Book of Psalms says: 'The Lord said to my lord, "Sit at my right hand

⁴³till I make your enemies your footstool."'

⁴⁴Now if David calls him 'lord,' how can he be his son?"

⁴⁵Then, within the hearing of all the people, he said to (his) disciples,

⁴⁶"Be on guard against the scribes, who like to go around in long robes and love greetings in marketplaces, seats of honor in synagogues, and places of honor at banquets.

⁴⁷They devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext, recite lengthy prayers. They will receive a very severe condemnation."

21When he looked up he saw some wealthy people putting their offerings into the treasury

²and he noticed a poor widow putting in two small coins.

³He said, "I tell you truly, this poor widow put in more than all the rest;

⁴for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood."

⁵While some people were speaking about how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings, he said,

⁶"All that you see here--the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down."

⁷Then they asked him, "Teacher, when will this happen? And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?"

⁸He answered, "See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, 'I am he,' and 'The time has come.' Do not follow them!

⁹When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for such things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end."

¹⁰Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

¹¹There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.

¹²"Before all this happens, however, they will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name.

¹³It will lead to your giving testimony.

¹⁴Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand,

¹⁵for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.

¹⁶You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death.

¹⁷You will be hated by all because of my name,

¹⁸but not a hair on your head will be destroyed.

¹⁹By your perseverance you will secure your lives.

²⁰"When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, know that its desolation is at hand.

²¹Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains. Let those within the city escape from it, and let those in the countryside not enter the city,

²²for these days are the time of punishment when all the scriptures are fulfilled.

²³Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days, for a terrible calamity will come upon the earth and a wrathful judgment upon this people.

²⁴They will fall by the edge of the sword and be taken as captives to all the Gentiles; and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

²⁵"There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on earth nations will be in dismay, perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves.

²⁶People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

²⁷And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

²⁸But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand."

²⁹He taught them a lesson. "Consider the fig tree and all the other trees.

³⁰When their buds burst open, you see for yourselves and know that summer is now near;

³¹in the same way, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.

³²Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.

³³Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

³⁴"Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise

³⁵like a trap. For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth.

³⁶Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man."

³⁷During the day, Jesus was teaching in the temple area, but at night he would leave and stay at the place called the Mount of Olives.

³⁸And all the people would get up early each morning to listen to him in the temple area.

22Now the feast of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was drawing near,

²and the chief priests and the scribes were seeking a way to put him to death, for they were afraid of the people.

³Then Satan entered into Judas, the one surnamed Iscariot, who was counted among the Twelve,

⁴and he went to the chief priests and temple guards to discuss a plan for handing him over to them.

⁵They were pleased and agreed to pay him money.

⁶He accepted their offer and sought a favorable opportunity to hand him over to them in the absence of a crowd.

⁷When the day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread arrived, the day for sacrificing the Passover lamb,

⁸he sent out Peter and John, instructing them, "Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover."

⁹They asked him, "Where do you want us to make the preparations?"

¹⁰And he answered them, "When you go into the city, a man will meet you carrying a jar of water. Follow him into the house that he enters

¹¹and say to the master of the house, 'The teacher says to you, "Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?"'

¹²He will show you a large upper room that is furnished. Make the preparations there."

¹³Then they went off and found everything exactly as he had told them, and there they prepared the Passover.

¹⁴When the hour came, he took his place at table with the apostles.

¹⁵He said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer,

¹⁶for, I tell you, I shall not eat it (again) until there is fulfillment in the kingdom of God."

¹⁷Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and said, "Take this and share it among yourselves;

¹⁸for I tell you (that) from this time on I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."

¹⁹Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me."

²⁰And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you.

²¹"And yet behold, the hand of the one who is to betray me is with me on the table;

²²for the Son of Man indeed goes as it has been determined; but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed."

²³And they began to debate among themselves who among them would do such a deed.

²⁴Then an argument broke out among them about which of them should be regarded as the greatest.

²⁵He said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them and those in authority over them are addressed as 'Benefactors';

²⁶but among you it shall not be so. Rather, let the greatest among you be as the youngest, and the leader as the servant.

²⁷For who is greater: the one seated at table or the one who serves? Is it not the one seated at table? I am among you as the one who serves.

²⁸It is you who have stood by me in my trials;

²⁹and I confer a kingdom on you, just as my Father has conferred one on me,

³⁰that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom; and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

³¹"Simon, Simon, behold Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat,

³²but I have prayed that your own faith may not fail; and once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers."

³³He said to him, "Lord, I am prepared to go to prison and to die with you."

³⁴But he replied, "I tell you, Peter, before the cock crows this day, you will deny three times that you know me."

³⁵He said to them, "When I sent you forth without a money bag or a sack or sandals, were you in need of anything?" "No, nothing," they replied.

³⁶He said to them, "But now one who has a money bag should take it, and likewise a sack, and one who does not have a sword should sell his cloak and buy one.

³⁷For I tell you that this scripture must be fulfilled in me, namely, 'He was counted among the wicked'; and indeed what is written about me is coming to fulfillment."

³⁸Then they said, "Lord, look, there are two swords here." But he replied, "It is enough!"

³⁹Then going out he went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him.

⁴⁰When he arrived at the place he said to them, "Pray that you may not undergo the test."

⁴¹After withdrawing about a stone's throw from them and kneeling, he prayed,

⁴²saying, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done."

⁴³(And to strengthen him an angel from heaven appeared to him.

⁴⁴He was in such agony and he prayed so fervently that his sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground.)

⁴⁵When he rose from prayer and returned to his disciples, he found them sleeping from grief.

⁴⁶He said to them, "Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not undergo the test."

⁴⁷While he was still speaking, a crowd approached and in front was one of the Twelve, a man named Judas. He went up to Jesus to kiss him.

⁴⁸Jesus said to him, "Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?"

⁴⁹His disciples realized what was about to happen, and they asked, "Lord, shall we strike with a sword?"

⁵⁰And one of them struck the high priest's servant and cut off his right ear.

⁵¹But Jesus said in reply, "Stop, no more of this!" Then he touched the servant's ear and healed him.

⁵²And Jesus said to the chief priests and temple guards and elders who had come for him, "Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs?

⁵³Day after day I was with you in the temple area, and you did not seize me; but this is your hour, the time for the power of darkness."

⁵⁴After arresting him they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest; Peter was following at a distance.

⁵⁵They lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat around it, and Peter sat down with them.

⁵⁶When a maid saw him seated in the light, she looked intently at him and said, "This man too was with him."

⁵⁷But he denied it saying, "Woman, I do not know him."

⁵⁸A short while later someone else saw him and said, "You too are one of them"; but Peter answered, "My friend, I am not."

⁵⁹About an hour later, still another insisted, "Assuredly, this man too was with him, for he also is a Galilean."

⁶⁰But Peter said, "My friend, I do not know what you are talking about." Just as he was saying this, the cock crowed,

⁶¹and the Lord turned and looked at Peter; and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, "Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times."

⁶²He went out and began to weep bitterly.

⁶³The men who held Jesus in custody were ridiculing and beating him.

⁶⁴They blindfolded him and questioned him, saying, "Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?"

⁶⁵And they reviled him in saying many other things against him.

⁶⁶When day came the council of elders of the people met, both chief priests and scribes, and they brought him before their Sanhedrin.

⁶⁷They said, "If you are the Messiah, tell us," but he replied to them, "If I tell you, you will not believe,

⁶⁸and if I question, you will not respond.

⁶⁹But from this time on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God."

⁷⁰They all asked, "Are you then the Son of God?" He replied to them, "You say that I am."

⁷¹Then they said, "What further need have we for testimony? We have heard it from his own mouth."

23Then the whole assembly of them arose and brought him before Pilate.

²They brought charges against him, saying, "We found this man misleading our people; he opposes the payment of taxes to Caesar and maintains that he is the Messiah, a king."

³Pilate asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?" He said to him in reply, "You say so."

⁴Pilate then addressed the chief priests and the crowds, "I find this man not guilty."

⁵But they were adamant and said, "He is inciting the people with his teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee where he began even to here."

⁶On hearing this Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean;

⁷and upon learning that he was under Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod who was in Jerusalem at that time.

⁸Herod was very glad to see Jesus; he had been wanting to see him for a long time, for he had heard about him and had been hoping to see him perform some sign.

⁹He questioned him at length, but he gave him no answer.

¹⁰The chief priests and scribes, meanwhile, stood by accusing him harshly.

¹¹(Even) Herod and his soldiers treated him contemptuously and mocked him, and after clothing him in resplendent garb, he sent him back to Pilate.

¹²Herod and Pilate became friends that very day, even though they had been enemies formerly.

¹³Pilate then summoned the chief priests, the rulers, and the people

¹⁴and said to them, "You brought this man to me and accused him of inciting the people to revolt. I have conducted my investigation in your presence and have not found this man guilty of the charges you have brought against him,

¹⁵nor did Herod, for he sent him back to us. So no capital crime has been committed by him.

¹⁶Therefore I shall have him flogged and then release him."

¹⁷

¹⁸But all together they shouted out, "Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us."

¹⁹(Now Barabbas had been imprisoned for a rebellion that had taken place in the city and for murder.)

²⁰Again Pilate addressed them, still wishing to release Jesus,

²¹but they continued their shouting, "Crucify him! Crucify him!"

²²Pilate addressed them a third time, "What evil has this man done? I found him guilty of no capital crime. Therefore I shall have him flogged and then release him."

²³With loud shouts, however, they persisted in calling for his crucifixion, and their voices prevailed.

²⁴The verdict of Pilate was that their demand should be granted.

²⁵So he released the man who had been imprisoned for rebellion and murder, for whom they asked, and he handed Jesus over to them to deal with as they wished.

²⁶As they led him away they took hold of a certain Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country; and after laying the cross on him, they made him carry it behind Jesus.

²⁷A large crowd of people followed Jesus, including many women who mourned and lamented him.

²⁸Jesus turned to them and said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children,

²⁹for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, 'Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.'

³⁰At that time people will say to the mountains, 'Fall upon us!' and to the hills, 'Cover us!'

³¹for if these things are done when the wood is green what will happen when it is dry?"

³²Now two others, both criminals, were led away with him to be executed.

³³When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him and the criminals there, one on his right, the other on his left.

³⁴[Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do."] They divided his garments by casting lots.

³⁵The people stood by and watched; the rulers, meanwhile, sneered at him and said, "He saved others, let him save himself if he is the chosen one, the Messiah of God."

³⁶Even the soldiers jeered at him. As they approached to offer him wine

³⁷they called out, "If you are King of the Jews, save yourself."

³⁸Above him there was an inscription that read, "This is the King of the Jews."

³⁹Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us."

⁴⁰The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, "Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation?

⁴¹And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal."

⁴²Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

⁴³He replied to him, "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

⁴⁴It was now about noon and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon

⁴⁵because of an eclipse of the sun. Then the veil of the temple was torn down the middle.

⁴⁶Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit"; and when he had said this he breathed his last.

⁴⁷The centurion who witnessed what had happened glorified God and said, "This man was innocent beyond doubt."

⁴⁸When all the people who had gathered for this spectacle saw what had happened, they returned home beating their breasts;

⁴⁹but all his acquaintances stood at a distance, including the women who had followed him from Galilee and saw these events.

⁵⁰Now there was a virtuous and righteous man named Joseph who, though he was a member of the council,

⁵¹had not consented to their plan of action. He came from the Jewish town of Arimathea and was awaiting the kingdom of God.

⁵²He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

⁵³After he had taken the body down, he wrapped it in a linen cloth and laid him in a rock-hewn tomb in which no one had yet been buried.

⁵⁴It was the day of preparation, and the sabbath was about to begin.

⁵⁵The women who had come from Galilee with him followed behind, and when they had seen the tomb and the way in which his body was laid in it,

⁵⁶they returned and prepared spices and perfumed oils. Then they rested on the sabbath according to the commandment.

24But at daybreak on the first day of the week they took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.

²They found the stone rolled away from the tomb;

³but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

⁴While they were puzzling over this, behold, two men in dazzling garments appeared to them.

⁵They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. They said to them, "Why do you seek the living one among the dead?

⁶He is not here, but he has been raised. Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee,

⁷that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified, and rise on the third day."

⁸And they remembered his words.

⁹Then they returned from the tomb and announced all these things to the eleven and to all the others.

¹⁰The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James; the others who accompanied them also told this to the apostles,

¹¹but their story seemed like nonsense and they did not believe them.

¹²But Peter got up and ran to the tomb, bent down, and saw the burial cloths alone; then he went home amazed at what had happened.

¹³Now that very day two of them were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus,

¹⁴and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred.

¹⁵And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,

¹⁶but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.

¹⁷He asked them, "What are you discussing as you walk along?" They stopped, looking downcast.

¹⁸One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, "Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?"

¹⁹And he replied to them, "What sort of things?" They said to him, "The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,

²⁰how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him.

²¹But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place.

²²Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning

²³and did not find his body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive.

²⁴Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see."

²⁵And he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!

²⁶Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?"

²⁷Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures.

²⁸As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther.

²⁹But they urged him, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over." So he went in to stay with them.

³⁰And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them.

³¹With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight.

³²Then they said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning (within us) while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?"

³³So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the eleven and those with them

³⁴who were saying, "The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!"

³⁵Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

³⁶While they were still speaking about this, he stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you."

³⁷But they were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost.

³⁸Then he said to them, "Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts?

³⁹Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have."

⁴⁰And as he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.

⁴¹While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed, he asked them, "Have you anything here to eat?"

⁴²They gave him a piece of baked fish;

⁴³he took it and ate it in front of them.

⁴⁴He said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled."

⁴⁵Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.

⁴⁶And he said to them, "Thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day

⁴⁷and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

⁴⁸You are witnesses of these things.

⁴⁹And (behold) I am sending the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."

⁵⁰Then he led them (out) as far as Bethany, raised his hands, and blessed them.

⁵¹As he blessed them he parted from them and was taken up to heaven.

⁵²They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy,

⁵³and they were continually in the temple praising God.

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

²He was in the beginning with God.

³All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be

⁴through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race;

⁵the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

⁶A man named John was sent from God.

⁷He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.

⁸He was not the light, but came to testify to the light.

⁹The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

¹⁰He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him.

¹¹He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him.

¹²But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name,

¹³who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man's decision but of God.

¹⁴And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth.

¹⁵John testified to him and cried out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.'"

¹⁶From his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace,

¹⁷because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

¹⁸No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father's side, has revealed him.

¹⁹And this is the testimony of John. When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites (to him) to ask him, "Who are you?"

²⁰he admitted and did not deny it, but admitted, "I am not the Messiah."

²¹So they asked him, "What are you then? Are you Elijah?" And he said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" He answered, "No."

²²So they said to him, "Who are you, so we can give an answer to those who sent us? What do you have to say for yourself?"

²³He said: "I am 'the voice of one crying out in the desert, "Make straight the way of the Lord,"' as Isaiah the prophet said."

²⁴Some Pharisees were also sent.

²⁵They asked him, "Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah or Elijah or the Prophet?"

²⁶John answered them, "I baptize with water; but there is one among you whom you do not recognize,

²⁷the one who is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie."

²⁸This happened in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

²⁹The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

³⁰He is the one of whom I said, 'A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.'

³¹I did not know him, but the reason why I came baptizing with water was that he might be made known to Israel."

³²John testified further, saying, "I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from the sky and remain upon him.

³³I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, 'On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the holy Spirit.'

³⁴Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God."

³⁵The next day John was there again with two of his disciples,

³⁶and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, "Behold, the Lamb of God."

³⁷The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus.

³⁸Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them, "What are you looking for?" They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher), "where are you staying?"

³⁹He said to them,"Come, and you will see." So they went and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon.

⁴⁰Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus.

⁴¹He first found his own brother Simon and told him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated Anointed).

⁴²Then he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Kephas" (which is translated Peter).

⁴³The next day he decided to go to Galilee, and he found Philip. And Jesus said to him, "Follow me."

⁴⁴Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the town of Andrew and Peter.

⁴⁵Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth."

⁴⁶But Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see."

⁴⁷Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, "Here is a true Israelite. There is no duplicity in him."

⁴⁸Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree."

⁴⁹Nathanael answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel."

⁵⁰Jesus answered and said to him, "Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this."

⁵¹And he said to him, "Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see the sky opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

2On the third day there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.

²Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.

³When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine."

⁴(And) Jesus said to her, "Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come."

⁵His mother said to the servers, "Do whatever he tells you."

⁶Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding twenty to thirty gallons.

⁷Jesus told them, "Fill the jars with water." So they filled them to the brim.

⁸Then he told them, "Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter." So they took it.

⁹And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing where it came from (although the servers who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom

¹⁰and said to him, "Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but you have kept the good wine until now."

¹¹Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs in Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him.

¹²After this, he and his mother, (his) brothers, and his disciples went down to Capernaum and stayed there only a few days.

¹³Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

¹⁴He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money-changers seated there.

¹⁵He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables,

¹⁶and to those who sold doves he said, "Take these out of here, and stop making my Father's house a marketplace."

¹⁷His disciples recalled the words of scripture, "Zeal for your house will consume me."

¹⁸At this the Jews answered and said to him, "What sign can you show us for doing this?"

¹⁹Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up."

²⁰The Jews said, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?"

²¹But he was speaking about the temple of his body.

²²Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.

²³While he was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, many began to believe in his name when they saw the signs he was doing.

²⁴But Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all,

²⁵and did not need anyone to testify about human nature. He himself understood it well.

3Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

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 signs that you are doing unless God is with him."

³Jesus answered and said to him, "Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above."

⁴Nicodemus said to him, "How can a person once grown old be born again? Surely he cannot reenter his mother's womb and be born again, can he?"

⁵Jesus answered, "Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.

⁶What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit.

⁷Do not be amazed that I told you, 'You must be born from above.'

⁸The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

⁹Nicodemus answered and said to him, "How can this happen?"

¹⁰Jesus answered and said to him, "You are the teacher of Israel and you do not understand this?

¹¹Amen, amen, I say to you, we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you people do not accept our testimony.

¹²If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

¹³No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.

¹⁴And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

¹⁵so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

¹⁶For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.

¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

¹⁸Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

¹⁹And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil.

²⁰For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed.

²¹But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

²²After this, Jesus and his disciples went into the region of Judea, where he spent some time with them baptizing.

²³John was also baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was an abundance of water there, and people came to be baptized,

²⁴for John had not yet been imprisoned.

²⁵Now a dispute arose between the disciples of John and a Jew about ceremonial washings.

²⁶So they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing and everyone is coming to him."

²⁷John answered and said, "No one can receive anything except what has been given him from heaven.

²⁸You yourselves can testify that I said (that) I am not the Messiah, but that I was sent before him.

²⁹The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man, who stands and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. So this joy of mine has been made complete.

³⁰He must increase; I must decrease."

³¹The one who comes from above is above all. The one who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of earthly things. But the one who comes from heaven (is above all).

³²He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony.

³³Whoever does accept his testimony certifies that God is trustworthy.

³⁴For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God. He does not ration his gift of the Spirit.

³⁵The Father loves the Son and has given everything over to him.

³⁶Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him.

4Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John

²(although Jesus himself was not baptizing, just his disciples),

³he left Judea and returned to Galilee.

⁴He had to pass through Samaria.

⁵So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

⁶Jacob's well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon.

⁷A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink."

⁸His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.

⁹The Samaritan woman said to him, "How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?" (For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.)

¹⁰Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

¹¹(The woman) said to him, "Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; where then can you get this living water?

¹²Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?"

¹³Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again;

¹⁴but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

¹⁵The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water."

¹⁶Jesus said to her, "Go call your husband and come back."

¹⁷The woman answered and said to him, "I do not have a husband." Jesus answered her, "You are right in saying, 'I do not have a husband.'

¹⁸For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true."

¹⁹The woman said to him, "Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.

²⁰Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem."

²¹Jesus said to her, "Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

²²You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews.

²³But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.

²⁴God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth."

²⁵The woman said to him, "I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Anointed; when he comes, he will tell us everything."

²⁶Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking with you."

²⁷At that moment his disciples returned, and were amazed that he was talking with a woman, but still no one said, "What are you looking for?" or "Why are you talking with her?"

²⁸The woman left her water jar and went into the town and said to the people,

²⁹"Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Messiah?"

³⁰They went out of the town and came to him.

³¹Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat."

³²But he said to them, "I have food to eat of which you do not know."

³³So the disciples said to one another, "Could someone have brought him something to eat?"

³⁴Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work.

³⁵Do you not say, 'In four months the harvest will be here'? I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.

³⁶The reaper is already receiving his payment and gathering crops for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.

³⁷For here the saying is verified that 'One sows and another reaps.'

³⁸I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the work, and you are sharing the fruits of their work."

³⁹Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him because of the word of the woman who testified, "He told me everything I have done."

⁴⁰When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days.

⁴¹Many more began to believe in him because of his word,

⁴²and they said to the woman, "We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world."

⁴³After the two days, he left there for Galilee.

⁴⁴For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his native place.

⁴⁵When he came into Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all he had done in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves had gone to the feast.

⁴⁶Then he returned to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. Now there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum.

⁴⁷When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, who was near death.

⁴⁸Jesus said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe."

⁴⁹The royal official said to him, "Sir, come down before my child dies."

⁵⁰Jesus said to him, "You may go; your son will live." The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.

⁵¹While he was on his way back, his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live.

⁵²He asked them when he began to recover. They told him, "The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon."

⁵³The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live," and he and his whole household came to believe.

⁵⁴(Now) this was the second sign Jesus did when he came to Galilee from Judea.

5After this, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

²Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep (Gate) a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes.

³In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled.

⁴

⁵One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.

⁶When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be well?"

⁷The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me."

⁸Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your mat, and walk."

⁹Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked. Now that day was a sabbath.

¹⁰So the Jews said to the man who was cured, "It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat."

¹¹He answered them, "The man who made me well told me, 'Take up your mat and walk.'"

¹²They asked him, "Who is the man who told you, 'Take it up and walk'?"

¹³The man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there.

¹⁴After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him, "Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you."

¹⁵The man went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who had made him well.

¹⁶Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus because he did this on a sabbath.

¹⁷But Jesus answered them, "My Father is at work until now, so I am at work."

¹⁸For this reason the Jews tried all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the sabbath but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God.

¹⁹Jesus answered and said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, a son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees his father doing; for what he does, his son will do also.

²⁰For the Father loves his Son and shows him everything that he himself does, and he will show him greater works than these, so that you may be amazed.

²¹For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes.

²²Nor does the Father judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to his Son,

²³so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

²⁴Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life.

²⁵Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

²⁶For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to his Son the possession of life in himself.

²⁷And he gave him power to exercise judgment, because he is the Son of Man.

²⁸Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice

²⁹and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation.

³⁰"I cannot do anything on my own; I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.

³¹"If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony cannot be verified.

³²But there is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that the testimony he gives on my behalf is true.

³³You sent emissaries to John, and he testified to the truth.

³⁴I do not accept testimony from a human being, but I say this so that you may be saved.

³⁵He was a burning and shining lamp, and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light.

³⁶But I have testimony greater than John's. The works that the Father gave me to accomplish, these works that I perform testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me.

³⁷Moreover, the Father who sent me has testified on my behalf. But you have never heard his voice nor seen his form,

³⁸and you do not have his word remaining in you, because you do not believe in the one whom he has sent.

³⁹You search the scriptures, because you think you have eternal life through them; even they testify on my behalf.

⁴⁰But you do not want to come to me to have life.

⁴¹"I do not accept human praise;

⁴²moreover, I know that you do not have the love of God in you.

⁴³I came in the name of my Father, but you do not accept me; yet if another comes in his own name, you will accept him.

⁴⁴How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God?

⁴⁵Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father: the one who will accuse you is Moses, in whom you have placed your hope.

⁴⁶For if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me, because he wrote about me.

⁴⁷But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?"

6After this, Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee (of Tiberias).

²A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick.

³Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples.

⁴The Jewish feast of Passover was near.

⁵When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, he said to Philip, "Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?"

⁶He said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do.

⁷Philip answered him, "Two hundred days' wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little (bit)."

⁸One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him,

⁹"There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?"

¹⁰Jesus said, "Have the people recline." Now there was a great deal of grass in that place. So the men reclined, about five thousand in number.

¹¹Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were reclining, and also as much of the fish as they wanted.

¹²When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples, "Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted."

¹³So they collected them, and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat.

¹⁴When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, "This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world."

¹⁵Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain alone.

¹⁶When it was evening, his disciples went down to the sea,

¹⁷embarked in a boat, and went across the sea to Capernaum. It had already grown dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.

¹⁸The sea was stirred up because a strong wind was blowing.

¹⁹When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they began to be afraid.

²⁰But he said to them, "It is I. Do not be afraid."

²¹They wanted to take him into the boat, but the boat immediately arrived at the shore to which they were heading.

²²The next day, the crowd that remained across the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not gone along with his disciples in the boat, but only his disciples had left.

²³Other boats came from Tiberias near the place where they had eaten the bread when the Lord gave thanks.

²⁴When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

²⁵And when they found him across the sea they said to him, "Rabbi, when did you get here?"

²⁶Jesus answered them and said, "Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled.

²⁷Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal."

²⁸So they said to him, "What can we do to accomplish the works of God?"

²⁹Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent."

³⁰So they said to him, "What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do?

³¹Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'"

³²So Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.

³³For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

³⁴So they said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always."

³⁵Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.

³⁶But I told you that although you have seen (me), you do not believe.

³⁷Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me,

³⁸because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me.

³⁹And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it (on) the last day.

⁴⁰For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him (on) the last day."

⁴¹The Jews murmured about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven,"

⁴²and they said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, 'I have come down from heaven'?"

⁴³Jesus answered and said to them, "Stop murmuring among yourselves.

⁴⁴No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day.

⁴⁵It is written in the prophets: 'They shall all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.

⁴⁶Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father.

⁴⁷Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.

⁴⁸I am the bread of life.

⁴⁹Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;

⁵⁰this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.

⁵¹I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."

⁵²The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us (his) flesh to eat?"

⁵³Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.

⁵⁴Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.

⁵⁵For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.

⁵⁶Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.

⁵⁷Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.

⁵⁸This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever."

⁵⁹These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

⁶⁰Then many of his disciples who were listening said, "This saying is hard; who can accept it?"

⁶¹Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, "Does this shock you?

⁶²What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?

⁶³It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

⁶⁴But there are some of you who do not believe." Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him.

⁶⁵And he said, "For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father."

⁶⁶As a result of this, many (of) his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.

⁶⁷Jesus then said to the Twelve, "Do you also want to leave?"

⁶⁸Simon Peter answered him, "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

⁶⁹We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God."

⁷⁰Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you twelve? Yet is not one of you a devil?"

⁷¹He was referring to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot; it was he who would betray him, one of the Twelve.

7After this, Jesus moved about within Galilee; but he did not wish to travel in Judea, because the Jews were trying to kill him.

²But the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near.

³So his brothers said to him, "Leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples also may see the works you are doing.

⁴No one works in secret if he wants to be known publicly. If you do these things, manifest yourself to the world."

⁵For his brothers did not believe in him.

⁶So Jesus said to them, "My time is not yet here, but the time is always right for you.

⁷The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I testify to it that its works are evil.

⁸You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, because my time has not yet been fulfilled."

⁹After he had said this, he stayed on in Galilee.

¹⁰But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, he himself also went up, not openly but (as it were) in secret.

¹¹The Jews were looking for him at the feast and saying, "Where is he?"

¹²And there was considerable murmuring about him in the crowds. Some said, "He is a good man," (while) others said, "No; on the contrary, he misleads the crowd."

¹³Still, no one spoke openly about him because they were afraid of the Jews.

¹⁴When the feast was already half over, Jesus went up into the temple area and began to teach.

¹⁵The Jews were amazed and said, "How does he know scripture without having studied?"

¹⁶Jesus answered them and said, "My teaching is not my own but is from the one who sent me.

¹⁷Whoever chooses to do his will shall know whether my teaching is from God or whether I speak on my own.

¹⁸Whoever speaks on his own seeks his own glory, but whoever seeks the glory of the one who sent him is truthful, and there is no wrong in him.

¹⁹Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?"

²⁰The crowd answered, "You are possessed! Who is trying to kill you?"

²¹Jesus answered and said to them, "I performed one work and all of you are amazed

²²because of it. Moses gave you circumcision--not that it came from Moses but rather from the patriarchs--and you circumcise a man on the sabbath.

²³If a man can receive circumcision on a sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because I made a whole person well on a sabbath?

²⁴Stop judging by appearances, but judge justly."

²⁵So some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem said, "Is he not the one they are trying to kill?

²⁶And look, he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him. Could the authorities have realized that he is the Messiah?

²⁷But we know where he is from. When the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from."

²⁸So Jesus cried out in the temple area as he was teaching and said, "You know me and also know where I am from. Yet I did not come on my own, but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true.

²⁹I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me."

³⁰So they tried to arrest him, but no one laid a hand upon him, because his hour had not yet come.

³¹But many of the crowd began to believe in him, and said, "When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs than this man has done?"

³²The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring about him to this effect, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent guards to arrest him.

³³So Jesus said, "I will be with you only a little while longer, and then I will go to the one who sent me.

³⁴You will look for me but not find (me), and where I am you cannot come."

³⁵So the Jews said to one another, "Where is he going that we will not find him? Surely he is not going to the dispersion among the Greeks to teach the Greeks, is he?

³⁶What is the meaning of his saying, 'You will look for me and not find (me), and where I am you cannot come'?"

³⁷On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and exclaimed, "Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink.

³⁸Whoever believes in me, as scripture says: 'Rivers of living water will flow from within him.'"

³⁹He said this in reference to the Spirit that those who came to believe in him were to receive. There was, of course, no Spirit yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

⁴⁰Some in the crowd who heard these words said, "This is truly the Prophet."

⁴¹Others said, "This is the Messiah." But others said, "The Messiah will not come from Galilee, will he?

⁴²Does not scripture say that the Messiah will be of David's family and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?"

⁴³So a division occurred in the crowd because of him.

⁴⁴Some of them even wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

⁴⁵So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, "Why did you not bring him?"

⁴⁶The guards answered, "Never before has anyone spoken like this one."

⁴⁷So the Pharisees answered them, "Have you also been deceived?

⁴⁸Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?

⁴⁹But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed."

⁵⁰Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them,

⁵¹"Does our law condemn a person before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?"

⁵²They answered and said to him, "You are not from Galilee also, are you? Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee."

⁵³Then each went to his own house,

8while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

²But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area, and all the people started coming to him, and he sat down and taught them.

³Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle.

⁴They said to him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery.

⁵Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?"

⁶They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.

⁷But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her."

⁸Again he bent down and wrote on the ground.

⁹And in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So he was left alone with the woman before him.

¹⁰Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

¹¹She replied, "No one, sir." Then Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go, (and) from now on do not sin any more."

¹²Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

¹³So the Pharisees said to him, "You testify on your own behalf, so your testimony cannot be verified."

¹⁴Jesus answered and said to them, "Even if I do testify on my own behalf, my testimony can be verified, because I know where I came from and where I am going. But you do not know where I come from or where I am going.

¹⁵You judge by appearances, but I do not judge anyone.

¹⁶And even if I should judge, my judgment is valid, because I am not alone, but it is I and the Father who sent me.

¹⁷Even in your law it is written that the testimony of two men can be verified.

¹⁸I testify on my behalf and so does the Father who sent me."

¹⁹So they said to him, "Where is your father?" Jesus answered, "You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also."

²⁰He spoke these words while teaching in the treasury in the temple area. But no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.

²¹He said to them again, "I am going away and you will look for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going you cannot come."

²²So the Jews said, "He is not going to kill himself, is he, because he said, 'Where I am going you cannot come'?"

²³He said to them, "You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above. You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world.

²⁴That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins."

²⁵So they said to him, "Who are you?" Jesus said to them, "What I told you from the beginning.

²⁶I have much to say about you in condemnation. But the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world."

²⁷They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father.

²⁸So Jesus said (to them), "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me.

²⁹The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him."

³⁰Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.

³¹Jesus then said to those Jews who believed in him, "If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples,

³²and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

³³They answered him, "We are descendants of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How can you say, 'You will become free'?"

³⁴Jesus answered them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.

³⁵A slave does not remain in a household forever, but a son always remains.

³⁶So if a son frees you, then you will truly be free.

³⁷I know that you are descendants of Abraham. But you are trying to kill me, because my word has no room among you.

³⁸I tell you what I have seen in the Father's presence; then do what you have heard from the Father."

³⁹They answered and said to him, "Our father is Abraham." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works of Abraham.

⁴⁰But now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God; Abraham did not do this.

⁴¹You are doing the works of your father!" (So) they said to him, "We are not illegitimate. We have one Father, God."

⁴²Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and am here; I did not come on my own, but he sent me.

⁴³Why do you not understand what I am saying? Because you cannot bear to hear my word.

⁴⁴You belong to your father the devil and you willingly carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks in character, because he is a liar and the father of lies.

⁴⁵But because I speak the truth, you do not believe me.

⁴⁶Can any of you charge me with sin? If I am telling the truth, why do you not believe me?

⁴⁷Whoever belongs to God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not listen, because you do not belong to God."

⁴⁸The Jews answered and said to him, "Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and are possessed?"

⁴⁹Jesus answered, "I am not possessed; I honor my Father, but you dishonor me.

⁵⁰I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and he is the one who judges.

⁵¹Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever keeps my word will never see death."

⁵²(So) the Jews said to him, "Now we are sure that you are possessed. Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, 'Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.'

⁵³Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? Or the prophets, who died? Who do you make yourself out to be?"

⁵⁴Jesus answered, "If I glorify myself, my glory is worth nothing; but it is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, 'He is our God.'

⁵⁵You do not know him, but I know him. And if I should say that I do not know him, I would be like you a liar. But I do know him and I keep his word.

⁵⁶Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.

⁵⁷So the Jews said to him, "You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?"

⁵⁸Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM."

⁵⁹So they picked up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid and went out of the temple area.

9As he passed by he saw a man blind from birth.

²His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

³Jesus answered, "Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.

⁴We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work.

⁵While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

⁶When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes,

⁷and said to him, "Go wash in the Pool of Siloam" (which means Sent). So he went and washed, and came back able to see.

⁸His neighbors and those who had seen him earlier as a beggar said, "Isn't this the one who used to sit and beg?"

⁹Some said, "It is," but others said, "No, he just looks like him." He said, "I am."

¹⁰So they said to him, "(So) how were your eyes opened?"

¹¹He replied, "The man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and told me, 'Go to Siloam and wash.' So I went there and washed and was able to see."

¹²And they said to him, "Where is he?" He said, "I don't know."

¹³They brought the one who was once blind to the Pharisees.

¹⁴Now Jesus had made clay and opened his eyes on a sabbath.

¹⁵So then the Pharisees also asked him how he was able to see. He said to them, "He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and now I can see."

¹⁶So some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, because he does not keep the sabbath." (But) others said, "How can a sinful man do such signs?" And there was a division among them.

¹⁷So they said to the blind man again, "What do you have to say about him, since he opened your eyes?" He said, "He is a prophet."

¹⁸Now the Jews did not believe that he had been blind and gained his sight until they summoned the parents of the one who had gained his sight.

¹⁹They asked them, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How does he now see?"

²⁰His parents answered and said, "We know that this is our son and that he was born blind.

²¹We do not know how he sees now, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him, he is of age; he can speak for him self."

²²His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone acknowledged him as the Messiah, he would be expelled from the synagogue.

²³For this reason his parents said, "He is of age; question him."

²⁴So a second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, "Give God the praise! We know that this man is a sinner."

²⁵He replied, "If he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see."

²⁶So they said to him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"

²⁷He answered them, "I told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?"

²⁸They ridiculed him and said, "You are that man's disciple; we are disciples of Moses!

²⁹We know that God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this one is from."

³⁰The man answered and said to them, "This is what is so amazing, that you do not know where he is from, yet he opened my eyes.

³¹We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if one is devout and does his will, he listens to him.

³²It is unheard of that anyone ever opened the eyes of a person born blind.

³³If this man were not from God, he would not be able to do anything."

³⁴They answered and said to him, "You were born totally in sin, and are you trying to teach us?" Then they threw him out.

³⁵When Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, he found him and said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"

³⁶He answered and said, "Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?"

³⁷Jesus said to him, "You have seen him and the one speaking with you is he."

³⁸He said, "I do believe, Lord," and he worshiped him.

³⁹Then Jesus said, "I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind."

⁴⁰Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him, "Surely we are not also blind, are we?"

⁴¹Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, 'We see,' so your sin remains.

10"Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.

²But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.

³The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

⁴When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice.

⁵But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers."

⁶Although Jesus used this figure of speech, they did not realize what he was trying to tell them.

⁷So Jesus said again, "Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep.

⁸All who came [before me] are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

⁹I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.

¹⁰A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.

¹¹I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

¹²A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them.

¹³This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.

¹⁴I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me,

¹⁵just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep.

¹⁶I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd.

¹⁷This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.

¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father."

¹⁹Again there was a division among the Jews because of these words.

²⁰Many of them said, "He is possessed and out of his mind; why listen to him?"

²¹Others said, "These are not the words of one possessed; surely a demon cannot open the eyes of the blind, can he?"

²²The feast of the Dedication was then taking place in Jerusalem. It was winter.

²³And Jesus walked about in the temple area on the Portico of Solomon.

²⁴So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, "How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly."

²⁵Jesus answered them, "I told you and you do not believe. The works I do in my Father's name testify to me.

²⁶But you do not believe, because you are not among my sheep.

²⁷My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

²⁸I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand.

²⁹My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father's hand.

³⁰The Father and I are one."

³¹The Jews again picked up rocks to stone him.

³²Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?"

³³The Jews answered him, "We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy. You, a man, are making yourself God."

³⁴Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, "You are gods"'?

³⁵If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came, and scripture cannot be set aside,

³⁶can you say that the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world blasphemes because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?

³⁷If I do not perform my Father's works, do not believe me;

³⁸but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize (and understand) that the Father is in me and I am in the Father."

³⁹(Then) they tried again to arrest him; but he escaped from their power.

⁴⁰He went back across the Jordan to the place where John first baptized, and there he remained.

⁴¹Many came to him and said, "John performed no sign, but everything John said about this man was true."

⁴²And many there began to believe in him.

11Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

²Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and dried his feet with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was ill.

³So the sisters sent word to him, saying, "Master, the one you love is ill."

⁴When Jesus heard this he said, "This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it."

⁵Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

⁶So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was.

⁷Then after this he said to his disciples, "Let us go back to Judea."

⁸The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?"

⁹Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in a day? If one walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.

¹⁰But if one walks at night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him."

¹¹He said this, and then told them, "Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going to awaken him."

¹²So the disciples said to him, "Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved."

¹³But Jesus was talking about his death, while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep.

¹⁴So then Jesus said to them clearly, "Lazarus has died.

¹⁵And I am glad for you that I was not there, that you may believe. Let us go to him."

¹⁶So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go to die with him."

¹⁷When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.

¹⁸Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away.

¹⁹And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother.

²⁰When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home.

²¹Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

²²(But) even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you."

²³Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise."

²⁴Martha said to him, "I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day."

²⁵Jesus told her, "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,

²⁶and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

²⁷She said to him, "Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world."

²⁸When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying, "The teacher is here and is asking for you."

²⁹As soon as she heard this, she rose quickly and went to him.

³⁰For Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still where Martha had met him.

³¹So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her saw Mary get up quickly and go out, they followed her, presuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

³²When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

³³When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled,

³⁴and said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Sir, come and see."

³⁵And Jesus wept.

³⁶So the Jews said, "See how he loved him."

³⁷But some of them said, "Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?"

³⁸So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it.

³⁹Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the dead man's sister, said to him, "Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days."

⁴⁰Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?"

⁴¹So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you for hearing me.

⁴²I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me."

⁴³And when he had said this, he cried out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"

⁴⁴The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, "Untie him and let him go."

⁴⁵Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him.

⁴⁶But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

⁴⁷So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, "What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs.

⁴⁸If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation."

⁴⁹But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing,

⁵⁰nor do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish."

⁵¹He did not say this on his own, but since he was high priest for that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation,

⁵²and not only for the nation, but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God.

⁵³So from that day on they planned to kill him.

⁵⁴So Jesus no longer walked about in public among the Jews, but he left for the region near the desert, to a town called Ephraim, and there he remained with his disciples.

⁵⁵Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before Passover to purify themselves.

⁵⁶They looked for Jesus and said to one another as they were in the temple area, "What do you think? That he will not come to the feast?"

⁵⁷For the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should inform them, so that they might arrest him.

12Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

²They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served, while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him.

³Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.

⁴Then Judas the Iscariot, one (of) his disciples, and the one who would betray him, said,

⁵"Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days' wages and given to the poor?"

⁶He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief and held the money bag and used to steal the contributions.

⁷So Jesus said, "Leave her alone. Let her keep this for the day of my burial.

⁸You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me."

⁹(The) large crowd of the Jews found out that he was there and came, not only because of Jesus, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.

¹⁰And the chief priests plotted to kill Lazarus too,

¹¹because many of the Jews were turning away and believing in Jesus because of him.

¹²On the next day, when the great crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,

¹³they took palm branches and went out to meet him, and cried out: "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, (even) the king of Israel."

¹⁴Jesus found an ass and sat upon it, as is written:

¹⁵"Fear no more, O daughter Zion; see, your king comes, seated upon an ass's colt."

¹⁶His disciples did not understand this at first, but when Jesus had been glorified they remembered that these things were written about him and that they had done this for him.

¹⁷So the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from death continued to testify.

¹⁸This was (also) why the crowd went to meet him, because they heard that he had done this sign.

¹⁹So the Pharisees said to one another, "You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the whole world has gone after him."

²⁰Now there were some Greeks among those who had come up to worship at the feast.

²¹They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, "Sir, we would like to see Jesus."

²²Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.

²³Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

²⁴Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.

²⁵Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.

²⁶Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me.

²⁷"I am troubled now. Yet what should I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.

²⁸Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it and will glorify it again."

²⁹The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder; but others said, "An angel has spoken to him."

³⁰Jesus answered and said, "This voice did not come for my sake but for yours.

³¹Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.

³²And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself."

³³He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.

³⁴So the crowd answered him, "We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. Then how can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?"

³⁵Jesus said to them, "The light will be among you only a little while. Walk while you have the light, so that darkness may not overcome you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where he is going.

³⁶While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of the light."
After he had said this, Jesus left and hid from them.

³⁷Although he had performed so many signs in their presence they did not believe in him,

³⁸in order that the word which Isaiah the prophet spoke might be fulfilled: "Lord, who has believed our preaching, to whom has the might of the Lord been revealed?"

³⁹For this reason they could not believe, because again Isaiah said:

⁴⁰"He blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, so that they might not see with their eyes and understand with their heart and be converted, and I would heal them."

⁴¹Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke about him.

⁴²Nevertheless, many, even among the authorities, believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they did not acknowledge it openly in order not to be expelled from the synagogue.

⁴³For they preferred human praise to the glory of God.

⁴⁴Jesus cried out and said, "Whoever believes in me believes not only in me but also in the one who sent me,

⁴⁵and whoever sees me sees the one who sent me.

⁴⁶I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness.

⁴⁷And if anyone hears my words and does not observe them, I do not condemn him, for I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world.

⁴⁸Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words has something to judge him: the word that I spoke, it will condemn him on the last day,

⁴⁹because I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak.

⁵⁰And I know that his commandment is eternal life. So what I say, I say as the Father told me."

13Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.

²The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over. So, during supper,

³fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God,

⁴he rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist.

⁵Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and dry them with the towel around his waist.

⁶He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Master, are you going to wash my feet?"

⁷Jesus answered and said to him, "What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later."

⁸Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet." Jesus answered him, "Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me."

⁹Simon Peter said to him, "Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well."

¹⁰Jesus said to him, "Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed, for he is clean all over; so you are clean, but not all."

¹¹For he knew who would betray him; for this reason, he said, "Not all of you are clean."

¹²So when he had washed their feet (and) put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, "Do you realize what I have done for you?

¹³You call me 'teacher' and 'master,' and rightly so, for indeed I am.

¹⁴If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet.

¹⁵I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.

¹⁶Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him.

¹⁷If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.

¹⁸I am not speaking of all of you. I know those whom I have chosen. But so that the scripture might be fulfilled, 'The one who ate my food has raised his heel against me.'

¹⁹From now on I am telling you before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe that I AM.

²⁰Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me."

²¹When he had said this, Jesus was deeply troubled and testified, "Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me."

²²The disciples looked at one another, at a loss as to whom he meant.

²³One of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved, was reclining at Jesus' side.

²⁴So Simon Peter nodded to him to find out whom he meant.

²⁵He leaned back against Jesus' chest and said to him, "Master, who is it?"

²⁶Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I hand the morsel after I have dipped it." So he dipped the morsel and (took it and) handed it to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot.

²⁷After he took the morsel, Satan entered him. So Jesus said to him, "What you are going to do, do quickly."

²⁸(Now) none of those reclining at table realized why he said this to him.

²⁹Some thought that since Judas kept the money bag, Jesus had told him, "Buy what we need for the feast," or to give something to the poor.

³⁰So he took the morsel and left at once. And it was night.

³¹When he had left, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.

³²(If God is glorified in him,) God will also glorify him in himself, and he will glorify him at once.

³³My children, I will be with you only a little while longer. You will look for me, and as I told the Jews, 'Where I go you cannot come,' so now I say it to you.

³⁴I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.

³⁵This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

³⁶Simon Peter said to him, "Master, where are you going?" Jesus answered (him), "Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, though you will follow later."

³⁷Peter said to him, "Master, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you."

³⁸Jesus answered, "Will you lay down your life for me? Amen, amen, I say to you, the cock will not crow before you deny me three times."

14"Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.

²In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?

³And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.

⁴Where (I) am going you know the way."

⁵Thomas said to him, "Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?"

⁶Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

⁷If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him."

⁸Philip said to him, "Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us."

⁹Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?

¹⁰Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.

¹¹Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves.

¹²Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.

¹³And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

¹⁴If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.

¹⁵"If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always,

¹⁷the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you.

¹⁸I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

¹⁹In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live.

²⁰On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you.

²¹Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him."

²²Judas, not the Iscariot, said to him, "Master, (then) what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?"

²³Jesus answered and said to him, "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.

²⁴Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.

²⁵"I have told you this while I am with you.

²⁶The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name--he will teach you everything and remind you of all that (I) told you.

²⁷Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.

²⁸You heard me tell you, 'I am going away and I will come back to you.' If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.

²⁹And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe.

³⁰I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me,

³¹but the world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me. Get up, let us go.

15"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.

²He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.

³You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.

⁴Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.

⁵I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.

⁶Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned.

⁷If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.

⁸By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

⁹As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love.

¹⁰If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love.

¹¹"I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.

¹²This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.

¹³No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.

¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command you.

¹⁵I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.

¹⁶It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.

¹⁷This I command you: love one another.

¹⁸"If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first.

¹⁹If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you.

²⁰Remember the word I spoke to you, 'No slave is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

²¹And they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me.

²²If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin; but as it is they have no excuse for their sin.

²³Whoever hates me also hates my Father.

²⁴If I had not done works among them that no one else ever did, they would not have sin; but as it is, they have seen and hated both me and my Father.

²⁵But in order that the word written in their law might be fulfilled, 'They hated me without cause.'

²⁶"When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me.

²⁷And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.

16"I have told you this so that you may not fall away.

²They will expel you from the synagogues; in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God.

³They will do this because they have not known either the Father or me.

⁴I have told you this so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you. "I did not tell you this from the beginning, because I was with you.

⁵But now I am going to the one who sent me, and not one of you asks me, 'Where are you going?'

⁶But because I told you this, grief has filled your hearts.

⁷But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.

⁸And when he comes he will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation:

⁹sin, because they do not believe in me;

¹⁰righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me;

¹¹condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned. Coming of the Advocate

¹²"I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.

¹³But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming.

¹⁴He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.

¹⁵Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.

¹⁶"A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me."

¹⁷So some of his disciples said to one another, "What does this mean that he is saying to us, 'A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me,' and 'Because I am going to the Father'?"

¹⁸So they said, "What is this 'little while' (of which he speaks)? We do not know what he means."

¹⁹Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, "Are you discussing with one another what I said, 'A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me'?

²⁰Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.

²¹When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world.

²²So you also are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.

²³On that day you will not question me about anything. Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.

²⁴Until now you have not asked anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.

²⁵"I have told you this in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures but I will tell you clearly about the Father.

²⁶On that day you will ask in my name, and I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you.

²⁷For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have come to believe that I came from God.

²⁸I came from the Father and have come into the world. Now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father."

²⁹His disciples said, "Now you are talking plainly, and not in any figure of speech.

³⁰Now we realize that you know everything and that you do not need to have anyone question you. Because of this we believe that you came from God."

³¹Jesus answered them, "Do you believe now?

³²Behold, the hour is coming and has arrived when each of you will be scattered to his own home and you will leave me alone. But I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

³³I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world."

17When Jesus had said this, he raised his eyes to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,

²just as you gave him authority over all people, so that he may give eternal life to all you gave him.

³Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.

⁴I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.

⁵Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began.

⁶"I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.

⁷Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,

⁸because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.

⁹I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours,

¹⁰and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them.

¹¹And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are.

¹²When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled.

¹³But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely.

¹⁴I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.

¹⁵I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one.

¹⁶They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.

¹⁷Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth.

¹⁸As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world.

¹⁹And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.

²⁰"I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,

²¹so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.

²²And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one,

²³I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.

²⁴Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

²⁵Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me.

²⁶I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them."

18When he had said this, Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to where there was a garden, into which he and his disciples entered.

²Judas his betrayer also knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples.

³So Judas got a band of soldiers and guards from the chief priests and the Pharisees and went there with lanterns, torches, and weapons.

⁴Jesus, knowing everything that was going to happen to him, went out and said to them, "Whom are you looking for?"

⁵They answered him, "Jesus the Nazorean." He said to them, "I AM." Judas his betrayer was also with them.

⁶When he said to them, "I AM," they turned away and fell to the ground.

⁷So he again asked them, "Whom are you looking for?" They said, "Jesus the Nazorean."

⁸Jesus answered, "I told you that I AM. So if you are looking for me, let these men go."

⁹This was to fulfill what he had said, "I have not lost any of those you gave me."

¹⁰Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest's slave, and cut off his right ear. The slave's name was Malchus.

¹¹Jesus said to Peter, "Put your sword into its scabbard. Shall I not drink the cup that the Father gave me?"

¹²So the band of soldiers, the tribune, and the Jewish guards seized Jesus, bound him,

¹³and brought him to Annas first. He was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year.

¹⁴It was Caiaphas who had counseled the Jews that it was better that one man should die rather than the people.

¹⁵Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. Now the other disciple was known to the high priest, and he entered the courtyard of the high priest with Jesus.

¹⁶But Peter stood at the gate outside. So the other disciple, the acquaintance of the high priest, went out and spoke to the gatekeeper and brought Peter in.

¹⁷Then the maid who was the gatekeeper said to Peter, "You are not one of this man's disciples, are you?" He said, "I am not."

¹⁸Now the slaves and the guards were standing around a charcoal fire that they had made, because it was cold, and were warming themselves. Peter was also standing there keeping warm.

¹⁹The high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his doctrine.

²⁰Jesus answered him, "I have spoken publicly to the world. I have always taught in a synagogue or in the temple area where all the Jews gather, and in secret I have said nothing.

²¹Why ask me? Ask those who heard me what I said to them. They know what I said."

²²When he had said this, one of the temple guards standing there struck Jesus and said, "Is this the way you answer the high priest?"

²³Jesus answered him, "If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong; but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?"

²⁴Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

²⁵Now Simon Peter was standing there keeping warm. And they said to him, "You are not one of his disciples, are you?" He denied it and said, "I am not."

²⁶One of the slaves of the high priest, a relative of the one whose ear Peter had cut off, said, "Didn't I see you in the garden with him?"

²⁷Again Peter denied it. And immediately the cock crowed.

²⁸Then they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium. It was morning. And they themselves did not enter the praetorium, in order not to be defiled so that they could eat the Passover.

²⁹So Pilate came out to them and said, "What charge do you bring (against) this man?"

³⁰They answered and said to him, "If he were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you."

³¹At this, Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves, and judge him according to your law." The Jews answered him, "We do not have the right to execute anyone,"

³²in order that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled that he said indicating the kind of death he would die.

³³So Pilate went back into the praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him, "Are you the King of the Jews?"

³⁴Jesus answered, "Do you say this on your own or have others told you about me?"

³⁵Pilate answered, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?"

³⁶Jesus answered, "My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants (would) be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here."

³⁷So Pilate said to him, "Then you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."

³⁸Pilate said to him, "What is truth?" When he had said this, he again went out to the Jews and said to them, "I find no guilt in him.

³⁹But you have a custom that I release one prisoner to you at Passover. Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?"

⁴⁰They cried out again, "Not this one but Barabbas!" Now Barabbas was a revolutionary.

19Then Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged.

²And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on his head, and clothed him in a purple cloak,

³and they came to him and said, "Hail, King of the Jews!" And they struck him repeatedly.

⁴Once more Pilate went out and said to them, "Look, I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find no guilt in him."

⁵So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak. And he said to them, "Behold, the man!"

⁶When the chief priests and the guards saw him they cried out, "Crucify him, crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves and crucify him. I find no guilt in him."

⁷The Jews answered, "We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God."

⁸Now when Pilate heard this statement, he became even more afraid,

⁹and went back into the praetorium and said to Jesus, "Where are you from?" Jesus did not answer him.

¹⁰So Pilate said to him, "Do you not speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you and I have power to crucify you?"

¹¹Jesus answered (him), "You would have no power over me if it had not been given to you from above. For this reason the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin."

¹²Consequently, Pilate tried to release him; but the Jews cried out, "If you release him, you are not a Friend of Caesar. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar."

¹³When Pilate heard these words he brought Jesus out and seated him on the judge's bench in the place called Stone Pavement, in Hebrew, Gabbatha.

¹⁴It was preparation day for Passover, and it was about noon. And he said to the Jews, "Behold, your king!"

¹⁵They cried out, "Take him away, take him away! Crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your king?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar."

¹⁶Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus,

¹⁷and carrying the cross himself he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha.

¹⁸There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus in the middle.

¹⁹Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, "Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews."

²⁰Now many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.

²¹So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, "Do not write 'The King of the Jews,' but that he said, 'I am the King of the Jews.'"

²²Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."

²³When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four shares, a share for each soldier. They also took his tunic, but the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top down.

²⁴So they said to one another, "Let's not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be," in order that the passage of scripture might be fulfilled (that says): "They divided my garments among them, and for my vesture they cast lots." This is what the soldiers did.

²⁵Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala.

²⁶When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son."

²⁷Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

²⁸After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I thirst."

²⁹There was a vessel filled with common wine. So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth.

³⁰When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, "It is finished." And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.

³¹Now since it was preparation day, in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath, for the sabbath day of that week was a solemn one, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken and they be taken down.

³²So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus.

³³But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs,

³⁴but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out.

³⁵An eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true; he knows that he is speaking the truth, so that you also may (come to) believe.

³⁶For this happened so that the scripture passage might be fulfilled: "Not a bone of it will be broken."

³⁷And again another passage says: "They will look upon him whom they have pierced."

³⁸After this, Joseph of Arimathea, secretly a disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus. And Pilate permitted it. So he came and took his body.

³⁹Nicodemus, the one who had first come to him at night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about one hundred pounds.

⁴⁰They took the body of Jesus and bound it with burial cloths along with the spices, according to the Jewish burial custom.

⁴¹Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried.

⁴²So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day; for the tomb was close by.

20On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb.

²So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, "They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where they put him."

³So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.

⁴They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first;

⁵he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.

⁶When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,

⁷and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.

⁸Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed.

⁹For they did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead.

¹⁰Then the disciples returned home.

¹¹But Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb

¹²and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been.

¹³And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken my Lord, and I don't know where they laid him."

¹⁴When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus.

¹⁵Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" She thought it was the gardener and said to him, "Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him."

¹⁶Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni," which means Teacher.

¹⁷Jesus said to her, "Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, 'I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"

¹⁸Mary of Magdala went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and what he told her.

¹⁹On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you."

²⁰When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

²¹(Jesus) said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you."

²²And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the holy Spirit.

²³Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained."

²⁴Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.

²⁵So the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."

²⁶Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you."

²⁷Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe."

²⁸Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God!"

²⁹Jesus said to him, "Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."

³⁰Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of (his) disciples that are not written in this book.

³¹But these are written that you may (come to) believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.

21After this, Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. He revealed himself in this way.

²Together were Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, Zebedee's sons, and two others of his disciples.

³Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We also will come with you." So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

⁴When it was already dawn, Jesus was standing on the shore; but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.

⁵Jesus said to them, "Children, have you caught anything to eat?" They answered him, "No."

⁶So he said to them, "Cast the net over the right side of the boat and you will find something." So they cast it, and were not able to pull it in because of the number of fish.

⁷So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord." When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tucked in his garment, for he was lightly clad, and jumped into the sea.

⁸The other disciples came in the boat, for they were not far from shore, only about a hundred yards, dragging the net with the fish.

⁹When they climbed out on shore, they saw a charcoal fire with fish on it and bread.

¹⁰Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish you just caught."

¹¹So Simon Peter went over and dragged the net ashore full of one hundred fifty-three large fish. Even though there were so many, the net was not torn.

¹²Jesus said to them, "Come, have breakfast." And none of the disciples dared to ask him, "Who are you?" because they realized it was the Lord.

¹³Jesus came over and took the bread and gave it to them, and in like manner the fish.

¹⁴This was now the third time Jesus was revealed to his disciples after being raised from the dead.

¹⁵When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs."

¹⁶He then said to him a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." He said to him, "Tend my sheep."

¹⁷He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, "Do you love me?" and he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." (Jesus) said to him, "Feed my sheep.

¹⁸Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go."

¹⁹He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had said this, he said to him, "Follow me."

²⁰Peter turned and saw the disciple following whom Jesus loved, the one who had also reclined upon his chest during the supper and had said, "Master, who is the one who will betray you?"

²¹When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, "Lord, what about him?"

²²Jesus said to him, "What if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours? You follow me."

²³So the word spread among the brothers that that disciple would not die. But Jesus had not told him that he would not die, just "What if I want him to remain until I come? (What concern is it of yours?)"

²⁴It is this disciple who testifies to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true.

²⁵There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written.

1In the first book, Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught

²until the day he was taken up, after giving instructions through the holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.

³He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

⁴While meeting with them, he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for "the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak;

⁵for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the holy Spirit."

⁶When they had gathered together they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"

⁷He answered them, "It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority.

⁸But you will receive power when the holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

⁹When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.

¹⁰While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them.

¹¹They said, "Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven."

¹²Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day's journey away.

¹³When they entered the city they went to the upper room where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.

¹⁴All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

¹⁵During those days Peter stood up in the midst of the brothers (there was a group of about one hundred and twenty persons in the one place). He said,

¹⁶"My brothers, the scripture had to be fulfilled which the holy Spirit spoke beforehand through the mouth of David, concerning Judas, who was the guide for those who arrested Jesus.

¹⁷He was numbered among us and was allotted a share in this ministry.

¹⁸He bought a parcel of land with the wages of his iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle, and all his insides spilled out.

¹⁹This became known to everyone who lived in Jerusalem, so that the parcel of land was called in their language 'Akeldama,' that is, Field of Blood.

²⁰For it is written in the Book of Psalms: 'Let his encampment become desolate, and may no one dwell in it.' And: 'May another take his office.'

²¹Therefore, it is necessary that one of the men who accompanied us the whole time the Lord Jesus came and went among us,

²²beginning from the baptism of John until the day on which he was taken up from us, become with us a witness to his resurrection."

²³So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias.

²⁴Then they prayed, "You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen

²⁵to take the place in this apostolic ministry from which Judas turned away to go to his own place."

²⁶Then they gave lots to them, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the eleven apostles.

2When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together.

²And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were.

³Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them.

⁴And they were all filled with the holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

⁵Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem.

⁶At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language.

⁷They were astounded, and in amazement they asked, "Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans?

⁸Then how does each of us hear them in his own native language?

⁹We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,

¹⁰Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers from Rome,

¹¹both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God."

¹²They were all astounded and bewildered, and said to one another, "What does this mean?"

¹³But others said, scoffing, "They have had too much new wine."

¹⁴Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed to them, "You who are Jews, indeed all of you staying in Jerusalem. Let this be known to you, and listen to my words.

¹⁵These people are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning.

¹⁶No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

¹⁷'It will come to pass in the last days,' God says, 'that I will pour out a portion of my spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.

¹⁸Indeed, upon my servants and my handmaids I will pour out a portion of my spirit in those days, and they shall prophesy.

¹⁹And I will work wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below: blood, fire, and a cloud of smoke.

²⁰The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the coming of the great and splendid day of the Lord,

²¹and it shall be that everyone shall be saved who calls on the name of the Lord.'

²²You who are Israelites, hear these words. Jesus the Nazorean was a man commended to you by God with mighty deeds, wonders, and signs, which God worked through him in your midst, as you yourselves know.

²³This man, delivered up by the set plan and foreknowledge of God, you killed, using lawless men to crucify him.

²⁴But God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death, because it was impossible for him to be held by it.

²⁵For David says of him: 'I saw the Lord ever before me, with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.

²⁶Therefore my heart has been glad and my tongue has exulted; my flesh, too, will dwell in hope,

²⁷because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld, nor will you suffer your holy one to see corruption.

²⁸You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.'

²⁹My brothers, one can confidently say to you about the patriarch David that he died and was buried, and his tomb is in our midst to this day.

³⁰But since he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants upon his throne,

³¹he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that neither was he abandoned to the netherworld nor did his flesh see corruption.

³²God raised this Jesus; of this we are all witnesses.

³³Exalted at the right hand of God, he received the promise of the holy Spirit from the Father and poured it forth, as you (both) see and hear.

³⁴For David did not go up into heaven, but he himself said: 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand

³⁵until I make your enemies your footstool."'

³⁶Therefore let the whole house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified."

³⁷Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they asked Peter and the other apostles, "What are we to do, my brothers?"

³⁸Peter (said) to them, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the holy Spirit.

³⁹For the promise is made to you and to your children and to all those far off, whomever the Lord our God will call."

⁴⁰He testified with many other arguments, and was exhorting them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation."

⁴¹Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand persons were added that day.

⁴²They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers.

⁴³Awe came upon everyone, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.

⁴⁴All who believed were together and had all things in common;

⁴⁵they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one's need.

⁴⁶Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area and to breaking bread in their homes. They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart,

⁴⁷praising God and enjoying favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

3Now Peter and John were going up to the temple area for the three o'clock hour of prayer.

²And a man crippled from birth was carried and placed at the gate of the temple called "the Beautiful Gate" every day to beg for alms from the people who entered the temple.

³When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked for alms.

⁴But Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, "Look at us."

⁵He paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them.

⁶Peter said, "I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, (rise and) walk."

⁷Then Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles grew strong.

⁸He leaped up, stood, and walked around, and went into the temple with them, walking and jumping and praising God.

⁹When all the people saw him walking and praising God,

¹⁰they recognized him as the one who used to sit begging at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with amazement and astonishment at what had happened to him.

¹¹As he clung to Peter and John, all the people hurried in amazement toward them in the portico called "Solomon's Portico."

¹²When Peter saw this, he addressed the people, "You Israelites, why are you amazed at this, and why do you look so intently at us as if we had made him walk by our own power or piety?

¹³The God of Abraham, (the God) of Isaac, and (the God) of Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has glorified his servant Jesus whom you handed over and denied in Pilate's presence, when he had decided to release him.

¹⁴You denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you.

¹⁵The author of life you put to death, but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses.

¹⁶And by faith in his name, this man, whom you see and know, his name has made strong, and the faith that comes through it has given him this perfect health, in the presence of all of you.

¹⁷Now I know, brothers, that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did;

¹⁸but God has thus brought to fulfillment what he had announced beforehand through the mouth of all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer.

¹⁹Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away,

²⁰and that the Lord may grant you times of refreshment and send you the Messiah already appointed for you, Jesus,

²¹whom heaven must receive until the times of universal restoration of which God spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old.

²²For Moses said: 'A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you from among your own kinsmen; to him you shall listen in all that he may say to you.

²³Everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be cut off from the people.'

²⁴Moreover, all the prophets who spoke, from Samuel and those afterwards, also announced these days.

²⁵You are the children of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors when he said to Abraham, 'In your offspring all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'

²⁶For you first, God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways."

4While they were still speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple guard, and the Sadducees confronted them,

²disturbed that they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.

³They laid hands on them and put them in custody until the next day, since it was already evening.

⁴But many of those who heard the word came to believe and (the) number of men grew to (about) five thousand.

⁵On the next day, their leaders, elders, and scribes were assembled in Jerusalem,

⁶with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly class.

⁷They brought them into their presence and questioned them, "By what power or by what name have you done this?"

⁸Then Peter, filled with the holy Spirit, answered them, "Leaders of the people and elders:

⁹If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a cripple, namely, by what means he was saved,

¹⁰then all of you and all the people of Israel should know that it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarean whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead; in his name this man stands before you healed.

¹¹He is 'the stone rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.'

¹²There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved."

¹³Observing the boldness of Peter and John and perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men, they were amazed, and they recognized them as the companions of Jesus.

¹⁴Then when they saw the man who had been cured standing there with them, they could say nothing in reply.

¹⁵So they ordered them to leave the Sanhedrin, and conferred with one another, saying,

¹⁶"What are we to do with these men? Everyone living in Jerusalem knows that a remarkable sign was done through them, and we cannot deny it.

¹⁷But so that it may not be spread any further among the people, let us give them a stern warning never again to speak to anyone in this name."

¹⁸So they called them back and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

¹⁹Peter and John, however, said to them in reply, "Whether it is right in the sight of God for us to obey you rather than God, you be the judges.

²⁰It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard."

²¹After threatening them further, they released them, finding no way to punish them, on account of the people who were all praising God for what had happened.

²²For the man on whom this sign of healing had been done was over forty years old.

²³After their release they went back to their own people and reported what the chief priests and elders had told them.

²⁴And when they heard it, they raised their voices to God with one accord and said, "Sovereign Lord, maker of heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them,

²⁵you said by the holy Spirit through the mouth of our father David, your servant: 'Why did the Gentiles rage and the peoples entertain folly?

²⁶The kings of the earth took their stand and the princes gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed.'

²⁷Indeed they gathered in this city against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed, Herod and Pontius Pilate, together with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,

²⁸to do what your hand and (your) will had long ago planned to take place.

²⁹And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and enable your servants to speak your word with all boldness,

³⁰as you stretch forth (your) hand to heal, and signs and wonders are done through the name of your holy servant Jesus."

³¹As they prayed, the place where they were gathered shook, and they were all filled with the holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

³²The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common.

³³With great power the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great favor was accorded them all.

³⁴There was no needy person among them, for those who owned property or houses would sell them, bring the proceeds of the sale,

³⁵and put them at the feet of the apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need.

³⁶Thus Joseph, also named by the apostles Barnabas (which is translated "son of encouragement"), a Levite, a Cypriot by birth,

³⁷sold a piece of property that he owned, then brought the money and put it at the feet of the apostles.

5A man named Ananias, however, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property.

²He retained for himself, with his wife's knowledge, some of the purchase price, took the remainder, and put it at the feet of the apostles.

³But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart so that you lied to the holy Spirit and retained part of the price of the land?

⁴While it remained unsold, did it not remain yours? And when it was sold, was it not still under your control? Why did you contrive this deed? You have lied not to human beings, but to God."

⁵When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last, and great fear came upon all who heard of it.

⁶The young men came and wrapped him up, then carried him out and buried him.

⁷After an interval of about three hours, his wife came in, unaware of what had happened.

⁸Peter said to her, "Tell me, did you sell the land for this amount?" She answered, "Yes, for that amount."

⁹Then Peter said to her, "Why did you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen, the footsteps of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out."

¹⁰At once, she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men entered they found her dead, so they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.

¹¹And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.

¹²Many signs and wonders were done among the people at the hands of the apostles. They were all together in Solomon's portico.

¹³None of the others dared to join them, but the people esteemed them.

¹⁴Yet more than ever, believers in the Lord, great numbers of men and women, were added to them.

¹⁵Thus they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and mats so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on one or another of them.

¹⁶A large number of people from the towns in the vicinity of Jerusalem also gathered, bringing the sick and those disturbed by unclean spirits, and they were all cured.

¹⁷Then the high priest rose up and all his companions, that is, the party of the Sadducees, and, filled with jealousy,

¹⁸laid hands upon the apostles and put them in the public jail.

¹⁹But during the night, the angel of the Lord opened the doors of the prison, led them out, and said,

²⁰"Go and take your place in the temple area, and tell the people everything about this life."

²¹When they heard this, they went to the temple early in the morning and taught. When the high priest and his companions arrived, they convened the Sanhedrin, the full senate of the Israelites, and sent to the jail to have them brought in.

²²But the court officers who went did not find them in the prison, so they came back and reported,

²³"We found the jail securely locked and the guards stationed outside the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside."

²⁴When they heard this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were at a loss about them, as to what this would come to.

²⁵Then someone came in and reported to them, "The men whom you put in prison are in the temple area and are teaching the people."

²⁶Then the captain and the court officers went and brought them in, but without force, because they were afraid of being stoned by the people.

²⁷When they had brought them in and made them stand before the Sanhedrin, the high priest questioned them,

²⁸"We gave you strict orders (did we not?) to stop teaching in that name. Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and want to bring this man's blood upon us."

²⁹But Peter and the apostles said in reply, "We must obey God rather than men.

³⁰The God of our ancestors raised Jesus, though you had him killed by hanging him on a tree.

³¹God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior to grant Israel repentance and forgiveness of sins.

³²We are witnesses of these things, as is the holy Spirit that God has given to those who obey him."

³³When they heard this, they became infuriated and wanted to put them to death.

³⁴But a Pharisee in the Sanhedrin named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, respected by all the people, stood up, ordered the men to be put outside for a short time,

³⁵and said to them, "Fellow Israelites, be careful what you are about to do to these men.

³⁶Some time ago, Theudas appeared, claiming to be someone important, and about four hundred men joined him, but he was killed, and all those who were loyal to him were disbanded and came to nothing.

³⁷After him came Judas the Galilean at the time of the census. He also drew people after him, but he too perished and all who were loyal to him were scattered.

³⁸So now I tell you, have nothing to do with these men, and let them go. For if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself.

³⁹But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God." They were persuaded by him.

⁴⁰After recalling the apostles, they had them flogged, ordered them to stop speaking in the name of Jesus, and dismissed them.

⁴¹So they left the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.

⁴²And all day long, both at the temple and in their homes, they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the Messiah, Jesus.

6At that time, as the number of disciples continued to grow, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.

²So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said, "It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table.

³Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men, filled with the Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task,

⁴whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word."

⁵The proposal was acceptable to the whole community, so they chose Stephen, a man filled with faith and the holy Spirit, also Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas of Antioch, a convert to Judaism.

⁶They presented these men to the apostles who prayed and laid hands on them.

⁷The word of God continued to spread, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly; even a large group of priests were becoming obedient to the faith.

⁸Now Stephen, filled with grace and power, was working great wonders and signs among the people.

⁹Certain members of the so-called Synagogue of Freedmen, Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and people from Cilicia and Asia, came forward and debated with Stephen,

¹⁰but they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he spoke.

¹¹Then they instigated some men to say, "We have heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God."

¹²They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, accosted him, seized him, and brought him before the Sanhedrin.

¹³They presented false witnesses who testified, "This man never stops saying things against (this) holy place and the law.

¹⁴For we have heard him claim that this Jesus the Nazorean will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us."

¹⁵All those who sat in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him and saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

7Then the high priest asked, "Is this so?"

²And he replied, "My brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia, before he had settled in Haran,

³and said to him, 'Go forth from your land and (from) your kinsfolk to the land that I will show you.'

⁴So he went forth from the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, he made him migrate to this land where you now dwell.

⁵Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length, but he did promise to give it to him and his descendants as a possession, even though he was childless.

⁶And God spoke thus, 'His descendants shall be aliens in a land not their own, where they shall be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years;

⁷but I will bring judgment on the nation they serve,' God said, 'and after that they will come out and worship me in this place.'

⁸Then he gave him the covenant of circumcision, and so he became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, as Isaac did Jacob, and Jacob the twelve patriarchs.

⁹"And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into slavery in Egypt; but God was with him

¹⁰and rescued him from all his afflictions. He granted him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, who put him in charge of Egypt and (of) his entire household.

¹¹Then a famine and great affliction struck all Egypt and Canaan, and our ancestors could find no food;

¹²but when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there a first time.

¹³The second time, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph's family became known to Pharaoh.

¹⁴Then Joseph sent for his father Jacob, inviting him and his whole clan, seventy-five persons;

¹⁵and Jacob went down to Egypt. And he and our ancestors died

¹⁶and were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor at Shechem.

¹⁷"When the time drew near for the fulfillment of the promise that God pledged to Abraham, the people had increased and become very numerous in Egypt,

¹⁸until another king who knew nothing of Joseph came to power (in Egypt).

¹⁹He dealt shrewdly with our people and oppressed (our) ancestors by forcing them to expose their infants, that they might not survive.

²⁰At this time Moses was born, and he was extremely beautiful. For three months he was nursed in his father's house;

²¹but when he was exposed, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son.

²²Moses was educated (in) all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his words and deeds.

²³"When he was forty years old, he decided to visit his kinsfolk, the Israelites.

²⁴When he saw one of them treated unjustly, he defended and avenged the oppressed man by striking down the Egyptian.

²⁵He assumed (his) kinsfolk would understand that God was offering them deliverance through him, but they did not understand.

²⁶The next day he appeared to them as they were fighting and tried to reconcile them peacefully, saying, 'Men, you are brothers. Why are you harming one another?'

²⁷Then the one who was harming his neighbor pushed him aside, saying, 'Who appointed you ruler and judge over us?

²⁸Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?'

²⁹Moses fled when he heard this and settled as an alien in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

³⁰"Forty years later, an angel appeared to him in the desert near Mount Sinai in the flame of a burning bush.

³¹When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he drew near to look at it, the voice of the Lord came,

³²'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.' Then Moses, trembling, did not dare to look at it.

³³But the Lord said to him, 'Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.

³⁴I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to rescue them. Come now, I will send you to Egypt.'

³⁵This Moses, whom they had rejected with the words, 'Who appointed you ruler and judge?' God sent as (both) ruler and deliverer, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

³⁶This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the desert for forty years.

³⁷It was this Moses who said to the Israelites, 'God will raise up for you, from among your own kinsfolk, a prophet like me.'

³⁸It was he who, in the assembly in the desert, was with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our ancestors, and he received living utterances to hand on to us.

³⁹"Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him; instead, they pushed him aside and in their hearts turned back to Egypt,

⁴⁰saying to Aaron, 'Make us gods who will be our leaders. As for that Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.'

⁴¹So they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifice to the idol, and reveled in the works of their hands.

⁴²Then God turned and handed them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: 'Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings for forty years in the desert, O house of Israel?

⁴³No, you took up the tent of Moloch and the star of (your) god Rephan, the images that you made to worship. So I shall take you into exile beyond Babylon.'

⁴⁴"Our ancestors had the tent of testimony in the desert just as the One who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern he had seen.

⁴⁵Our ancestors who inherited it brought it with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out from before our ancestors, up to the time of David,

⁴⁶who found favor in the sight of God and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the house of Jacob.

⁴⁷But Solomon built a house for him.

⁴⁸Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:

⁴⁹'The heavens are my throne, the earth is my footstool. What kind of house can you build for me? says the Lord, or what is to be my resting place?

⁵⁰Did not my hand make all these things?'

⁵¹"You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always oppose the holy Spirit; you are just like your ancestors.

⁵²Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They put to death those who foretold the coming of the righteous one, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.

⁵³You received the law as transmitted by angels, but you did not observe it."

⁵⁴When they heard this, they were infuriated, and they ground their teeth at him.

⁵⁵But he, filled with the holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,

⁵⁶and he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."

⁵⁷But they cried out in a loud voice, covered their ears, and rushed upon him together.

⁵⁸They threw him out of the city, and began to stone him. The witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.

⁵⁹As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."

⁶⁰Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them"; and when he said this, he fell asleep.

8Now Saul was consenting to his execution.On that day, there broke out a severe persecution of the church in Jerusalem, and all were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.

²Devout men buried Stephen and made a loud lament over him.

³Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the church; entering house after house and dragging out men and women, he handed them over for imprisonment.

⁴Now those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.

⁵Thus Philip went down to (the) city of Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them.

⁶With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing.

⁷For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice, came out of many possessed people, and many paralyzed and crippled people were cured.

⁸There was great joy in that city.

⁹A man named Simon used to practice magic in the city and astounded the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great.

¹⁰All of them, from the least to the greatest, paid attention to him, saying, "This man is the 'Power of God' that is called 'Great.'"

¹¹They paid attention to him because he had astounded them by his magic for a long time,

¹²but once they began to believe Philip as he preached the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, men and women alike were baptized.

¹³Even Simon himself believed and, after being baptized, became devoted to Philip; and when he saw the signs and mighty deeds that were occurring, he was astounded.

¹⁴Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent them Peter and John,

¹⁵who went down and prayed for them, that they might receive the holy Spirit,

¹⁶for it had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

¹⁷Then they laid hands on them and they received the holy Spirit.

¹⁸When Simon saw that the Spirit was conferred by the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money

¹⁹and said, "Give me this power too, so that anyone upon whom I lay my hands may receive the holy Spirit."

²⁰But Peter said to him, "May your money perish with you, because you thought that you could buy the gift of God with money.

²¹You have no share or lot in this matter, for your heart is not upright before God.

²²Repent of this wickedness of yours and pray to the Lord that, if possible, your intention may be forgiven.

²³For I see that you are filled with bitter gall and are in the bonds of iniquity."

²⁴Simon said in reply, "Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me."

²⁵So when they had testified and proclaimed the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem and preached the good news to many Samaritan villages.

²⁶Then the angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, "Get up and head south on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, the desert route."

²⁷So he got up and set out. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, that is, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury, who had come to Jerusalem to worship,

²⁸and was returning home. Seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.

²⁹The Spirit said to Philip, "Go and join up with that chariot."

³⁰Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, "Do you understand what you are reading?"

³¹He replied, "How can I, unless someone instructs me?" So he invited Philip to get in and sit with him.

³²This was the scripture passage he was reading: "Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

³³In (his) humiliation justice was denied him. Who will tell of his posterity? For his life is taken from the earth."

³⁴Then the eunuch said to Philip in reply, "I beg you, about whom is the prophet saying this? About himself, or about someone else?"

³⁵Then Philip opened his mouth and, beginning with this scripture passage, he proclaimed Jesus to him.

³⁶As they traveled along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, "Look, there is water. What is to prevent my being baptized?"

³⁷

³⁸Then he ordered the chariot to stop, and Philip and the eunuch both went down into the water, and he baptized him.

³⁹When they came out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, but continued on his way rejoicing.

⁴⁰Philip came to Azotus, and went about proclaiming the good news to all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

9Now Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest

²and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, that, if he should find any men or women who belonged to the Way, he might bring them back to Jerusalem in chains.

³On his journey, as he was nearing Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him.

⁴He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"

⁵He said, "Who are you, sir?" The reply came, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

⁶Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do."

⁷The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, for they heard the voice but could see no one.

⁸Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus.

⁹For three days he was unable to see, and he neither ate nor drank.

¹⁰There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias." He answered, "Here I am, Lord."

¹¹The Lord said to him, "Get up and go to the street called Straight and ask at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is there praying,

¹²and (in a vision) he has seen a man named Ananias come in and lay (his) hands on him, that he may regain his sight."

¹³But Ananias replied, "Lord, I have heard from many sources about this man, what evil things he has done to your holy ones in Jerusalem.

¹⁴And here he has authority from the chief priests to imprison all who call upon your name."

¹⁵But the Lord said to him, "Go, for this man is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before Gentiles, kings, and Israelites,

¹⁶and I will show him what he will have to suffer for my name."

¹⁷So Ananias went and entered the house; laying his hands on him, he said, "Saul, my brother, the Lord has sent me, Jesus who appeared to you on the way by which you came, that you may regain your sight and be filled with the holy Spirit."

¹⁸Immediately things like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. He got up and was baptized,

¹⁹and when he had eaten, he recovered his strength. He stayed some days with the disciples in Damascus,

²⁰and he began at once to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.

²¹All who heard him were astounded and said, "Is not this the man who in Jerusalem ravaged those who call upon this name, and came here expressly to take them back in chains to the chief priests?"

²²But Saul grew all the stronger and confounded (the) Jews who lived in Damascus, proving that this is the Messiah.

²³After a long time had passed, the Jews conspired to kill him,

²⁴but their plot became known to Saul. Now they were keeping watch on the gates day and night so as to kill him,

²⁵but his disciples took him one night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

²⁶When he arrived in Jerusalem he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple.

²⁷Then Barnabas took charge of him and brought him to the apostles, and he reported to them how on the way he had seen the Lord and that he had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus.

²⁸He moved about freely with them in Jerusalem, and spoke out boldly in the name of the Lord.

²⁹He also spoke and debated with the Hellenists, but they tried to kill him.

³⁰And when the brothers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him on his way to Tarsus.

³¹The church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace. It was being built up and walked in the fear of the Lord, and with the consolation of the holy Spirit it grew in numbers.

³²As Peter was passing through every region, he went down to the holy ones living in Lydda.

³³There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been confined to bed for eight years, for he was paralyzed.

³⁴Peter said to him, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and make your bed." He got up at once.

³⁵And all the inhabitants of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.

³⁶Now in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which translated means Dorcas). She was completely occupied with good deeds and almsgiving.

³⁷Now during those days she fell sick and died, so after washing her, they laid (her) out in a room upstairs.

³⁸Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, "Please come to us without delay."

³⁹So Peter got up and went with them. When he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs where all the widows came to him weeping and showing him the tunics and cloaks that Dorcas had made while she was with them.

⁴⁰Peter sent them all out and knelt down and prayed. Then he turned to her body and said, "Tabitha, rise up." She opened her eyes, saw Peter, and sat up.

⁴¹He gave her his hand and raised her up, and when he had called the holy ones and the widows, he presented her alive.

⁴²This became known all over Joppa, and many came to believe in the Lord.

⁴³And he stayed a long time in Joppa with Simon, a tanner.

10Now in Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Cohort called the Italica,

²devout and God-fearing along with his whole household, who used to give alms generously to the Jewish people and pray to God constantly.

³One afternoon about three o'clock, he saw plainly in a vision an angel of God come in to him and say to him, "Cornelius."

⁴He looked intently at him and, seized with fear, said, "What is it, sir?" He said to him, "Your prayers and almsgiving have ascended as a memorial offering before God.

⁵Now send some men to Joppa and summon one Simon who is called Peter.

⁶He is staying with another Simon, a tanner, who has a house by the sea."

⁷When the angel who spoke to him had left, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from his staff,

⁸explained everything to them, and sent them to Joppa.

⁹The next day, while they were on their way and nearing the city, Peter went up to the roof terrace to pray at about noontime.

¹⁰He was hungry and wished to eat, and while they were making preparations he fell into a trance.

¹¹He saw heaven opened and something resembling a large sheet coming down, lowered to the ground by its four corners.

¹²In it were all the earth's four-legged animals and reptiles and the birds of the sky.

¹³A voice said to him, "Get up, Peter. Slaughter and eat."

¹⁴But Peter said, "Certainly not, sir. For never have I eaten anything profane and unclean."

¹⁵The voice spoke to him again, a second time, "What God has made clean, you are not to call profane."

¹⁶This happened three times, and then the object was taken up into the sky.

¹⁷While Peter was in doubt about the meaning of the vision he had seen, the men sent by Cornelius asked for Simon's house and arrived at the entrance.

¹⁸They called out inquiring whether Simon, who is called Peter, was staying there.

¹⁹As Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said (to him), "There are three men here looking for you.

²⁰So get up, go downstairs, and accompany them without hesitation, because I have sent them."

²¹Then Peter went down to the men and said, "I am the one you are looking for. What is the reason for your being here?"

²²They answered, "Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, respected by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to summon you to his house and to hear what you have to say."

²³So he invited them in and showed them hospitality. The next day he got up and went with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa went with him.

²⁴On the following day he entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends.

²⁵When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and, falling at his feet, paid him homage.

²⁶Peter, however, raised him up, saying, "Get up. I myself am also a human being."

²⁷While he conversed with him, he went in and found many people gathered together

²⁸and said to them, "You know that it is unlawful for a Jewish man to associate with, or visit, a Gentile, but God has shown me that I should not call any person profane or unclean.

²⁹And that is why I came without objection when sent for. May I ask, then, why you summoned me?"

³⁰Cornelius replied, "Four days ago at this hour, three o'clock in the afternoon, I was at prayer in my house when suddenly a man in dazzling robes stood before me and said,

³¹'Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your almsgiving remembered before God.

³²Send therefore to Joppa and summon Simon, who is called Peter. He is a guest in the house of Simon, a tanner, by the sea.'

³³So I sent for you immediately, and you were kind enough to come. Now therefore we are all here in the presence of God to listen to all that you have been commanded by the Lord."

³⁴Then Peter proceeded to speak and said, "In truth, I see that God shows no partiality.

³⁵Rather, in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him.

³⁶You know the word (that) he sent to the Israelites as he proclaimed peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all,

³⁷what has happened all over Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached,

³⁸how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

³⁹We are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and (in) Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree.

⁴⁰This man God raised (on) the third day and granted that he be visible,

⁴¹not to all the people, but to us, the witnesses chosen by God in advance, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

⁴²He commissioned us to preach to the people and testify that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead.

⁴³To him all the prophets bear witness, that everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name."

⁴⁴While Peter was still speaking these things, the holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the word.

⁴⁵The circumcised believers who had accompanied Peter were astounded that the gift of the holy Spirit should have been poured out on the Gentiles also,

⁴⁶for they could hear them speaking in tongues and glorifying God. Then Peter responded,

⁴⁷"Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people, who have received the holy Spirit even as we have?"

⁴⁸He ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

⁴⁹Then they invited him to stay for a few days.

11Now the apostles and the brothers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles too had accepted the word of God.

²So when Peter went up to Jerusalem the circumcised believers confronted him,

³saying, "You entered the house of uncircumcised people and ate with them."

⁴Peter began and explained it to them step by step, saying,

⁵"I was at prayer in the city of Joppa when in a trance I had a vision, something resembling a large sheet coming down, lowered from the sky by its four corners, and it came to me.

⁶Looking intently into it, I observed and saw the four-legged animals of the earth, the wild beasts, the reptiles, and the birds of the sky.

⁷I also heard a voice say to me, 'Get up, Peter. Slaughter and eat.'

⁸But I said, 'Certainly not, sir, because nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.'

⁹But a second time a voice from heaven answered, 'What God has made clean, you are not to call profane.'

¹⁰This happened three times, and then everything was drawn up again into the sky.

¹¹Just then three men appeared at the house where we were, who had been sent to me from Caesarea.

¹²The Spirit told me to accompany them without discriminating. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man's house.

¹³He related to us how he had seen (the) angel standing in his house, saying, 'Send someone to Joppa and summon Simon, who is called Peter,

¹⁴who will speak words to you by which you and all your household will be saved.'

¹⁵As I began to speak, the holy Spirit fell upon them as it had upon us at the beginning,

¹⁶and I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, 'John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the holy Spirit.'

¹⁷If then God gave them the same gift he gave to us when we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to be able to hinder God?"

¹⁸When they heard this, they stopped objecting and glorified God, saying, "God has then granted life-giving repentance to the Gentiles too."

¹⁹Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that arose because of Stephen went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but Jews.

²⁰There were some Cypriots and Cyrenians among them, however, who came to Antioch and began to speak to the Greeks as well, proclaiming the Lord Jesus.

²¹The hand of the Lord was with them and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.

²²The news about them reached the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas (to go) to Antioch.

²³When he arrived and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to remain faithful to the Lord in firmness of heart,

²⁴for he was a good man, filled with the holy Spirit and faith. And a large number of people was added to the Lord.

²⁵Then he went to Tarsus to look for Saul,

²⁶and when he had found him he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a large number of people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.

²⁷At that time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch,

²⁸and one of them named Agabus stood up and predicted by the Spirit that there would be a severe famine all over the world, and it happened under Claudius.

²⁹So the disciples determined that, according to ability, each should send relief to the brothers who lived in Judea.

³⁰This they did, sending it to the presbyters in care of Barnabas and Saul.

12About that time King Herod laid hands upon some members of the church to harm them.

²He had James, the brother of John, killed by the sword,

³and when he saw that this was pleasing to the Jews he proceeded to arrest Peter also. (It was (the) feast of Unleavened Bread.)

⁴He had him taken into custody and put in prison under the guard of four squads of four soldiers each. He intended to bring him before the people after Passover.

⁵Peter thus was being kept in prison, but prayer by the church was fervently being made to God on his behalf.

⁶On the very night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter, secured by double chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while outside the door guards kept watch on the prison.

⁷Suddenly the angel of the Lord stood by him and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and awakened him, saying, "Get up quickly." The chains fell from his wrists.

⁸The angel said to him, "Put on your belt and your sandals." He did so. Then he said to him, "Put on your cloak and follow me."

⁹So he followed him out, not realizing that what was happening through the angel was real; he thought he was seeing a vision.

¹⁰They passed the first guard, then the second, and came to the iron gate leading out to the city, which opened for them by itself. They emerged and made their way down an alley, and suddenly the angel left him.

¹¹Then Peter recovered his senses and said, "Now I know for certain that (the) Lord sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people had been expecting."

¹²When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who is called Mark, where there were many people gathered in prayer.

¹³When he knocked on the gateway door, a maid named Rhoda came to answer it.

¹⁴She was so overjoyed when she recognized Peter's voice that, instead of opening the gate, she ran in and announced that Peter was standing at the gate.

¹⁵They told her, "You are out of your mind," but she insisted that it was so. But they kept saying, "It is his angel."

¹⁶But Peter continued to knock, and when they opened it, they saw him and were astounded.

¹⁷He motioned to them with his hand to be quiet and explained (to them) how the Lord had led him out of the prison, and said, "Report this to James and the brothers." Then he left and went to another place.

¹⁸At daybreak there was no small commotion among the soldiers over what had become of Peter.

¹⁹Herod, after instituting a search but not finding him, ordered the guards tried and executed. Then he left Judea to spend some time in Caesarea.

²⁰He had long been very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, who now came to him in a body. After winning over Blastus, the king's chamberlain, they sued for peace because their country was supplied with food from the king's territory.

²¹On an appointed day, Herod, attired in royal robes, (and) seated on the rostrum, addressed them publicly.

²²The assembled crowd cried out, "This is the voice of a god, not of a man."

²³At once the angel of the Lord struck him down because he did not ascribe the honor to God, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.

²⁴But the word of God continued to spread and grow.

²⁵After Barnabas and Saul completed their relief mission, they returned to Jerusalem, taking with them John, who is called Mark.

13Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Symeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who was a close friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

²While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."

³Then, completing their fasting and prayer, they laid hands on them and sent them off.

⁴So they, sent forth by the holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and from there sailed to Cyprus.

⁵When they arrived in Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. They had John also as their assistant.

⁶When they had traveled through the whole island as far as Paphos, they met a magician named Bar-Jesus who was a Jewish false prophet.

⁷He was with the proconsul Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who had summoned Barnabas and Saul and wanted to hear the word of God.

⁸But Elymas the magician (for that is what his name means) opposed them in an attempt to turn the proconsul away from the faith.

⁹But Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the holy Spirit, looked intently at him

¹⁰and said, "You son of the devil, you enemy of all that is right, full of every sort of deceit and fraud. Will you not stop twisting the straight paths of (the) Lord?

¹¹Even now the hand of the Lord is upon you. You will be blind, and unable to see the sun for a time." Immediately a dark mist fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand.

¹²When the proconsul saw what had happened, he came to believe, for he was astonished by the teaching about the Lord.

¹³From Paphos, Paul and his companions set sail and arrived at Perga in Pamphylia. But John left them and returned to Jerusalem.

¹⁴They continued on from Perga and reached Antioch in Pisidia. On the sabbath they entered (into) the synagogue and took their seats.

¹⁵After the reading of the law and the prophets, the synagogue officials sent word to them, "My brothers, if one of you has a word of exhortation for the people, please speak."

¹⁶So Paul got up, motioned with his hand, and said, "Fellow Israelites and you others who are God-fearing, listen.

¹⁷The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors and exalted the people during their sojourn in the land of Egypt. With uplifted arm he led them out of it

¹⁸and for about forty years he put up with them in the desert.

¹⁹When he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance

²⁰at the end of about four hundred and fifty years. After these things he provided judges up to Samuel (the) prophet.

²¹Then they asked for a king. God gave them Saul, son of Kish, a man from the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years.

²²Then he removed him and raised up David as their king; of him he testified, 'I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will carry out my every wish.'

²³From this man's descendants God, according to his promise, has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus.

²⁴John heralded his coming by proclaiming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel;

²⁵and as John was completing his course, he would say, 'What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. Behold, one is coming after me; I am not worthy to unfasten the sandals of his feet.'

²⁶"My brothers, children of the family of Abraham, and those others among you who are God-fearing, to us this word of salvation has been sent.

²⁷The inhabitants of Jerusalem and their leaders failed to recognize him, and by condemning him they fulfilled the oracles of the prophets that are read sabbath after sabbath.

²⁸For even though they found no grounds for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him put to death,

²⁹and when they had accomplished all that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and placed him in a tomb.

³⁰But God raised him from the dead,

³¹and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. These are (now) his witnesses before the people.

³²We ourselves are proclaiming this good news to you that what God promised our ancestors

³³he has brought to fulfillment for us, (their) children, by raising up Jesus, as it is written in the second psalm, 'You are my son; this day I have begotten you.'

³⁴And that he raised him from the dead never to return to corruption he declared in this way, 'I shall give you the benefits assured to David.'

³⁵That is why he also says in another psalm, 'You will not suffer your holy one to see corruption.'

³⁶Now David, after he had served the will of God in his lifetime, fell asleep, was gathered to his ancestors, and did see corruption.

³⁷But the one whom God raised up did not see corruption.

³⁸You must know, my brothers, that through him forgiveness of sins is being proclaimed to you, (and) in regard to everything from which you could not be justified under the law of Moses,

³⁹in him every believer is justified.

⁴⁰Be careful, then, that what was said in the prophets not come about:

⁴¹'Look on, you scoffers, be amazed and disappear. For I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will never believe even if someone tells you.'"

⁴²As they were leaving, they invited them to speak on these subjects the following sabbath.

⁴³After the congregation had dispersed, many Jews and worshipers who were converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them and urged them to remain faithful to the grace of God.

⁴⁴On the following sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.

⁴⁵When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and with violent abuse contradicted what Paul said.

⁴⁶Both Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, "It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first, but since you reject it and condemn yourselves as unworthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.

⁴⁷For so the Lord has commanded us, 'I have made you a light to the Gentiles, that you may be an instrument of salvation to the ends of the earth.'"

⁴⁸The Gentiles were delighted when they heard this and glorified the word of the Lord. All who were destined for eternal life came to believe,

⁴⁹and the word of the Lord continued to spread through the whole region.

⁵⁰The Jews, however, incited the women of prominence who were worshipers and the leading men of the city, stirred up a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their territory.

⁵¹So they shook the dust from their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium.

⁵²The disciples were filled with joy and the holy Spirit.

14In Iconium they entered the Jewish synagogue together and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks came to believe,

²although the disbelieving Jews stirred up and poisoned the minds of the Gentiles against the brothers.

³So they stayed for a considerable period, speaking out boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the word about his grace by granting signs and wonders to occur through their hands.

⁴The people of the city were divided: some were with the Jews; others, with the apostles.

⁵When there was an attempt by both the Gentiles and the Jews, together with their leaders, to attack and stone them,

⁶they realized it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding countryside,

⁷where they continued to proclaim the good news.

⁸At Lystra there was a crippled man, lame from birth, who had never walked.

⁹He listened to Paul speaking, who looked intently at him, saw that he had the faith to be healed,

¹⁰and called out in a loud voice, "Stand up straight on your feet." He jumped up and began to walk about.

¹¹When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they cried out in Lycaonian, "The gods have come down to us in human form."

¹²They called Barnabas "Zeus" and Paul "Hermes," because he was the chief speaker.

¹³And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, for he together with the people intended to offer sacrifice.

¹⁴The apostles Barnabas and Paul tore their garments when they heard this and rushed out into the crowd, shouting,

¹⁵"Men, why are you doing this? We are of the same nature as you, human beings. We proclaim to you good news that you should turn from these idols to the living God, 'who made heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them.'

¹⁶In past generations he allowed all Gentiles to go their own ways;

¹⁷yet, in bestowing his goodness, he did not leave himself without witness, for he gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, and filled you with nourishment and gladness for your hearts."

¹⁸Even with these words, they scarcely restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.

¹⁹However, some Jews from Antioch and Iconium arrived and won over the crowds. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.

²⁰But when the disciples gathered around him, he got up and entered the city. On the following day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.

²¹After they had proclaimed the good news to that city and made a considerable number of disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch.

²²They strengthened the spirits of the disciples and exhorted them to persevere in the faith, saying, "It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God."

²³They appointed presbyters for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, commended them to the Lord in whom they had put their faith.

²⁴Then they traveled through Pisidia and reached Pamphylia.

²⁵After proclaiming the word at Perga they went down to Attalia.

²⁶From there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work they had now accomplished.

²⁷And when they arrived, they called the church together and reported what God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.

²⁸Then they spent no little time with the disciples.

15Some who had come down from Judea were instructing the brothers, "Unless you are circumcised according to the Mosaic practice, you cannot be saved."

²Because there arose no little dissension and debate by Paul and Barnabas with them, it was decided that Paul, Barnabas, and some of the others should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and presbyters about this question.

³They were sent on their journey by the church, and passed through Phoenicia and Samaria telling of the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers.

⁴When they arrived in Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church, as well as by the apostles and the presbyters, and they reported what God had done with them.

⁵But some from the party of the Pharisees who had become believers stood up and said, "It is necessary to circumcise them and direct them to observe the Mosaic law."

⁶The apostles and the presbyters met together to see about this matter.

⁷After much debate had taken place, Peter got up and said to them, "My brothers, you are well aware that from early days God made his choice among you that through my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe.

⁸And God, who knows the heart, bore witness by granting them the holy Spirit just as he did us.

⁹He made no distinction between us and them, for by faith he purified their hearts.

¹⁰Why, then, are you now putting God to the test by placing on the shoulders of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?

¹¹On the contrary, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they."

¹²The whole assembly fell silent, and they listened while Paul and Barnabas described the signs and wonders God had worked among the Gentiles through them.

¹³After they had fallen silent, James responded, "My brothers, listen to me.

¹⁴Symeon has described how God first concerned himself with acquiring from among the Gentiles a people for his name.

¹⁵The words of the prophets agree with this, as is written:

¹⁶'After this I shall return and rebuild the fallen hut of David; from its ruins I shall rebuild it and raise it up again,

¹⁷so that the rest of humanity may seek out the Lord, even all the Gentiles on whom my name is invoked. Thus says the Lord who accomplishes these things,

¹⁸known from of old.'

¹⁹It is my judgment, therefore, that we ought to stop troubling the Gentiles who turn to God,

²⁰but tell them by letter to avoid pollution from idols, unlawful marriage, the meat of strangled animals, and blood.

²¹For Moses, for generations now, has had those who proclaim him in every town, as he has been read in the synagogues every sabbath."

²²Then the apostles and presbyters, in agreement with the whole church, decided to choose representatives and to send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. The ones chosen were Judas, who was called Barsabbas, and Silas, leaders among the brothers.

²³This is the letter delivered by them: "The apostles and the presbyters, your brothers, to the brothers in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia of Gentile origin: greetings.

²⁴Since we have heard that some of our number (who went out) without any mandate from us have upset you with their teachings and disturbed your peace of mind,

²⁵we have with one accord decided to choose representatives and to send them to you along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,

²⁶who have dedicated their lives to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

²⁷So we are sending Judas and Silas who will also convey this same message by word of mouth:

²⁸'It is the decision of the holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities,

²⁹namely, to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meats of strangled animals, and from unlawful marriage. If you keep free of these, you will be doing what is right. Farewell.'"

³⁰And so they were sent on their journey. Upon their arrival in Antioch they called the assembly together and delivered the letter.

³¹When the people read it, they were delighted with the exhortation.

³²Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, exhorted and strengthened the brothers with many words.

³³After they had spent some time there, they were sent off with greetings of peace from the brothers to those who had commissioned them.

³⁴

³⁵But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and proclaiming with many others the word of the Lord.

³⁶After some time, Paul said to Barnabas, "Come, let us make a return visit to see how the brothers are getting on in all the cities where we proclaimed the word of the Lord."

³⁷Barnabas wanted to take with them also John, who was called Mark,

³⁸but Paul insisted that they should not take with them someone who had deserted them at Pamphylia and who had not continued with them in their work.

³⁹So sharp was their disagreement that they separated. Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus.

⁴⁰But Paul chose Silas and departed after being commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.

⁴¹He traveled through Syria and Cilicia bringing strength to the churches.

16He reached (also) Derbe and Lystra where there was a disciple named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek.

²The brothers in Lystra and Iconium spoke highly of him,

³and Paul wanted him to come along with him. On account of the Jews of that region, Paul had him circumcised, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

⁴As they traveled from city to city, they handed on to the people for observance the decisions reached by the apostles and presbyters in Jerusalem.

⁵Day after day the churches grew stronger in faith and increased in number.

⁶They traveled through the Phrygian and Galatian territory because they had been prevented by the holy Spirit from preaching the message in the province of Asia.

⁷When they came to Mysia, they tried to go on into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them,

⁸so they crossed through Mysia and came down to Troas.

⁹During (the) night Paul had a vision. A Macedonian stood before him and implored him with these words, "Come over to Macedonia and help us."

¹⁰When he had seen the vision, we sought passage to Macedonia at once, concluding that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.

¹¹We set sail from Troas, making a straight run for Samothrace, and on the next day to Neapolis,

¹²and from there to Philippi, a leading city in that district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We spent some time in that city.

¹³On the sabbath we went outside the city gate along the river where we thought there would be a place of prayer. We sat and spoke with the women who had gathered there.

¹⁴One of them, a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, from the city of Thyatira, a worshiper of God, listened, and the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying.

¹⁵After she and her household had been baptized, she offered us an invitation, "If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my home," and she prevailed on us.

¹⁶As we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl with an oracular spirit, who used to bring a large profit to her owners through her fortune-telling.

¹⁷She began to follow Paul and us, shouting, "These people are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation."

¹⁸She did this for many days. Paul became annoyed, turned, and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." Then it came out at that moment.

¹⁹When her owners saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them to the public square before the local authorities.

²⁰They brought them before the magistrates and said, "These people are Jews and are disturbing our city

²¹and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us Romans to adopt or practice."

²²The crowd joined in the attack on them, and the magistrates had them stripped and ordered them to be beaten with rods.

²³After inflicting many blows on them, they threw them into prison and instructed the jailer to guard them securely.

²⁴When he received these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and secured their feet to a stake.

²⁵About midnight, while Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God as the prisoners listened,

²⁶there was suddenly such a severe earthquake that the foundations of the jail shook; all the doors flew open, and the chains of all were pulled loose.

²⁷When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew (his) sword and was about to kill himself, thinking that the prisoners had escaped.

²⁸But Paul shouted out in a loud voice, "Do no harm to yourself; we are all here."

²⁹He asked for a light and rushed in and, trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas.

³⁰Then he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

³¹And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you and your household will be saved."

³²So they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to everyone in his house.

³³He took them in at that hour of the night and bathed their wounds; then he and all his family were baptized at once.

³⁴He brought them up into his house and provided a meal and with his household rejoiced at having come to faith in God.

³⁵But when it was day, the magistrates sent the lictors with the order, "Release those men."

³⁶The jailer reported the (se) words to Paul, "The magistrates have sent orders that you be released. Now, then, come out and go in peace."

³⁷But Paul said to them, "They have beaten us publicly, even though we are Roman citizens and have not been tried, and have thrown us into prison. And now, are they going to release us secretly? By no means. Let them come themselves and lead us out."

³⁸The lictors reported these words to the magistrates, and they became alarmed when they heard that they were Roman citizens.

³⁹So they came and placated them, and led them out and asked that they leave the city.

⁴⁰When they had come out of the prison, they went to Lydia's house where they saw and encouraged the brothers, and then they left.

17When they took the road through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they reached Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.

²Following his usual custom, Paul joined them, and for three sabbaths he entered into discussions with them from the scriptures,

³expounding and demonstrating that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead, and that "This is the Messiah, Jesus, whom I proclaim to you."

⁴Some of them were convinced and joined Paul and Silas; so, too, a great number of Greeks who were worshipers, and not a few of the prominent women.

⁵But the Jews became jealous and recruited some worthless men loitering in the public square, formed a mob, and set the city in turmoil. They marched on the house of Jason, intending to bring them before the people's assembly.

⁶When they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city magistrates, shouting, "These people who have been creating a disturbance all over the world have now come here,

⁷and Jason has welcomed them. They all act in opposition to the decrees of Caesar and claim instead that there is another king, Jesus."

⁸They stirred up the crowd and the city magistrates who, upon hearing these charges,

⁹took a surety payment from Jason and the others before releasing them.

¹⁰The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas to Beroea during the night. Upon arrival they went to the synagogue of the Jews.

¹¹These Jews were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with all willingness and examined the scriptures daily to determine whether these things were so.

¹²Many of them became believers, as did not a few of the influential Greek women and men.

¹³But when the Jews of Thessalonica learned that the word of God had now been proclaimed by Paul in Beroea also, they came there too to cause a commotion and stir up the crowds.

¹⁴So the brothers at once sent Paul on his way to the seacoast, while Silas and Timothy remained behind.

¹⁵After Paul's escorts had taken him to Athens, they came away with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.

¹⁶While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he grew exasperated at the sight of the city full of idols.

¹⁷So he debated in the synagogue with the Jews and with the worshipers, and daily in the public square with whoever happened to be there.

¹⁸Even some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers engaged him in discussion. Some asked, "What is this scavenger trying to say?" Others said, "He sounds like a promoter of foreign deities," because he was preaching about 'Jesus' and 'Resurrection.'

¹⁹They took him and led him to the Areopagus and said, "May we learn what this new teaching is that you speak of?

²⁰For you bring some strange notions to our ears; we should like to know what these things mean."

²¹Now all the Athenians as well as the foreigners residing there used their time for nothing else but telling or hearing something new.

²²Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said: "You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious.

²³For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, 'To an Unknown God.' What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you.

²⁴The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands,

²⁵nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything. Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything.

²⁶He made from one the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions,

²⁷so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us.

²⁸For 'In him we live and move and have our being,' as even some of your poets have said, 'For we too are his offspring.'

²⁹Since therefore we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divinity is like an image fashioned from gold, silver, or stone by human art and imagination.

³⁰God has overlooked the times of ignorance, but now he demands that all people everywhere repent

³¹because he has established a day on which he will 'judge the world with justice' through a man he has appointed, and he has provided confirmation for all by raising him from the dead."

³²When they heard about resurrection of the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, "We should like to hear you on this some other time."

³³And so Paul left them.

³⁴But some did join him, and became believers. Among them were Dionysius, a member of the Court of the Areopagus, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

18After this he left Athens and went to Corinth.

²There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. He went to visit them

³and, because he practiced the same trade, stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade.

⁴Every sabbath, he entered into discussions in the synagogue, attempting to convince both Jews and Greeks.

⁵When Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began to occupy himself totally with preaching the word, testifying to the Jews that the Messiah was Jesus.

⁶When they opposed him and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, "Your blood be on your heads! I am clear of responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles."

⁷So he left there and went to a house belonging to a man named Titus Justus, a worshiper of God; his house was next to a synagogue.

⁸Crispus, the synagogue official, came to believe in the Lord along with his entire household, and many of the Corinthians who heard believed and were baptized.

⁹One night in a vision the Lord said to Paul, "Do not be afraid. Go on speaking, and do not be silent,

¹⁰for I am with you. No one will attack and harm you, for I have many people in this city."

¹¹He settled there for a year and a half and taught the word of God among them.

¹²But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews rose up together against Paul and brought him to the tribunal,

¹³saying, "This man is inducing people to worship God contrary to the law."

¹⁴When Paul was about to reply, Gallio spoke to the Jews, "If it were a matter of some crime or malicious fraud, I should with reason hear the complaint of you Jews;

¹⁵but since it is a question of arguments over doctrine and titles and your own law, see to it yourselves. I do not wish to be a judge of such matters."

¹⁶And he drove them away from the tribunal.

¹⁷They all seized Sosthenes, the synagogue official, and beat him in full view of the tribunal. But none of this was of concern to Gallio.

¹⁸Paul remained for quite some time, and after saying farewell to the brothers he sailed for Syria, together with Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae he had his hair cut because he had taken a vow.

¹⁹When they reached Ephesus, he left them there, while he entered the synagogue and held discussions with the Jews.

²⁰Although they asked him to stay for a longer time, he did not consent,

²¹but as he said farewell he promised, "I shall come back to you again, God willing." Then he set sail from Ephesus.

²²Upon landing at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church and then went down to Antioch.

²³After staying there some time, he left and traveled in orderly sequence through the Galatian country and Phrygia, bringing strength to all the disciples.

²⁴A Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, an eloquent speaker, arrived in Ephesus. He was an authority on the scriptures.

²⁵He had been instructed in the Way of the Lord and, with ardent spirit, spoke and taught accurately about Jesus, although he knew only the baptism of John.

²⁶He began to speak boldly in the synagogue; but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the Way (of God) more accurately.

²⁷And when he wanted to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. After his arrival he gave great assistance to those who had come to believe through grace.

²⁸He vigorously refuted the Jews in public, establishing from the scriptures that the Messiah is Jesus.

19While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior of the country and came (down) to Ephesus where he found some disciples.

²He said to them, "Did you receive the holy Spirit when you became believers?" They answered him, "We have never even heard that there is a holy Spirit."

³He said, "How were you baptized?" They replied, "With the baptism of John."

⁴Paul then said, "John baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus."

⁵When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

⁶And when Paul laid (his) hands on them, the holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.

⁷Altogether there were about twelve men.

⁸He entered the synagogue, and for three months debated boldly with persuasive arguments about the kingdom of God.

⁹But when some in their obstinacy and disbelief disparaged the Way before the assembly, he withdrew and took his disciples with him and began to hold daily discussions in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.

¹⁰This continued for two years with the result that all the inhabitants of the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord, Jews and Greeks alike.

¹¹So extraordinary were the mighty deeds God accomplished at the hands of Paul

¹²that when face cloths or aprons that touched his skin were applied to the sick, their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.

¹³Then some itinerant Jewish exorcists tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those with evil spirits, saying, "I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches."

¹⁴When the seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish high priest, tried to do this,

¹⁵the evil spirit said to them in reply, "Jesus I recognize, Paul I know, but who are you?"

¹⁶The person with the evil spirit then sprang at them and subdued them all. He so overpowered them that they fled naked and wounded from that house.

¹⁷When this became known to all the Jews and Greeks who lived in Ephesus, fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in great esteem.

¹⁸Many of those who had become believers came forward and openly acknowledged their former practices.

¹⁹Moreover, a large number of those who had practiced magic collected their books and burned them in public. They calculated their value and found it to be fifty thousand silver pieces.

²⁰Thus did the word of the Lord continue to spread with influence and power.

²¹When this was concluded, Paul made up his mind to travel through Macedonia and Achaia, and then to go on to Jerusalem, saying, "After I have been there, I must visit Rome also."

²²Then he sent to Macedonia two of his assistants, Timothy and Erastus, while he himself stayed for a while in the province of Asia.

²³About that time a serious disturbance broke out concerning the Way.

²⁴There was a silversmith named Demetrius who made miniature silver shrines of Artemis and provided no little work for the craftsmen.

²⁵He called a meeting of these and other workers in related crafts and said, "Men, you know well that our prosperity derives from this work.

²⁶As you can now see and hear, not only in Ephesus but throughout most of the province of Asia this Paul has persuaded and misled a great number of people by saying that gods made by hands are not gods at all.

²⁷The danger grows, not only that our business will be discredited, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be of no account, and that she whom the whole province of Asia and all the world worship will be stripped of her magnificence."

²⁸When they heard this, they were filled with fury and began to shout, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

²⁹The city was filled with confusion, and the people rushed with one accord into the theater, seizing Gaius and Aristarchus, the Macedonians, Paul's traveling companions.

³⁰Paul wanted to go before the crowd, but the disciples would not let him,

³¹and even some of the Asiarchs who were friends of his sent word to him advising him not to venture into the theater.

³²Meanwhile, some were shouting one thing, others something else; the assembly was in chaos, and most of the people had no idea why they had come together.

³³Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, as the Jews pushed him forward, and Alexander signaled with his hand that he wished to explain something to the gathering.

³⁴But when they recognized that he was a Jew, they all shouted in unison, for about two hours, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

³⁵Finally the town clerk restrained the crowd and said, "You Ephesians, what person is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image that fell from the sky?

³⁶Since these things are undeniable, you must calm yourselves and not do anything rash.

³⁷The men you brought here are not temple robbers, nor have they insulted our goddess.

³⁸If Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a complaint against anyone, courts are in session, and there are proconsuls. Let them bring charges against one another.

³⁹If you have anything further to investigate, let the matter be settled in the lawful assembly,

⁴⁰for, as it is, we are in danger of being charged with rioting because of today's conduct. There is no cause for it. We shall (not) be able to give a reason for this demonstration." With these words he dismissed the assembly.

20When the disturbance was over, Paul had the disciples summoned and, after encouraging them, he bade them farewell and set out on his journey to Macedonia.

²As he traveled throughout those regions, he provided many words of encouragement for them. Then he arrived in Greece,

³where he stayed for three months. But when a plot was made against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return by way of Macedonia.

⁴Sopater, the son of Pyrrhus, from Beroea, accompanied him, as did Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus from Asia

⁵who went on ahead and waited for us at Troas.

⁶We sailed from Philippi after the feast of Unleavened Bread, and rejoined them five days later in Troas, where we spent a week.

⁷On the first day of the week when we gathered to break bread, Paul spoke to them because he was going to leave on the next day, and he kept on speaking until midnight.

⁸There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were gathered,

⁹and a young man named Eutychus who was sitting on the window sill was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. Once overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and when he was picked up, he was dead.

¹⁰Paul went down, threw himself upon him, and said as he embraced him, "Don't be alarmed; there is life in him."

¹¹Then he returned upstairs, broke the bread, and ate; after a long conversation that lasted until daybreak, he departed.

¹²And they took the boy away alive and were immeasurably comforted.

¹³We went ahead to the ship and set sail for Assos where we were to take Paul on board, as he had arranged, since he was going overland.

¹⁴When he met us in Assos, we took him aboard and went on to Mitylene.

¹⁵We sailed away from there on the next day and reached a point off Chios, and a day later we reached Samos, and on the following day we arrived at Miletus.

¹⁶Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus in order not to lose time in the province of Asia, for he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem, if at all possible, for the day of Pentecost.

¹⁷From Miletus he had the presbyters of the church at Ephesus summoned.

¹⁸When they came to him, he addressed them, "You know how I lived among you the whole time from the day I first came to the province of Asia.

¹⁹I served the Lord with all humility and with the tears and trials that came to me because of the plots of the Jews,

²⁰and I did not at all shrink from telling you what was for your benefit, or from teaching you in public or in your homes.

²¹I earnestly bore witness for both Jews and Greeks to repentance before God and to faith in our Lord Jesus.

²²But now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem. What will happen to me there I do not know,

²³except that in one city after another the holy Spirit has been warning me that imprisonment and hardships await me.

²⁴Yet I consider life of no importance to me, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to bear witness to the gospel of God's grace.

²⁵"But now I know that none of you to whom I preached the kingdom during my travels will ever see my face again.

²⁶And so I solemnly declare to you this day that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you,

²⁷for I did not shrink from proclaiming to you the entire plan of God.

²⁸Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock of which the holy Spirit has appointed you overseers, in which you tend the church of God that he acquired with his own blood.

²⁹I know that after my departure savage wolves will come among you, and they will not spare the flock.

³⁰And from your own group, men will come forward perverting the truth to draw the disciples away after them.

³¹So be vigilant and remember that for three years, night and day, I unceasingly admonished each of you with tears.

³²And now I commend you to God and to that gracious word of his that can build you up and give you the inheritance among all who are consecrated.

³³I have never wanted anyone's silver or gold or clothing.

³⁴You know well that these very hands have served my needs and my companions.

³⁵In every way I have shown you that by hard work of that sort we must help the weak, and keep in mind the words of the Lord Jesus who himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

³⁶When he had finished speaking he knelt down and prayed with them all.

³⁷They were all weeping loudly as they threw their arms around Paul and kissed him,

³⁸for they were deeply distressed that he had said that they would never see his face again. Then they escorted him to the ship.

21When we had taken leave of them we set sail, made a straight run for Cos, and on the next day for Rhodes, and from there to Patara.

²Finding a ship crossing to Phoenicia, we went on board and put out to sea.

³We caught sight of Cyprus but passed by it on our left and sailed on toward Syria and put in at Tyre where the ship was to unload cargo.

⁴There we sought out the disciples and stayed for a week. They kept telling Paul through the Spirit not to embark for Jerusalem.

⁵At the end of our stay we left and resumed our journey. All of them, women and children included, escorted us out of the city, and after kneeling on the beach to pray,

⁶we bade farewell to one another. Then we boarded the ship, and they returned home.

⁷We continued the voyage and came from Tyre to Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and stayed a day with them.

⁸On the next day we resumed the trip and came to Caesarea, where we went to the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the Seven, and stayed with him.

⁹He had four virgin daughters gifted with prophecy.

¹⁰We had been there several days when a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.

¹¹He came up to us, took Paul's belt, bound his own feet and hands with it, and said, "Thus says the holy Spirit: This is the way the Jews will bind the owner of this belt in Jerusalem, and they will hand him over to the Gentiles."

¹²When we heard this, we and the local residents begged him not to go up to Jerusalem.

¹³Then Paul replied, "What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? I am prepared not only to be bound but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus."

¹⁴Since he would not be dissuaded we let the matter rest, saying, "The Lord's will be done."

¹⁵After these days we made preparations for our journey, then went up to Jerusalem.

¹⁶Some of the disciples from Caesarea came along to lead us to the house of Mnason, a Cypriot, a disciple of long standing, with whom we were to stay.

¹⁷When we reached Jerusalem the brothers welcomed us warmly.

¹⁸The next day, Paul accompanied us on a visit to James, and all the presbyters were present.

¹⁹He greeted them, then proceeded to tell them in detail what God had accomplished among the Gentiles through his ministry.

²⁰They praised God when they heard it but said to him, "Brother, you see how many thousands of believers there are from among the Jews, and they are all zealous observers of the law.

²¹They have been informed that you are teaching all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to abandon Moses and that you are telling them not to circumcise their children or to observe their customary practices.

²²What is to be done? They will surely hear that you have arrived.

²³So do what we tell you. We have four men who have taken a vow.

²⁴Take these men and purify yourself with them, and pay their expenses that they may have their heads shaved. In this way everyone will know that there is nothing to the reports they have been given about you but that you yourself live in observance of the law.

²⁵As for the Gentiles who have come to believe, we sent them our decision that they abstain from meat sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from unlawful marriage."

²⁶So Paul took the men, and on the next day after purifying himself together with them entered the temple to give notice of the day when the purification would be completed and the offering made for each of them.

²⁷When the seven days were nearly completed, the Jews from the province of Asia noticed him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd, and laid hands on him,

²⁸shouting, "Fellow Israelites, help us. This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law and this place, and what is more, he has even brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this sacred place."

²⁹For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him and supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.

³⁰The whole city was in turmoil with people rushing together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the gates were closed.

³¹While they were trying to kill him, a report reached the cohort commander that all Jerusalem was rioting.

³²He immediately took soldiers and centurions and charged down on them. When they saw the commander and the soldiers they stopped beating Paul.

³³The cohort commander came forward, arrested him, and ordered him to be secured with two chains; he tried to find out who he might be and what he had done.

³⁴Some in the mob shouted one thing, others something else; so, since he was unable to ascertain the truth because of the uproar, he ordered Paul to be brought into the compound.

³⁵When he reached the steps, he was carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob,

³⁶for a crowd of people followed and shouted, "Away with him!"

³⁷Just as Paul was about to be taken into the compound, he said to the cohort commander, "May I say something to you?" He replied, "Do you speak Greek?

³⁸So then you are not the Egyptian who started a revolt some time ago and led the four thousand assassins into the desert?"

³⁹Paul answered, "I am a Jew, of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city; I request you to permit me to speak to the people."

⁴⁰When he had given his permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned with his hand to the people; and when all was quiet he addressed them in Hebrew.

22"My brothers and fathers, listen to what I am about to say to you in my defense."

²When they heard him addressing them in Hebrew they became all the more quiet. And he continued,

³"I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city. At the feet of Gamaliel I was educated strictly in our ancestral law and was zealous for God, just as all of you are today.

⁴I persecuted this Way to death, binding both men and women and delivering them to prison.

⁵Even the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify on my behalf. For from them I even received letters to the brothers and set out for Damascus to bring back to Jerusalem in chains for punishment those there as well.

⁶"On that journey as I drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from the sky suddenly shone around me.

⁷I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?'

⁸I replied, 'Who are you, sir?' And he said to me, 'I am Jesus the Nazorean whom you are persecuting.'

⁹My companions saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who spoke to me.

¹⁰I asked, 'What shall I do, sir?' The Lord answered me, 'Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told about everything appointed for you to do.'

¹¹Since I could see nothing because of the brightness of that light, I was led by hand by my companions and entered Damascus.

¹²"A certain Ananias, a devout observer of the law, and highly spoken of by all the Jews who lived there,

¹³came to me and stood there and said, 'Saul, my brother, regain your sight.' And at that very moment I regained my sight and saw him.

¹⁴Then he said, 'The God of our ancestors designated you to know his will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear the sound of his voice;

¹⁵for you will be his witness before all to what you have seen and heard.

¹⁶Now, why delay? Get up and have yourself baptized and your sins washed away, calling upon his name.'

¹⁷"After I had returned to Jerusalem and while I was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance

¹⁸and saw the Lord saying to me, 'Hurry, leave Jerusalem at once, because they will not accept your testimony about me.'

¹⁹But I replied, 'Lord, they themselves know that from synagogue to synagogue I used to imprison and beat those who believed in you.

²⁰And when the blood of your witness Stephen was being shed, I myself stood by giving my approval and keeping guard over the cloaks of his murderers.'

²¹Then he said to me, 'Go, I shall send you far away to the Gentiles.'"

²²They listened to him until he said this, but then they raised their voices and shouted, "Take such a one as this away from the earth. It is not right that he should live."

²³And as they were yelling and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air,

²⁴the cohort commander ordered him to be brought into the compound and gave instruction that he be interrogated under the lash to determine the reason why they were making such an outcry against him.

²⁵But when they had stretched him out for the whips, Paul said to the centurion on duty, "Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman citizen and has not been tried?"

²⁶When the centurion heard this, he went to the cohort commander and reported it, saying, "What are you going to do? This man is a Roman citizen."

²⁷Then the commander came and said to him, "Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?" "Yes," he answered.

²⁸The commander replied, "I acquired this citizenship for a large sum of money." Paul said, "But I was born one."

²⁹At once those who were going to interrogate him backed away from him, and the commander became alarmed when he realized that he was a Roman citizen and that he had had him bound.

³⁰The next day, wishing to determine the truth about why he was being accused by the Jews, he freed him and ordered the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin to convene. Then he brought Paul down and made him stand before them.

23Paul looked intently at the Sanhedrin and said, "My brothers, I have conducted myself with a perfectly clear conscience before God to this day."

²The high priest Ananias ordered his attendants to strike his mouth.

³Then Paul said to him, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall. Do you indeed sit in judgment upon me according to the law and yet in violation of the law order me to be struck?"

⁴The attendants said, "Would you revile God's high priest?"

⁵Paul answered, "Brothers, I did not realize he was the high priest. For it is written, 'You shall not curse a ruler of your people.'"

⁶Paul was aware that some were Sadducees and some Pharisees, so he called out before the Sanhedrin, "My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees; (I) am on trial for hope in the resurrection of the dead."

⁷When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the group became divided.

⁸For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection or angels or spirits, while the Pharisees acknowledge all three.

⁹A great uproar occurred, and some scribes belonging to the Pharisee party stood up and sharply argued, "We find nothing wrong with this man. Suppose a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?"

¹⁰The dispute was so serious that the commander, afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, ordered his troops to go down and rescue him from their midst and take him into the compound.

¹¹The following night the Lord stood by him and said, "Take courage. For just as you have borne witness to my cause in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness in Rome."

¹²When day came, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul.

¹³There were more than forty who formed this conspiracy.

¹⁴They went to the chief priests and elders and said, "We have bound ourselves by a solemn oath to taste nothing until we have killed Paul.

¹⁵You, together with the Sanhedrin, must now make an official request to the commander to have him bring him down to you, as though you meant to investigate his case more thoroughly. We on our part are prepared to kill him before he arrives."

¹⁶The son of Paul's sister, however, heard about the ambush; so he went and entered the compound and reported it to Paul.

¹⁷Paul then called one of the centurions and requested, "Take this young man to the commander; he has something to report to him."

¹⁸So he took him and brought him to the commander and explained, "The prisoner Paul called me and asked that I bring this young man to you; he has something to say to you."

¹⁹The commander took him by the hand, drew him aside, and asked him privately, "What is it you have to report to me?"

²⁰He replied, "The Jews have conspired to ask you to bring Paul down to the Sanhedrin tomor row, as though they meant to inquire about him more thoroughly,

²¹but do not believe them. More than forty of them are lying in wait for him; they have bound themselves by oath not to eat or drink until they have killed him. They are now ready and only wait for your consent."

²²As the commander dismissed the young man he directed him, "Tell no one that you gave me this information."

²³Then he summoned two of the centurions and said, "Get two hundred soldiers ready to go to Caesarea by nine o'clock tonight, along with seventy horsemen and two hundred auxiliaries.

²⁴Provide mounts for Paul to ride and give him safe conduct to Felix the governor."

²⁵Then he wrote a letter with this content:

²⁶"Claudius Lysias to his excellency the governor Felix, greetings.

²⁷This man, seized by the Jews and about to be murdered by them, I rescued after intervening with my troops when I learned that he was a Roman citizen.

²⁸I wanted to learn the reason for their accusations against him so I brought him down to their Sanhedrin.

²⁹I discovered that he was accused in matters of controversial questions of their law and not of any charge deserving death or imprisonment.

³⁰Since it was brought to my attention that there will be a plot against the man, I am sending him to you at once, and have also notified his accusers to state (their case) against him before you."

³¹So the soldiers, according to their orders, took Paul and escorted him by night to Antipatris.

³²The next day they re turned to the compound, leaving the horsemen to complete the journey with him.

³³When they arrived in Caesarea they delivered the letter to the governor and presented Paul to him.

³⁴When he had read it and asked to what province he belonged, and learned that he was from Cilicia,

³⁵he said, "I shall hear your case when your accusers arrive." Then he ordered that he be held in custody in Herod's praetorium.

24Five days later the high priest Ananias came down with some elders and an advocate, a certain Tertullus, and they presented formal charges against Paul to the governor.

²When he was called, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying, "Since we have attained much peace through you, and reforms have been accomplished in this nation through your provident care,

³we acknowledge this in every way and everywhere, most excellent Felix, with all gratitude.

⁴But in order not to detain you further, I ask you to give us a brief hearing with your customary graciousness.

⁵We found this man to be a pest; he creates dissension among Jews all over the world and is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazoreans.

⁶He even tried to desecrate our temple, but we arrested him.

⁷

⁸If you examine him you will be able to learn from him for yourself about everything of which we are accusing him."

⁹The Jews also joined in the attack and asserted that these things were so.

¹⁰Then the governor motioned to him to speak and Paul replied, "I know that you have been a judge over this nation for many years and so I am pleased to make my defense before you.

¹¹As you can verify, not more than twelve days have passed since I went up to Jerusalem to worship.

¹²Neither in the temple, nor in the synagogues, nor anywhere in the city did they find me arguing with anyone or instigating a riot among the people.

¹³Nor can they prove to you the accusations they are now making against me.

¹⁴But this I do admit to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our ancestors and I believe everything that is in accordance with the law and written in the prophets.

¹⁵I have the same hope in God as they themselves have that there will be a resurrection of the righteous and the unrighteous.

¹⁶Because of this, I always strive to keep my conscience clear before God and man.

¹⁷After many years, I came to bring alms for my nation and offerings.

¹⁸While I was so engaged, they found me, after my purification, in the temple without a crowd or disturbance.

¹⁹But some Jews from the province of Asia, who should be here before you to make whatever accusation they might have against me--

²⁰or let these men themselves state what crime they discovered when I stood before the Sanhedrin,

²¹unless it was my one outcry as I stood among them, that 'I am on trial before you today for the resurrection of the dead.'"

²²Then Felix, who was accurately informed about the Way, postponed the trial, saying, "When Lysias the commander comes down, I shall decide your case."

²³He gave orders to the centurion that he should be kept in custody but have some liberty, and that he should not prevent any of his friends from caring for his needs.

²⁴Several days later Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish. He had Paul summoned and listened to him speak about faith in Christ Jesus.

²⁵But as he spoke about righteousness and self-restraint and the coming judgment, Felix became frightened and said, "You may go for now; when I find an opportunity I shall summon you again."

²⁶At the same time he hoped that a bribe would be offered him by Paul, and so he sent for him very often and conversed with him.

²⁷Two years passed and Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus. Wishing to ingratiate himself with the Jews, Felix left Paul in prison.

25Three days after his arrival in the province, Festus went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem

²where the chief priests and Jewish leaders presented him their formal charges against Paul. They asked him

³as a favor to have him sent to Jerusalem, for they were plotting to kill him along the way.

⁴Festus replied that Paul was being held in custody in Caesarea and that he himself would be returning there shortly.

⁵He said, "Let your authorities come down with me, and if this man has done something improper, let them accuse him."

⁶After spending no more than eight or ten days with them, he went down to Caesarea, and on the following day took his seat on the tribunal and ordered that Paul be brought in.

⁷When he appeared, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem surrounded him and brought many serious charges against him, which they were unable to prove.

⁸In defending himself Paul said, "I have committed no crime either against the Jewish law or against the temple or against Caesar."

⁹Then Festus, wishing to ingratiate himself with the Jews, said to Paul in reply, "Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and there stand trial before me on these charges?"

¹⁰Paul answered, "I am standing before the tribunal of Caesar; this is where I should be tried. I have committed no crime against the Jews, as you very well know.

¹¹If I have committed a crime or done anything deserving death, I do not seek to escape the death penalty; but if there is no substance to the charges they are bringing against me, then no one has the right to hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar."

¹²Then Festus, after conferring with his council, replied, "You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you will go."

¹³When a few days had passed, King Agrippa and Bernice arrived in Caesarea on a visit to Festus.

¹⁴Since they spent several days there, Festus referred Paul's case to the king, saying, "There is a man here left in custody by Felix.

¹⁵When I was in Jerusalem the chief priests and the elders of the Jews brought charges against him and demanded his condemnation.

¹⁶I answered them that it was not Roman practice to hand over an accused person before he has faced his accusers and had the opportunity to defend himself against their charge.

¹⁷So when (they) came together here, I made no delay; the next day I took my seat on the tribunal and ordered the man to be brought in.

¹⁸His accusers stood around him, but did not charge him with any of the crimes I suspected.

¹⁹Instead they had some issues with him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus who had died but who Paul claimed was alive.

²⁰Since I was at a loss how to investigate this controversy, I asked if he were willing to go to Jerusalem and there stand trial on these charges.

²¹And when Paul appealed that he be held in custody for the Emperor's decision, I ordered him held until I could send him to Caesar."

²²Agrippa said to Festus, "I too should like to hear this man." He replied, "Tomorrow you will hear him."

²³The next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great ceremony and entered the audience hall in the company of cohort commanders and the prominent men of the city and, by command of Festus, Paul was brought in.

²⁴And Festus said, "King Agrippa and all you here present with us, look at this man about whom the whole Jewish populace petitioned me here and in Jerusalem, clamoring that he should live no longer.

²⁵I found, however, that he had done nothing deserving death, and so when he appealed to the Emperor, I decided to send him.

²⁶But I have nothing definite to write about him to our sovereign; therefore I have brought him before all of you, and particularly before you, King Agrippa, so that I may have something to write as a result of this investigation.

²⁷For it seems senseless to me to send up a prisoner without indicating the charges against him."

26Then Agrippa said to Paul, "You may now speak on your own behalf." So Paul stretched out his hand and began his defense.

²"I count myself fortunate, King Agrippa, that I am to defend myself before you today against all the charges made against me by the Jews,

³especially since you are an expert in all the Jewish customs and controversies. And therefore I beg you to listen patiently.

⁴My manner of living from my youth, a life spent from the beginning among my people and in Jerusalem, all (the) Jews know.

⁵They have known about me from the start, if they are willing to testify, that I have lived my life as a Pharisee, the strictest party of our religion.

⁶But now I am standing trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our ancestors.

⁷Our twelve tribes hope to attain to that promise as they fervently worship God day and night; and on account of this hope I am accused by Jews, O king.

⁸Why is it thought unbelievable among you that God raises the dead?

⁹I myself once thought that I had to do many things against the name of Jesus the Nazorean,

¹⁰and I did so in Jerusalem. I imprisoned many of the holy ones with the authorization I received from the chief priests, and when they were to be put to death I cast my vote against them.

¹¹Many times, in synagogue after synagogue, I punished them in an attempt to force them to blaspheme; I was so enraged against them that I pursued them even to foreign cities.

¹²"On one such occasion I was traveling to Damascus with the authorization and commission of the chief priests.

¹³At midday, along the way, O king, I saw a light from the sky, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my traveling companions.

¹⁴We all fell to the ground and I heard a voice saying to me in Hebrew, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goad.'

¹⁵And I said, 'Who are you, sir?' And the Lord replied, 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

¹⁶Get up now, and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness of what you have seen (of me) and what you will be shown.

¹⁷I shall deliver you from this people and from the Gentiles to whom I send you,

¹⁸to open their eyes that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may obtain forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been consecrated by faith in me.'

¹⁹"And so, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.

²⁰On the contrary, first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem and throughout the whole country of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached the need to repent and turn to God, and to do works giving evidence of repentance.

²¹That is why the Jews seized me (when I was) in the temple and tried to kill me.

²²But I have enjoyed God's help to this very day, and so I stand here testifying to small and great alike, saying nothing different from what the prophets and Moses foretold,

²³that the Messiah must suffer and that, as the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles."

²⁴While Paul was so speaking in his defense, Festus said in a loud voice, "You are mad, Paul; much learning is driving you mad."

²⁵But Paul replied, "I am not mad, most excellent Festus; I am speaking words of truth and reason.

²⁶The king knows about these matters and to him I speak boldly, for I cannot believe that (any) of this has escaped his notice; this was not done in a corner.

²⁷King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you believe."

²⁸Then Agrippa said to Paul, "You will soon persuade me to play the Christian."

²⁹Paul replied, "I would pray to God that sooner or later not only you but all who listen to me today might become as I am except for these chains."

³⁰Then the king rose, and with him the governor and Bernice and the others who sat with them.

³¹And after they had withdrawn they said to one another, "This man is doing nothing (at all) that deserves death or imprisonment."

³²And Agrippa said to Festus, "This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar."

27When it was decided that we should sail to Italy, they handed Paul and some other prisoners over to a centurion named Julius of the Cohort Augusta.

²We went on board a ship from Adramyttium bound for ports in the province of Asia and set sail. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us.

³On the following day we put in at Sidon where Julius was kind enough to allow Paul to visit his friends who took care of him.

⁴From there we put out to sea and sailed around the sheltered side of Cyprus because of the headwinds,

⁵and crossing the open sea off the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia we came to Myra in Lycia.

⁶There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship that was sailing to Italy and put us on board.

⁷For many days we made little headway, arriving at Cnidus only with difficulty, and because the wind would not permit us to continue our course we sailed for the sheltered side of Crete off Salmone.

⁸We sailed past it with difficulty and reached a place called Fair Havens, near which was the city of Lasea.

⁹Much time had now passed and sailing had become hazardous because the time of the fast had already gone by, so Paul warned them,

¹⁰"Men, I can see that this voyage will result in severe damage and heavy loss not only to the cargo and the ship, but also to our lives."

¹¹The centurion, however, paid more attention to the pilot and to the owner of the ship than to what Paul said.

¹²Since the harbor was unfavorably situated for spending the winter, the majority planned to put out to sea from there in the hope of reaching Phoenix, a port in Crete facing west-northwest, there to spend the winter.

¹³A south wind blew gently, and thinking they had attained their objective, they weighed anchor and sailed along close to the coast of Crete.

¹⁴Before long an offshore wind of hurricane force called a "Northeaster" struck.

¹⁵Since the ship was caught up in it and could not head into the wind we gave way and let ourselves be driven.

¹⁶We passed along the sheltered side of an island named Cauda and managed only with difficulty to get the dinghy under control.

¹⁷They hoisted it aboard, then used cables to undergird the ship. Because of their fear that they would run aground on the shoal of Syrtis, they lowered the drift anchor and were carried along in this way.

¹⁸We were being pounded by the storm so violently that the next day they jettisoned some cargo,

¹⁹and on the third day with their own hands they threw even the ship's tackle overboard.

²⁰Neither the sun nor the stars were visible for many days, and no small storm raged. Finally, all hope of our surviving was taken away.

²¹When many would no longer eat, Paul stood among them and said, "Men, you should have taken my advice and not have set sail from Crete and you would have avoided this disastrous loss.

²²I urge you now to keep up your courage; not one of you will be lost, only the ship.

²³For last night an angel of the God to whom (I) belong and whom I serve stood by me

²⁴and said, 'Do not be afraid, Paul. You are destined to stand before Caesar; and behold, for your sake, God has granted safety to all who are sailing with you.'

²⁵Therefore, keep up your courage, men; I trust in God that it will turn out as I have been told.

²⁶We are destined to run aground on some island."

²⁷On the fourteenth night, as we were still being driven about on the Adriatic Sea, toward midnight the sailors began to suspect that they were nearing land.

²⁸They took soundings and found twenty fathoms; a little farther on, they again took soundings and found fifteen fathoms.

²⁹Fearing that we would run aground on a rocky coast, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come.

³⁰The sailors then tried to abandon ship; they lowered the dinghy to the sea on the pretext of going to lay out anchors from the bow.

³¹But Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, "Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved."

³²So the soldiers cut the ropes of the dinghy and set it adrift.

³³Until the day began to dawn, Paul kept urging all to take some food. He said, "Today is the fourteenth day that you have been waiting, going hungry and eating nothing.

³⁴I urge you, therefore, to take some food; it will help you survive. Not a hair of the head of anyone of you will be lost."

³⁵When he said this, he took bread, gave thanks to God in front of them all, broke it, and began to eat.

³⁶They were all encouraged, and took some food themselves.

³⁷In all, there were two hundred seventy-six of us on the ship.

³⁸After they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship by throwing the wheat into the sea.

³⁹When day came they did not recognize the land, but made out a bay with a beach. They planned to run the ship ashore on it, if they could.

⁴⁰So they cast off the anchors and abandoned them to the sea, and at the same time they unfastened the lines of the rudders, and hoisting the foresail into the wind, they made for the beach.

⁴¹But they struck a sandbar and ran the ship aground. The bow was wedged in and could not be moved, but the stern began to break up under the pounding (of the waves).

⁴²The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners so that none might swim away and escape,

⁴³but the centurion wanted to save Paul and so kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to the shore,

⁴⁴and then the rest, some on planks, others on debris from the ship. In this way, all reached shore safely.

28Once we had reached safety we learned that the island was called Malta.

²The natives showed us extraordinary hospitality; they lit a fire and welcomed all of us because it had begun to rain and was cold.

³Paul had gathered a bundle of brushwood and was putting it on the fire when a viper, escaping from the heat, fastened on his hand.

⁴When the natives saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to one another, "This man must certainly be a murderer; though he escaped the sea, Justice has not let him remain alive."

⁵But he shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no harm.

⁶They were expecting him to swell up or suddenly to fall down dead but, after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and began to say that he was a god.

⁷In the vicinity of that place were lands belonging to a man named Publius, the chief of the island. He welcomed us and received us cordially as his guests for three days.

⁸It so happened that the father of Publius was sick with a fever and dysentery. Paul visited him and, after praying, laid his hands on him and healed him.

⁹After this had taken place, the rest of the sick on the island came to Paul and were cured.

¹⁰They paid us great honor and when we eventually set sail they brought us the provisions we needed.

¹¹Three months later we set sail on a ship that had wintered at the island. It was an Alexandrian ship with the Dioscuri as its figurehead.

¹²We put in at Syracuse and stayed there three days,

¹³and from there we sailed round the coast and arrived at Rhegium. After a day, a south wind came up and in two days we reached Puteoli.

¹⁴There we found some brothers and were urged to stay with them for seven days. And thus we came to Rome.

¹⁵The brothers from there heard about us and came as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns to meet us. On seeing them, Paul gave thanks to God and took courage.

¹⁶When he entered Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself, with the soldier who was guarding him.

¹⁷Three days later he called together the leaders of the Jews. When they had gathered he said to them, "My brothers, although I had done nothing against our people or our ancestral customs, I was handed over to the Romans as a prisoner from Jerusalem.

¹⁸After trying my case the Romans wanted to release me, because they found nothing against me deserving the death penalty.

¹⁹But when the Jews objected, I was obliged to appeal to Caesar, even though I had no accusation to make against my own nation.

²⁰This is the reason, then, I have requested to see you and to speak with you, for it is on account of the hope of Israel that I wear these chains."

²¹They answered him, "We have received no letters from Judea about you, nor has any of the brothers arrived with a damaging report or rumor about you.

²²But we should like to hear you present your views, for we know that this sect is denounced everywhere."

²³So they arranged a day with him and came to his lodgings in great numbers. From early morning until evening, he expounded his position to them, bearing witness to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus from the law of Moses and the prophets.

²⁴Some were convinced by what he had said, while others did not believe.

²⁵Without reaching any agreement among themselves they began to leave; then Paul made one final statement. "Well did the holy Spirit speak to your ancestors through the prophet Isaiah, saying:

²⁶'Go to this people and say: You shall indeed hear but not understand. You shall indeed look but never see.

²⁷Gross is the heart of this people; they will not hear with their ears; they have closed their eyes, so they may not see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and be converted, and I heal them.'

²⁸Let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen."

²⁹

³⁰He remained for two full years in his lodgings. He received all who came to him,

³¹and with complete assurance and without hindrance he proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.

1Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God,

²which he promised previously through his prophets in the holy scriptures,

³the gospel about his Son, descended from David according to the flesh,

⁴but established as Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness through resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.

⁵Through him we have received the grace of apostleship, to bring about the obedience of faith, for the sake of his name, among all the Gentiles,

⁶among whom are you also, who are called to belong to Jesus Christ;

⁷to all the beloved of God in Rome, called to be holy. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁸First, I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is heralded throughout the world.

⁹God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in proclaiming the gospel of his Son, that I remember you constantly,

¹⁰always asking in my prayers that somehow by God's will I may at last find my way clear to come to you.

¹¹For I long to see you, that I may share with you some spiritual gift so that you may be strengthened,

¹²that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by one another's faith, yours and mine.

¹³I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I often planned to come to you, though I was prevented until now, that I might harvest some fruit among you, too, as among the rest of the Gentiles.

¹⁴To Greeks and non-Greeks alike, to the wise and the ignorant, I am under obligation;

¹⁵that is why I am eager to preach the gospel also to you in Rome.

¹⁶For I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: for Jew first, and then Greek.

¹⁷For in it is revealed the righteousness of God from faith to faith; as it is written, "The one who is righteous by faith will live."

¹⁸The wrath of God is indeed being revealed from heaven against every impiety and wickedness of those who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

¹⁹For what can be known about God is evident to them, because God made it evident to them.

²⁰Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made. As a result, they have no excuse;

²¹for although they knew God they did not accord him glory as God or give him thanks. Instead, they became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless minds were darkened.

²²While claiming to be wise, they became fools

²³and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the likeness of an image of mortal man or of birds or of four-legged animals or of snakes.

²⁴Therefore, God handed them over to impurity through the lusts of their hearts for the mutual degradation of their bodies.

²⁵They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

²⁶Therefore, God handed them over to degrading passions. Their females exchanged natural relations for unnatural,

²⁷and the males likewise gave up natural relations with females and burned with lust for one another. Males did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for their perversity.

²⁸And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God handed them over to their undiscerning mind to do what is improper.

²⁹They are filled with every form of wickedness, evil, greed, and malice; full of envy, murder, rivalry, treachery, and spite. They are gossips

³⁰and scandalmongers and they hate God. They are insolent, haughty, boastful, ingenious in their wickedness, and rebellious toward their parents.

³¹They are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

³²Although they know the just decree of God that all who practice such things deserve death, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

2Therefore, you are without excuse, every one of you who passes judgment. For by the standard by which you judge another you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the very same things.

²We know that the judgment of God on those who do such things is true.

³Do you suppose, then, you who judge those who engage in such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?

⁴Or do you hold his priceless kindness, forbearance, and patience in low esteem, unaware that the kindness of God would lead you to repentance?

⁵By your stubbornness and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself for the day of wrath and revelation of the just judgment of God,

⁶who will repay everyone according to his works:

⁷eternal life to those who seek glory, honor, and immortality through perseverance in good works,

⁸but wrath and fury to those who selfishly disobey the truth and obey wickedness.

⁹Yes, affliction and distress will come upon every human being who does evil, Jew first and then Greek.

¹⁰But there will be glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does good, Jew first and then Greek.

¹¹There is no partiality with God.

¹²All who sin outside the law will also perish without reference to it, and all who sin under the law will be judged in accordance with it.

¹³For it is not those who hear the law who are just in the sight of God; rather, those who observe the law will be justified.

¹⁴For when the Gentiles who do not have the law by nature observe the prescriptions of the law, they are a law for themselves even though they do not have the law.

¹⁵They show that the demands of the law are written in their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even defend them

¹⁶on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge people's hidden works through Christ Jesus.

¹⁷Now if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of God

¹⁸and know his will and are able to discern what is important since you are instructed from the law,

¹⁹and if you are confident that you are a guide for the blind and a light for those in darkness,

²⁰that you are a trainer of the foolish and teacher of the simple, because in the law you have the formulation of knowledge and truth--

²¹then you who teach another, are you failing to teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?

²²You who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You who detest idols, do you rob temples?

²³You who boast of the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?

²⁴For, as it is written, "Because of you the name of God is reviled among the Gentiles."

²⁵Circumcision, to be sure, has value if you observe the law; but if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

²⁶Again, if an uncircumcised man keeps the precepts of the law, will he not be considered circumcised?

²⁷Indeed, those who are physically uncircumcised but carry out the law will pass judgment on you, with your written law and circumcision, who break the law.

²⁸One is not a Jew outwardly. True circumcision is not outward, in the flesh.

²⁹Rather, one is a Jew inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not the letter; his praise is not from human beings but from God.

3What advantage is there then in being a Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?

²Much, in every respect. (For) in the first place, they were entrusted with the utterances of God.

³What if some were unfaithful? Will their infidelity nullify the fidelity of God?

⁴Of course not! God must be true, though every human being is a liar, as it is written: "That you may be justified in your words, and conquer when you are judged."

⁵But if our wickedness provides proof of God's righteousness, what can we say? Is God unjust, humanly speaking, to inflict his wrath?

⁶Of course not! For how else is God to judge the world?

⁷But if God's truth redounds to his glory through my falsehood, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?

⁸And why not say--as we are accused and as some claim we say--that we should do evil that good may come of it? Their penalty is what they deserve.

⁹Well, then, are we better off? Not entirely, for we have already brought the charge against Jews and Greeks alike that they are all under the domination of sin,

¹⁰as it is written: "There is no one just, not one,

¹¹there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God.

¹²All have gone astray; all alike are worthless; there is not one who does good, (there is not) even one.

¹³Their throats are open graves; they deceive with their tongues; the venom of asps is on their lips;

¹⁴their mouths are full of bitter cursing.

¹⁵Their feet are quick to shed blood;

¹⁶ruin and misery are in their ways,

¹⁷and the way of peace they know not.

¹⁸There is no fear of God before their eyes."

¹⁹Now we know that what the law says is addressed to those under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world stand accountable to God,

²⁰since no human being will be justified in his sight by observing the law; for through the law comes consciousness of sin.

²¹But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, though testified to by the law and the prophets,

²²the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction;

²³all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God.

²⁴They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus,

²⁵whom God set forth as an expiation, through faith, by his blood, to prove his righteousness because of the forgiveness of sins previously committed,

²⁶through the forbearance of God--to prove his righteousness in the present time, that he might be righteous and justify the one who has faith in Jesus.

²⁷What occasion is there then for boasting? It is ruled out. On what principle, that of works? No, rather on the principle of faith.

²⁸For we consider that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

²⁹Does God belong to Jews alone? Does he not belong to Gentiles, too? Yes, also to Gentiles,

³⁰for God is one and will justify the circumcised on the basis of faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

³¹Are we then annulling the law by this faith? Of course not! On the contrary, we are supporting the law.

4What then can we say that Abraham found, our ancestor according to the flesh?

²Indeed, if Abraham was justified on the basis of his works, he has reason to boast; but this was not so in the sight of God.

³For what does the scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."

⁴A worker's wage is credited not as a gift, but as something due.

⁵But when one does not work, yet believes in the one who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.

⁶So also David declares the blessedness of the person to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

⁷"Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.

⁸Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not record."

⁹Does this blessedness apply only to the circumcised, or to the uncircumcised as well? Now we assert that "faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness."

¹⁰Under what circumstances was it credited? Was he circumcised or not? He was not circumcised, but uncircumcised.

¹¹And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal on the righteousness received through faith while he was uncircumcised. Thus he was to be the father of all the uncircumcised who believe, so that to them (also) righteousness might be credited,

¹²as well as the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised, but also follow the path of faith that our father Abraham walked while still uncircumcised.

¹³It was not through the law that the promise was made to Abraham and his descendants that he would inherit the world, but through the righteousness that comes from faith.

¹⁴For if those who adhere to the law are the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.

¹⁵For the law produces wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

¹⁶For this reason, it depends on faith, so that it may be a gift, and the promise may be guaranteed to all his descendants, not to those who only adhere to the law but to those who follow the faith of Abraham, who is the father of all of us,

¹⁷as it is written, "I have made you father of many nations." He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not exist.

¹⁸He believed, hoping against hope, that he would become "the father of many nations," according to what was said, "Thus shall your descendants be."

¹⁹He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body as (already) dead (for he was almost a hundred years old) and the dead womb of Sarah.

²⁰He did not doubt God's promise in unbelief; rather, he was empowered by faith and gave glory to God

²¹and was fully convinced that what he had promised he was also able to do.

²²That is why "it was credited to him as righteousness."

²³But it was not for him alone that it was written that "it was credited to him";

²⁴it was also for us, to whom it will be credited, who believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,

²⁵who was handed over for our transgressions and was raised for our justification.

5Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

²through whom we have gained access (by faith) to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God.

³Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance,

⁴and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope,

⁵and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been given to us.

⁶For Christ, while we were still helpless, yet died at the appointed time for the ungodly.

⁷Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die.

⁸But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

⁹How much more then, since we are now justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath.

¹⁰Indeed, if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, once reconciled, will we be saved by his life.

¹¹Not only that, but we also boast of God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

¹²Therefore, just as through one person sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all, inasmuch as all sinned --

¹³for up to the time of the law, sin was in the world, though sin is not accounted when there is no law.

¹⁴But death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin after the pattern of the trespass of Adam, who is the type of the one who was to come.

¹⁵But the gift is not like the transgression. For if by that one person's transgression the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one person Jesus Christ overflow for the many.

¹⁶And the gift is not like the result of the one person's sinning. For after one sin there was the judgment that brought condemnation; but the gift, after many transgressions, brought acquittal.

¹⁷For if, by the transgression of one person, death came to reign through that one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of justification come to reign in life through the one person Jesus Christ.

¹⁸In conclusion, just as through one transgression condemnation came upon all, so through one righteous act acquittal and life came to all.

¹⁹For just as through the disobedience of one person the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one the many will be made righteous.

²⁰The law entered in so that transgression might increase but, where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more,

²¹so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through justification for eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

6What then shall we say? Shall we persist in sin that grace may abound? Of course not!

²How can we who died to sin yet live in it?

³Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

⁴We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.

⁵For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.

⁶We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin.

⁷For a dead person has been absolved from sin.

⁸If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.

⁹We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him.

¹⁰As to his death, he died to sin once and for all; as to his life, he lives for God.

¹¹Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as (being) dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.

¹²Therefore, sin must not reign over your mortal bodies so that you obey their desires.

¹³And do not present the parts of your bodies to sin as weapons for wickedness, but present yourselves to God as raised from the dead to life and the parts of your bodies to God as weapons for righteousness.

¹⁴For sin is not to have any power over you, since you are not under the law but under grace.

¹⁵What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Of course not!

¹⁶Do you not know that if you present yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

¹⁷But thanks be to God that, although you were once slaves of sin, you have become obedient from the heart to the pattern of teaching to which you were entrusted.

¹⁸Freed from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness.

¹⁹I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your nature. For just as you presented the parts of your bodies as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness for lawless ness, so now present them as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.

²⁰For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness.

²¹But what profit did you get then from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

²²But now that you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit that you have leads to sanctification, and its end is eternal life.

²³For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

7Are you unaware, brothers (for I am speaking to people who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over one as long as one lives?

²Thus a married woman is bound by law to her living husband; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law in respect to her husband.

³Consequently, while her husband is alive she will be called an adulteress if she consorts with another man. But if her husband dies she is free from that law, and she is not an adulteress if she consorts with another man.

⁴In the same way, my brothers, you also were put to death to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might belong to another, to the one who was raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit for God.

⁵For when we were in the flesh, our sinful passions, awakened by the law, worked in our members to bear fruit for death.

⁶But now we are released from the law, dead to what held us captive, so that we may serve in the newness of the spirit and not under the obsolete letter.

⁷What then can we say? That the law is sin? Of course not! Yet I did not know sin except through the law, and I did not know what it is to covet except that the law said, "You shall not covet."

⁸But sin, finding an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetousness. Apart from the law sin is dead.

⁹I once lived outside the law, but when the commandment came, sin became alive;

¹⁰then I died, and the commandment that was for life turned out to be death for me.

¹¹For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it put me to death.

¹²So then the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

¹³Did the good, then, become death for me? Of course not! Sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin, worked death in me through the good, so that sin might become sinful beyond measure through the commandment.

¹⁴We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold into slavery to sin.

¹⁵What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate.

¹⁶Now if I do what I do not want, I concur that the law is good.

¹⁷So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

¹⁸For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh. The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not.

¹⁹For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.

²⁰Now if (I) do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

²¹So, then, I discover the principle that when I want to do right, evil is at hand.

²²For I take delight in the law of God, in my inner self,

²³but I see in my members another principle at war with the law of my mind, taking me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

²⁴Miserable one that I am! Who will deliver me from this mortal body?

²⁵Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore, I myself, with my mind, serve the law of God but, with my flesh, the law of sin.

8Hence, now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

²For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed you from the law of sin and death.

³For what the law, weakened by the flesh, was powerless to do, this God has done: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for the sake of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

⁴so that the righteous decree of the law might be fulfilled in us, who live not according to the flesh but according to the spirit.

⁵For those who live according to the flesh are concerned with the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit with the things of the spirit.

⁶The concern of the flesh is death, but the concern of the spirit is life and peace.

⁷For the concern of the flesh is hostility toward God; it does not submit to the law of God, nor can it;

⁸and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

⁹But you are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

¹⁰But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

¹¹If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you.

¹²Consequently, brothers, we are not debtors to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.

¹³For if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

¹⁴For those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.

¹⁵For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, "Abba, Father!"

¹⁶The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

¹⁷and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

¹⁸I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us.

¹⁹For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God;

²⁰for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope

²¹that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.

²²We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now;

²³and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

²⁴For in hope we were saved. Now hope that sees for itself is not hope. For who hopes for what one sees?

²⁵But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance.

²⁶In the same way, the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.

²⁷And the one who searches hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because it intercedes for the holy ones according to God's will.

²⁸We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

²⁹For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

³⁰And those he predestined he also called; and those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified.

³¹What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?

³²He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?

³³Who will bring a charge against God's chosen ones? It is God who acquits us.

³⁴Who will condemn? It is Christ (Jesus) who died, rather, was raised, who also is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.

³⁵What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?

³⁶As it is written: "For your sake we are being slain all the day; we are looked upon as sheep to be slaughtered."

³⁷No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.

³⁸For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers,

³⁹nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

9I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie; my conscience joins with the holy Spirit in bearing me witness

²that I have great sorrow and constant anguish in my heart.

³For I could wish that I myself were accursed and separated from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kin according to the flesh.

⁴They are Israelites; theirs the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises;

⁵theirs the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, is the Messiah. God who is over all be blessed forever. Amen.

⁶But it is not that the word of God has failed. For not all who are of Israel are Israel,

⁷nor are they all children of Abraham because they are his descendants; but "It is through Isaac that descendants shall bear your name."

⁸This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants.

⁹For this is the wording of the promise, "About this time I shall return and Sarah will have a son."

¹⁰And not only that, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one husband, our father Isaac --

¹¹before they had yet been born or had done anything, good or bad, in order that God's elective plan might continue,

¹²not by works but by his call--she was told, "The older shall serve the younger."

¹³As it is written: "I loved Jacob but hated Esau."

¹⁴What then are we to say? Is there injustice on the part of God? Of course not!

¹⁵For he says to Moses: "I will show mercy to whom I will, I will take pity on whom I will."

¹⁶So it depends not upon a person's will or exertion, but upon God, who shows mercy.

¹⁷For the scripture says to Pharaoh, "This is why I have raised you up, to show my power through you that my name may be proclaimed throughout the earth."

¹⁸Consequently, he has mercy upon whom he wills, and he hardens whom he wills.

¹⁹You will say to me then, "Why (then) does he still find fault? For who can oppose his will?"

²⁰But who indeed are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Will what is made say to its maker,"Why have you created me so?"

²¹Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for a noble purpose and another for an ignoble one?

²²What if God, wishing to show his wrath and make known his power, has endured with much patience the vessels of wrath made for destruction?

²³This was to make known the riches of his glory to the vessels of mercy, which he has prepared previously for glory,

²⁴namely, us whom he has called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles.

²⁵As indeed he says in Hosea: "Those who were not my people I will call 'my people,' and her who was not beloved I will call 'beloved.'

²⁶And in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they shall be called children of the living God."

²⁷And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, "Though the number of the Israelites were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant will be saved;

²⁸for decisively and quickly will the Lord execute sentence upon the earth."

²⁹And as Isaiah predicted: "Unless the Lord of hosts had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom and have been made like Gomorrah."

³⁰What then shall we say? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have achieved it, that is, righteousness that comes from faith;

³¹but that Israel, who pursued the law of righteousness, did not attain to that law?

³²Why not? Because they did it not by faith, but as if it could be done by works. They stumbled over the stone that causes stumbling,

³³as it is written: "Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion that will make people stumble and a rock that will make them fall, and whoever believes in him shall not be put to shame."

10Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God on their behalf is for salvation.

²I testify with regard to them that they have zeal for God, but it is not discerning.

³For, in their unawareness of the righteousness that comes from God and their attempt to establish their own (righteousness), they did not submit to the righteousness of God.

⁴For Christ is the end of the law for the justification of everyone who has faith.

⁵Moses writes about the righteousness that comes from (the) law, "The one who does these things will live by them."

⁶But the righteousness that comes from faith says, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will go up into heaven?' (that is, to bring Christ down)

⁷or 'Who will go down into the abyss?' (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead)."

⁸But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we preach),

⁹for, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

¹⁰For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.

¹¹For the scripture says, "No one who believes in him will be put to shame."

¹²For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all, enriching all who call upon him.

¹³For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

¹⁴But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach?

¹⁵And how can people preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring (the) good news!"

¹⁶But not everyone has heeded the good news; for Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what was heard from us?"

¹⁷Thus faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.

¹⁸But I ask, did they not hear? Certainly they did; for "Their voice has gone forth to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world."

¹⁹But I ask, did not Israel understand? First Moses says: "I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a senseless nation I will make you angry."

²⁰Then Isaiah speaks boldly and says: "I was found (by) those who were not seeking me; I revealed myself to those who were not asking for me."

²¹But regarding Israel he says, "All day long I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contentious people."

11I ask, then, has God rejected his people? Of course not! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

²God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?

³"Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have torn down your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life."

⁴But what is God's response to him? "I have left for myself seven thousand men who have not knelt to Baal."

⁵So also at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.

⁶But if by grace, it is no longer because of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

⁷What then? What Israel was seeking it did not attain, but the elect attained it; the rest were hardened,

⁸as it is written: "God gave them a spirit of deep sleep, eyes that should not see and ears that should not hear, down to this very day."

⁹And David says: "Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them;

¹⁰let their eyes grow dim so that they may not see, and keep their backs bent forever."

¹¹Hence I ask, did they stumble so as to fall? Of course not! But through their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make them jealous.

¹²Now if their transgression is enrichment for the world, and if their diminished number is enrichment for the Gentiles, how much more their full number.

¹³Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I glory in my ministry

¹⁴in order to make my race jealous and thus save some of them.

¹⁵For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

¹⁶If the firstfruits are holy, so is the whole batch of dough; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.

¹⁷But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place and have come to share in the rich root of the olive tree,

¹⁸do not boast against the branches. If you do boast, consider that you do not support the root; the root supports you.

¹⁹Indeed you will say, "Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in."

²⁰That is so. They were broken off because of unbelief, but you are there because of faith. So do not become haughty, but stand in awe.

²¹For if God did not spare the natural branches, (perhaps) he will not spare you either.

²²See, then, the kindness and severity of God: severity toward those who fell, but God's kindness to you, provided you remain in his kindness; otherwise you too will be cut off.

²³And they also, if they do not remain in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.

²⁴For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated one, how much more will they who belong to it by nature be grafted back into their own olive tree.

²⁵I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers, so that you will not become wise (in) your own estimation: a hardening has come upon Israel in part, until the full number of the Gentiles comes in,

²⁶and thus all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The deliverer will come out of Zion, he will turn away godlessness from Jacob;

²⁷and this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins."

²⁸In respect to the gospel, they are enemies on your account; but in respect to election, they are beloved because of the patriarchs.

²⁹For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.

³⁰Just as you once disobeyed God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience,

³¹so they have now disobeyed in order that, by virtue of the mercy shown to you, they too may (now) receive mercy.

³²For God delivered all to disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all.

³³Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!

³⁴"For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor?"

³⁵"Or who has given him anything that he may be repaid?"

³⁶For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

12I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.

²Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.

³For by the grace given to me I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than one ought to think, but to think soberly, each according to the measure of faith that God has apportioned.

⁴For as in one body we have many parts, and all the parts do not have the same function,

⁵so we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually parts of one another.

⁶Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us exercise them: if prophecy, in proportion to the faith;

⁷if ministry, in ministering; if one is a teacher, in teaching;

⁸if one exhorts, in exhortation; if one contributes, in generosity; if one is over others, with diligence; if one does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

⁹Let love be sincere; hate what is evil, hold on to what is good;

¹⁰love one another with mutual affection; anticipate one another in showing honor.

¹¹Do not grow slack in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.

¹²Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer.

¹³Contribute to the needs of the holy ones, exercise hospitality.

¹⁴Bless those who persecute (you), bless and do not curse them.

¹⁵Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

¹⁶Have the same regard for one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly; do not be wise in your own estimation.

¹⁷Do not repay anyone evil for evil; be concerned for what is noble in the sight of all.

¹⁸If possible, on your part, live at peace with all.

¹⁹Beloved, do not look for revenge but leave room for the wrath; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord."

²⁰Rather, "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head."

²¹Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good.

13Let every person be subordinate to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been established by God.

²Therefore, whoever resists authority opposes what God has appointed, and those who oppose it will bring judgment upon themselves.

³For rulers are not a cause of fear to good conduct, but to evil. Do you wish to have no fear of authority? Then do what is good and you will receive approval from it,

⁴for it is a servant of God for your good. But if you do evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword without purpose; it is the servant of God to inflict wrath on the evildoer.

⁵Therefore, it is necessary to be subject not only because of the wrath but also because of conscience.

⁶This is why you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, devoting themselves to this very thing.

⁷Pay to all their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, toll to whom toll is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

⁸Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

⁹The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery; you shall not kill; you shall not steal; you shall not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this saying, (namely) "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

¹⁰Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law.

¹¹And do this because you know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed;

¹²the night is advanced, the day is at hand. Let us then throw off the works of darkness (and) put on the armor of light;

¹³let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and licentiousness, not in rivalry and jealousy.

¹⁴But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.

14Welcome anyone who is weak in faith, but not for disputes over opinions.

²One person believes that one may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables.

³The one who eats must not despise the one who abstains, and the one who abstains must not pass judgment on the one who eats; for God has welcomed him.

⁴Who are you to pass judgment on someone else's servant? Before his own master he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

⁵(For) one person considers one day more important than another, while another person considers all days alike. Let everyone be fully persuaded in his own mind.

⁶Whoever observes the day, observes it for the Lord. Also whoever eats, eats for the Lord, since he gives thanks to God; while whoever abstains, abstains for the Lord and gives thanks to God.

⁷None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself.

⁸For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord; so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.

⁹For this is why Christ died and came to life, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

¹⁰Why then do you judge your brother? Or you, why do you look down on your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God;

¹¹for it is written: "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bend before me, and every tongue shall give praise to God."

¹²So (then) each of us shall give an account of himself (to God).

¹³Then let us no longer judge one another, but rather resolve never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.

¹⁴I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; still, it is unclean for someone who thinks it unclean.

¹⁵If your brother is being hurt by what you eat, your conduct is no longer in accord with love. Do not because of your food destroy him for whom Christ died.

¹⁶So do not let your good be reviled.

¹⁷For the kingdom of God is not a matter of food and drink, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Spirit;

¹⁸whoever serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by others.

¹⁹Let us then pursue what leads to peace and to building up one another.

²⁰For the sake of food, do not destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to become a stumbling block by eating;

²¹it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.

²²Keep the faith (that) you have to yourself in the presence of God; blessed is the one who does not condemn himself for what he approves.

²³But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because this is not from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin.

15We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves;

²let each of us please our neighbor for the good, for building up.

³For Christ did not please himself; but, as it is written, "The insults of those who insult you fall upon me."

⁴For whatever was written previously was written for our instruction, that by endurance and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.

⁵May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to think in harmony with one another, in keeping with Christ Jesus,

⁶that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁷Welcome one another, then, as Christ welcomed you, for the glory of God.

⁸For I say that Christ became a minister of the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, to confirm the promises to the patriarchs,

⁹but so that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written: "Therefore, I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing praises to your name."

¹⁰And again it says: "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people."

¹¹And again: "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him."

¹²And again Isaiah says: "The root of Jesse shall come, raised up to rule the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles hope."

¹³May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the holy Spirit.

¹⁴I myself am convinced about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to admonish one another.

¹⁵But I have written to you rather boldly in some respects to remind you, because of the grace given me by God

¹⁶to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in performing the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering up of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the holy Spirit.

¹⁷In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to boast in what pertains to God.

¹⁸For I will not dare to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to lead the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed,

¹⁹by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit (of God), so that from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum I have finished preaching the gospel of Christ.

²⁰Thus I aspire to proclaim the gospel not where Christ has already been named, so that I do not build on another's foundation,

²¹but as it is written: "Those who have never been told of him shall see, and those who have never heard of him shall understand."

²²That is why I have so often been prevented from coming to you.

²³But now, since I no longer have any opportunity in these regions and since I have desired to come to you for many years,

²⁴I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain and to be sent on my way there by you, after I have enjoyed being with you for a time.

²⁵Now, however, I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the holy ones.

²⁶For Macedonia and Achaia have decided to make some contribution for the poor among the holy ones in Jerusalem;

²⁷they decided to do it, and in fact they are indebted to them, for if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to serve them in material blessings.

²⁸So when I have completed this and safely handed over this contribution to them, I shall set out by way of you to Spain;

²⁹and I know that in coming to you I shall come in the fullness of Christ's blessing.

³⁰I urge you, (brothers,) by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in the struggle by your prayers to God on my behalf,

³¹that I may be delivered from the disobedient in Judea, and that my ministry for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the holy ones,

³²so that I may come to you with joy by the will of God and be refreshed together with you.

³³The God of peace be with all of you. Amen.

16I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is (also) a minister of the church at Cenchreae,

²that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the holy ones, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a benefactor to many and to me as well.

³Greet Prisca and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus,

⁴who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I am grateful but also all the churches of the Gentiles;

⁵greet also the church at their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the firstfruits in Asia for Christ.

⁶Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you.

⁷Greet Andronicus and Junia, my relatives and my fellow prisoners; they are prominent among the apostles and they were in Christ before me.

⁸Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord.

⁹Greet Urbanus, our co-worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys.

¹⁰Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus.

¹¹Greet my relative Herodion. Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus.

¹²Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord.

¹³Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.

¹⁴Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them.

¹⁵Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the holy ones who are with them.

¹⁶Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.

¹⁷I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who create dissensions and obstacles, in opposition to the teaching that you learned; avoid them.

¹⁸For such people do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites, and by fair and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the innocent.

¹⁹For while your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, I want you to be wise as to what is good, and simple as to what is evil;

²⁰then the God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

²¹Timothy, my co-worker, greets you; so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my relatives.

²²I, Tertius, the writer of this letter, greet you in the Lord.

²³Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus greet you.

²⁴) (

²⁵Now to him who can strengthen you, according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret for long ages

²⁶but now manifested through the prophetic writings and, according to the command of the eternal God, made known to all nations to bring about the obedience of faith,

²⁷to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ be glory forever and ever. Amen.)

²to the church of God that is in Corinth, to you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy, with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.

³Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴I give thanks to my God always on your account for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus,

⁵that in him you were enriched in every way, with all discourse and all knowledge,

⁶as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you,

⁷so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁸He will keep you firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus (Christ).

⁹God is faithful, and by him you were called to fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

¹⁰I urge you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree in what you say, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose.

¹¹For it has been reported to me about you, my brothers, by Chloe's people, that there are rivalries among you.

¹²I mean that each of you is saying, "I belong to Paul," or "I belong to Apollos," or "I belong to Kephas," or "I belong to Christ."

¹³Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

¹⁴I give thanks (to God) that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,

¹⁵so that no one can say you were baptized in my name.

¹⁶(I baptized the household of Stephanas also; beyond that I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.)

¹⁷For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with the wisdom of human eloquence, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning.

¹⁸The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

¹⁹For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the learning of the learned I will set aside."

²⁰Where is the wise one? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made the wisdom of the world foolish?

²¹For since in the wisdom of God the world did not come to know God through wisdom, it was the will of God through the foolishness of the proclamation to save those who have faith.

²²For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom,

²³but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,

²⁴but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

²⁵For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

²⁶Consider your own calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

²⁷Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong,

²⁸and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something,

²⁹so that no human being might boast before God.

³⁰It is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,

³¹so that, as it is written, "Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord."

2When I came to you, brothers, proclaiming the mystery of God, I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom.

²For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

³I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling,

⁴and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive (words of) wisdom, but with a demonstration of spirit and power,

⁵so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

⁶Yet we do speak a wisdom to those who are mature, but not a wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away.

⁷Rather, we speak God's wisdom, mysterious, hidden, which God predetermined before the ages for our glory,

⁸and which none of the rulers of this age knew; for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

⁹But as it is written: "What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him,"

¹⁰this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.For the Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God.

¹¹Among human beings, who knows what pertains to a person except the spirit of the person that is within? Similarly, no one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God.

¹²We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the things freely given us by God.

¹³And we speak about them not with words taught by human wisdom, but with words taught by the Spirit, describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms.

¹⁴Now the natural person does not accept what pertains to the Spirit of God, for to him it is foolishness, and he cannot understand it, because it is judged spiritually.

¹⁵The spiritual person, however, can judge everything but is not subject to judgment by anyone.

¹⁶For "who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to counsel him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

3Brothers, I could not talk to you as spiritual people, but as fleshly people, as infants in Christ.

²I fed you milk, not solid food, because you were unable to take it. Indeed, you are still not able, even now,

³for you are still of the flesh. While there is jealousy and rivalry among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving in an ordinary human way?

⁴Whenever someone says, "I belong to Paul," and another, "I belong to Apollos," are you not merely human?

⁵What is Apollos, after all, and what is Paul? Ministers through whom you became believers, just as the Lord assigned each one.

⁶I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth.

⁷Therefore, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who causes the growth.

⁸The one who plants and the one who waters are equal, and each will receive wages in proportion to his labor.

⁹For we are God's co-workers; you are God's field, God's building.

¹⁰According to the grace of God given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it. But each one must be careful how he builds upon it,

¹¹for no one can lay a foundation other than the one that is there, namely, Jesus Christ.

¹²If anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw,

¹³the work of each will come to light, for the Day will disclose it. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire (itself) will test the quality of each one's work.

¹⁴If the work stands that someone built upon the foundation, that person will receive a wage.

¹⁵But if someone's work is burned up, that one will suffer loss; the person will be saved, but only as through fire.

¹⁶Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

¹⁷If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God, which you are, is holy.

¹⁸Let no one deceive himself. If any one among you considers himself wise in this age, let him become a fool so as to become wise.

¹⁹For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of God, for it is written: "He catches the wise in their own ruses,"

²⁰and again: "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain."

²¹So let no one boast about human beings, for everything belongs to you,

²²Paul or Apollos or Kephas, or the world or life or death, or the present or the future: all belong to you,

²³and you to Christ, and Christ to God.

4Thus should one regard us: as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.

²Now it is of course required of stewards that they be found trustworthy.

³It does not concern me in the least that I be judged by you or any human tribunal; I do not even pass judgment on myself;

⁴I am not conscious of anything against me, but I do not thereby stand acquitted; the one who judges me is the Lord.

⁵Therefore, do not make any judgment before the appointed time, until the Lord comes, for he will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will manifest the motives of our hearts, and then everyone will receive praise from God.

⁶I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, so that you may learn from us not to go beyond what is written, so that none of you will be inflated with pride in favor of one person over against another.

⁷Who confers distinction upon you? What do you possess that you have not received? But if you have received it, why are you boasting as if you did not receive it?

⁸You are already satisfied; you have already grown rich; you have become kings without us! Indeed, I wish that you had become kings, so that we also might become kings with you.

⁹For as I see it, God has exhibited us apostles as the last of all, like people sentenced to death, since we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and human beings alike.

¹⁰We are fools on Christ's account, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are held in honor, but we in disrepute.

¹¹To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clad and roughly treated, we wander about homeless

¹²and we toil, working with our own hands. When ridiculed, we bless; when persecuted, we endure;

¹³when slandered, we respond gently. We have become like the world's rubbish, the scum of all, to this very moment.

¹⁴I am writing you this not to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.

¹⁵Even if you should have countless guides to Christ, yet you do not have many fathers, for I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

¹⁶Therefore, I urge you, be imitators of me.

¹⁷For this reason I am sending you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord; he will remind you of my ways in Christ (Jesus), just as I teach them everywhere in every church.

¹⁸Some have become inflated with pride, as if I were not coming to you.

¹⁹But I will come to you soon, if the Lord is willing, and I shall ascertain not the talk of these inflated people but their power.

²⁰For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.

²¹Which do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a gentle spirit?

5It is widely reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of a kind not found even among pagans--a man living with his father's wife.

²And you are inflated with pride. Should you not rather have been sorrowful? The one who did this deed should be expelled from your midst.

³I, for my part, although absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as if present, pronounced judgment on the one who has committed this deed,

⁴in the name of (our) Lord Jesus: when you have gathered together and I am with you in spirit with the power of the Lord Jesus,

⁵you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.

⁶Your boasting is not appropriate. Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough?

⁷Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough, inasmuch as you are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed.

⁸Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

⁹I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people,

¹⁰not at all referring to the immoral of this world or the greedy and robbers or idolaters; for you would then have to leave the world.

¹¹But I now write to you not to associate with anyone named a brother, if he is immoral, greedy, an idolater, a slanderer, a drunkard, or a robber, not even to eat with such a person.

¹²For why should I be judging outsiders? Is it not your business to judge those within?

¹³God will judge those outside. "Purge the evil person from your midst."

6How can any one of you with a case against another dare to bring it to the unjust for judgment instead of to the holy ones?

²Do you not know that the holy ones will judge the world? If the world is to be judged by you, are you unqualified for the lowest law courts?

³Do you not know that we will judge angels? Then why not everyday matters?

⁴If, therefore, you have courts for everyday matters, do you seat as judges people of no standing in the church?

⁵I say this to shame you. Can it be that there is not one among you wise enough to be able to settle a case between brothers?

⁶But rather brother goes to court against brother, and that before unbelievers?

⁷Now indeed (then) it is, in any case, a failure on your part that you have lawsuits against one another. Why not rather put up with injustice? Why not rather let yourselves be cheated?

⁸Instead, you inflict injustice and cheat, and this to brothers.

⁹Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor boy prostitutes nor practicing homosexuals

¹⁰nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God.

¹¹That is what some of you used to be; but now you have had yourselves washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

¹²"Everything is lawful for me," but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is lawful for me," but I will not let myself be dominated by anything.

¹³"Food for the stomach and the stomach for food," but God will do away with both the one and the other. The body, however, is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body;

¹⁴God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power.

¹⁵Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take Christ's members and make them the members of a prostitute? Of course not!

¹⁶(Or) do you not know that anyone who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For "the two," it says, "will become one flesh."

¹⁷But whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

¹⁸Avoid immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the immoral person sins against his own body.

¹⁹Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?

²⁰For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.

7Now in regard to the matters about which you wrote: "It is a good thing for a man not to touch a woman,"

²but because of cases of immorality every man should have his own wife, and every woman her own husband.

³The husband should fulfill his duty toward his wife, and likewise the wife toward her husband.

⁴A wife does not have authority over her own body, but rather her husband, and similarly a husband does not have authority over his own body, but rather his wife.

⁵Do not deprive each other, except perhaps by mutual consent for a time, to be free for prayer, but then return to one another, so that Satan may not tempt you through your lack of self-control.

⁶This I say by way of concession, however, not as a command.

⁷Indeed, I wish everyone to be as I am, but each has a particular gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.

⁸Now to the unmarried and to widows, I say: it is a good thing for them to remain as they are, as I do,

⁹but if they cannot exercise self-control they should marry, for it is better to marry than to be on fire.

¹⁰To the married, however, I give this instruction (not I, but the Lord): a wife should not separate from her husband

¹¹--and if she does separate she must either remain single or become reconciled to her husband--and a husband should not divorce his wife.

¹²To the rest I say (not the Lord): if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she is willing to go on living with him, he should not divorce her;

¹³and if any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he is willing to go on living with her, she should not divorce her husband.

¹⁴For the unbelieving husband is made holy through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy through the brother. Otherwise your children would be unclean, whereas in fact they are holy.

¹⁵If the unbeliever separates, however, let him separate. The brother or sister is not bound in such cases; God has called you to peace.

¹⁶For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband; or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

¹⁷Only, everyone should live as the Lord has assigned, just as God called each one. I give this order in all the churches.

¹⁸Was someone called after he had been circumcised? He should not try to undo his circumcision. Was an uncircumcised person called? He should not be circumcised.

¹⁹Circumcision means nothing, and uncircumcision means nothing; what matters is keeping God's commandments.

²⁰Everyone should remain in the state in which he was called.

²¹Were you a slave when you were called? Do not be concerned but, even if you can gain your freedom, make the most of it.

²²For the slave called in the Lord is a freed person in the Lord, just as the free person who has been called is a slave of Christ.

²³You have been purchased at a price. Do not become slaves to human beings.

²⁴Brothers, everyone should continue before God in the state in which he was called.

²⁵Now in regard to virgins, I have no commandment from the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy.

²⁶So this is what I think best because of the present distress: that it is a good thing for a person to remain as he is.

²⁷Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek a separation. Are you free of a wife? Then do not look for a wife.

²⁸If you marry, however, you do not sin, nor does an unmarried woman sin if she marries; but such people will experience affliction in their earthly life, and I would like to spare you that.

²⁹I tell you, brothers, the time is running out. From now on, let those having wives act as not having them,

³⁰those weeping as not weeping, those rejoicing as not rejoicing, those buying as not owning,

³¹those using the world as not using it fully. For the world in its present form is passing away.

³²I should like you to be free of anxieties. An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord.

³³But a married man is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife,

³⁴and he is divided. An unmarried woman or a virgin is anxious about the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy in both body and spirit. A married woman, on the other hand, is anxious about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.

³⁵I am telling you this for your own benefit, not to impose a restraint upon you, but for the sake of propriety and adherence to the Lord without distraction.

³⁶If anyone thinks he is behaving improperly toward his virgin, and if a critical moment has come and so it has to be, let him do as he wishes. He is committing no sin; let them get married.

³⁷The one who stands firm in his resolve, however, who is not under compulsion but has power over his own will, and has made up his mind to keep his virgin, will be doing well.

³⁸So then, the one who marries his virgin does well; the one who does not marry her will do better.

³⁹A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whomever she wishes, provided that it be in the Lord.

⁴⁰She is more blessed, though, in my opinion, if she remains as she is, and I think that I too have the Spirit of God.

8Now in regard to meat sacrificed to idols: we realize that "all of us have knowledge"; knowledge inflates with pride, but love builds up.

²If anyone supposes he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.

³But if one loves God, one is known by him.

⁴So about the eating of meat sacrificed to idols: we know that "there is no idol in the world," and that "there is no God but one."

⁵Indeed, even though there are so-called gods in heaven and on earth (there are, to be sure, many "gods" and many "lords"),

⁶yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things are and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are and through whom we exist.

⁷But not all have this knowledge. There are some who have been so used to idolatry up until now that, when they eat meat sacrificed to idols, their conscience, which is weak, is defiled.

⁸Now food will not bring us closer to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, nor are we better off if we do.

⁹But make sure that this liberty of yours in no way becomes a stumbling block to the weak.

¹⁰If someone sees you, with your knowledge, reclining at table in the temple of an idol, may not his conscience too, weak as it is, be "built up" to eat the meat sacrificed to idols?

¹¹Thus through your knowledge, the weak person is brought to destruction, the brother for whom Christ died.

¹²When you sin in this way against your brothers and wound their consciences, weak as they are, you are sinning against Christ.

¹³Therefore, if food causes my brother to sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I may not cause my brother to sin.

9Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?

²Although I may not be an apostle for others, certainly I am for you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

³My defense against those who would pass judgment on me is this.

⁴Do we not have the right to eat and drink?

⁵Do we not have the right to take along a Christian wife, as do the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Kephas?

⁶Or is it only myself and Barnabas who do not have the right not to work?

⁷Who ever serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating its produce? Or who shepherds a flock without using some of the milk from the flock?

⁸Am I saying this on human authority, or does not the law also speak of these things?

⁹It is written in the law of Moses, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain." Is God concerned about oxen,

¹⁰or is he not really speaking for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope, and the thresher in hope of receiving a share.

¹¹If we have sown spiritual seed for you, is it a great thing that we reap a material harvest from you?

¹²If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we still more? Yet we have not used this right. On the contrary, we endure everything so as not to place an obstacle to the gospel of Christ.

¹³Do you not know that those who perform the temple services eat (what) belongs to the temple, and those who minister at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings?

¹⁴In the same way, the Lord ordered that those who preach the gospel should live by the gospel.

¹⁵I have not used any of these rights, however, nor do I write this that it be done so in my case. I would rather die. Certainly no one is going to nullify my boast.

¹⁶If I preach the gospel, this is no reason for me to boast, for an obligation has been imposed on me, and woe to me if I do not preach it!

¹⁷If I do so willingly, I have a recompense, but if unwillingly, then I have been entrusted with a stewardship.

¹⁸What then is my recompense? That, when I preach, I offer the gospel free of charge so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.

¹⁹Although I am free in regard to all, I have made myself a slave to all so as to win over as many as possible.

²⁰To the Jews I became like a Jew to win over Jews; to those under the law I became like one under the law--though I myself am not under the law--to win over those under the law.

²¹To those outside the law I became like one outside the law--though I am not outside God's law but within the law of Christ--to win over those outside the law.

²²To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak. I have become all things to all, to save at least some.

²³All this I do for the sake of the gospel, so that I too may have a share in it.

²⁴Do you not know that the runners in the stadium all run in the race, but only one wins the prize? Run so as to win.

²⁵Every athlete exercises discipline in every way. They do it to win a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one.

²⁶Thus I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing.

²⁷No, I drive my body and train it, for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.

10I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea,

²and all of them were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

³All ate the same spiritual food,

⁴and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was the Christ.

⁵Yet God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the desert.

⁶These things happened as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil things, as they did.

⁷And do not become idolaters, as some of them did, as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel."

⁸Let us not indulge in immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell within a single day.

⁹Let us not test Christ as some of them did, and suffered death by serpents.

¹⁰Do not grumble as some of them did, and suffered death by the destroyer.

¹¹These things happened to them as an example, and they have been written down as a warning to us, upon whom the end of the ages has come.

¹²Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall.

¹³No trial has come to you but what is human. God is faithful and will not let you be tried beyond your strength; but with the trial he will also provide a way out, so that you may be able to bear it.

¹⁴Therefore, my beloved, avoid idolatry.

¹⁵I am speaking as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I am saying.

¹⁶The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

¹⁷Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.

¹⁸Look at Israel according to the flesh; are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?

¹⁹So what am I saying? That meat sacrificed to idols is anything? Or that an idol is anything?

²⁰No, I mean that what they sacrifice, (they sacrifice) to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to become participants with demons.

²¹You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and also the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons.

²²Or are we provoking the Lord to jealous anger? Are we stronger than he?

²³"Everything is lawful," but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is lawful," but not everything builds up.

²⁴No one should seek his own advantage, but that of his neighbor.

²⁵Eat anything sold in the market, without raising questions on grounds of conscience,

²⁶for "the earth and its fullness are the Lord's."

²⁷If an unbeliever invites you and you want to go, eat whatever is placed before you, without raising questions on grounds of conscience.

²⁸But if someone says to you, "This was offered in sacrifice," do not eat it on account of the one who called attention to it and on account of conscience;

²⁹I mean not your own conscience, but the other's. For why should my freedom be determined by someone else's conscience?

³⁰If I partake thankfully, why am I reviled for that over which I give thanks?

³¹So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.

³²Avoid giving offense, whether to Jews or Greeks or the church of God,

³³just as I try to please everyone in every way, not seeking my own benefit but that of the many, that they may be saved.

11Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

²I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold fast to the traditions, just as I handed them on to you.

³But I want you to know that Christ is the head of every man, and a husband the head of his wife, and God the head of Christ.

⁴Any man who prays or prophesies with his head covered brings shame upon his head.

⁵But any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled brings shame upon her head, for it is one and the same thing as if she had had her head shaved.

⁶For if a woman does not have her head veiled, she may as well have her hair cut off. But if it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should wear a veil.

⁷A man, on the other hand, should not cover his head, because he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man.

⁸For man did not come from woman, but woman from man;

⁹nor was man created for woman, but woman for man;

¹⁰for this reason a woman should have a sign of authority on her head, because of the angels.

¹¹Woman is not independent of man or man of woman in the Lord.

¹²For just as woman came from man, so man is born of woman; but all things are from God.

¹³Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head unveiled?

¹⁴Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears his hair long it is a disgrace to him,

¹⁵whereas if a woman has long hair it is her glory, because long hair has been given (her) for a covering?

¹⁶But if anyone is inclined to be argumentative, we do not have such a custom, nor do the churches of God.

¹⁷In giving this instruction, I do not praise the fact that your meetings are doing more harm than good.

¹⁸First of all, I hear that when you meet as a church there are divisions among you, and to a degree I believe it;

¹⁹there have to be factions among you in order that (also) those who are approved among you may become known.

²⁰When you meet in one place, then, it is not to eat the Lord's supper,

²¹for in eating, each one goes ahead with his own supper, and one goes hungry while another gets drunk.

²²Do you not have houses in which you can eat and drink? Or do you show contempt for the church of God and make those who have nothing feel ashamed? What can I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this matter I do not praise you.

²³For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread,

²⁴and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me."

²⁵In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."

²⁶For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.

²⁷Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord.

²⁸A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup.

²⁹For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.

³⁰That is why many among you are ill and infirm, and a considerable number are dying.

³¹If we discerned ourselves, we would not be under judgment;

³²but since we are judged by (the) Lord, we are being disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

³³Therefore, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.

³⁴If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that your meetings may not result in judgment. The other matters I shall set in order when I come.

12Now in regard to spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be unaware.

²You know how, when you were pagans, you were constantly attracted and led away to mute idols.

³Therefore, I tell you that nobody speaking by the spirit of God says, "Jesus be accursed." And no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the holy Spirit.

⁴There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit;

⁵there are different forms of service but the same Lord;

⁶there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone.

⁷To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.

⁸To one is given through the Spirit the expression of wisdom; to another the expression of knowledge according to the same Spirit;

⁹to another faith by the same Spirit; to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit;

¹⁰to another mighty deeds; to another prophecy; to another discernment of spirits; to another varieties of tongues; to another interpretation of tongues.

¹¹But one and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing them individually to each person as he wishes.

¹²As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ.

¹³For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.

¹⁴Now the body is not a single part, but many.

¹⁵If a foot should say, "Because I am not a hand I do not belong to the body," it does not for this reason belong any less to the body.

¹⁶Or if an ear should say, "Because I am not an eye I do not belong to the body," it does not for this reason belong any less to the body.

¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?

¹⁸But as it is, God placed the parts, each one of them, in the body as he intended.

¹⁹If they were all one part, where would the body be?

²⁰But as it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

²¹The eye cannot say to the hand, "I do not need you," nor again the head to the feet, "I do not need you."

²²Indeed, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are all the more necessary,

²³and those parts of the body that we consider less honorable we surround with greater honor, and our less presentable parts are treated with greater propriety,

²⁴whereas our more presentable parts do not need this. But God has so constructed the body as to give greater honor to a part that is without it,

²⁵so that there may be no division in the body, but that the parts may have the same concern for one another.

²⁶If (one) part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.

²⁷Now you are Christ's body, and individually parts of it.

²⁸Some people God has designated in the church to be, first, apostles; second, prophets; third, teachers; then, mighty deeds; then, gifts of healing, assistance, administration, and varieties of tongues.

²⁹Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work mighty deeds?

³⁰Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?

³¹Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts. But I shall show you a still more excellent way.

13If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.

²And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.

³If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated,

⁵it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,

⁶it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.

⁷It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.

⁹For we know partially and we prophesy partially,

¹⁰but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

¹¹When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things.

¹²At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.

¹³So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

14Pursue love, but strive eagerly for the spiritual gifts, above all that you may prophesy.

²For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to human beings but to God, for no one listens; he utters mysteries in spirit.

³On the other hand, one who prophesies does speak to human beings, for their building up, encouragement, and solace.

⁴Whoever speaks in a tongue builds himself up, but whoever prophesies builds up the church.

⁵Now I should like all of you to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. One who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may be built up.

⁶Now, brothers, if I should come to you speaking in tongues, what good will I do you if I do not speak to you by way of revelation, or knowledge, or prophecy, or instruction?

⁷Likewise, if inanimate things that produce sound, such as flute or harp, do not give out the tones distinctly, how will what is being played on flute or harp be recognized?

⁸And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle?

⁹Similarly, if you, because of speaking in tongues, do not utter intelligible speech, how will anyone know what is being said? For you will be talking to the air.

¹⁰It happens that there are many different languages in the world, and none is meaningless;

¹¹but if I do not know the meaning of a language, I shall be a foreigner to one who speaks it, and one who speaks it a foreigner to me.

¹²So with yourselves: since you strive eagerly for spirits, seek to have an abundance of them for building up the church.

¹³Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray to be able to interpret.

¹⁴(For) if I pray in a tongue, my spirit is at prayer but my mind is unproductive.

¹⁵So what is to be done? I will pray with the spirit, but I will also pray with the mind. I will sing praise with the spirit, but I will also sing praise with the mind.

¹⁶Otherwise, if you pronounce a blessing (with) the spirit, how shall one who holds the place of the uninstructed say the "Amen" to your thanksgiving, since he does not know what you are saying?

¹⁷For you may be giving thanks very well, but the other is not built up.

¹⁸I give thanks to God that I speak in tongues more than any of you,

¹⁹but in the church I would rather speak five words with my mind, so as to instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue.

²⁰Brothers, stop being childish in your thinking. In respect to evil be like infants, but in your thinking be mature.

²¹It is written in the law: "By people speaking strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, and even so they will not listen to me, says the Lord."

²²Thus, tongues are a sign not for those who believe but for unbelievers, whereas prophecy is not for unbelievers but for those who believe.

²³So if the whole church meets in one place and everyone speaks in tongues, and then uninstructed people or unbelievers should come in, will they not say that you are out of your minds?

²⁴But if everyone is prophesying, and an unbeliever or uninstructed person should come in, he will be convinced by everyone and judged by everyone,

²⁵and the secrets of his heart will be disclosed, and so he will fall down and worship God, declaring, "God is really in your midst."

²⁶So what is to be done, brothers? When you assemble, one has a psalm, another an instruction, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Everything should be done for building up.

²⁷If anyone speaks in a tongue, let it be two or at most three, and each in turn, and one should interpret.

²⁸But if there is no interpreter, the person should keep silent in the church and speak to himself and to God.

²⁹Two or three prophets should speak, and the others discern.

³⁰But if a revelation is given to another person sitting there, the first one should be silent.

³¹For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged.

³²Indeed, the spirits of prophets are under the prophets' control,

³³since he is not the God of disorder but of peace. As in all the churches of the holy ones,

³⁴women should keep silent in the churches, for they are not allowed to speak, but should be subordinate, as even the law says.

³⁵But if they want to learn anything, they should ask their husbands at home. For it is improper for a woman to speak in the church.

³⁶Did the word of God go forth from you? Or has it come to you alone?

³⁷If anyone thinks that he is a prophet or a spiritual person, he should recognize that what I am writing to you is a commandment of the Lord.

³⁸If anyone does not acknowledge this, he is not acknowledged.

³⁹So, (my) brothers, strive eagerly to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues,

⁴⁰but everything must be done properly and in order.

15Now I am reminding you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you indeed received and in which you also stand.

²Through it you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.

³For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures;

⁴that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures;

⁵that he appeared to Kephas, then to the Twelve.

⁶After that, he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.

⁷After that he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

⁸Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me.

⁹For I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

¹⁰But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective. Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them; not I, however, but the grace of God (that is) with me.

¹¹Therefore, whether it be I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

¹²But if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?

¹³If there is no resurrection of the dead, then neither has Christ been raised.

¹⁴And if Christ has not been raised, then empty (too) is our preaching; empty, too, your faith.

¹⁵Then we are also false witnesses to God, because we testified against God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if in fact the dead are not raised.

¹⁶For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised,

¹⁷and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins.

¹⁸Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

¹⁹If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all.

²⁰But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

²¹For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead came also through a human being.

²²For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life,

²³but each one in proper order: Christ the firstfruits; then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ;

²⁴then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to his God and Father, when he has destroyed every sovereignty and every authority and power.

²⁵For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

²⁶The last enemy to be destroyed is death,

²⁷for "he subjected everything under his feet." But when it says that everything has been subjected, it is clear that it excludes the one who subjected everything to him.

²⁸When everything is subjected to him, then the Son himself will (also) be subjected to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.

²⁹Otherwise, what will people accomplish by having themselves baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, then why are they having themselves baptized for them?

³⁰Moreover, why are we endangering ourselves all the time?

³¹Every day I face death; I swear it by the pride in you (brothers) that I have in Christ Jesus our Lord.

³²If at Ephesus I fought with beasts, so to speak, what benefit was it to me? If the dead are not raised: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."

³³Do not be led astray: "Bad company corrupts good morals."

³⁴Become sober as you ought and stop sinning. For some have no knowledge of God; I say this to your shame.

³⁵But someone may say, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come back?"

³⁶You fool! What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies.

³⁷And what you sow is not the body that is to be but a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind;

³⁸but God gives it a body as he chooses, and to each of the seeds its own body.

³⁹Not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for human beings, another kind of flesh for animals, another kind of flesh for birds, and another for fish.

⁴⁰There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the brightness of the heavenly is one kind and that of the earthly another.

⁴¹The brightness of the sun is one kind, the brightness of the moon another, and the brightness of the stars another. For star differs from star in brightness.

⁴²So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible.

⁴³It is sown dishonorable; it is raised glorious. It is sown weak; it is raised powerful.

⁴⁴It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one.

⁴⁵So, too, it is written, "The first man, Adam, became a living being," the last Adam a life-giving spirit.

⁴⁶But the spiritual was not first; rather the natural and then the spiritual.

⁴⁷The first man was from the earth, earthly; the second man, from heaven.

⁴⁸As was the earthly one, so also are the earthly, and as is the heavenly one, so also are the heavenly.

⁴⁹Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one.

⁵⁰This I declare, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption.

⁵¹Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed,

⁵²in an instant, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

⁵³For that which is corruptible must clothe itself with incorruptibility, and that which is mortal must clothe itself with immortality.

⁵⁴And when this which is corruptible clothes itself with incorruptibility and this which is mortal clothes itself with immortality, then the word that is written shall come about: "Death is swallowed up in victory.

⁵⁵Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"

⁵⁶The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

⁵⁷But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵⁸Therefore, my beloved brothers, be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

16Now in regard to the collection for the holy ones, you also should do as I ordered the churches of Galatia.

²On the first day of the week each of you should set aside and save whatever one can afford, so that collections will not be going on when I come.

³And when I arrive, I shall send those whom you have approved with letters of recommendation to take your gracious gift to Jerusalem.

⁴If it seems fitting that I should go also, they will go with me.

⁵I shall come to you after I pass through Macedonia (for I am going to pass through Macedonia),

⁶and perhaps I shall stay or even spend the winter with you, so that you may send me on my way wherever I may go.

⁷For I do not wish to see you now just in passing, but I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits.

⁸I shall stay in Ephesus until Pentecost,

⁹because a door has opened for me wide and productive for work, but there are many opponents.

¹⁰If Timothy comes, see that he is without fear in your company, for he is doing the work of the Lord just as I am.

¹¹Therefore no one should disdain him. Rather, send him on his way in peace that he may come to me, for I am expecting him with the brothers.

¹²Now in regard to our brother Apollos, I urged him strongly to go to you with the brothers, but it was not at all his will that he go now. He will go when he has an opportunity.

¹³Be on your guard, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong.

¹⁴Your every act should be done with love.

¹⁵I urge you, brothers--you know that the household of Stephanas is the firstfruits of Achaia and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the holy ones--

¹⁶be subordinate to such people and to everyone who works and toils with them.

¹⁷I rejoice in the arrival of Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus, because they made up for your absence,

¹⁸for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. So give recognition to such people.

¹⁹The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca together with the church at their house send you many greetings in the Lord.

²⁰All the brothers greet you. Greet one another with a holy kiss.

²¹I, Paul, write you this greeting in my own hand.

²²If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be accursed. Marana tha.

²³The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.

²⁴My love to all of you in Christ Jesus.

1The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him, to show his servants what must happen soon. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

²who gives witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ by reporting what he saw.

³Blessed is the one who reads aloud and blessed are those who listen to this prophetic message and heed what is written in it, for the appointed time is near.

⁴John, to the seven churches in Asia: grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne,

⁵and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,

⁶who has made us into a kingdom, priests for his God and Father, to him be glory and power forever (and ever). Amen.

⁷Behold, he is coming amid the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. All the peoples of the earth will lament him. Yes. Amen.

⁸"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "the one who is and who was and who is to come, the almighty."

⁹I, John, your brother, who share with you the distress, the kingdom, and the endurance we have in Jesus, found myself on the island called Patmos because I proclaimed God's word and gave testimony to Jesus.

¹⁰I was caught up in spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a voice as loud as a trumpet,

¹¹which said, "Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea."

¹²Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me, and when I turned, I saw seven gold lampstands

¹³and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, wearing an ankle-length robe, with a gold sash around his chest.

¹⁴The hair of his head was as white as white wool or as snow, and his eyes were like a fiery flame.

¹⁵His feet were like polished brass refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing water.

¹⁶In his right hand he held seven stars. A sharp two-edged sword came out of his mouth, and his face shone like the sun at its brightest.

¹⁷When I caught sight of him, I fell down at his feet as though dead. He touched me with his right hand and said, "Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last,

¹⁸the one who lives. Once I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever. I hold the keys to death and the netherworld.

¹⁹Write down, therefore, what you have seen, and what is happening, and what will happen afterwards.

²⁰This is the secret meaning of the seven stars you saw in my right hand, and of the seven gold lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

2"To the angel of the church in Ephesus, write this: " 'The one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks in the midst of the seven gold lampstands says this:

²"I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate the wicked; you have tested those who call themselves apostles but are not, and discovered that they are impostors.

³Moreover, you have endurance and have suffered for my name, and you have not grown weary.

⁴Yet I hold this against you: you have lost the love you had at first.

⁵Realize how far you have fallen. Repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

⁶But you have this in your favor: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

⁷" '"Whoever has ears ought to hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the victor I will give the right to eat from the tree of life that is in the garden of God."'

⁸"To the angel of the church in Smyrna, write this: " 'The first and the last, who once died but came to life, says this:

⁹"I know your tribulation and poverty, but you are rich. I know the slander of those who claim to be Jews and are not, but rather are members of the assembly of Satan.

¹⁰Do not be afraid of anything that you are going to suffer. Indeed, the devil will throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will face an ordeal for ten days. Remain faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.

¹¹" '"Whoever has ears ought to hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The victor shall not be harmed by the second death."'

¹²"To the angel of the church in Pergamum, write this: " 'The one with the sharp two-edged sword says this:

¹³"I know that you live where Satan's throne is, and yet you hold fast to my name and have not denied your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was martyred among you, where Satan lives.

¹⁴Yet I have a few things against you. You have some people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who instructed Balak to put a stumbling block before the Israelites: to eat food sacrificed to idols and to play the harlot.

¹⁵Likewise, you also have some people who hold to the teaching of (the) Nicolaitans.

¹⁶Therefore, repent. Otherwise, I will come to you quickly and wage war against them with the sword of my mouth.

¹⁷" '"Whoever has ears ought to hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the victor I shall give some of the hidden manna; I shall also give a white amulet upon which is inscribed a new name, which no one knows except the one who receives it."'

¹⁸"To the angel of the church in Thyatira, write this: " 'The Son of God, whose eyes are like a fiery flame and whose feet are like polished brass, says this:

¹⁹"I know your works, your love, faith, service, and endurance, and that your last works are greater than the first.

²⁰Yet I hold this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, who teaches and misleads my servants to play the harlot and to eat food sacrificed to idols.

²¹I have given her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her harlotry.

²²So I will cast her on a sickbed and plunge those who commit adultery with her into intense suffering unless they repent of her works.

²³I will also put her children to death. Thus shall all the churches come to know that I am the searcher of hearts and minds and that I will give each of you what your works deserve.

²⁴But I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not uphold this teaching and know nothing of the so-called deep secrets of Satan: on you I will place no further burden,

²⁵except that you must hold fast to what you have until I come.

²⁶" '"To the victor, who keeps to my ways until the end, I will give authority over the nations.

²⁷He will rule them with an iron rod. Like clay vessels will they be smashed,

²⁸just as I received authority from my Father. And to him I will give the morning star.

²⁹" '"Whoever has ears ought to hear what the Spirit says to the churches."'

3"To the angel of the church in Sardis, write this: " 'The one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars says this: "I know your works, that you have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.

²Be watchful and strengthen what is left, which is going to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.

³Remember then how you accepted and heard; keep it, and repent. If you are not watchful, I will come like a thief, and you will never know at what hour I will come upon you.

⁴However, you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; they will walk with me dressed in white, because they are worthy.

⁵" '"The victor will thus be dressed in white, and I will never erase his name from the book of life but will acknowledge his name in the presence of my Father and of his angels.

⁶" '"Whoever has ears ought to hear what the Spirit says to the churches."'

⁷"To the angel of the church in Philadelphia, write this: " 'The holy one, the true, who holds the key of David, who opens and no one shall close, who closes and no one shall open, says this:

⁸" '"I know your works (behold, I have left an open door before you, which no one can close). You have limited strength, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

⁹Behold, I will make those of the assembly of Satan who claim to be Jews and are not, but are lying, behold I will make them come and fall prostrate at your feet, and they will realize that I love you.

¹⁰Because you have kept my message of endurance, I will keep you safe in the time of trial that is going to come to the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.

¹¹I am coming quickly. Hold fast to what you have, so that no one may take your crown.

¹²" '"The victor I will make into a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will never leave it again. On him I will inscribe the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, as well as my new name.

¹³" '"Whoever has ears ought to hear what the Spirit says to the churches."'

¹⁴"To the angel of the church in Laodicea, write this: " 'The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the source of God's creation, says this:

¹⁵"I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot.

¹⁶So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

¹⁷For you say, 'I am rich and affluent and have no need of anything,' and yet do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

¹⁸I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich, and white garments to put on so that your shameful nakedness may not be exposed, and buy ointment to smear on your eyes so that you may see.

¹⁹Those whom I love, I reprove and chastise. Be earnest, therefore, and repent.

²⁰" '"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, (then) I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me.

²¹I will give the victor the right to sit with me on my throne, as I myself first won the victory and sit with my Father on his throne.

²²" '"Whoever has ears ought to hear what the Spirit says to the churches."'"

4After this I had a vision of an open door to heaven, and I heard the trumpetlike voice that had spoken to me before, saying, "Come up here and I will show you what must happen afterwards."

²At once I was caught up in spirit. A throne was there in heaven, and on the throne sat

³one whose appearance sparkled like jasper and carnelian. Around the throne was a halo as brilliant as an emerald.

⁴Surrounding the throne I saw twenty-four other thrones on which twenty-four elders sat, dressed in white garments and with gold crowns on their heads.

⁵From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder. Seven flaming torches burned in front of the throne, which are the seven spirits of God.

⁶In front of the throne was something that resembled a sea of glass like crystal. In the center and around the throne, there were four living creatures covered with eyes in front and in back.

⁷The first creature resembled a lion, the second was like a calf, the third had a face like that of a human being, and the fourth looked like an eagle in flight.

⁸The four living creatures, each of them with six wings, were covered with eyes inside and out. Day and night they do not stop exclaiming: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come."

⁹Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to the one who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever,

¹⁰the twenty-four elders fall down before the one who sits on the throne and worship him, who lives forever and ever. They throw down their crowns before the throne, exclaiming:

¹¹"Worthy are you, Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things; because of your will they came to be and were created."

5I saw a scroll in the right hand of the one who sat on the throne. It had writing on both sides and was sealed with seven seals.

²Then I saw a mighty angel who proclaimed in a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?"

³But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to examine it.

⁴I shed many tears because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to examine it.

⁵One of the elders said to me, "Do not weep. The lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has triumphed, enabling him to open the scroll with its seven seals."

⁶Then I saw standing in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures and the elders, a Lamb that seemed to have been slain. He had seven horns and seven eyes; these are the (seven) spirits of God sent out into the whole world.

⁷He came and received the scroll from the right hand of the one who sat on the throne.

⁸When he took it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each of the elders held a harp and gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the holy ones.

⁹They sang a new hymn: "Worthy are you to receive the scroll and to break open its seals, for you were slain and with your blood you purchased for God those from every tribe and tongue, people and nation.

¹⁰You made them a kingdom and priests for our God, and they will reign on earth."

¹¹I looked again and heard the voices of many angels who surrounded the throne and the living creatures and the elders. They were countless in number,

¹²and they cried out in a loud voice: "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches, wisdom and strength, honor and glory and blessing."

¹³Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, everything in the universe, cry out: "To the one who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor, glory and might, forever and ever."

¹⁴The four living creatures answered, "Amen," and the elders fell down and worshiped.

6Then I watched while the Lamb broke open the first of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures cry out in a voice like thunder, "Come forward."

²I looked, and there was a white horse, and its rider had a bow. He was given a crown, and he rode forth victorious to further his victories.

³When he broke open the second seal, I heard the second living creature cry out, "Come forward."

⁴Another horse came out, a red one. Its rider was given power to take peace away from the earth, so that people would slaughter one another. And he was given a huge sword.

⁵When he broke open the third seal, I heard the third living creature cry out, "Come forward." I looked, and there was a black horse, and its rider held a scale in his hand.

⁶I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures. It said, "A ration of wheat costs a day's pay, and three rations of barley cost a day's pay. But do not damage the olive oil or the wine."

⁷When he broke open the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature cry out, "Come forward."

⁸I looked, and there was a pale green horse. Its rider was named Death, and Hades accompanied him. They were given authority over a quarter of the earth, to kill with sword, famine, and plague, and by means of the beasts of the earth.

⁹When he broke open the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered because of the witness they bore to the word of God.

¹⁰They cried out in a loud voice, "How long will it be, holy and true master, before you sit in judgment and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?"

¹¹Each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to be patient a little while longer until the number was filled of their fellow servants and brothers who were going to be killed as they had been.

¹²Then I watched while he broke open the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; the sun turned as black as dark sackcloth and the whole moon became like blood.

¹³The stars in the sky fell to the earth like unripe figs shaken loose from the tree in a strong wind.

¹⁴Then the sky was divided like a torn scroll curling up, and every mountain and island was moved from its place.

¹⁵The kings of the earth, the nobles, the military officers, the rich, the powerful, and every slave and free person hid themselves in caves and among mountain crags.

¹⁶They cried out to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb,

¹⁷because the great day of their wrath has come and who can withstand it?"

7After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth so that no wind could blow on land or sea or against any tree.

²Then I saw another angel come up from the East, holding the seal of the living God. He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who were given power to damage the land and the sea,

³"Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God."

⁴I heard the number of those who had been marked with the seal, one hundred and forty-four thousand marked from every tribe of the Israelites:

⁵twelve thousand were marked from the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand from the tribe of Reuben, twelve thousand from the tribe of Gad,

⁶twelve thousand from the tribe of Asher, twelve thousand from the tribe of Naphtali, twelve thousand from the tribe of Manasseh,

⁷twelve thousand from the tribe of Simeon, twelve thousand from the tribe of Levi, twelve thousand from the tribe of Issachar,

⁸twelve thousand from the tribe of Zebulun, twelve thousand from the tribe of Joseph, and twelve thousand were marked from the tribe of Benjamin.

⁹After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.

¹⁰They cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb."

¹¹All the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They prostrated themselves before the throne, worshiped God,

¹²and exclaimed: "Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen."

¹³Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me, "Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?"

¹⁴I said to him, "My lord, you are the one who knows." He said to me, "These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

¹⁵"For this reason they stand before God's throne and worship him day and night in his temple. The one who sits on the throne will shelter them.

¹⁶They will not hunger or thirst anymore, nor will the sun or any heat strike them.

¹⁷For the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

8When he broke open the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

²And I saw that the seven angels who stood before God were given seven trumpets.

³Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a gold censer. He was given a great quantity of incense to offer, along with the prayers of all the holy ones, on the gold altar that was before the throne.

⁴The smoke of the incense along with the prayers of the holy ones went up before God from the hand of the angel.

⁵Then the angel took the censer, filled it with burning coals from the altar, and hurled it down to the earth. There were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

⁶The seven angels who were holding the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.

⁷When the first one blew his trumpet, there came hail and fire mixed with blood, which was hurled down to the earth. A third of the land was burned up, along with a third of the trees and all green grass.

⁸When the second angel blew his trumpet, something like a large burning mountain was hurled into the sea. A third of the sea turned to blood,

⁹a third of the creatures living in the sea died, and a third of the ships were wrecked.

¹⁰When the third angel blew his trumpet, a large star burning like a torch fell from the sky. It fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.

¹¹The star was called "Wormwood," and a third of all the water turned to wormwood. Many people died from this water, because it was made bitter.

¹²When the fourth angel blew his trumpet, a third of the sun, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars were struck, so that a third of them became dark. The day lost its light for a third of the time, as did the night.

¹³Then I looked again and heard an eagle flying high overhead cry out in a loud voice, "Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth from the rest of the trumpet blasts that the three angels are about to blow!"

9Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. It was given the key for the passage to the abyss.

²It opened the passage to the abyss, and smoke came up out of the passage like smoke from a huge furnace. The sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the passage.

³Locusts came out of the smoke onto the land, and they were given the same power as scorpions of the earth.

⁴They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or any tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

⁵They were not allowed to kill them but only to torment them for five months; the torment they inflicted was like that of a scorpion when it stings a person.

⁶During that time these people will seek death but will not find it, and they will long to die but death will escape them.

⁷The appearance of the locusts was like that of horses ready for battle. On their heads they wore what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces,

⁸and they had hair like women's hair. Their teeth were like lions' teeth,

⁹and they had chests like iron breastplates. The sound of their wings was like the sound of many horse-drawn chariots racing into battle.

¹⁰They had tails like scorpions, with stingers; with their tails they had power to harm people for five months.

¹¹They had as their king the angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek Apollyon.

¹²The first woe has passed, but there are two more to come.

¹³Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the [four] horns of the gold altar before God,

¹⁴telling the sixth angel who held the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the banks of the great river Euphrates."

¹⁵So the four angels were released, who were prepared for this hour, day, month, and year to kill a third of the human race.

¹⁶The number of cavalry troops was two hundred million; I heard their number.

¹⁷Now in my vision this is how I saw the horses and their riders. They wore red, blue, and yellow breastplates, and the horses' heads were like heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and sulfur.

¹⁸By these three plagues of fire, smoke, and sulfur that came out of their mouths a third of the human race was killed.

¹⁹For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like snakes, with heads that inflict harm.

²⁰The rest of the human race, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, to give up the worship of demons and idols made from gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk.

²¹Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic potions, their unchastity, or their robberies.

10Then I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven wrapped in a cloud, with a halo around his head; his face was like the sun and his feet were like pillars of fire.

²In his hand he held a small scroll that had been opened. He placed his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land,

³and then he cried out in a loud voice as a lion roars. When he cried out, the seven thunders raised their voices, too.

⁴When the seven thunders had spoken, I was about to write it down; but I heard a voice from heaven say, "Seal up what the seven thunders have spoken, but do not write it down."

⁵Then the angel I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven

⁶and swore by the one who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them, "There shall be no more delay.

⁷At the time when you hear the seventh angel blow his trumpet, the mysterious plan of God shall be fulfilled, as he promised to his servants the prophets."

⁸Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, "Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land."

⁹So I went up to the angel and told him to give me the small scroll. He said to me, "Take and swallow it. It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will taste as sweet as honey."

¹⁰I took the small scroll from the angel's hand and swallowed it. In my mouth it was like sweet honey, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour.

¹¹Then someone said to me, "You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings."

11Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff and I was told, "Come and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count those who are worshiping in it.

²But exclude the outer court of the temple; do not measure it, for it has been handed over to the Gentiles, who will trample the holy city for forty-two months.

³I will commission my two witnesses to prophesy for those twelve hundred and sixty days, wearing sackcloth."

⁴These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.

⁵If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths and devours their enemies. In this way, anyone wanting to harm them is sure to be slain.

⁶They have the power to close up the sky so that no rain can fall during the time of their prophesying. They also have power to turn water into blood and to afflict the earth with any plague as often as they wish.

⁷When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will wage war against them and conquer them and kill them.

⁸Their corpses will lie in the main street of the great city, which has the symbolic names "Sodom" and "Egypt," where indeed their Lord was crucified.

⁹Those from every people, tribe, tongue, and nation will gaze on their corpses for three and a half days, and they will not allow their corpses to be buried.

¹⁰The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and be glad and exchange gifts because these two prophets tormented the inhabitants of the earth.

¹¹But after the three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them. When they stood on their feet, great fear fell on those who saw them.

¹²Then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, "Come up here." So they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies looked on.

¹³At that moment there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell in ruins. Seven thousand people were killed during the earthquake; the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

¹⁴The second woe has passed, but the third is coming soon.

¹⁵Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet. There were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world now belongs to our Lord and to his Anointed, and he will reign forever and ever."

¹⁶The twenty-four elders who sat on their thrones before God prostrated themselves and worshiped God

¹⁷and said: "We give thanks to you, Lord God almighty, who are and who were. For you have assumed your great power and have established your reign.

¹⁸The nations raged, but your wrath has come, and the time for the dead to be judged, and to recompense your servants, the prophets, and the holy ones and those who fear your name, the small and the great alike, and to destroy those who destroy the earth."

¹⁹Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a violent hailstorm.

12A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

²She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth.

³Then another sign appeared in the sky; it was a huge red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven diadems.

⁴Its tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky and hurled them down to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth, to devour her child when she gave birth.

⁵She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was caught up to God and his throne.

⁶The woman herself fled into the desert where she had a place prepared by God, that there she might be taken care of for twelve hundred and sixty days.

⁷Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. The dragon and its angels fought back,

⁸but they did not prevail and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.

⁹The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and its angels were thrown down with it.

¹⁰Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have salvation and power come, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Anointed. For the accuser of our brothers is cast out, who accuses them before our God day and night.

¹¹They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; love for life did not deter them from death.

¹²Therefore, rejoice, you heavens, and you who dwell in them. But woe to you, earth and sea, for the Devil has come down to you in great fury, for he knows he has but a short time."

¹³When the dragon saw that it had been thrown down to the earth, it pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.

¹⁴But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle, so that she could fly to her place in the desert, where, far from the serpent, she was taken care of for a year, two years, and a half-year.

¹⁵The serpent, however, spewed a torrent of water out of his mouth after the woman to sweep her away with the current.

¹⁶But the earth helped the woman and opened its mouth and swallowed the flood that the dragon spewed out of its mouth.

¹⁷Then the dragon became angry with the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring, those who keep God's commandments and bear witness to Jesus. (18) It took its position on the sand of the sea.

13Then I saw a beast come out of the sea with ten horns and seven heads; on its horns were ten diadems, and on its heads blasphemous name (s).

²The beast I saw was like a leopard, but it had feet like a bear's, and its mouth was like the mouth of a lion. To it the dragon gave its own power and throne, along with great authority.

³I saw that one of its heads seemed to have been mortally wounded, but this mortal wound was healed. Fascinated, the whole world followed after the beast.

⁴They worshiped the dragon because it gave its authority to the beast; they also worshiped the beast and said, "Who can compare with the beast or who can fight against it?"

⁵The beast was given a mouth uttering proud boasts and blasphemies, and it was given authority to act for forty-two months.

⁶It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling and those who dwell in heaven.

⁷It was also allowed to wage war against the holy ones and conquer them, and it was granted authority over every tribe, people, tongue, and nation.

⁸All the inhabitants of the earth will worship it, all whose names were not written from the foundation of the world in the book of life, which belongs to the Lamb who was slain.

⁹Whoever has ears ought to hear these words.

¹⁰Anyone destined for captivity goes into captivity. Anyone destined to be slain by the sword shall be slain by the sword. Such is the faithful endurance of the holy ones.

¹¹Then I saw another beast come up out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb's but spoke like a dragon.

¹²It wielded all the authority of the first beast in its sight and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound had been healed.

¹³It performed great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of everyone.

¹⁴It deceived the inhabitants of the earth with the signs it was allowed to perform in the sight of the first beast, telling them to make an image for the beast who had been wounded by the sword and revived.

¹⁵It was then permitted to breathe life into the beast's image, so that the beast's image could speak and (could) have anyone who did not worship it put to death.

¹⁶It forced all the people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to be given a stamped image on their right hands or their foreheads,

¹⁷so that no one could buy or sell except one who had the stamped image of the beast's name or the number that stood for its name.

¹⁸Wisdom is needed here; one who understands can calculate the number of the beast, for it is a number that stands for a person. His number is six hundred and sixty-six.

14Then I looked and there was the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads.

²I heard a sound from heaven like the sound of rushing water or a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps.

³They were singing (what seemed to be) a new hymn before the throne, before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn this hymn except the hundred and forty-four thousand who had been ransomed from the earth.

⁴These are they who were not defiled with women; they are virgins and these are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been ransomed as the firstfruits of the human race for God and the Lamb.

⁵On their lips no deceit has been found; they are unblemished.

⁶Then I saw another angel flying high overhead, with everlasting good news to announce to those who dwell on earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people.

⁷He said in a loud voice, "Fear God and give him glory, for his time has come to sit in judgment. Worship him who made heaven and earth and sea and springs of water."

⁸A second angel followed, saying: "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, that made all the nations drink the wine of her licentious passion."

⁹A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice, "Anyone who worships the beast or its image, or accepts its mark on forehead or hand,

¹⁰will also drink the wine of God's fury, poured full strength into the cup of his wrath, and will be tormented in burning sulfur before the holy angels and before the Lamb.

¹¹The smoke of the fire that torments them will rise forever and ever, and there will be no relief day or night for those who worship the beast or its image or accept the mark of its name."

¹²Here is what sustains the holy ones who keep God's commandments and their faith in Jesus.

¹³I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Yes," said the Spirit, "let them find rest from their labors, for their works accompany them."

¹⁴Then I looked and there was a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud one who looked like a son of man, with a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.

¹⁵Another angel came out of the temple, crying out in a loud voice to the one sitting on the cloud, "Use your sickle and reap the harvest, for the time to reap has come, because the earth's harvest is fully ripe."

¹⁶So the one who was sitting on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.

¹⁷Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven who also had a sharp sickle.

¹⁸Then another angel (came) from the altar, (who) was in charge of the fire, and cried out in a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, "Use your sharp sickle and cut the clusters from the earth's vines, for its grapes are ripe."

¹⁹So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and cut the earth's vintage. He threw it into the great wine press of God's fury.

²⁰The wine press was trodden outside the city and blood poured out of the wine press to the height of a horse's bridle for two hundred miles.

15Then I saw in heaven another sign, great and awe-inspiring: seven angels with the seven last plagues, for through them God's fury is accomplished.

²Then I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire. On the sea of glass were standing those who had won the victory over the beast and its image and the number that signified its name. They were holding God's harps,

³and they sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb: "Great and wonderful are your works, Lord God almighty. Just and true are your ways, O king of the nations.

⁴Who will not fear you, Lord, or glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All the nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed."

⁵After this I had another vision. The temple that is the heavenly tent of testimony opened,

⁶and the seven angels with the seven plagues came out of the temple. They were dressed in clean white linen, with a gold sash around their chests.

⁷One of the four living creatures gave the seven angels seven gold bowls filled with the fury of God, who lives forever and ever.

⁸Then the temple became so filled with the smoke from God's glory and might that no one could enter it until the seven plagues of the seven angels had been accomplished.

16I heard a loud voice speaking from the temple to the seven angels, "Go and pour out the seven bowls of God's fury upon the earth."

²The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth. Festering and ugly sores broke out on those who had the mark of the beast or worshiped its image.

³The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea. The sea turned to blood like that from a corpse; every creature living in the sea died.

⁴The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water. These also turned to blood.

⁵Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say: "You are just, O Holy One, who are and who were, in passing this sentence.

⁶For they have shed the blood of the holy ones and the prophets, and you (have) given them blood to drink; it is what they deserve."

⁷Then I heard the altar cry out, "Yes, Lord God almighty, your judgments are true and just."

⁸The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun. It was given the power to burn people with fire.

⁹People were burned by the scorching heat and blasphemed the name of God who had power over these plagues, but they did not repent or give him glory.

¹⁰The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast. Its kingdom was plunged into darkness, and people bit their tongues in pain

¹¹and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and sores. But they did not repent of their works.

¹²The sixth angel emptied his bowl on the great river Euphrates. Its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings of the East.

¹³I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come from the mouth of the dragon, from the mouth of the beast, and from the mouth of the false prophet.

¹⁴These were demonic spirits who performed signs. They went out to the kings of the whole world to assemble them for the battle on the great day of God the almighty.

¹⁵("Behold, I am coming like a thief." Blessed is the one who watches and keeps his clothes ready, so that he may not go naked and people see him exposed.)

¹⁶They then assembled the kings in the place that is named Armageddon in Hebrew.

¹⁷The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air. A loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, "It is done."

¹⁸Then there were lightning flashes, rumblings, and peals of thunder, and a great earthquake. It was such a violent earthquake that there has never been one like it since the human race began on earth.

¹⁹The great city was split into three parts, and the gentile cities fell. But God remembered great Babylon, giving it the cup filled with the wine of his fury and wrath.

²⁰Every island fled, and mountains disappeared.

²¹Large hailstones like huge weights came down from the sky on people, and they blasphemed God for the plague of hail because this plague was so severe.

17Then one of the seven angels who were holding the seven bowls came and said to me, "Come here. I will show you the judgment on the great harlot who lives near the many waters.

²The kings of the earth have had intercourse with her, and the inhabitants of the earth became drunk on the wine of her harlotry."

³Then he carried me away in spirit to a deserted place where I saw a woman seated on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names, with seven heads and ten horns.

⁴The woman was wearing purple and scarlet and adorned with gold, precious stones, and pearls. She held in her hand a gold cup that was filled with the abominable and sordid deeds of her harlotry.

⁵On her forehead was written a name, which is a mystery, "Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth."

⁶I saw that the woman was drunk on the blood of the holy ones and on the blood of the witnesses to Jesus. When I saw her I was greatly amazed.

⁷The angel said to me, "Why are you amazed? I will explain to you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, the beast with the seven heads and the ten horns.

⁸The beast that you saw existed once but now exists no longer. It will come up from the abyss and is headed for destruction. The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world shall be amazed when they see the beast, because it existed once but exists no longer, and yet it will come again.

⁹Here is a clue for one who has wisdom. The seven heads represent seven hills upon which the woman sits. They also represent seven kings:

¹⁰five have already fallen, one still lives, and the last has not yet come, and when he comes he must remain only a short while.

¹¹The beast that existed once but exists no longer is an eighth king, but really belongs to the seven and is headed for destruction.

¹²The ten horns that you saw represent ten kings who have not yet been crowned; they will receive royal authority along with the beast for one hour.

¹³They are of one mind and will give their power and authority to the beast.

¹⁴They will fight with the Lamb, but the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and king of kings, and those with him are called, chosen, and faithful."

¹⁵Then he said to me, "The waters that you saw where the harlot lives represent large numbers of peoples, nations, and tongues.

¹⁶The ten horns that you saw and the beast will hate the harlot; they will leave her desolate and naked; they will eat her flesh and consume her with fire.

¹⁷For God has put it into their minds to carry out his purpose and to make them come to an agreement to give their kingdom to the beast until the words of God are accomplished.

¹⁸The woman whom you saw represents the great city that has sovereignty over the kings of the earth."

18After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth became illumined by his splendor.

²He cried out in a mighty voice: "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great. She has become a haunt for demons. She is a cage for every unclean spirit, a cage for every unclean bird, (a cage for every unclean) and disgusting (beast).

³For all the nations have drunk the wine of her licentious passion. The kings of the earth had intercourse with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her drive for luxury."

⁴Then I heard another voice from heaven say: "Depart from her, my people, so as not to take part in her sins and receive a share in her plagues,

⁵for her sins are piled up to the sky, and God remembers her crimes.

⁶Pay her back as she has paid others. Pay her back double for her deeds. Into her cup pour double what she poured.

⁷To the measure of her boasting and wantonness repay her in torment and grief; for she said to herself, 'I sit enthroned as queen; I am no widow, and I will never know grief.'

⁸Therefore, her plagues will come in one day, pestilence, grief, and famine; she will be consumed by fire. For mighty is the Lord God who judges her."

⁹The kings of the earth who had intercourse with her in their wantonness will weep and mourn over her when they see the smoke of her pyre.

¹⁰They will keep their distance for fear of the torment inflicted on her, and they will say: "Alas, alas, great city, Babylon, mighty city. In one hour your judgment has come."

¹¹The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn for her, because there will be no more markets for their cargo:

¹²their cargo of gold, silver, precious stones, and pearls; fine linen, purple silk, and scarlet cloth; fragrant wood of every kind, all articles of ivory and all articles of the most expensive wood, bronze, iron, and marble;

¹³cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, and frankincense; wine, olive oil, fine flour, and wheat; cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human beings.

¹⁴"The fruit you craved has left you. All your luxury and splendor are gone, never again will one find them."

¹⁵The merchants who deal in these goods, who grew rich from her, will keep their distance for fear of the torment inflicted on her. Weeping and mourning,

¹⁶they cry out: "Alas, alas, great city, wearing fine linen, purple and scarlet, adorned (in) gold, precious stones, and pearls.

¹⁷In one hour this great wealth has been ruined." Every captain of a ship, every traveler at sea, sailors, and seafaring merchants stood at a distance

¹⁸and cried out when they saw the smoke of her pyre, "What city could compare with the great city?"

¹⁹They threw dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and mourning: "Alas, alas, great city, in which all who had ships at sea grew rich from her wealth. In one hour she has been ruined.

²⁰Rejoice over her, heaven, you holy ones, apostles, and prophets. For God has judged your case against her."

²¹A mighty angel picked up a stone like a huge millstone and threw it into the sea and said: "With such force will Babylon the great city be thrown down, and will never be found again.

²²No melodies of harpists and musicians, flutists and trumpeters, will ever be heard in you again. No craftsmen in any trade will ever be found in you again. No sound of the millstone will ever be heard in you again.

²³No light from a lamp will ever be seen in you again. No voices of bride and groom will ever be heard in you again. Because your merchants were the great ones of the world, all nations were led astray by your magic potion.

²⁴In her was found the blood of prophets and holy ones and all who have been slain on the earth."

19After this I heard what sounded like the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying: "Alleluia! Salvation, glory, and might belong to our God,

²for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her harlotry. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants."

³They said a second time: "Alleluia! Smoke will rise from her forever and ever."

⁴The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne, saying, "Amen. Alleluia."

⁵A voice coming from the throne said: "Praise our God, all you his servants, (and) you who revere him, small and great."

⁶Then I heard something like the sound of a great multitude or the sound of rushing water or mighty peals of thunder, as they said: "Alleluia! The Lord has established his reign, (our) God, the almighty.

⁷Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory. For the wedding day of the Lamb has come, his bride has made herself ready.

⁸She was allowed to wear a bright, clean linen garment." (The linen represents the righteous deeds of the holy ones.)

⁹Then the angel said to me, "Write this: Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb." And he said to me, "These words are true; they come from God."

¹⁰I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, "Don't! I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brothers who bear witness to Jesus. Worship God. Witness to Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."

¹¹Then I saw the heavens opened, and there was a white horse; its rider was (called) "Faithful and True." He judges and wages war in righteousness.

¹²His eyes were (like) a fiery flame, and on his head were many diadems. He had a name inscribed that no one knows except himself.

¹³He wore a cloak that had been dipped in blood, and his name was called the Word of God.

¹⁴The armies of heaven followed him, mounted on white horses and wearing clean white linen.

¹⁵Out of his mouth came a sharp sword to strike the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod, and he himself will tread out in the wine press the wine of the fury and wrath of God the almighty.

¹⁶He has a name written on his cloak and on his thigh, "King of kings and Lord of lords."

¹⁷Then I saw an angel standing on the sun. He cried out (in) a loud voice to all the birds flying high overhead, "Come here. Gather for God's great feast,

¹⁸to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of military officers, and the flesh of warriors, the flesh of horses and of their riders, and the flesh of all, free and slave, small and great."

¹⁹Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered to fight against the one riding the horse and against his army.

²⁰The beast was caught and with it the false prophet who had performed in its sight the signs by which he led astray those who had accepted the mark of the beast and those who had worshiped its image. The two were thrown alive into the fiery pool burning with sulfur.

²¹The rest were killed by the sword that came out of the mouth of the one riding the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.

20Then I saw an angel come down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the abyss and a heavy chain.

²He seized the dragon, the ancient serpent, which is the Devil or Satan, and tied it up for a thousand years

³and threw it into the abyss, which he locked over it and sealed, so that it could no longer lead the nations astray until the thousand years are completed. After this, it is to be released for a short time.

⁴Then I saw thrones; those who sat on them were entrusted with judgment. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast or its image nor had accepted its mark on their foreheads or hands. They came to life and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

⁵The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were over. This is the first resurrection.

⁶Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over these; they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for (the) thousand years.

⁷When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison.

⁸He will go out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea.

⁹They invaded the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the holy ones and the beloved city. But fire came down from heaven and consumed them.

¹⁰The Devil who had led them astray was thrown into the pool of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were. There they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

¹¹Next I saw a large white throne and the one who was sitting on it. The earth and the sky fled from his presence and there was no place for them.

¹²I saw the dead, the great and the lowly, standing before the throne, and scrolls were opened. Then another scroll was opened, the book of life. The dead were judged according to their deeds, by what was written in the scrolls.

¹³The sea gave up its dead; then Death and Hades gave up their dead. All the dead were judged according to their deeds.

¹⁴Then Death and Hades were thrown into the pool of fire. (This pool of fire is the second death. )

¹⁵Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the pool of fire.

21Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

²I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

³I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, God's dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them (as their God).

⁴He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, (for) the old order has passed away."

⁵The one who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." Then he said, "Write these words down, for they are trustworthy and true."

⁶He said to me, "They are accomplished. I (am) the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give a gift from the spring of life-giving water.

⁷The victor will inherit these gifts, and I shall be his God, and he will be my son.

⁸But as for cowards, the unfaithful, the depraved, murderers, the unchaste, sorcerers, idol-worshipers, and deceivers of every sort, their lot is in the burning pool of fire and sulfur, which is the second death."

⁹One of the seven angels who held the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came and said to me, "Come here. I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb."

¹⁰He took me in spirit to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.

¹¹It gleamed with the splendor of God. Its radiance was like that of a precious stone, like jasper, clear as crystal.

¹²It had a massive, high wall, with twelve gates where twelve angels were stationed and on which names were inscribed, (the names) of the twelve tribes of the Israelites.

¹³There were three gates facing east, three north, three south, and three west.

¹⁴The wall of the city had twelve courses of stones as its foundation, on which were inscribed the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

¹⁵The one who spoke to me held a gold measuring rod to measure the city, its gates, and its wall.

¹⁶The city was square, its length the same as (also) its width. He measured the city with the rod and found it fifteen hundred miles in length and width and height.

¹⁷He also measured its wall: one hundred and forty-four cubits according to the standard unit of measurement the angel used.

¹⁸The wall was constructed of jasper, while the city was pure gold, clear as glass.

¹⁹The foundations of the city wall were decorated with every precious stone; the first course of stones was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald,

²⁰the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh hyacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.

²¹The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made from a single pearl; and the street of the city was of pure gold, transparent as glass.

²²I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God almighty and the Lamb.

²³The city had no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gave it light, and its lamp was the Lamb.

²⁴The nations will walk by its light, and to it the kings of the earth will bring their treasure.

²⁵During the day its gates will never be shut, and there will be no night there.

²⁶The treasure and wealth of the nations will be brought there,

²⁷but nothing unclean will enter it, nor any (one) who does abominable things or tells lies. Only those will enter whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

22Then the angel showed me the river of life-giving water, sparkling like crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb

²down the middle of its street. On either side of the river grew the tree of life that produces fruit twelve times a year, once each month; the leaves of the trees serve as medicine for the nations.

³Nothing accursed will be found there anymore. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.

⁴They will look upon his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.

⁵Night will be no more, nor will they need light from lamp or sun, for the Lord God shall give them light, and they shall reign forever and ever.

⁶And he said to me, "These words are trustworthy and true, and the Lord, the God of prophetic spirits, sent his angel to show his servants what must happen soon."

⁷"Behold, I am coming soon." Blessed is the one who keeps the prophetic message of this book.

⁸It is I, John, who heard and saw these things, and when I heard and saw them I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me.

⁹But he said to me, "Don't! I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brothers the prophets and of those who keep the message of this book. Worship God."

¹⁰Then he said to me, "Do not seal up the prophetic words of this book, for the appointed time is near.

¹¹Let the wicked still act wickedly, and the filthy still be filthy. The righteous must still do right, and the holy still be holy."

¹²"Behold, I am coming soon. I bring with me the recompense I will give to each according to his deeds.

¹³I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."

¹⁴Blessed are they who wash their robes so as to have the right to the tree of life and enter the city through its gates.

¹⁵Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the unchaste, the murderers, the idol-worshipers, and all who love and practice deceit.

¹⁶"I, Jesus, sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the root and offspring of David, the bright morning star."

¹⁷The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." Let the hearer say, "Come." Let the one who thirsts come forward, and the one who wants it receive the gift of life-giving water.

¹⁸I warn everyone who hears the prophetic words in this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book,

¹⁹and if anyone takes away from the words in this prophetic book, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city described in this book.

²⁰The one who gives this testimony says, "Yes, I am coming soon." Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!

²¹The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all.